Humanities is a combination of literature, language, and history classes that is taught by Mrs. Small. In this course, we uncover what it means to be human by discussing topics central to humanity in the past, present, and future. We started the year by discussing Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which we read over the summer. After that we discussed education, then we learned about the evolutionary and neurological basis for human language, and we have just finished our unit on satirical analysis. Take a look at some of the assignments that I have completed so far!
At the beginning of the year, we wrote original skits on different aspects of Walden. We performed these skits at Bourndale, which is a school trip to a summer camp where we did team building activities, while continuing to brainstorm for our STEM projects and Walden skits. Anh, Lydia, and I decided to focus on Thoreau's hypocrisy throughout Walden. Our skit is entitled "The Thoreauapist" and as suggested by the title, it portrays Thoreau as a therapist who gives hypocritical advice to his clients.
Cast (in order of appearance):
Narrator - Lydia
Henry David Thoreau - Anh
Secretary - Mary
Couple (L) - Lydia
Couple (M) - Mary
Ms. Ludes as herself
Mass Academy Student - Lydia
Rapper - Mary
Police - Lydia
During our education unit, we explored many different perspectives on education and learned about the changes made to educational systems throughout the world. After learning about the education system, we were allowed to choose a topic related to education to write a synthesis essay on. The prompt that I created is "Write an essay in which you formulate a position on whether meaningful Physical Education should be mandated for high school students."