Fundamentals of Human Growth and Development - Alexandria City ...

COURSE OVERVIEW
The Alexandria City Public Schools’ Fundamentals of Human Growth and Development
course is a year long, co-educational, heterogeneously grouped academic class that is required
for graduation. The course is the result of several years of careful planning and design by a
consortium of parent, community, religious, and civic groups working together with educators.
It provides for an examination of the physical, cognitive, social, emotional and psychosexual
components of human growth and development from birth to death. The course was designed
to be a unique opportunity for serious consideration and discussion of human sexuality within
the framework of the study of human development. Students receive information to help them
acquire skills necessary to their future as individuals, family members and members of society.
Central to the curriculum is the nine week adolescence unit. Teacher guided discussions of
relevant issues provide students with opportunity for self-scrutiny, introspection and an
examination of personal development as it relates to overall patterns of human growth.
The assumptions and beliefs that underlie this course as stated in the primary textbook, Human
Development, are:
“We respect all periods of the life span and we believe that people have the potential to change
as long as they live.
We believe in human resilience…and that people can bounce back from…
difficult circumstances or stressful experiences…, and a nurturing environment
can help a child overcome the effects of…deprivation or trauma.
We believe that people help shape their own development.
They actually affect their own environment and then respond
to the environmental forces they have helped bring about.
We believe that all domains of development are interrelated.
Although we look separately at physical, cognitive and
psychosexual development, we recognize that each of these aspects
of development is entwined with the others, and we point out many of these connections.
We celebrate cultural diversity. People are part of a wide array of cultures
that exhibit a richness and complexity of human aspiration and experience.
We believe that knowledge is useful…and leads to insight about self and others
that may help people to live happier, more fulfilled lives.”
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