Course Description
Despite its name, Humanities taught by Mrs. Small is unlike any
other humanities class that I have taken it before. This class
focuses on one key essential question - “What does it mean to be
human?” With this question in mind, we read numerous informative
primary and secondary texts ranging from Ancient Egyptian tomb
builders’ secular poetry to George W. Bush’s address to the nation
following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. We discussed topics ranging
from evolution to identity to education. In addition, we were
frequently provided with opportunities to build upon our language and
communication abilities through long-term as well as timed essays.
Walden Skits
As it has been a tradition here at Mass Academy, juniors are
assigned to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau for their summer
reading. If you have read any amount of the book, you may know that
it is certainly not the easiest read. Nevertheless, following our
completion of the book, we were invited to write skits relating to
the book and perform them for the rest of the class, which was super
fun! I was in a group with Abhinav Sharma, Kayla Vallecillo, and
Ethan Zhou. Our skit, titled Thoreauception, was about Henry David
Thoreau being drafted into the Mexican-American War. The audience
loved it! Above are some photos of our performance, taken by the
wonderful Mrs. Taricco.
Education Essay
Our very first essay! For this essay, we were assigned to
create and answer a prompt of our choice and use historical and
analytical evidence and reasoning to defend our thesis. I chose to
research how American nationalism has been enforced in schools and
its effects on American society. You can read the full essay here!