The professional educators in Liberty Common School’s 5th-grade classrooms continue delivering the content-rich curriculum from the Core Knowledge sequence. Teachers no longer separate history and science units on the academic calendar because students now have enough background knowledge and academic ability to successfully manage parallel instruction of these subjects.
5th-grade students can manage more aggressive pacing and mature curricular content; logic then follows that they assume increasingly more responsibility and independence. Together with parents, teachers work toward students’ having amplified ownership of their education. The goal is to only occasionally remind students to focus and be studious and to more frequently steer them toward pride in work, creativity, and problem-solving.
The 5th-grade curriculum includes a study of economics, which is extra-curricular to the Core Knowledge Sequence. Students learn about the free-market system, supply and demand, scarcity and tradeoffs, and other financial-education topics. This curriculum exists in a broad unit called AmeriTown, where students engage in the economic system of a civil society.
FIFTH GRADE
Human Reproduction Another landmark of the 5th-grade year is the Human Growth and Development unit of the science curriculum.
As prescribed by Section 4.2 of the Policy Manual: Parents own the fundamental responsibility for their children’s education, which includes the teaching of human reproduction. The school’s role should be viewed as a supportive one. We respect the right of parents to engage in conversations with their own children regarding human sexuality separate from the content taught by the school on human reproduction.
Children are naturally modest concerning their bodies and their functions and are not ready to learn everything at once. They are naturally curious, however, and need to get answers to their questions in a way appropriate to their stage of development. In teaching this topic, we want to minimize the embarrassment associated with it for both children and parents. We refer parents to chapters 1 and 3 of Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from Wrong, by William Kilpatrick, as a supporting reference.
We teach human reproduction in the context of science in the fifth grade and in subsequent life science courses through the twelfth grade. In the elementary grades, we adhere to the Core Knowledge Sequence, which includes human reproduction in fifth-grade science. These discussions occur during regular school hours in gender-separated environments. Parents are notified in advance and invited to attend class with their child. An alternative activity is provided for students whose parents choose to excuse their child from the class. The fifth-grade material dealing with human reproduction is repeated in an evening class. The evening presentations are also separated by gender, and parents have the opportunity to preview the material to be covered. Parents may choose to attend any of the evening classes with or without their child.
Topics not included in the curriculum may be covered at home if so desired by the parent(s).