Class Eleven

In this Main Lesson, Class 11 explore the work and ideas of extraordinary writers such as Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron, who asserted their radical vision against the prevailing materialism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to show that writers are often the ‘Unacknowledged legislators of the world’. In addition to studying the biographies and major works of these poets, students learn about the ideals and themes of Romanticism, and the social and political upheavals that led artists and intellectuals to reject the values of the Age of Enlightenment.

Parzival is a vast, complex tale of adventure and romance written in the early thirteenth century by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a minnesinger who claimed – perhaps facetiously – to be illiterate. It tells of Parzival’s journey from clownish ignorance, through sorrow and doubt to become a Knight of the Round Table and Lord of the Grail. In addition to the challenging reading, the class made notes addressing themes of the work, developed artistic responses to the story, and wrote a final essay.

The Arts from the 18th Century to Modernism

This Main Lesson is an introduction to the prominent art movements from the beginning of the French Revolution to the Second World War. The pupils are asked to deepen their experience with one of the many artistic styles prevailing in the specified period. Their work means to reflect their abilities to research, analyse and reflect on artworks and artists of an avant-garde movement. There is a trip to Tate Britain and Tate Modern during this Main Lesson.

In these sessions we explore a variety of different moments in musical history. Moments which were powerfully important to music, art and society itself. This include exploring leaps forward in technology, cultural changes, the arrival of new genres or significant cultural experiences. We jump from modern day grime music, to ancient religious music, from the beat poets to the birth of humanity. All with the intention of grasping what can cause, and what effects, artistic musical change, essentially ethnomusicology. Each session culminates with a practical musical experiment based on the days session, for example creating a rap based on personal observations after learning about beat poets and rhyme in music. Throughout the sessions students are invited to relate what they had learned to their own musical history. The Main Lesson series concludes with a presentation on an element of their own musical history as well as a recording session of several of the practical musical examples.

The Main Lesson explores the development of projective geometry and relationships between planes lines and points, the infinite plane, the infinitely distant point and parallel lines. The idea of Duality is illustrated through the Theorems of Pappus and Desargues. Pascal’s and Brionchon’s Theorems are used to prove conic curves and to further develop the idea of duality. To demonstrate transformation of form nets of hexagons, nets of quadrangles and sequences of perspective triangles are constructed and Ellipses are constructed from pentagons, pentagrams and triangles. Fundamental to all of the constructions are the theorems of Pappus and Desargues.

Functions are defined and their properties explored. The gradient of straight lines leads to an investigation of the gradient of curves from which the first derivative of the function was defined and shown to give the gradient equation of the curve. Maximum and minimum points and points of inflection were defined. Graphs are plotted using first differentials to determine the coordinates of maximum and minimum points and second differentials to distinguish between them and rates of change were investigated. From the investigation of the gradient function of families of curves the integral is defined. The definite integral is used to calculate the area under a curve and the area between two curves and solids of revolution.

The scientific study of the material universe outside Earth’s atmosphere provides an opportunity to examine the evidence for phenomena that are not amenable to experiment. Beginning with the results of objective observation of the night sky, we trace the development of astronomical and cosmological ideas from the Classical Greek period through to the present day.

Topics include the evidence for a heliocentric solar system; the scale of the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe; the evolution of stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; classes of deep space object; relativity, dark matter and dark energy; processing and interpreting data obtained by RBV- filtered imaging with research-grade telescopes; estimating the age of the universe using Type 1a Supernovae data.

Defining 'botany' as 'the study of plants' this Main Lesson explores the many ways in which we define and understand the plant kingdom. Starting from first principle observations of plant structures, cell structures and biochemical actions of plants, the Main Lesson progresses into a reductionist approach of defining key features to the point where the scientific definition of 'plant' becomes entirely abstract in relation to our understanding of 'plant'. The juxtaposition of what we know intrinsically and what we know scientifically to be a plant and the paradox of the 'strengths' and 'weaknesses' of scientific attempts to unify these understandings are experienced and explored.

Quantum mechanics provides a means of bringing ambiguity back in the sciences and allows students to consider how equations and models describe (or fair to describe) the universe. The students are encouraged to voice their thought and consider how it is possible to draw multiple conclusions from a single result or observation. This principle is extended into the wider world and its relevance considered. The students are asked to produce a 'Devil's advocate' presentation arguing a case against something they feel strongly about to test their presentational and research skills and ability to construct an objective argument.

The study of the principle biochemical molecules relating to our understanding of 'life'; namely DNA and RNA. The investigation of biochemistry in this context is an investigation into the definition of 'life' in relation to the biochemical paradox, an ambiguous line that manages to divide the realms of chemistry and biology. Life at the cellular level and the various cell structures, the structures, roles and means of manipulations of DNA and RNA and the implications that arise from the 'no-man's-land' that exists between the two disciplines such as the debate surrounding the right to life, to the genetic manipulation of plants and animals to serve our ends and the application of such methods and thinking to our own genetics.

In the first half of this Main Lesson block we focus on a cartographic project. The pupils make imaginary islands out of clay, mapped their coastlines and then sliced them up to create a contour map. Working to the highest cartographic standard that they manage to colour the maps according to cartographic convention, work out horizontal and vertical scales and add a full key. Learning about latitude and longitude via a series of atlas exercises we position the islands somewhere in the world that took our fancy and record their precise coordinates. Then, using our theoretical knowledge from last year’s climate Main Lesson and some personal research in the atlases and online, they develop an idea of the island’s climate and vegetation and write a descriptive geographical profile of the island.

In the second part of the Main Lesson we look at the concepts of ecosystems and biomes and their distribution in relation to world climate; human population size and distribution in relation to climate and natural resources; recent historical population growth and the factors that drove this; the categories, availability and use of natural resources; our ability to meet the resource needs of a rapidly increasing human population; the concept of sustainable resource usage and the disparities in living standards between the rich, developed nations (MEDC’s) and the poor, less developed nations (LEDC’s). To support our understanding of some of these issues we watch a couple of short videos by the Swedish social geographer Hans Rosling.

This Main Lesson is an introduction to early medieval Europe. It combines studies of theology, philosophy, politics and law during late antiquity and at the birth of the Western culture. The lessons elaborates on how the society of medieval Europe emerged as a result of the fusion of the customs of the southward migrating barbaric Germanic tribes and the civilising potency of the Roman Catholic Church - between the fall of Rome and the uniting forces of the Frankish king Charlemagne in the 8th century. During this period, not only did the Church become Europe's spiritual authority but also obtained substantial political power.

The Waldorf curriculum brings the learning and the student into the world. In Class Eleven the curriculum includes an appropriate community service experience to encourage students to develop an understanding toward and willingness to help those who are considered disadvantaged in society (special needs, elderly, homeless, refugees). Pupils usually participate in a three-week-long service, where they continued to grow the love of serving others.