Why This Class
You want your student to learn how to think for themselves—and the best way to do that is to expose them to the works of great thinkers. This course does just that by guiding your student through the most notable contributions to American literature in the last one hundred years.
With the guidance of a mentor, students in this course take a tour of the Progressive, Modern, Postmodern and Contemporary genres of American writing. Through class discussions and debates, they seek to empathize with—and think like—the authors and characters they study (including MLK and Helen Keller). Students also work with mentors to refine their analytical skills and identify the core ingredients for transformational writing as they draft thesis-driven essays on key literary works.
As a result of completing this course, students train their minds to think on a new level about human nature and the forces that shape America. They are more motivated than ever to contribute a positive verse to their national story.