Emerson Preparatory School - Academics and Faculty

Academics and Faculty

Emerson's model places strong emphasis on small class sizes, typically never larger than ten students, and the use of the term system. The school requires student applicants to submit three letters of recommendation, participate in a personal interview, and take two placement exams, one in English and one in mathematics.

The school's academic year is modeled after the British System and has two terms per year rather than two semesters. Courses are completed in full during each four-and-a-half month term. An optional summer session is offered from late June through early August (six weeks). Each term's schedule of classes includes four ninety-minute class periods per day, five days per week. There is a one hour lunch period, from 11:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Emerson students have the privilege of off campus lunch. The students are allowed to leave the school grounds in order to purchase their lunch from the many restaurants and carry outs located in the Dupont Circle area.

Emerson has approximately ten to fifteen teachers. A typical classload for an instructor is two to three 90-minute classes per day. Apart from the traditional curriculum, private tutorials can be arranged for advanced level courses.

These administrative policies contribute to the excellent character and quality of the teachers, who form the backbone of the faculty. Any given school year has a core group of teachers who have been with the school for at least five years.

Emerson draws many of its teachers from among the disciplines in which they actually work: it is not unusual for scientists, writers, economists, language scholars, lawyers, and historians to work as teachers. Some Emerson teachers are mid-career in their fields, others are retired, while others are early-career, or in the final stages of their masters' or doctorate degree programs.

Teachers are drawn to Emerson because it gives them the freedom to structure creative curricula, design unique and advanced level courses, and set their own classroom rules. Some Emerson classes are run strictly while others are more relaxed. One instructor currently incorporates periods of relaxation and meditation techniques into ongoing lessons, while another has been known to assign as many as sixteen books in a single term, teaching at a level of rigor comparable to advanced undergraduate work. The students can select many of their classes and can request certain teachers.

Emerson course offerings have included:

• Post World War II American Novel
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Language
• Advanced Topics in Science (or as it came to be known, "Advanced Spaceships")
• Biography: Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx
• Primate Conservation
• Cultural Anthropology
• Twentieth Century American Cultural History (nicknamed "That Seventies Class" by students)
• Issues in Science II: Zoology and Oceanography
• Art History
• Vocabulary Skills: The Story of English
• Irish Literature
• Theory of Knowledge/Intro to Philosophy
• Astronomy
• International Relations;
• Introduction to Law.

Many of these classes were requested by students, or designed by teachers on the basis of discussions and interests revealed by faculty and students in a previous term. Students often participate in the planning of a class, although final course selections are determined by the school director in accordance with the overall needs of the student body during a given term.

Classes for the spring term of 2008 included one on military history entitled War and Peace-20th Century Foreign Policy, Economics, and Japanese Language. The core academic courses such as Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, English Composition, Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, U.S. History, American Government, and Foreign Languages are offered each term.

Emerson's daily ninety-minute class periods provide teachers with time to structure their classes to include more discussion, in-depth individual or team work, and extended lessons in a single day. Many teachers use the extra time for multimedia presentations like movies or music relevant to the course.

Field trips are an integral part of the Emerson program. Classes take numerous field trips throughout the city each term.