Tad Bird Honors College at All Saints'

Announcing for the 2013-2014 Academic Year

Honors College

“The key to becoming a successful leader is the ability to analyze complex data with a holistic perspective, to formulate trends and to apply that knowledge to the future unfolding before us. The Honors College at All Saints’ Episcopal School is a program that promotes this type of thinking; it leads the next great leaders.”

- Daniel Hastings, Dean of Undergraduate Education, MIT

“Consulting the best minds in the country confirmed what we have already known and have exercised for decades: that powerful intellectual experiences cultivate the highest levels of leadership. At All Saints’, we believe the Honors College is the next natural step in our journey of cultivating ethical decision making and clear awareness that leadership entails serving others.”

- Tad Bird, Head of School

All Saints’ news: ASESFTW.org | 817.560.5700 | 9700 Saints Circle, Fort Worth, Texas 76108 BLOG

Honors College Objectives

1) to provide the most challenging, enriching, creative, fulfilling and meaningful program to attract and retain the most intellectually-capable, intellectually-curious and most highly-motivated students; 2) to foster a community of intellectual curiosity where rigorous thinkers consider the world not­­­only where it is, but in shaping where it should be; 3) to promote the highest standards of leadership and civic responsibility in students’ everyday lives; 4) to prepare students for global citizenship and acceptance and matriculation into the most prestigious universities and colleges in the world.

Philosophy

Program Outline

In our mission to exercise a progressive mind and a traditional heart, All Saints’ constantly reconsiders what and how we teach and learn. We feel as though we have a solid handle on a traditional curriculum, and, with respect to our Upper School college-prep components, our student body is populated with young people who are well-prepared to go to the college or university of their choice. Beyond honors classes or Advanced Placement coursework, let us then consider a “program within a program” for those students who combine both the ability and motivation to attend the most selective college and university programs.This one unique unit would not only be challenged by us as educators but also by each other as they grow in their passion for learning and compassion for the world around them.

We have developed scenarios that include new or hybrids of tried-and-true schedules alongside more flexible models, disciplines to be taught, scope and sequence of curriculum, extensive travel, independent research and project-based learning. For example, in this program, amplified elements of Etymology/English/ Literature/Humanities and fluency in at least one foreign language are expected.

Currently, our graduation requirement for every student includes the completion of at least three years of a foreign language; however, three years of a foreign language does not mean fluency. For this program, fluency means formal courses of study complemented by immersion and measured through cultural as well as formal language literacy. Throughout, Case Study Methodology, the Socraticmethod, and project-based learning will be incorporated. Students will also take advantage of the most well-respected online educational offerings available, such as that which is currently offered by Stanford Online High School (OHS).

In recent years, the educational landscape has changed dramatically. The avalanche of technology and research on brain development are some of the increasingly influential change agents we need to consider in exercising meaningful learning environments for the future. Bill Gates recently said, “If you think the last decade of technological advances has been mind-boggling, wait until you see what happens in the next five years. You won’t recognize the landscape.”

As we outline our four-year Honors College program, we pay homage to the best programs offered in the post-secondary educational world. For example, the Communications Inquiry offering is derived from the freshman introduction classes at Austin College; the Case Study Methodology is straight out of Harvard’s Business School; the flexibility of class selections during the junior and senior years reflects the University of Texas Plan II program; the immersion and “Great Journeys” component mirrors Princeton’s Gap Year; the Great Books selection directly ties to Columbia’s Core Curriculum and St. John’s Great Books series; and finally, the Senior Honors College Thesis Project is similar to what top colleges and universities offer their most capable scholars.

All Saints’ Honors College Strategic Advisors

All Saints’ news: ASESFTW.org | 817.560.5700 | 9700 Saints Circle, Fort Worth, Texas 76108 BLOG