Mrs. Small teaches humanities.
As per tradition, the humanities course begins with the discussion of our summer reading book Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Following the exhilarating tale, we read and discuss a variety of literary, historical, and cultural texts related to the central question, "What does it mean to be human?". Additionally, to further explore this question and our texts, we write essays and collaborate on group projects related to each unit. Some topics we have discussed are the education system of the United States, race and ethnicity, and satire.
One of our first major assignments came at the end of a series of readings discussing the American education system. The readings made me realize that our schools and curriculum are far from perfect, but also that there are small steps we can take to improve them. After all, there is always room for growth.
Below is the first essay I wrote for humanities, which answers the question of what aspects of the American school system work and which I would change. I had a lot to say about my topic after the readings we discussed, so I found it a fun challenge trying to organize my thoughts and keep the flow of my essay. We did not have a maximum page limit for this essay, which I appreciated because it allowed me to explore more ideas.
An assignment I enjoyed was our satire project. After learning about satire and its many devices in class and reading documents such as A Modest Proposal by Dr. Jonathan Swift, we worked in small groups to make our own satires. I worked with Amy and Anne to create a satire on AI art, which we presented as a video. Both the script and the video are below; the script has sections highlighted to denote the use of satirical devices, with each color representing a different device. The key assigning colors to their respective devices is at the top of each page.