As a complement to the core academic curriculum at AESA, of which I am teaching high school Social Studies and Art, we are launching the Arts & Humanities Institute (AHI). The concept is to provide a coherent course of study that will enhance students’s overall education and provide an interdisciplinary grounding in arts and humanities that is otherwise difficult to achieve in typical secondary education. Comprising an integrated set of courses, primarily electives but incorporating the required Art course and all eligible for credit through the University of Texas High School, the AHI curriculum will begin with four courses that rotate on a two-year cycle. Accordingly, two courses will be available each year and the cyclical schedule will help facilitate future planning.
More specifically, this year (2010-11) features two courses:
Art and History of Ideas: Philosophy & Religion
Next year (2011-12) will feature:
Humanities and Research & Writing Skills (fall) + Analysis of Visual Media (spring)
And then, the cycle will begin again in 2012-13 with Art and History of Ideas, and so on. You will find descriptions of each elective course below.
As AESA develops, we will have the opportunity to adjust the curriculum with additional Arts & Humanities offering as appropriate, as well as relevant enrichment initiatives (such as a debate team), but this should give us not only a solid foundation upon which to build but also sufficient flexibility to address various student needs and desires.
Beyond the Art curriculum, which is provided by UT High School, all the other courses are designed by me (but so as align with the appropriate Texas standards and ensure academic credit). More detailed information is found in the specific course descriptions below.
But first, if you are interested in more -- especially regarding the importance of Arts & Humanities education more broadly considered -- I would highly recommend the following essay by moral philosopher Martha Nussbaum: "Skills for Life."
Humanities (1 unit, Fall & Spring) An interdisciplinary course, Humanities will introduce students to significant periods of history, from antiquity to the present, primarily through the close study of major works of literary, visual, and other art. As such works are reflective of--and in turn helped to form-- their surrounding cultural contexts, students will study the interplay of relevant political, social, and intellectual developments and thereby gain a better comprehension of historical change. Through broad reading, focused class discussion, written and verbal presentation of student work, and comparative analysis of secondary literature, students will learn to study, understand, and thereby more fully enjoy the achievements of human creative endeavors. Topics will be mainly from Western civilization but will include global comparative units.
History of Ideas: Philosophy & Religion (1 unit, Fall & Spring) This two-semester course will introduce students to the major streams of intellectual and religious history, including significant philosophical issues and thinkers, critical thinking skills, and comparative religious studies. Through wide reading, specific writing assignments, and focused case studies, students will gain an appreciation of the historical development of ideas, worldviews, and institutions as they help to form and express cultural identity. Major themes may include: Philosophy and Religion in Western Antiquity, Christendom and Medieval Philosophy, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the Age of the Enlightenment, Conflict among Religions of the Book, Secularization and Modernity, Philosophy of Religion, Theology and Religious Practices. Topics will be mainly from Western civilization but will include global comparative units.
Research and Writing Skills (1/2 unit, Fall) Students will be introduced in this course to essential skills for framing and pursuing humanities research topics from inception to completion in formal research papers. Specific skills to be addressed will include: identifying and locating relevant source material, discerning among various types of information sources, gleaning and organizing information for a specific topic, analyzing and interpreting gathered information, presenting ideas in written form appropriate to the genre. Students will also be introduced to the range of methods of study in literary, historical, and artistic fields, and will thereby be better able to understand as well as to produce written texts according to topic and purpose.
Interpreting Visual Media (1/2 unit, Spring) Information comes to us in a wide variety of forms, the media and content of which are ever changing and rapidly evolving. Students will learn in this course to be critical interpreters of visual media, so as to be responsible and aware citizens in a world of mixed and frequently deceptive messages. Forms of visual media to be studied include advertising, political cartoons and caricature, mass media systems, maps, graphs, and other graphic means of data presentation. Through reading, case studies, and individual and group projects, students will gain an appreciation of the different purposes for which visual media are designed, such as entertainment, information, or persuasion. They will learn thereby to distinguish among such purposes and to situate specific examples in relevant historical and cultural contexts.