The humanities class at Mass Academy teaches a balance of social studies and writing mechanics through both nonfiction and fiction readings and essays/write-ups. A few readings that have been focused on greatly include Walden by Henry David Thoreau, The Tell-Tale Brain by V. S. Ramachandran, and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Over the course of the year, we have learned about social struggles in different time periods and of different natures. Below are two written pieces I completed as a part of the Humanities curriculum.
In the first term of the year, the class read several pieces regarding education and was tasked with creating an education-centered essay prompt to then answer. The prompt that I created was “To what degree should high school education be specialized?” and my response can be found below. Some of the cited sources including “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goals” and “Presentation on Research and Processes” were presentations or readings I indulged in as a part of the Mass Academy curriculum. I dove into the debate of whether kids should choose their career path in high school and to what degree should high schools provide specialized classes.
As a part of our lesson on satire, I teamed up with a classmate to produce a satire that criticizes people who blow their leaves into the road as an illustrative example of people who selfishly choose “the easy method” and in turn make others pick up their slack. This piece is in no way serious and should be taken as a sarcastic, highly hyperbolized analysis of this problem that, in its most literal sense, does not reflect my actual views of how leaves should be cleaned up. Additionally, this piece is full of deliberate logical fallacies, and information presented as fact can not be taken as such. Satirical elements are highlighted according to the legend at the top of the document. I hope you enjoy this one!