CSW Launches Pioneering PACE Curriculum
On Wednesday, September 11, CSW was proud to celebrate the official launch of PACE: Promoting Awareness and Community Engagement, a four-year co-curriculum designed to ensure that all CSW students develop self-awareness, social consciousness, healthy living habits, life skills, and leadership that will serve them into adulthood. The pioneering program, designed completely by CSW faculty and administrators, is meant to equip students with strategies for addressing real-life challenges, like understanding the disparities between the digital universe of our cell phones and everyday life; what it means to engage in healthy relationships; what purposeful community service looks like; and how and when to care for our bodies and minds.
“It is no secret that today’s youth is more anxious and stressed than ever before. The ever-expanding digital landscape and the enormous presence it holds in young peoples’ lives, in addition to the unprecedented pressures they feel to achieve and perform at the highest level, is taking an immense toll on upcoming generations,” says CSW Head of School Lise Charlier. “Through PACE, CSW strives to create a new generation of young people who are as resilient, self-aware, and kind as they are intelligent and creative. Our world is in desperate need of compassionate, conscientious, and responsive leaders, and we are excited to be leading the charge towards a new way of educating and mentoring our youth.”
Every other Wednesday, in lieu of their core academic classes, students will engage in meaningful service learning projects and explore coursework based on a highly-intentional, four-year series. Mornings will be dedicated to “Promoting Awareness,” fostering skills related to physical, mental, behavioral, and relational health (9th Grade); mind-body connection and mindfulness education (10th grade); equity literacy and identity development (11th grade); and self-representation and adult life skills (12th grade). Afternoons will be focused on “Community Engagement,” with students engaging in a unique studio learning sequence designed to educate them on the research, relationship building, and reflection required to enact positive change in their communities and beyond.
A leader among America’s progressive independent schools, CSW has been at the forefront of educational innovation since 1886. Allowing for intense, comprehensive study and increased curricular choice, our trademark “Mod System,” — six academic modules of six weeks each — was recently altered for the first time in nearly 45 years, in part to accommodate the new PACE program, a leading priority for the school.
Those interested in learning more about PACE can visit www.csw.org/pace.
Those interested in learning more about PACE can visit www.csw.org/pace.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.