Bard Early College New Orleans’ objective is to provide an intellectually challenging and inspiring academic program for students and enable them to take college courses in the 11th and 12th grades, free of charge. The BECNO program provides the opportunity for students to complete more than 60 transferable college credits and an associate in arts degree from Bard College, while simultaneously fulfilling requirements for a high school diploma.
What we hope to teach our students:
- An understanding of the scientific method — its approaches to inquiry, its strengths and limitations as a mode of analysis, and a basic comprehension of the fundamental laws governing both physical phenomena and human behavior;
- An appreciation of several forms of artistic and literary expression, the creative process, and the disciplined use of imagination, formal structure, and aesthetic values;
- A flexibility of thought that allows for creative problem solving through an integration of quantitative and qualitative techniques;
- Knowledge of some of the most influential works of Western culture and critical understanding of the values, assumptions, ideologies that they express;
- Knowledge and appreciation of modes of thought of other cultures — including non—Western cultures, and groups or societies that exist as distinct subcultures within Western culture;
- A sense of history — ideas, movements, peoples, and events of the past — and an understanding of how our view of the past is shaped, and shapes our understanding of the present and future; and
- Sensitivity to the moral and ethical dimensions of thought and action, and developing the ability to make informed moral and ethical decisions.
