Humanities weaves together many strands including:

• The writing process and communication via written, oral, and visual forms.
• Furthering reading skills with a variety of forms: fiction, non-fiction, periodicals, technical literature, poetry, etc.
• Exploring the many facets of history and human interaction in order to better understand our current world and the process of historical research.
• Using literary and artistic sources and historical understandings to illuminate each other.
• The arts as a means of expression and as a way of viewing history.
• The social sciences including economics, philosophy, geography, and psychology.

The Humanities curriculum engages students in learning history by doing history, in understanding government by participating in simulations and by contributing to school decision-making, and in writing by doing creative writing and non-fiction writing for projects and student publications.

DIVISION ONE (grades 6 and 7)

Course 1 - Heroes and Villains

Students study Ancient Greek mythology, drama, geography, and the modern superhero. Students explore who we heroicize, and vilify, and why people from all cultures tend to dichotomize the world into these good and evil characters. Students question the relationship between heroes and villains and justice, ethics and responsibility.

As a class, they examine the conditions from which hero myths emerge including the geographic influences of Ancient Greek society and the emergence of the American superhero in the post WWII era. Students analyze the influence that factors such as religion, literature, economics, art, and political and social structure have on the types of heroes and villains a society has.

Students read Greek mythology, dramas, and tragedies and analyze Greek art and architecture (including an all day trip to the Museum of Fine arts and an architecture tour of downtown Boston) in order to draw inferences about the principles that guided ancient Greeks and caused the development of their specific heroes.

Students then look at the WWII era and read classic American superhero comics to determine the factors that led to the inception of the American superhero. Students watch contemporary superhero movies and look at newspapers and magazines for stories of heroics in order to reach conclusions about the principles that guide the creation of our current superheroes. Students carry out an individual research project on another culture's heroes and villains, exploring how and why various heroes and villains emerged from other societies. The course incorporates Socratic (question-based) discussions, oral presentations, acting out dramas, studying primary and secondary sources from a variety of media, writing research papers, studio art, and many other formats and activities. The course culminates with the students writing their own heroic tale based on the principles that they have studied.

Course 2 - Media and Journalism

The focus of the Media and Journalism course is an analysis of the evolution of various forms of media including newspapers, magazines, radio and television and how they impact society. The study of narrative voice and connection to audience play a significant role in guiding discussions. Students study the art of written and visual media and produce their own newspaper and video documentaries.

During the first half of the year, students look at community, regional, and national news outlets and question what forces drive each outlet, paying specific attention to the relationship between audience and content. Students use this information to produce their own newspaper, designed for middle-school students. Students also examine how the Internet, specifically blogging and access to free news sources, has changed the way we receive our news.

A piece of the print curriculum also looks at the role advertising plays in directing media and develop their own advertising campaign for a new or modified product.

During the second half of the year, students apply their narrative skills to the field of documentary video. Students watch documentaries produced for a variety of outlets to learn how different directors produce stories for different audiences. They learn how to develop a story on film and edit video to create a compelling 5-minute documentary of a topic with both contemporary and historical implications.

DIVISION TWO (grade 8)

Course 3 - Constitution Nation: A comparison of the founding ideals and reality of American and other governments

Students gain an essential understanding of the United States Constitution and its creation. They then develop the ability to use those understandings to think critically about other government systems.

The students begin by studying the formation of the Constitution of the United States. Students are asked to place themselves in the late 1700s by reading historical texts and early conversations of the founders. The study of the Constitution concludes with students taking on the roles of specific statesmen and reliving the Constitutional Convention and engaging in the complex decision-making process that confronted the Founding Fathers. Next, we look at the Bill of Rights and the role of the Judicial Branch in those rights. Students read a variety of monumental and lesser known court cases and will keep a log of the Supreme Court in order to examine the current state of the Court and it impact on our rights. In addition to using newspapers to log the Supreme Court’s current actions, students view documentary films that address Constitutional rights in modern America. Once the students have a clear understanding of America’s founding documents and principles, they look at a variety of other governments in other countries and other systems by which people organize and identify themselves. Specifically, the class investigates Native American tribal systems and Nigeria as case studies.

DIVISION THREE (grades 9 and 10)

Course 4 - American Historiography

Students study United States History from a historiographic perspective in order to understand that history is not a collection of facts, but rather an evolving discipline with a variety of perspectives. Students examine how misinformation makes its way into history curricula and how and why we have mythologized our history.

Students use a history text to learn the traditional version of historical events that is put forth in most schools. As a class, students identify the perspectives put forth by the publisher. Students then use primary sources such as literature, newspapers, public records, diaries, artifacts, and artwork to discover that historic events have multiple perspectives. Students ponder whose perspectives are included, why they are included, and whose perspectives are intentionally left out.

Throughout the year, students create their own “Missing Pages” text units and publish them online. These entries present the primary source research they have done within a particular era. Students seek out topics that represent individuals, groups or topics not represented in their history book. Students study and write about Native Americans, Colonial America, the slave trade in New England, and the American Revolution.

Course 5 - Human Resilience: A Dramatic, Literary, and Historic Investigation

Students examine novels, short stories, and plays that center on the theme of human resilience. This examination of literature takes many forms, including discussing literary devices, writing personal narratives, producing and performing a play, and taking a historical look at the time periods of certain texts.

Students treat stories as units of communication and learn to dissect these communications in order to discover their underlying truths. While reading short stories, they diagram the story arc and learn about the responsibilities of the reader, narrative point of view, symbolism, and Aristotle’s six elements of drama. Students look at the importance of setting and the truthful nature of fiction as we read The Things They Carried. Next, students work on honing their own voice and storytelling skills by writing a personal narrative. By the second trimester, students apply their accumulated literary and dramatic tools to the study of Shakespeare. They read Hamlet and go deep into character analysis, finishing with the portrayal of a chosen character in a monologue or scene. During the third trimester, students focus on understanding stories well enough to tell them. They produce and perform a play taking on the issues of human strife and resilience that arise in the story. This creative process focuses on making connections to other works that the class has read, the students’ lives, and the communities in which they live. Additionally, students learn about the technical side of theater with a unit on lighting.

DIVISION FOUR (grades 11 and 12)

Course 6 - Civilization from East to West

Civilization from East to West looks at the ways in which ancient peoples of Asia traded and communicated while supporting and maintaining separate cultural traditions. Students study the products, literature, religions and people of the Silk Road before considering the European Industrial Revolution and the colonization and nationalism that followed.

Students begin by reading texts and modern historical accounts of life along the Silk Road. They write travel journals in order to demonstrate their understanding of the various groups and items that played a part along this vast trade route. Students then look at one specific good – salt – as an important item that was traded and choose a commodity to research and present. In addition, modern and ancient literature from Afghanistan, India, and China is discussed. Students are exposed to a much different Afghanistan, India and China in the modern texts than in the ancient literature which will lead to the question: “What changed?” This question directs their study of the European enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the consequences of both. Students read economic philosophy in order to better understand the capitalist system that emerged in Europe and the propensity for European countries to colonize lands with raw material. Students read stories from the perspectives of both the colonizers and the colonized. The class will collaborate on an artistic expression of the joining or conflicting world views of the East in the form of a mural.