Sixth graders are on the cusp of adolescence, and as such, they bring an increased capacity for critical thinking into the classroom. These students experience rapid physical growth and psychological change and often seek rules and causality to bring order to their new experience of the world. The student has an increased interest in social relationships. Once the sixth grader becomes more comfortable with these new developments, they are ready to look out into the world to discern their place, responsibility, and opportunities.

In many ways, seventh grade can be characterized as the year of looking ahead. Finally able to call themselves teens, these students are chomping at the bit, ready to join the world.  Their horizons are expanding, and every day can be full of wonders.  As the seventh grader moves into a new phase of growth, adolescence, they bring a new capacity for critical thinking to the subject matter at hand.  These students are charged with emotional vitality and question everything around them.  They seek to learn the boundaries of authority and the laws of science. The social experience of the class is also very important for the seventh grader.

As eighth graders actively begin to challenge the world around them, they study cultural and social revolutions, drawing upon themes of freedom versus equality, loyalty versus honesty – themes that often closely mirror the eight grader’s own inner growth. Another common thread throughout all instruction this year is helping students to learn to observe, to see for themselves and to draw their own conclusions. Observation involves becoming aware of our assumptions and learning to let them go. Only then are we truly thinking for ourselves. This fosters, in Berkeley Rose students, a sense of responsibility, as well as a confidence in their own powers of perception, thinking and decision-making.