Humanities at Mass Academy is a class taught by Ms. Small, and it merges history and English in a fun and fascinating way. We started off this year learning about Walden, moving onto topics such as how AI has become more and more common in everyday education, and how arguments can be presented in both a satirical and non-satirical light. This class focuses on writing essays, group projects, class discussions, and overall encourages us to think outside the box on real-world topics.
This assignment was the first essay of the year, where we had to synthesize two sources that related to our prompt about the use of AI. This was also our first timed write of the year, and it was fascinating to interweave different papers with different perspectives to strengthen my argument. I chose to synthesize two articles on the use of AI in universities, and how if a policy is enforced onto students, professors should follow those rules as well. It was an essay I enjoyed writing as it allowed me to see the various perspectives on how teachers and professors across the country viewed AI usage.
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For this humanities assignment, I chose to compare and contrast a satirical approach with a traditional argumentative approach that addressed the same issue. Through anecdotes, rhetorical devices, and irony, I chose to focus on how society often puts pressure on people to feel as though they need to strip themselves of their happiness in order to be successful. I chose to compare a Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedy sketch by Eli Coyote Mandel and an article written by Garrett Gunderson.
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