Narrative Project

Stella Maris promotes the reading of Great Books as the way of understanding oneself as member of a great story, a fascinating narrative calling the student to honor his past with gratitude and build the future with magnanimity.

Students are called to discover themselves as members of a community and to become main actors in their own life. Through the great stories of Sacred Scripture, universal, British and American literature, our students expand their imagination and become capable of building lasting and truthful relationships. Those bonds are not superficial but they constitute the heart of the person.

Our teachers see each student in the context of their family narrative, valuing their personal experiences and recognizing their challenges. The teacher’s role extends beyond the classroom to include a close working relationship with parents, acknowledging the various circumstances and relationships that shape the student’s journey. The teacher understands the student’s maturity level and guides them in interpreting life experiences aligned with their unique calling and purpose.

What Books?

Stella Maris School embraces the Liberal Arts educational tradition. Books are key for the development of the intellect, heart and imagination of our students. Therefore, we carefully select the books to be read and discussed in the classroom. Our list of books combines readings that: 

• offer a path of virtue according to their age, inspiring greatness and good character,
• have endured the passage of time and have been tested in their adequacy to educate the human heart
• are reasonably challenging and inspiring to our students according to their age and sex, 

According to their age, our students read great books from the Greek and Roman world (such as Homer, Virgil and Sophocles), universal literature (Dante, Cervantes, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Dostoievskj, Tolstoi, Manzoni, Sienkiewicz…), with a special emphasis on the American and British literature (W. Shakespeare, J. Austen, Ch. Dickens, R. L. Stevenson, M. Shelley, R. H. Benson, T. S. Eliot, J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis; M. Twain, W. Cather, H. Lee, H. Melville, J. Steinbeck, F. Fitzgerald, F. O’Connor, J. London, H. W. Longfellow, W. Whitman…).

Our selection of readings includes also contemporary authors, as well as books that integrate literature and history. Some of the books read by our students are: