I hope that you will not only enjoy learning about what the world loves and hates through the literature we study this year, but also that you will leave Edina High School a little bit more prepared to succeed in the increasingly connected global society.
My vision statement for you this year is for you to leave my classroom each day having learned at least one thing, no matter how small, about the world you live in. Each day I will write an essential question for you to consider on the classroom white board, but that question will just be the beginning of your exploration each day. I want you to challenge yourself to take your study of the world even further. Read, talk, write, think, cooperate, and know your world!
My World Literature vision statement, Know Your World, aligns closely with Edina's mission statement.
The mission of the Edina Public Schools, working in partnership with the family and the community, is to educate individuals to be responsible, lifelong learners who possess the skills, knowledge, creativity, sense of self-worth, and ethical values necessary to survive and flourish in a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, global society.
Since World Literature is a senior only class, students discuss literature and its themes maturely and respectfully. I will also guide you in your quest to become an increasingly autonomous, adult learner so that you feel better prepared for life and school beyond Edina High School. Part of our time together will be spent on how you learn; I won't just rush you through the course content.
This year I will also challenge your notion of what the word literature means. A quick scan of our common textbook, World Masterpieces, reveals that world literature goes beyond novels, poems, play, and short stories to also explore the realms of philosophy, religion, and the arts. To strive for cultural literacy today, I feel that you need to expand your notion of literature, so during the fall semester, you will encounter "texts" beyond the traditional English class genres.
You will notice in the World Literature I course overview, that fall semester also covers a quick study of the five major religions of the world--Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Students who took World History should have a strong academic background in the five religions; however, we will do a quick review so that our class will have a common understanding of ideas to discuss issues around birth, life and death in a comparative religions framework.
In case you were wondering, studying religion in a public high school is not a violation of church and state laws. The Supreme Court has ruled that public schools may not sponsor religious practices but may teach about religion. (Engel v. Vitale (1962) 370 U.S. 421.) This serves the academic goals of educating students about history and cultures.
You can watch the Did You Know? video again. Just click on the video title. It's a link.
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