Curriculum Outline
The Bannister Curriculum shall have a strong liberal education orientation, which looks at one reality, the world around us, from the different perspectives of the subject fields taught by the faculty. After all …
English and Filipino (skills: grammar and communication) are the tools to comprehend and express the world around us in words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and full works, either fiction or non-fiction, either in poetry or prose;
Mathematics (skills: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus) is likewise a tool to comprehend and express the world around us but in numbers, number sentences, formulas, simulated problems,and complex number systems;
Science and Social Studies (knowledge: earth, biology, chemistry, physics, history and civilization, geography, government, culture) are the study of nature and society, respectively;
Literature and the Arts (enablers of the spirit) enable us to appreciate our world in most profound and uplifting ways, to go deep into culture (the sum total of how a people think and what they do) and other works of men and women and find its expression in the fine arts (painting or literature), plastic arts (sculpture or architecture) or the performing arts (music, dance, or theatre);
Physical Education and Sports (enablers of the body) enables us to develop agility, stamina, and body fitness to study the world with an alert mind and strength of spirit;
Finally, Character Education (enabler of the whole person), which pervades all subjects and the entire school in pre-eminent ways, provides us with norms and standards of study and the strength of the will to give meaning to what is learned through a spirit of service to God and people.
Co-curricular, as expressed through clubs and school-wide activities, complements the curriculum in educating the whole person. The question of these being voluntary or compulsory is deemed not to make any sense in an academic community whose members had freely decided to venture into the supremely worthwhile task of formal education.
The “hidden curriculum,” a term currently in use in education circles, is nothing else but education in character, whose norms and standards are found in everything written (handbooks and codes) and not written (tradition). The school looks at the present day with the end in mind, an academic undertaking where everyone tries one’s best to be the best that one can be in every circumstance and situation that may present itself.