VIEW
THE VIEW T H E
of Humanities at Burr and Burton Academy The Humanities, like all learning experiences at BBA, are rooted in our mission and core values. Educating students intellectually and morally for a life of responsibility, integrity, and service is the heart of our work. Our mission is to ready students for the next phase of their lives –– to equip them with necessary skills and dispositions so that they find success and contribute to the world in positive ways. In his essay “Only Connect…” William Cronon poses two questions: What does it mean to be an educated person? How does one recognize educated people? He then goes on to posit that educated people listen and hear; read and understand; can talk with anyone; can write clearly, persuasively, and movingly; can solve a wide variety of problems; respect rigor not so much for its own sake but as a way of seeking truth; practice humility, tolerance, and self-criticism; understand how to get things done in the world; nurture and empower the people around them; and follow E. M. Forster’s injunction from Howards End: “Only connect. . . .” Ultimately, Cronon asserts that “Liberal education nurtures human freedom in the service of human community, which is to say that in the end it celebrates love.” In order to provide students with the skills and understandings that Cronon speaks of, the English and Social Studies departments at BBA have begun collaborating more intentionally and merging program into a larger “humanities” curriculum. Collaborations extend into the STEAM lab, the library, and the broader community.
Here are some highlights:
Student Engagement Through Integrative Thinking in 9th Grade Humanities Courses CP Humanities features a unit dealing with social justice and the American South. Students begin by discussing and analyzing some ethical dilemmas as they learn about the distinction between ethical codes, social norms, and morality itself. Then students read To Kill a Mockingbird, with an emphasis on moral choice. Simultaneously, students study the Great Depression and the Jim Crow South. Students focus on the case of the Scottsboro Boys and its relevance to the novel and then look at contemporary cases involving African Americans and issues of police brutality and social justice. In addition, students continue to learn visual literacy by analyzing how images have contributed to perpetuating racism and unhealthy social norms. Ultimately, students are asked to draw out larger themes from the unit to connect to the course question of what it means to be human. After reading Refugee by Alan Gratz, which features three refugee stories during different time periods, the students in the Workshop Humanities class dive into customs and traditions of Jewish, 12
Lily Barker, Aldenio Garwood, and Griff Briggs preparing Syrian food.
Syrian, and Cuban refugees. In collaboration with Sarah McMillan, BBA's Food and Education Integration Director, the students compare their own
Winter 2018
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