Although this seems reasonable, there are a number of presuppositions that are being made:

I. A good English report card when your child is young is not necessarily indicative of prospective success in their higher education.

II. English classes at the elementary and middle school levels focus on grammar and sentence writing, whereas Sister Sophie offers a wholistic education that includes critical and analytical thinking.

III. Writing classes at Sister Sophie prioritize multiple skills that cultivate a student that is able to think independently and adapt to new information.

Many institutions cater their after school English programs exclusively towards exam preparation, but Sister Sophie focuses on skills that are immediately and universally relevant. Sister Sophie’s quadripartite foundation is:

I. Critical reasoning: Critical thinking employs our ability to obtain and interpret information. In the age of information, we are perpetually surrounded by different sources, mediums, and values of information. To eb able to effectively categorize, delineate, and assess this information is not a useful, but necessary skill. This is the shift from asking what something is to why something is the way it is.

II. Analytical reasoning: Analytical thinking employs our ability to constitute and evaluate relational understanding. To know how things relate to each other, be it a word, character, concept, or value, allows a student to effectively orient themselves in new situations (while also helping them reconceptualize old ideas.

III. Logical reasoning: Logical thinking employs our ability to deductively reason and understand cause and effect relations. To understand the logic of something is to understand how it operates, which is to question the cause of its operation and the effects that can be derived from that cause.

IV. Humanistic reasoning: Humanistic thinking employs our ability to understand how our world is shaped through human interaction and interest. To focus on the range and potential of human capacity has been one of the greatest driving forces of innovation, creation, and evaluation throughout history.

STEM are fantastic options for any student who shows both willingness and aptitude, but there is a general misconception that a student will be able to succeed without a strong English basis. In each of these disciplines, reports and research essays will be a primary evaluative measure. Without a strong basis in English literary skills, students will struggle to offer their findings in a succinct, clear, and uniform manner. Additionally, with Sister Sophie’s focus on humanistic education offers skills that are relevant to any discipline. For more information on our method, please refer to FAQ question 2.

Sister Sophie offers foundational classes with bilingual instructors that will focus on creating and stabilizing your child’s English base. These will focus on building vocabulary, differentiating abstract and applied English usage, and sentence and paragraph construction. When you child feels comfortable with their English foundations, they can transition to Reading classes, which focus upon passage analysis, question and answer format, and introductory critical thinking skills. These will provide the tools for them to not only understand, but to thrive in their English classes.

Much like an IB program, Sister Sophie’s methodology focuses on wholistic education which prioritizes the development of a student’s reasoning capacity. This creates a complementarity between the two, as you can either sign your child up for private classes, in which the instructor will refine those skills by focusing on individualized lessons or homework assistance, or group classes, in which your child can refine the skills that will help the excel in the IB program.

AP programs consist of harder material and more difficult assignments for the purpose of preparing students for postsecondary education. As such, many students either feel overwhelmed upon entering or find their marks drop. This is primarily due to the shift in focus away from the standard educational model, which focuses upon informational knowledge, towards a wholistic model, which grounds itself in critical knowledge. This is the same foundation used at Sister Sophie, which allows our instructors to develop the critical, logical, and analytical skills needed for your child to achieve current and future success.