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Choosing a course of study for high school can be exciting because high school provides students with a wonderful opportunity to build on their strengths and interests with the goal of discerning what path to take after graduation. It is important, though, to balance the exploration of those interests with a plan to complete graduation requirements with a well-rounded selection of courses to prepare the student for success. Please also reference the following resources:
High School Graduation Planner
Kolbe Academy offers a full curriculum from which parents and students can choose to meet all graduation requirements. Graduation requirements may also be met by using an outside curriculum if it meets our standards for high school curriculum and has been submitted on the student’s Course of Study through the course registration form or the Course Change Request Form, which is located in your student's Kolbe Portal account under the "Registration" tab for approval by an advisor. Please see the Parent and Student Handbook for more information on what qualifies a course for high school credit.
Kolbe Academy’s curriculum offers two different humanities options for high school: our Classical Core courses, and our Textbook-based courses. Our Online courses are offered at the Kolbe Core (K) level, and many are also offered at the honors level if desired.
Classical Core Courses
The Classical Core courses are designed so that the recommended Theology, Literature, and History courses each year function as companion courses. The texts used in the core are predominately original source texts. Each year focuses on one specific era of human history. This allows the students to immerse themselves in one era at a time and to think critically and independently about the interconnectedness of our spiritual lives, literature, and history.
Our theology courses navigate the student through Church teaching as they relate to each individual on a personal level as well as their effect upon the whole of human existence. The courses are ordered to parallel the students’ studies in history and literature, leading the students to apprehend the unity of art, history, and the Church for themselves. Additionally, they build upon themselves beginning with the study of God’s Word (the principles of Divine Revelation), moving onto a study of the Church (the application of those principles), to Apologetics (the way those principles are reasonable), and concluding with the Church’s teachings on Morality.
Our literature courses introduce students to a living laboratory of moral choices and must be judged from the standpoint of the Christian worldview in order to be appreciated for all it has to teach us. Kolbe students are taught to view literature as a fundamentally moral and religious activity, one that inspires us to right action and to works of charity. Reading for the Kolbe student involves four essential attitudes: the assimilative, critical, vocational, and recreational. In other words, Kolbe students read to form themselves properly in body, mind, and soul. They read to form a reasoned critique of the world around them, to gain mastery in a vocation, and to use leisure time well. Additionally, high school students are taught how to apply the four-fold test to literature. They read to become acquainted with the facts, the literal level; to correctly judge the moral actions of men, the city or the nation, the moral level; to understand the actions of men as they relate to the redemption of the individual soul, the allegorical level; and to deepen their understanding of human life as a journey to Heaven, the eschatological/biblical level.
Our history courses provide an in-depth study of the past, with a special attention to the heroes and great men of history and how their noble deeds and foibles shaped Western culture. As befits a Classical education, students use primary sources to guide them through the great ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, the glory of Christendom, and the complications of modernity. Kolbe's theology and literature courses parallel the history courses in order to establish the interconnectedness of these disciplines. Prominent historical events and the progression of Western philosophy show students the immutability of human nature as well as the devastating influence of cultural trends. In keeping with the Ignatian method, the curriculum emphasizes orderly thinking and the mastery of writing and speaking techniques. Additionally, the students learn to apply what they have learned to their own lives and become confident leaders capable of transforming the world for the greater glory of God.
Our companion English composition courses instruct the student in the art of written expression using grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and then culminate in studying the master authors of modern creative writing. The eras are studied in chronological order, which allows the students to understand how humanity has evolved spiritually, creatively, and intellectually throughout written history. While we do recommend taking our Classical Core courses sequentially, according to specific eras each year, it is not a requirement to do so. Many of our students take them according to a schedule and timeline that suits their own needs.
These classical core courses are rigorous if all opportunities for reading and written assignments are completed. As such, we encourage parents to adjust the workload of traditional homeschool and Digital Homeschool courses to meet the academic needs of each individual student. For this reason, many of our classical core courses are eligible to earn the Honors designation and receive an additional grade point to “weight” the course in the student’s GPA appropriate to the level of rigor in which it was taken. If taken at a less rigorous level, students can earn the optional Kolbe Core (K) designation for the course or customize the course even further without earning a designation. Please contact your advisor if you would like more information about making adjustments to our courses and our course designations.
Textbook Courses
When reading from original sources for Church and secular History and having a set reading list for Literature does not suit the needs and/or interests of individual students, a selection of textbook History, Government, Theology, and Literature courses are available through our curriculum. These courses utilize quality course materials while providing students with a less rigorous workload than our Classical Core courses. Students are able to earn the optional Kolbe Core (K) designation for these courses if they meet the requirements as prescribed in the course plan, and parents are able to make adjustments to the courses if they do not wish to earn a K designation for the course. A few of our textbook-based history and literature courses are offered as online courses alongside our Classical Core Online courses. Please visit our website or contact your advisor for more information on our textbook-based high school courses.
Foundation Courses
Foundation courses are available as online courses only. These provide students with the opportunity to study the same subject matter as in core courses, but at a level of academic rigor that some students find to be more approachable. Students in Foundations courses can expect slightly lower degree of academic rigor, a more manageable workload, and slower pacing as compared to core courses, while still having the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills that are foundational to a classical Catholic education. Please visit our website or contact your advisor for more information on our Foundation courses.
Honors and AP Courses
Kolbe students can pursue honors, AP, and dual credit courses, whether they are full-time students or supplement their curriculum with individual classes. We work closely with parents to ensure that these course credits reflect a higher standard of education and effort. Honors courses do require students to dedicate more time to each honors-level course. We ask parents to carefully discern with their students if they are prepared to take honors-level courses. Please see our article on Discerning When to Take Honors Courses.
Kolbe Academy offers the Honors (H) Course Designation for select Homeschool, Digital Homeschool, Asynchronous, and Online courses for students desiring to complete a more rigorous course of study. To enroll in an Honors course, please select the honors option on your student’s registration form, or submit a Course Change Request Form.
Kolbe Academy offers various AP Courses online for high school students. As the instructor of an AP course is certified to teach AP courses, our Homeschool, Digital Homeschool, and Asynchronous courses are not available with the AP designation. While AP courses prepare students to successfully complete the respective AP exam, a student does not need to be enrolled in an AP course to take an AP exam. Kolbe Academy does not provide a physical setting for students to take the exam, but we have provided information on how to find a testing center in the College Entrance and AP Exams article in our Help Center.
Dual Credit & Concurrent Enrollment
Learn all about dual credit by reading this Help Center article.
Concurrent Enrollment with Franciscan Advantage
Learn more about Kolbe Academy's partnership with Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Details about Kolbe Academy's dual credit and concurrent enrollment offerings can be found here.
