Goals of the Core Curriculum

The intention of the Core Curriculum is to educate and assist the student in the challenge of living as an authentic human being within specific social, historical, and cultural contexts. One engages this human challenge through a process of becoming aware of, attending to, critically understanding, and becoming responsible for one's life in all its complexity. Specifically, this process requires engagement with (a) the complex reality of the self; (b) one's personal, social, and institutional relationships; (c) one's embeddedness in and relation to nature, and (d) one's relation to the transcendent reality of God.

This intention, then, suggests that the goals of the Core Curriculum are to educate and assist each student in becoming aware of, attending to, critically understanding, and becoming responsible for his or her life in the following four ways:

As a Qualitatively Unique Human Self

Authentic self-identity requires differentiation and integration* of the following dimensions of selfhood:

• One's physical life
• One's spiritual life
• One's intellectual life
• One's aesthetic life
• One's affective life
• One's moral life

As a Human Being Engaged With Others in the Social World and Its Institutions, Past and Present, Ranging from Local to Global

Authentic social life requires differentiation and integration* of the personal and institutional relationships encountered through:

• Family
• Friends
• Community
• Professional life
• Political institutions
• Economic institutions
• Cultural institutions
• Educational institutions

As a Human Being Engaged With Nature

Authentic engagement with the natural world requires differentiation and integration* of the following dimensions of nature in everyday life, in scientific inquiry, and in social practice:

• Nature present in the human person
• Nature present in other living organisms
• Nature present in the material world
• Nature present in the cosmos

As a Human Being in Relationship With God

Authentic faith life requires differentiation and integration* of the following dimensions of one's encounters with God:

• As foundation for personal, social, and natural reality
• As mediated by and communally celebrated in religious traditions
• As culturally and artistically expressed
• In a world of religious pluralism with many modes of belief and unbelief

*To differentiate is to distinguish between the different dimensions of human experience and inquiry, in their subject matter, methods, norms, and values. To integrate is to realize the overlapping concerns, the interconnectedness, and the interdependence of these same dimensions.

The Objectives of the Core Curriculum

Part I: Common Core Objectives

St. Mary's students shall:

• develop the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for engaging in critical inquiry and independent, innovative thinking.
• acquire, understand, and apply information obtained through a variety means and languages.
• respect and understand how embodiment founds, situates, and conditions all human thought, feeling, and action.
• compose, organize, and interpret written and spoken discourse.
• develop logical, analytical, and quantitative problem-solving abilities.
• practice open-minded consideration of and thoughtful debate about local, national, and global social issues.
• develop their spiritual lives within a community context.

Part II: Goal-Specific Objectives

Objectives With Regard to Self

1. understand and value their embodiment.
2. explore and understand the role of aesthetics and the creative process as a response to the human condition.
3. recognize, critically develop, and act on their moral conscience for the sake of the common good.
4. recognize, critically develop, and act on their capacity for spiritual understanding.

Objectives With Regard to Others

1. understand and appreciate the need for engagement in one's community.
2. understand the origin, evolution, and impact of political, economic, and cultural organizations and institutions (local, national, and global) that promote and constrain social interactions.
3. understand and appreciate differences and similarities of people and of political, economic, and cultural organizations and institutions operating around the world.
4. integrate the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for civic engagement and ethical citizenship at the local, national, and global levels.

Objectives With Regard to Nature

1. understand and appreciate the natural world and its influence on one's life.
2. apply scientific methods to develop a deeper understanding of the complexity and beauty of the natural world.
3. utilize the highest guiding ethical principles when dealing with natural resources and issues.
4. apply their knowledge of the natural world to facilitate and enhance the quality of life for the common good.

Objectives With Regard to God

1. develop the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to understand and integrate the intellectual, historical, cultural, and artistic dimensions of encounters with God.
2. engage with the Catholic intellectual tradition and its distinctive approach to reflection on encounters with God.
3. engage with the distinctive Marianist form of reflection on encounters with God, particularly its communal, affective, and Marian dimensions.
4. reflect critically and constructively on the claim that God is the foundation of all reality, in the context of religious pluralism and non-religious ways of understanding human life.
5. recognize, critically evaluate, and act on the ethical implications, both personal and social, of religious faith.