Instead of taking a English and History classes separately at my sending school, I take Humanities (a mix of both) at Mass Academy. Mrs. Small, the Humanities teacher, integrates lessons that are pertinent to current events, human behavior, and American History. Recognizing that our history and present greatly shape the future development of our nation, I have greatly enjoyed learning more about how human behavior has shaped, shapes, and will shape our lives.
Throughout the earliest part of the year, one project stood out compared to all of the rest: Walden Skits. Having never done acting before, I was eager to develop my skill set by trying out new things with all my peers on our annual trip to Bournedale (a camp) in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Through working on our different lines, figuring out how to optimize which places on the set, and figuring out which props to use, we were able to deliver our skit “I Experienced Moderna-ty” on the stage to everyone at Mass Academy. Our skit featured Henry David Thoreau teleporting to the future while maintaining his ignorant perspective on the development of technology. Aside from just doing something that I had never done before, I was able to get closer with all of my peers.
As part of our satire unit, we analyzed different satirical pieces to gain a holistic understanding on climate change. In this essay, I considered the approaches of Gabriel Bo, a national Extemporaneous speaker, and Trevor Noah, a world-wide comedian. Through Bo’s classifications, I gained insight on the increasing impacts of climate change in today’s society. However, through Noah’s classifications, the satirical aspect portrayed a new lens through which the importance and threatening nature of climate change was evident. My objective was to go past the content, and compare the meaning of both speeches. Ultimately, I found Bo’s speech was more effective due to the inclusive language he used compared to Trevor Noah.