A Day in the Life
One of the greatest things about receiving a liberal arts education is our freedom to explore different disciplines. Of course, as our school focuses on a classical education, our curriculum focuses on humanities classes, deeply exploring the fields of literature and history. At the beginning of high school, I was an almost exclusively humanities-driven student; now in my senior year, I have realized that I have started to gravitate more towards the social sciences and sciences. Luckily, the core classes and electives Ridgeview offers has allowed me to indulge my varied interests throughout the past four years of high school. Here is what my schedule and a day in my life at Ridgeview looks like:
7:30am: Honors Modern Literature with Mr. Hild: this year we have discussed novels such as Crime and Punishment and Heart of Darkness, but now that we have finished with our final text, we are delving into thesis discussions on things such as beauty and morality.
8:10am: Honors Modern European History with Mr. Herndon: we began the year learning about the French Revolution, and now we have just finished learning about Otto von Bismarck.
9:00am: American Capstone with Mr. Herndon: this class, a one semester-long seminar, began where we left off in American History our junior year, and we are currently discussing the final year of World War I.
9:40am: Latin VI with Mr. T Smith: after years of reading authentic ancient literature, Mr. Smith has instituted a new program throughout the school where we balance our reading of texts with learning how to speak the language.
10:30am: At this point in the morning, I go to a study hall where I usually devote my time to working on thesis drafts; a lot of the time, if the weather allows, we go outside by R2 to work, so this is a really nice break in the day to get some fresh air and sun. (I don't have a lunch because my schedule is so busy so I usually eat during this time).
11:10am: AP Environmental Science with Ms. Durrell: this class quickly became one of my favorites. After a general introduction to earth science, we learned about population economics and world health. Now, after several months of discussing air pollution, water quality, land use, and energy resources, we are about to being our final unit on Ecology, a topic about which I am very eager to learn.
12:00pm: Social Dance with Mr. Halseide: I took this class freshman year as well. At the beginning of the year, we refreshed our knowledge of swing dancing (a Ridgeview tradition and so much fun!), and we are now focusing on salsa dancing.
12:30pm: Independent Study German Literature with Mr. Hild: this is my third year taking German, but because the class is offered at the same time as my Latin class (if you can't tell already, I love languages), Mr. Hild graciously opted to meet with me during my lunch period so that we can work one-on-one reading German texts and developing my speaking abilities.
1:05pm: TAing for Dr. Bevill's seventh grade science and AP Chemistry classes: after taking AP Chemistry with Dr. Bevill last year, I wanted to keep working with her, so I decided to become her teaching assistant. I prepare labs, grade assignments, and assist during laboratory experiments.
1:50pm: AP Statistics with Dr. Freese: this year's math class has really made me enjoy math more than I have in the past. We have learned about various statistical methods and tests, and ways in which to conduct experiments on populations and samples.
2:30pm: Now that Madrigals is over, my afternoon study halls are usually taken up by Student Council, Prom Committee, or senior class meetings.
So that's a day in my life at Ridgeview!