The Center for Social Justice is a three-year English and History interdisciplinary program with a strong emphasis on the impact that social movements have had on the development of history, humanities, literature, and the arts. CSJ is based upon the Small Learning Community (SLC) model where students build close working relationships with staff and fellow students. Students will actively engage in curriculum that focuses on the theme of social justice and use their knowledge to promote issues of social activism within their own community. Students can choose to take their History and English courses on a variety of levels. Instruction includes crucial skills such as critical thinking, writing, and research.
CSJ also attends to study skills and time management. English and History classes are conducted in a two period block on alternating days. In addition, CSJ has a Research, Inquiry and Action Lab that meets one period each day. This lab period is an introduction to understanding issues of social diversity and social justice in the United States. It provides students with a theoretical framework for understanding different forms of oppression and a method to explore how specific forms of oppression affect their own lives. This active participation seminar ends each unit with a Public Display of Learning based on a specific issue of injustice. Students are required to perform 30 hours of community service each year. Students may design their own service projects or take advantage of existing organizations that perform local services.
Students will receive the following credits per year: 5 for English, 5 for History and 5 for Honors Social Justice Research Inquiry and Action Lab. After 3 years in the Center students will fulfill the following requirements for graduation: 21st Century Skills, Financial Literacy. Prospective students should fill out an interest form.
The Civics and Government Institute
Rising Sophomore CGI interest form:
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Founded in 1997, the Civics & Government Institute (CGI) is a small learning community within the walls of Montclair High School, which focuses on the study of citizenship, government, and social issues. Students who choose to join the Institute in their sophomore year participate in student-run government, debates, elective courses, international relations, community service partnerships, US History, and British and American Literature. This constitutes three periods of the students’ day, while they leave the Institute for the remainder of their academic requirements. Throughout their three years in the Institute, students are given many opportunities to develop leadership skills to be used during their years at MHS and in the future.
The CGI academic program is interdisciplinary and thematic, weaving the history and English curriculum together. The sophomore classes engage in the themes of Social Movements & Reform and War & Conflict. In their junior year, the students progress from Economic Theory, Literature, & History, through Politics and Aesthetics. As seniors, CGI students participate in the “We The People” state and national competition through their Government & Politics course, while studying the Humanities and philosophy in English. All history courses are offered at the AP or Honors levels, while sophomores contract for Honors and Academics in English, and AP Language and Composition and Literature and Composition or Honors English in their junior and senior years, respectively Within academics, Public Demonstrations of Learning are an integral part of CGI. Each year students create varied presentations based upon the theme they are studying. Sophomores participate in the Social Reform Panels and the War Room Museums. The Found Poetry Cafe concludes the junior year, while “We the People” presentations and an extensive AP thesis paper conclude the senior year. All students participate in, and all parents and friends are welcome to view these exciting alternative learning experiences and assessments.
In the second period elective component of CGI, known as Government Studies, students participate in a variety of activities. Utilizing the theory of the democratic classroom, students engage in a student-run Congress which operates under a student-written Constitution. In Congress students practice debating skills on a variety of local, national, and international issues, becoming familiar with parliamentary procedure. Students also participate in a Civics classroom throughout the year. In Civics, students are required to create and engage in meaningful service learning projects that begin with brainstorming issues, researching the chosen topic, and planning and executing an action plan. In addition, students choose from a variety of academic mini-courses, called Electives, in both the English and Social Studies content areas. The Civics and Government Institute provides an educational environment through which students can develop an understanding of their roles as functioning members of the community, state, nation, and the world.