Humanities is a unique blend of studying literature, writing, history, culture, and human civilization at large. The class consists of essays, readings, group and individual projects, discussions, and other enjoyable, thought-provoking activities. Topics covered include Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the education system, satire, identity, conflict, science fiction, and more. In addition to pushing students’ writing, critical thinking, and analysis skills, this course exposes students to different cultures and perspectives so that they can have a deeper understanding about the global society around them. This class is right up my alley as I enjoy probing about society at a deep level!
The major writing assignment for A Term was an argumentative essay about a topic of our choice related to education. In this twenty-page essay (yes, you read that correctly), a detailed analysis on the politics and socioeconomics of American, Chinese, and Finnish societies is performed, with the findings extrapolated to each nation’s education system. I make the case for the Finnish model being superior. A major desire I had in writing this essay was to present ideas that are typically rejected without a second thought due to their incompatibility with mainstream opinions and interests. I fully took this opportunity to write something I was passionate about, and as a result, I truly enjoyed writing this essay, time-consuming as it was. If you are unable to see the file, click here.
B-term Humanities culminated with this writing assignment. After exploring language, rhetoric, and satire, in this essay, students were to analyze, evaluate, and/or compare a piece of satire or satires. I compared the techniques used by Jonathan Swift in A Modest Proposal, where he advocates for cannibalism as a panacea, to those of Rayna Greene in A Modest Proposal for the Museum of the Plains White Person, where she advocates for a museum displaying American culture as a means of emulating the objectification Native American culture faces. Although I was apprehensive about this being a timed assignment, I surprised myself with the agility with which I synthesized and typed an essay with a clear thesis supported by strong evidence and analysis. If you are unable to see the file, click here.