← Composition | Subjects We Teach | History →

Subject: Logic

Logic in present-day English means the principles that can control a machine like a computer. At Columbia, we introduce those concepts in the fifth and sixth grades, giving students an opportunity to learn some basic computer coding in several languages.

• Scratch
• Javascript
• Python

In former times, logic did not define a set of instructions for a machine, but a discipline for the human mind. In the seventh and eigth grade, we begin the study of formal logic. This is the science of syllogisms, where we are more concerned about whether a person’s statement is valid than about whether it’s true. Students who learn logic know how to think.

In the upper grades, students will have about two to four sets of exercises to complete each week, to review the newly-introduced material, and a quiz every one to two weeks. Seventh-grade students who finish the first year’s introduction will continue into a second, higher-level text in the eighth grade.