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High School Credit Hours and SAT/ACT Prep

This is something compiled by the AO/HEO Planning list a few years ago when we were working on Year Seven. It's not legal information, and some of it is probably out of date now, but this should give you some starting ideas you might find helpful in figuring out credits. The links may not be working anymore, either.
~ Wendi Capehart

DonnaYoung.org has High School Graduation Requirements. 7SistersHomeschool lays out the 26 credits needed for graduation.

Creating a transcript from ResponsibleHomeschooling.org

Gateway Christian Schools, an umbrella school for homeschoolers in Tennessee, has a page posted of required credits for high school.

Timeline to Help Juniors and Seniors Prepare for College: when to schedule PSAT, SAT, ACT, apply for financial aid, etc.
College Zone also has a college application timeline and information about the process.
CollegeView.com has posted College Application Tips, the application process, and information about what colleges are looking for.
BrainTrack's Career Guide evaluates career options by pay, degree required, and school options. (The site is gone, but is viewable at archive.org)
Auto-generated database of study programs around the world at eruda.com
CollegeBoard.org posts dates/locations and online sign-ups for SAT's, and has other helps.
HowStuffWorks has a thorough article about How College Admission Works.
Consent of the Governed has a blog post about visiting colleges (when, how).

Credits, Proficiency, and Content-based Tracking Methods

It will be difficult to design a 'perfect' high school curriculum for every state and country, because the requirements vary so much. That's why we like the idea of compiling a list of materials under various subjects. People can pick and choose, based on what's available and what works best for them.

Credits

Q. Why should homeschoolers look at credits and transcripts as done in public schools?

Military
In the USA, homeschoolers must keep a transcript in order to join the armed services. The military WILL accept one done by the parents and notarized. Parents can also issue diplomas that are accepted by many colleges and workplaces, although colleges are more interested in test scores first, transcripts second and diplomas as a distant third.

State Requirements
Some states require more serious recordkeeping from homeschoolers. Getting an understanding of what other states require and how their state credits are counted will help some homeschoolers.

Charlotte Mason Method
While we don't think we need to worry too much in developing a Charlotte Mason high school program (meeting state public school requirements), it might be helpful to know how to plug in the books that are used under the 'right' subjects.

Q. Are all public school high schools created equal?

A. No. This is as good a place as any to mention that there are also Advanced Placement Programs, which can give students extra credit in both high school and college. There is some information online, including course descriptions of all their currently available courses.

Advanced Placement Website: http://apcentral.collegeboard.org/

Q. How many credits does a student need to graduate from public high school?

A. Depends on where you live. As mentioned above, check your local Board of Education to get current information for your specific area. In the USA, Barb Shelton says that 20 credits is the average number of required credits, which means the average 4 year plan, to graduate high school. So the average high school hser needs 5 credits in a year.

Q. So what is a credit and how do they work?

A. There are different ways of accounting for credits. A Carnegie Unit is 150 clock hours of instruction, which can be broken up in several different ways. 150 regular 60-minute hours of time spent in a history class would equal one Carnegie Unit.

Q. Clock hours and 60 minute hours . . . what's the difference? Aren't all hours 60-minute hours?

A. No. Public education does things differently. All hours are not 60 minutes long. In educationese, they usually are less. Some states have laws that state that 180 50-minute hours of class time make up one high school credit. One father, who was a supervising social worker for the state of California and oversaw a good many teens in group homes whom he had to help get through school, says that 180 45-minute 'hours' make up one year of a high school course in California (CA).

The 180 x 50 minutes credit equals out to about 150 full sixty minute clock hours on a subject for one full credit - the same as a Carnegie Unit. CA, apparently, doesn't do Carnegies anymore. As a general rule, if your state is no longer using Carnegies, then the instruction time for their 'hours' has been reduced.

Q. But studying a subject for a full hour over 150 days doesn't sound very Charlotte Mason. I thought this was the House of Education?

A. Correct! It doesn't sound Charlotte Mason, and probably isn't. So, we don't have to do it their way!

Barb Shelton, author of Sr. High: A Home-Designed Form+U+la, available from her website, feels that 150 hours in any one subject is too much in one year and doesn't need to be done except in courses like English, where four (4) credits need to be completed in that one subject in four years. She would like to see some variety. For example, a student gets one credit in world history (not required by all states). The student does this by racking up 50 hours in each of three years, or 75 hours in each of two, or 100 in one year and fifty in another - or however you want to divide it (lots of spice and variety in a day possible this way-a la Charlotte Mason).

Q. Does it matter how the hours are accumulated?

A. The total is what matters. As homeschoolers, we can divide courses up however we like. If we even want to count (and some of the AO/HEO members are going to have to count, because of local regulations), we have this advantage because we do not have the limitations (location, class size, teacher availability, school year or day length, etc.) as the public school. We don't even have to fit in 150 clock hours in each subject in the same year to give credit. We can accumulate the clock hours over the full four years and write down the credit in that subject on the transcript (which Barb tells you how to do) whenever the student completes the hours - and that's, of course, if you're counting hours for credits - Barb does have other suggestions.

Q. Whoa, you're going too fast. I thought we were counting time for credits. How else would you do this?

A. For math instead of counting hours, she suggests just counting the math textbook. When the child has completed successfully the math book for that year, then he gets a credit for math- whether it took him 3 months or two years.

I would count Jay Wile's Apologia Biology book as one full credit in Biology, whether it took my child three months or three years to do it.

Q. Okay, back to credits: If public schools give credit for 50 and 45 minute hours, but we divide it differently, then aren't we still spending a lot of time on each subject, more than Charlotte Mason would recommend?

A. Good point. Barb only counts 120 clock hours instead of 150 (like some public schools). This is because she believes that a homeschooled student is getting much more out of each minute than a kid in public school. After visiting a couple public schools, she said that it could even be whittled down to 30 minutes of homeschool equaling 50 of public because we are able to use that time so much more efficiently than the public school.

Q. Using Charlotte Mason, we use so many different books - how many classes are we talking about listing on a transcript? Couldn't we end up with transcripts five thousand pages long? And won't it be silly to write down 1/16 of a credit, for a book that only took 1/16th of those funky hours to study?

A. Something else to keep in mind is that these are subjects, not really classes. For example, the average of 2 1/2 credits in social studies (which only translates to a measly 94 hours per year) could be broken down into several classes - Current Events (using World mag, or The World and I or something else in our daily news summaries); Geography; World History . . . .

Q. So you're saying we'd want to plug the various books under certain subjects?

A. Right, strictly for accounting purposes for those who need them. I would count Richard Maybury's books and CM's Ourselves as government, for example. Nature study and Jay Wile's Apologia textbook as well as nature reading could also go towards science, rather than be listed separately in a transcript.

Q. Do we really need to worry about this stuff for AO/HEO?

A. Probably not, although some members have more regulations to deal with, and might find it useful.

Q. Why is this being discussed if we don't really have to worry about it?

A. Because, some of us would have worried about it anyway, and the information will help those people to worry less, or at least to transfer their worries to something else.

Q. You mentioned that Barb Shelton suggested homeschooled kids could count their 'hours' as 30-45 minutes long. Isn't that cheating? If the public schools give credit for 50 minute hours (or 45 in CA), shouldn't we use their standard? After all, they are the experts.

A. Certainly they are the experts, the professionals. They do a far better job than we can - but exactly what is it they are better at doing? They are better at mass producing education - at warehousing children, at getting a large number of children to move more or less in unison through some predigested material.

Their methods work very well for their situation - but their situation isn't ours. They have limitations we don't have. The time block that is counted towards credit hours includes such things as five minutes at the start and end of class for settling in, getting materials out, and gathering them up. It includes time the students (and sometimes teacher) are just frittering away, time spent chasing rabbit trails, time wasted waiting on slow readers, time spent sitting idly while a slower student asks questions your student might already understand, or a brighter student leads the discussion into areas your student might find utterly confusing, time spent calling roll, playing silly games, and listening to announcements over the school's intercom system. When public schools refer to a credit equaling so many hours of class time, they refer to the 45 minute class, which contains perhaps 20 minutes of actual learning, in a good school. So why should we do things their way? Is that about as clear as mud? What it boils down to is that based on my research, I believe that for my children, who read quickly, 15 minutes of reading is the equivalent of at least one class session.

Q. Okay, tell me more about credits. We'd do 150 hours of credits in history in year 9, and that would be all the history they'd need to graduate, right?

A. Well, maybe, but our goal is more than just meeting public school requirements or duplicating what they are doing. We are different and we should do things based on our strengths, not the public school's weaknesses.

Q. Then why are you telling us all this stuff?

A. To build confidence!! Once parents of high schoolers see how little is really required by public schools they can quit worrying about it and focus on continuing the great job they're already doing!

At least most of us can. But some of us are going to need to keep track of something to call credits, whether because of state requirements, to satisfy family, or to satisfy our own consciences.

More Thoughts on Tallying Credits

There is no reason hsers have to rack up enough points to add up to a credit in a subject in one year. In other words, over the course of four years, the foreign language studied each year will add up to at least one credit (probably more). Same for other subjects - over the course of four years, plenty of credits will accumulate. The reason schools do one full credit at once (or sometimes half a credit) is because it's just too unwieldy to work out 1/10 of a credit here, 1/10 there, 1/25 there, for several hundred students. Mass production on a conveyor-belt style course load is what works for larger numbers of students using the same teachers and classrooms. For families, we don't have to do it this way.

Q. I don't like the idea of credit hours and Carnegie Units. I find it confusing and I don't have time to do it and it's just too fiddling for my style of homeschooling.

A. We don't have to do all these hours and minute based credits. I'm just sharing the info for those who need it (depending on state) and to take some of the mystery out of how public high school does it. There are also ways besides time spent to determine credit. Profiency-based is one way. For example, I gave my two teens credit in typing when they reached a certain speed (45 wpm). When the oldest reached 60 wpm she got a second credit. I didn't care whether she'd actually spent "x" amount of hours on the topic. She just had to have reached a certain proficiency level. I'm not sure how much typing would be a Charlotte Mason skill, we wanted the girls to learn it and they needed the skills for their business, so we added it. Incidentally, I picked those numbers based on my mother's advice. She is a former typing teacher, and I asked her what she would consider good first year typing skills. She said kids who typed 45wpm at the end of the first year each received an A- so that's what we chose.

One could do the same thing with language - when you can complete these tasks, you get a credit in language. Home economics, handwork, even art, could work the same way. I'm sure other classes could, too, but these come to mind as fairly easy ones to figure out this way.

Q. So we could determine credits by 'hours' spent or by proficiency at a skill. Anything else?

A. Content-based is another method- say, when you have read and narrated these books, produced a good book century book, and completed x amount of exams that is worth one credit in history. When you have read and narrated these books, charted some maps, located x amount of places and done x amount of writing, that is one credit in geography (or social studies). When you have kept a nature notebook, done these science experiments, read these books, that is one credit in ecology or biology. When you have washed and waxed my car, I release your transcript.

Other people count up credit hours based on actual pages read, since reading speeds can vary. But so can quality of books read - public schools run into this when a student gets one credit for Shakespeare and one credit for typing - are the two credits really 'equal?' Some schools take that into account and give more points for Advanced Placement classes (which are distressingly twaddly, by the way), some don't. In other words,(and this is very, very important), there is no one, true way to figure this out. So homeschoolers have less to worry about than we think.

Q. Okay, so it doesn't matter how we figure out 'credits,' and for some of us, whether or not we assign them isn't going to be an issue. But aren't there state requirements for content? We can't just do four years of car waxing and offer a diploma, right?

A. Actually, we could. It wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be Charlotte Mason, it wouldn't be doing our children any favors, it would not be proper use of our parental authority. But we could. The states do have some requirements, but these are primarily for the public schools. Most of us do not have to meet them, and I doubt that any of us have to meet them exactly the same way the public schools do.

Q. But knowing what they are might help us build our own framework, wouldn't it?

A. I agree. Most homeschoolers won't have to follow the content requirements for public schools, but it is useful to know what they are. Various homeschooling high school books give this information. Cathy Duffy looked over various high school graduation requirements, as well as college entry requirements, and came up with a suggested list of courses that college bound students would take in high School (note, these are not required to graduate, they are just recommended for the college bound student):

Bible - 4 years suggested
English - 4 years recommended, emphasize writing skills
Mathematics - Algebra & Geometry, with an advanced math class in 12th grade recommended
Social Sciences (U.S. History, World History, American Government, and Economics) - Only 3 years: full year each for U.S. and World History and a one year combo of government and economics.
Science - She didn't list years here, but says biology and chemistry usually required and should include lab work
Foreign Language - 2 years of the same language
Driver's Ed - 1 year recommended
Physical Ed. - 2 years
Fine Arts - 1 year, although California allows the substitution of Foreign Language for Fine Arts
Electives - Typing or computers, or home ec, etc.; computer class highly recommended. Typing skills almost a necessity

Q. Okay, that's one person's list. Any others?

Diane McAlister and Candace Oneshak's book Homeschooling the High Schooler has a very similar list. The only differences between the two courses of study are that they would require 3-4 years of science rather than 2, and 2 years of Occupational Education. They make no mention of Driver's Ed for college bound students.

Vast Differences in Credit Calculation between States

California has done something wacky with their credits and they now count them differently and require some hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of credits to graduate. But credits in Ca are no longer, apparently, a reflection of any kind of clock hour, whether the 60 or 45 minute kind.

If the unit needed to call a class a credit is anywhere near comparable from one state to another, in Oregon, you have to have 1200 more hours to graduate than you do in California. Regardless of differences in credit accounting, in Indiana, Kansas or New Hampshire you can graduate without ever studying world history or geography. In Washington or Kansas you don't have to know anything about economics and in Texas, Kansas and Indiana there are no fine arts requirements. There are other particulars specific to each state, and a lot of nonsense stuff. In one state, a seventh or eighth grader can fulfill the high school requirement in State History and Government with a jr. High class - but only if he doesn't get to apply those credits toward the minimum number needed for graduation. Basically, he's just freeing up some elective space if he takes the course early. So the same course is counted toward graduation if taken in grade 9, but not in grade 8. But they are admitting it's comparable, because taking it in grade 8 does fulfill the same requirement you'd fulfill if you waited 'til grade 9. I ran into some of this nonsense myself when we moved Arizona to California at the start of my Senior Year. In Arizona, Government and Economics was required to graduate, and I took it in a summer school class so I could graduate early. I had to do that, because I had more than enough credits to graduate, including honors English courses, one couldn't graduate without that particular course - and one could not take that particular course until grade 12. I only needed to take three classes the first semester of my Senior year, and I could graduate midterm.

But we moved. California required a class called "Civics and Free Enterprise," and they used precisely the same textbook I had used - but they wouldn't honor my credits or permit me to graduate midterm. In fact, CA wanted me to take a full load of classes all year, plus one extra, in order to graduate - and they were Mickey Mouse classes - p.e., teachers' aide, photography - there wasn't a single substantive course I was lacking, just electives.I solved the problem by taking a full load for one semester, transferring my credits back to AZ, and returning to AZ for the graduation ceremony at the end of the year. Meanwhile, my husband, a native of CA, flunked out of everything but drama and speech, dropped out at the beginning of his jr year, 18 mos later returned to night school where he took one course each of typing, English, history, and a fourth negligible class - and he got a diploma without any hassle. Same town, different high school. That little jaunt into biography is simply to illustrate that credits and diplomas are simply not as set in stone as many of us believe, not even for public school students. There's nothing superior or particularly scientific about the way the system works. It's not mainly even designed to educate, but rather seems calculated to simply warehouse students as long as possible and keep the money rolling in for the school. Cynical? Yes. My husband passed his night school courses in part because he roofed a teacher's house for him (in other words, was a minor exploited for his labour by a public educator).

Q. Tell me again why we've spent all this time on it?

A. Builds character =) Seriously, I think it's a confidence booster. It's probably helpful to have some information about possible ways parents themselves can calculate credits and create a transcript.

Credits outside the U.S.A.

Canada

Q. This is all very interesting, but I don't live in the U.S.A. How does it apply to me and other AO/HEO members who don't?

A. Well, as far as I can tell, it doesn't mean much for you at all. In talking with Canadian homeschoolers, it seems there is a big difference between homeschooling in Canada and in the U.S. - especially in regard to colleges and Universities. U.S. students should have no trouble getting into college with a decent reading list and a portfolio or transcript prepared from home. It's record keeping rather than course content that will be harder for some families. The Charlotte Mason content is more than adequate. Canadian colleges, I understand, are not as flexible as in the U.S., nor, perhaps, have they had enough experience with homeschooled students yet to see the benefits of accepting homeschooled students.

Not USA or Canada

Q. So what do we who live outside the U.S.A. do?

A. Umm, come up with a brief explanation of how things work in your country and a few suggestions for how AO/HEO parents can work with, around, or in spite of that system.

This is simply not an area where I have any information that would be much use. Sorry.

Maximum Curriculum Requirements General Summary

Taking the maximum requirements as our guide:

Bible - 4 years
English - 4 years emphasize writing skills - lots of scope for Charlotte Mason studies here
Mathematics - 3 years, probably Algebra 1 and 2 and Geometry
Social Sciences (U.S. History, World History, U.S. Government, & Economics) - No state requires more than 3, and three are only required in states where economics is a separate semester long course. A solid Charlotte Mason program could easily do 4 years worth of work in these topics.
Science - The most required by any of the high schools is 3 years, and that's when lab work is counted separately. Again, with astronomy, nature study, nature notebooks, and other topics covered in a Charlotte Mason education, I think we'll have no problem beating this requirement.
Foreign Language - 2 years of the same language - and Latin does count. (Method: time and materials covered OR by fluency)
Driver's Ed
Physical Ed - 2 years are required in one state, only 1 in others. Health is generally part of the PE requirements. Dance, nature walks, games such as kickball, family softball games - all these are grist to the homeschoolers' mill and can count toward P.E. So, I think, would things like hygiene and parts of Charlotte Mason's book Ourselves (abstinence based sex-education =) )
Fine Arts - Only one state listed requires fine arts. With the Charlotte Mason emphasis on art, Shakespeare plays, and music, we can easily top this requirement
Electives - Handwork, hobbies, extra literature, more foreign language, keyboard skills, etc.

Online School Credit Example

Colleen in GA writes: OK, AO/HEO moms, it is confession time. I did not follow a Charlotte Mason based curriculum for our 14yos (9th grade) but enrolled him in Oak Meadow's online school for 4 subjects for this past year. But what I wanted to share after Wendi's dissertation on credits, calculating credits and the like (what a bounty of information!!) is how Oak Meadow, which is trying to spearhead a virtual classroom situation, accounts for high school credits and what they expect for a high school college bound "diploma." To receive a high school diploma from Oak Meadow a student must complete a minimum of 20 units. (1 unit = 2 semesters)

English - 4 units (English 9, English 10, American Lit, World Lit)
Mathematics - 2 units
Social Studies - 3 units (American History, World History, Government)
Science - 2 units
Fine Arts - 1 unit (The Study of Art, Integrated Drawing, Music)
Physical Ed. - 360 hours required for graduation, but not counted toward the 20 units needed
Electives - 7.5 units
Humanities - 1/2 unit
Psychology
Languages - 2 units (same language)
Computer science recommended

OnLine School Credit for Electives, Jobs and Volunteering

Now here's the interesting part; to receive credits for these electives you may do one of the following also:

Take a class in your local area such as photography, pottery, theater etc.. as long as the class meets regularly (at least once a week) Classes must meet a minimum of 18 hours. Credit will be based on the number of hours of instruction per week. You will receive 1/10 (one tenth) of a credit for each 18 hours (or basically a 180 hours of instruction equals 1 full credit hour here).

To receive credit for a part-time job: You must work a total of at least 40 hours to be eligible for credit. You receive 1/10 credit for every 40 hours of work experience up to a maximum of 5 credits.(it does not say paid work here, so I would definitely give credit for a volunteer position also!)

This is just another example to give credits etc. from an alternative school.

SAT/ACT Preparation

Q. What about college preparedness and SAT/ACT college entrance testing? Do the families using AO/HEO all the way through use grading/testing, etc?

This is Carol H.'s response to a question posted to the HEO email list:

The SAT/ACT test are administered by the College Board and as such they are designed to test general knowledge. High schools follow a typical course of study that prepares students to take and pass this test. Homeschoolers also follow a similar course of study. The only difference is that homeschoolers have more choices as to the actual curriculum they use (biology is biology, for example, but the actual course material and the presentation of the information can be vastly different based on publisher's philosophy and intent).

A typical course of study including 4 years of English, 4 years of math, 4 years of science, 3 years of history, etc. will ensure the student is well prepared, not only to score well on this test, but also to meet any requirements for college/university admissions. AO/HEO offers plenty of instruction in all key subject areas.

Most 11-12th grade public school and homeschoolers students will purchase a test prep book and will spend time working through it, taking the practice tests, etc. so that they are comfortable taking the test. Many competitive colleges want to see a high score on these tests so students are encouraged to take the test more than once.

To answer questions from your family, I would just say: the curriculum we are using (AO/HEO) is an honors/college preparatory program and is designed to prepare students to not only pass these tests but to score well on them. In addition, the course work is college level so students will be able to take AP tests and possibly receive college credit for their high school course work.

If they poke more, just let them know that "most competitive colleges expect students to take four years of literature/composition based courses in high school." AO/HEO is a literature-based curriculum and is the kind of curriculum competitive colleges want to see listed on a transcript (as compared to traditional textbooks, which is least favored).

HTH!

~Carol H. :o)

Planning High School for College Prep

Having just finished the process of documenting my son's high school education for the college application process, I thought you all might like to know that there is now a homeschooling supplement to the common application that many colleges use. It is very easy to fill out the college application online and to download the homeschool supplement. The supplement has to be mailed to each school. The transcript they require is quite simple. I found the question asking me why I chose to homeschool this particular child and what is my philosophy of homeschooling that gave me 50 words worth of space in which to answer to be the most challenging. Talk about the quick version! You can download a copy to prepare here.

www.collegeboard.org also has an academic tracker feature that lets you compare your high school plan to specific college requirements and to successful applicants. This is a free service.

One school wanted evidence of the kinds of labs he did before they would give credit for his science classes. NCAA eligibility is a bit harder requiring a list of all books used including publisher and publication date. Only difficult because we didn't write down everything he read for his study of film history. HEO has the booklists, just have to remember which edition for the ones from the library. All my younger kids now keep a running book list.

This was much easier than when my oldest applied 7 years ago. Then applying required conversations with each college as there were no policies in place and while they had learned to appreciate their homeschooled applicants, there were no standard procedures. Her applications looked more like a portfolio that included book lists. Most of my son's applications just needed a simple transcript. He was accepted to 9 universities, 6 honors colleges and received Presidential/Academic awards from 5 schools. They really want my AO educated son. He gets personal letters and emails daily from the schools. Friday we leave on a 10 day, 9 college tour to help him get the information he needs to make his choice.

So if you are fearfully considering homeschooling through high school, take heart. Our way of educating our kids turns out the kind of people universities actively recruit and the process is getting simpler all the time. You have time to figure it out. Get started with the year and then when you find your rhythm and your student has identified some goals, then you will find the way to proceed.

My son recommends that you take the PSAT as a sophomore and the SAT as a junior as well as choosing your prospective schools by the summer before your senior year. He waited until the last possible minute and besides the stress he faced as a result, he also lost out on some scholarships that were only available to early applicants . He has been telling me to start putting the pressure on his year 10 sister; he even bought her a SAT prep computer program yesterday.

One last comment: I have observed that we parents stress much more the first time through any path. Learning to diaper babies was hard, keeping toddlers safe was hard, teaching a child to read was hard . . .the FIRST time. By the time we got to child #5 none of those things required much thought, much less stress or fear. I think the same is true for school. First grade is easy when you are working on third grade. Have you ever found yourself wondering why parents of first graders are so worried? High school works the same way. So while looking ahead with fear and trepidation remember that some day you will be the person looking back with confidence and enjoy the journey.

Cindee Andres

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For further reading: Carol H. wrote a post in response to a mom asking about whether starting her high schooler in AO's Year 4 would negatively affect his college transcripts. You can read that here.

Additional Links about School Records and Curriculum

A page from the KONOS people about their high school curriculum. They have some information on counting credits and record keeping that list members doing high school might find useful - and that is not limited to those doing unit studies. Some of this looks helpful for those needing a basic framework around which to build their own high school program.

Katie Barr wrote an article about "Educating Our Kids for Life;" She writes, "My husband and I have a list of tests for our kids to take before college. We want their transcripts to 'speak the language' of university officials. We need them to get scholarships. But how much time should we allow for these pursuits? Time is finite, a truth I rediscover with startling frequency. The more we spend measuring their progress, the less we have to delve into books and nature and poetry. I do not mean analyzing and classifying. I mean reading, looking, absorbing. We have to make time to feed our souls. Students need experiences that both instruct and inspire. They need to think about what makes a person noble and how to sense things that are bigger than we can comprehend. They need time to discuss ideas, taking in the good and discarding the bad. This becomes more important as a student gets older, not less. . ." You can download the complete article (Word doc) here.

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Thanks to Janet Hellerman and the members of the AO/HEO planning list for their help in compiling, editing and proofreading this page.