Please purchase ONE registration for ALL of the Schola Alta (7th-12th grade) U.S. Government students in your family.

Please Note: This NON-REFUNDABLE registration does not guarantee enrollment in a licensed Aquinas Learning Center. Please contact your director to apply and pay center tuition for a seat in her classroom.

This registration provides one family with unlimited access to our Cycle 1 U.S. Government course for one school year, in addition to continuing education for primary educators, a private forum for member families, and exclusive discounts for the purchase of partner materials.

The Aquinas Learning Honors Government, Politics, and Catholic Teaching course teaches students the constitutional underpinnings of the United States Government. We strive to give students an appreciation for the United States Government's founding and how we can analyze the principles through Catholic teaching in the Catechism and encyclicals. We look at original founding documents and the writing that influenced the Founding Fathers. We also look at how modern politics work and several important court cases from the Supreme Court.

We will learn about political beliefs and the behaviors, elections, interest groups, political parties, mass media, institutions of national government, public policy, civil rights, civil liberties, and vital court cases that have shaped and defined our government. Students will engage in a great deal of analysis of data, research, and current events. There is no textbook for this class, but primary and supplemental source readings will provide basic information which will be enhanced through the class lectures. Primary source readings will include the following: The Declaration of Independence The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, Federalist Papers (10, 51, 70, and 78), Anti-Federalist Paper Brutus 1, and Letter from a Birmingham Jail, SCOTUS Decisions (Marbury vs Madison, McCulloch vs Maryland, Baker vs Carr, Shaw vs Reno, Miranda vs Arizona, Plessy vs Ferguson, Brown vs Board of Education, Roe vs Wade, and Citizens United), and Papal Encyclicals (Rerum Navarum, Quadragesimo Anno, Laborem Exercens, Mit Brennender Sorge, and Immortale Dei).

Students will also use the 5 Steps to a 5 text so that those who wish to sit for the A.P. U.S. Government and Politics exam in May 2025 will be prepared to do so.

Please note: This registration does not include the cost of materials or the cost of tuition paid to an independently owned and operated center using the AL curriculum.

Shortly after completing registration, member families will receive a getting started guide with instructions for ordering materials with members-only discount codes and access to the U.S. Government course site. Full course materials will be uploaded and launched a couple of months before the start of the school year.