Other subjects are taught in the 45-minute periods typical in American schools, and include topics considered musty elsewhere, like history and geography. The curriculum is tightly defined. Beginning in fifth grade, students learn history chronologically from year to year, starting before 500 B.C. Grammar lessons begin in the first grade. Young children memorize and recite poems to grasp the rhythms of speech and words. Every student writes each day - and spelling and syntax count in the grading.
Some schools sacrifice high expectations for fear of undermining student self-esteem.
Princeton Charter School believes that knowledge must come first, and that children acquire genuine self-esteem through academic accomplishment. The school gives relatively frequent standardized tests to identify students falling behind. When one test revealed weakness in middle school students' vocabulary, a curriculum committee of teachers and parents decided students would spend a week learning the Greek and Latin roots of words. But it is an epithet that they, and others who share their vision, wear with pride. Many public schools have been reluctant to impose a specific curriculum, fearing any intrusion on teacher autonomy, or fierce political debates about what to include and not include.