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, satirical analysis, the romantic and neoclassical periods. We also completed a unit on Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, which is an amazing play and I highly recommend reading it. To end the year, we read various short pieces of science fiction and discussed the evolution of SciFi. 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 practice our 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."
To wrap up our unit on identity, we created DBQ/Synthesis style prompts about identity and answered one of them. The prompt that I chose was: "Using at least four of the provided sources, write an essay in which you evaluate the impact of celebrity parasocial relationships on adolescent development. Consider their influence on self-identity, social skills, mental health, and expectations for real-life relationships."