Humanities is taught my Ms. Small, and revolves around the question "What does it mean to be human?" Many of the texts that we read in HUM aren't covered in a typical English or history course, and touch upon some heavy but discussion-worthy topics. From creating skits to writing satires, there are various ways in which we can express our creativity and insight for each topic we learn about.
In the beginning of the year, we read many texts about how education in the United States has evolved. It wasn't something that I really paid attention to, but once we started discussing, I realized that I had a lot of thoughts on this topic. For our first essay, I looked at the flaws in our education system as well as some other systems around the world that could help model ways to improve our way of schooling.
We also spent a while studying satire. Not only did we get to watch and read a bunch of satires, but we also ended up writing our own. This unit helped me understand the nuance and variety in a medium that I only saw as witty beforehand. At the end of our unit, we wrote an essay analyzing the devices used in a satirical piece of our choosing. There were a few options that we could choose for what exactly we wanted to do, which is something I enjoy about this class; there are always different ways that we can approach an essay. I ended up finding a topic and comparing a satirical approach to a traditional one, and argued that the satire was more effective in addressing a stance on this topic.