Two new courses, Cultivating Kindness Seminar and Math Excursions, have been approved for the 2025-26 school year by the Board of Education.
According to the course proposal presented to the Board, the Cultivating Kindness Seminar will be offered as a semester course and will address the scientific reasoning behind kindness and its application.
The other new course, Math Excursions, is a year-long course and teaches the real-world applications of math, according to the proposal.
Director of Curriculum Katie Nowak said these courses correspond to the school’s goals and promote a positive environment.
“Both courses are in line with our Strategic Plan,” she explained. “We have a goal about authentic and meaningful experiential learning opportunities and real world connections.”
Principal of Secondary Schools Jason Caudill said the Kindness Seminar was inspired by college courses, which were used as an example when drafting the course.
“Schools like Harvard, Yale and UC Berkeley all have some kind of positive psychology class,” he explained. “We had the chance to go to UC Berkeley this summer to work with about 60 educators from all over the world to learn how to do this.”
Math teacher and department cochair Melissa McCreary said the Math Excursions course curriculum was influenced by a class at OSU.
Nowak added this course was created following the math curriculum review conducted every five years, which looks at student needs and gaps new courses could fill. McCreary proposed the Math Excursions course with hopes for a more flexible and adaptive math course, since the course will apply math to various topics, she said.
“Some topics are related to nature, some art and beauty and some are about political science, voting methods or logistics,” she explained.
She added students of various levels in math will be able to take this course.
“It would be for seniors who are fairly sure Precalculus or Calculus are not going to be part of the requirements for their major, but it could also be an elective for someone who just thinks these topics look kind of cool,” she said.
Caudill added he hopes the Cultivating Kindness Seminar will create a long-lasting legacy at the school.
“As kids go through this course and have this experience, we want to keep them connected to the next group that does it,” Caudill explained. “Something special about Bexley is being able to keep these connections, and we think kindness is a good rallying point.”
