MKA's Core Works program guarantees that all MKA students explore specific works of enduring significance-diverse works of literature and art (some in foreign languages), music and dance; contributions of great mathematicians; and works of historical import. Through this select core of studies, all MKA students from pre-kindergarten to grade twelve encounter some of "the best that has been thought and said in the world" (Matthew Arnold). Grappling with such works expands students' knowledge, engenders in them a sense of vision, and provides necessary, intellectual foundations for leading a life of integrity.
Using criteria established by the National Endowment for the Humanities, faculty selected some of the greatest works of and contributors to Western and non-Western cultures, resulting in Core Works as diverse as Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus," Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales (selections), and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf for fourth grade students, and Homer's Odyssey, Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B" and "Harlem," and Alvin Ailey's Revelations for eighth grade students. Shakespeare and the Bible are featured, as are Aesop, Confucius, Frank Lloyd Wright and Gandhi. Students might study Spanish legends, French Impressionism, or Vergil's Aeneid in foreign language class; or the work of Descartes, Euclid or Newton in mathematics.
Noted scholars from around the country visit MKA to educate and advise teams of faculty in the teaching of the Core Works, and the intellectual stimulation and collegiality that the program fosters has led to its expansion since it was initiated in 1999.
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