Humanities Course Descriptions

Division One (Grades 5 and 6)

Heroes and Villains

By studying the culture and politics of both ancient Greece and the 20th Century, this course considers the impact of storytelling on human history, culture, and decision making. Students examine how oral storytelling shaped the values and beliefs of ancient societies, and then they create stories of their own that impart lessons to younger students. The class then examines why it’s important to know one's family story, and we read two young adult books – Ami Polonsky's Gracefully Grayson and Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese – that explore this idea. To understand how ancient stories still impact us today, we read Sophocles's Antigone and a graphic novel version of Homer's The Odyssey to explore how these narratives are still relevant. Finally, we examine how stories can shape our behavior through an in-depth study of World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust. We look at what stories made these conflicts and atrocities possible, and what stories helped its victims and perpetrators recover in the aftermath. By reading memoirs like Elie Wiesel’s Night and learning about people who actively resisted during the Holocaust, we explore how stories can help us heal and inspire us toward justice.

Media and Journalism

To understand the impact of the media on society and social movements, this class asks questions including: “How have different groups used the media – and other strategies – to expand their rights?”, “How does the media influence our understanding of others and of ourselves?”, and “How can the news be used to shape how we see the world?” First, students study the media’s role in shaping the early labor movement, beginning with the Industrial Revolution. We read Katherine Paterson’s novel Lyddie, and travel to Sturbridge Village and the Lowell Mills to learn about labor in the 1840s. Students work with primary sources to simulate a historic 1845 legislative hearing on the 10 hour workday and interview labor organizers to map out the contemporary labor movement in greater Boston. Next, students focus on the relationship between power and the media by studying propaganda in George Orwell’s classic allegory, Animal Farm, then translating their understanding of propaganda to a modern context by diving into the history of ‘fake news’ and training like professional fact checkers to vet claims they’ve seen on social media. Finally, students explore how the media has affected our understanding of class, race, and gender, reading texts such as S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, Jerry Craft’s New Kid, All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon.

Division Two (Grades 7 and 8)

Constitution Nation

In this course, students ask the question “How do people organize?” in order to gain an understanding of how governments form and function. In the first trimester students place themselves in the late 1700s by reading historical texts, early conversations between the Founding Fathers, historical fiction, and the U.S. Constitution. Included in this study is an overnight field trip to Deerfield, MA where students live as 1700s colonial settlers and learn about the various groups involved in the 1704 Deerfield Raid. Students then read a number of primary sources to help them create a composite fictional character and write a story about one group's experience during the raid. Next, we look at the Bill of Rights and the role of the Judicial Branch in those rights. In this unit, students also learn speech techniques and debate each other in a traditional format. After learning about our society and its origins, students embark on a dystopian literature unit to better understand the failings of government. Students then write an in-depth research paper on why they feel a particular country’s government exists as it does today. Some texts for this course include Fault Lines in the Constitution by Cynthia and Sanford Levinson, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell, Feed by M.T. Anderson, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Division Three (Grades 9 and 10)

American Historiography: Narratives of Abolition

This course examines the history of abolitionist movements in the United States, asking: “How have communities throughout American history envisioned and acted for freedom?” In the first trimester, we study the abolishment of slavery and the visions of Reconstruction, accompanied by readings of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction, and other texts. In the second trimester, we study the ways literature interacted with the social construction of race and gender in the early 20th century, focusing on Nella Larsen's Passing and selected poems of the Harlem Renaissance. We then move to an examination of the ideologies and strategies of organizers during the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power movements. In the third trimester, students study the history of housing justice activism in Boston, as well modern and contemporary movements for the abolition of the police. We conclude the year by considering the past, present, and future of the climate crisis, as well as supporting local abolitionist and climate justice organizing campaigns.

Africa and Europe Through Each Other's Eyes

In this course, students examine the intertwined histories and ideologies of Africa and Europe. We ask: “How were the dominant Western narratives of history created? How can we contribute to building counternarratives?” We begin in medieval West Africa, focusing on the oral epic Sundiata and histories of the Mali empire. Next, we examine the philosophies of freedom present in “radical Enlightenment” and their connections with the Haitian Revolution. In the second trimester, students examine the trajectory of colonialism and resistance movements across Africa, reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the short fiction of Miriam Tlali. After studying Trevor Getz’s graphic history Abina and the Important Men, students engage in original archival research in our “anti-colonial zine project.” In the third trimester, we explore the ideologies of the postcolonial era, including studying and producing scenes from Aimé Césaire’s “A Tempest” and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Students complete a heritage language poetry translation project, and they read Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s A Girl is a Body of Water. The year concludes with an Afrofuturism unit, with a focus on the world of Black Panther.

Division Four (Grades 11 and 12)

Civilization from East to West

We look at the ways in which ancient peoples of Asia traded and communicated while supporting and maintaining separate cultural traditions. This course asks the questions, “How is ancient history reflected in modern societies?” and “What influence have both Eastern and Western cultures had on each other?” In the first trimester, students read Mark Kurlansky’s Salt as a model for their own original, extensive research papers on an important commodity that is either currently traded or was traded in the past. The studies of Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Islam are central to the course, and students read selections from the Tao de Ching, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, and Siddartha by Herman Hesse. In addition, students read contemporary and ancient literature from countries along the Silk Road including Gene Luen Yang's graphic novels Boxers and Saints, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Students develop original projects based on their readings of these texts. Students also read portions of the Qur'an, investigating various interpretations of the text and writing academic research essays regarding secularism and gender in Islam. We end by grappling with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often engaging in a creative group project to synthesize our learning.

Rotating Courses

Division 4 Humanities includes an every-other-year selection of varied trimester offerings that can change based on student interest. Frequently, students study the Vietnam War. They begin by studying the geopolitical history of the conflict, examining primary sources, documentaries, radio programs, graphic novels, and history books. Students analyze the war’s complexity and why it had such different meaning and consequences depending on the individual’s experience. Texts for this course include The Best We Could Do, The Things We Carried, Novel Without a Name, and Sorrow of War, as well viewing depictions of the war in cinema from around the world. In another trimester, students explore a wide variety of perspectives on the function, purpose, and value of food in people's lives: how a cuisine reinforces one's identity, how a dish conveys emotional information, how a meal can make meaning. Students write creative nonfiction about food topics, create a collaborative cookbook together, and participate in guided group tastings of coffee and cheese from around the world. They study the industrialization of our modern cuisine, each student choosing their own problem to research. Along the way, students participate in weekly cooking labs, collaborating in groups to make a wide variety of recipes and share food with each other. Texts for this course include The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Tampopo (1985), Table Manners, and Pig (2021). In the 2022-2023 school year, students also explored special topics in psychology. Aside from a survey of psychology as a field of humanities, students focused especially on the history of psychoanalysis and its continuing influence on contemporary culture, unconscious bias and its effect on our daily lives and societal institutions, the anatomy and history of cults, and the evolutionary basis of human fear and how it has manifested culturally in the form of monsters. Texts for this course include The Fear of Freedom, The Humans (2021), As I Lay Dying, and The End of Bias.

Electives

Economics

Students explore several traditional economics topics as well as personal finance themes. Some essential questions include: Why are some people rich and some people poor? Is the American economy fair? What do Americans owe each other? What is the most effective economic system? What are the most pressing current economic problems facing the United States? What are the essentials of personal finance? Economics seems very white and male…where are all the other folks? The primary textbook for the course is Explorations in Economics by Alan Krueger and David Anderson. Students also reference Economics 101 by Elaine Schwartz, The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner, The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and read “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller. Students complete a "living wage" project in which they determine what a living wage is for a given family in the city of Boston. In addition, they read business case studies from Harvard Business Review, work with IKEA as a model, and then research and present their own case study on a company of their choice. Students write weekly reflections and monthly essays.

AP Literature

AP English Literature and Composition introduces students to college-level literary analysis. Students read complex novels, plays, short stories, and poetry, practice applying various critical theory lenses to these works, and participate in intensive class discussions about their observations and inquiries. At Meridian, students get to participate in crafting the reading list with the instructor, enabling them to read books that cater to their individual identities and interests. In the spring, students take the AP exam for the opportunity to receive college credit, so they practice writing timed essays and answering multiple-choice analytical questions throughout the year.

AP Psychology

AP Psychology is a college-level introductory survey of the field of psychology. We explore the biological bases of behavior, how brains interpret and perceive sensory input, the history of psychology as a science, learning new information and conditioning new behaviors, development and attachment, treatment of abnormal behavior and modes of therapy, and social psychology. At Meridian, we emphasize project-based practice of these concepts and designing experiments. In the spring, students take the AP exam, which includes two essays and several multiple-choice questions, for the opportunity to receive college credit.