Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

Our curriculum covers key concepts, skills and subject matter for middle and high school students included in the revised state frameworks:

• The concept of “rights and responsibilities of citizens” [8.T4] is directly addressed by the abolitionists’ response to slavery – the tension between majority rule and minority rights. Life at the Northampton Association was an example in microcosm of the responsibilities that go along with democratic governance.
• Working with their Source Packets develops students’ literary skills outlined in [RCA-H]. Students are reading, summarizing, citing and analyzing primary sources to get at central ideas. They are gathering information, organizing their ideas and developing and introducing topics of discussion [WCA]. And they are giving spoken word presentations based on their research [SLAC].
• Students are introduced to the economic forces that propelled slavery in the South and industrial development in the North, and the social consequences of each [USI.T3]. They read slave narratives and see the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act. They also learn about the abolitionist response to slavery as part of a larger reform movement [USI.T4].