What is a Humanities Department?

What are the Humanities?

A non-religious framework for the study of humanity.
The movement towards the Humanities, or a non-religious philosophical framework for understanding the role and potential of human beings, began in Greece during the Classical Age. To some extent, this movement was a reaction to very powerful religious leaders who had taken it upon themselves to define human roles in society and to define the very nature of human culture itself.
Some thinkers, or sophists, as they were called at the time, were drawn to the beautiful city of Athens, which had grown in power and prestige to become the most powerful city on the Mediterranean. Great thinkers, teachers, and writers gave lectures on such topics as varied as astronomy, natural history, geometry, medicine, political theory, and rhetoric. In addition, major developments occurred in literature, art and architecture, natural science, and philosophy; and all of this left a lasting impression on Western society.
For quite some time after the fall of Greece and the Roman Empire, Western European philosophy placed emphasis on humanity’s role in God’s plan. The powerful church reinforced this notion, while consolidating its power over every aspect of culture. During the Renaissance, however, there was a resurgence of classical Greek thought which began in Italy, which led to the belief that everything classical was the best that humanity could accomplish.
This neoclassical philosophy, based on liberal human values "rather than religiously based values" was expressed most clearly in a literary culture that provided the means to evaluate man’s role in the great scheme of being. With its preoccupation with human accomplishments and possibility, this movement was naturally considered an area of inquiry best described as the Humanities.
 
The teachers of the Humanities at Whistler Secondary believe that an education which includes training in the Humanities allows people to enjoy and understand life more fully. Through the Humanities, students are introduced to some of the many ways that people have expressed their understanding or appreciation of the world around them, whether from the point of view of a historian or reporter, a novelist or poet, a linguist or a critic. A study of the Humanities should improve a person’s understanding of the variety of belief systems that have existed in the past and will exist in the future, and a study of the Humanities should encourage people to develop ways of expressing their own personality and philosophy in meaningful and effective ways.
Most of us seek to understand better the world that surrounds us. To understand what happens around us it is necessary to have a critical framework that will allow us to make a meaningful analysis of the situation. The more frameworks we have to use, the more capable and successful we should be in understanding the world around us. As teachers and as a department, we encourage students to think critically about the world around them, and we encourage notions of tolerance, understanding, and individuality. We understand that there are many ways to evaluate a situation and many ways to express that understanding, and we encourage our students to explore their potential in as many of these ways as possible.
As teachers, it is our belief that everyone will benefit from an education in the Humanities. We believe that all students can learn, but that they will not all learn in the same way or at the same rate.

 What courses are included in the Humanities Department?

English Language Arts 8        Social Studies 8
English Language Arts 9        Social Studies 9
English Language Arts 10      Social Studies 10
English Language Arts 11      Social Studies 11
English Language Arts 12      Comparative Civilization 12
French 8                               History 12*
French 9                               Geography 12*
French 10                             Writing 12
French 11                             Law 12
French 12*                            English Literature 12*
      
* Some courses are offered every second year.     

Humanities Departmental Philosophy

        
 
The Road Not Taken
 
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Has worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In the leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads onto way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ By Robert Frost

Please note the following Humanities Department Policy:

In Grade 12 courses that run alternate years, Grade 11's must have a C+ or better in prerequisite courses or have the permission of the instructor to be admitted.

In Grade 12 courses which run every year, English 12 for example, students must be in grade 12 or have the instructor's permission in order to be admitted.
 

Humanities Department Teachers: 

Ms. Williams (Dept head)           Mdme. Naida

Mrs. Rybar                                Mdme. Donahue

Mr. Sulkers                               Ms Bride    

Mr. Thompson                           Mr McIver    

Mr. Hall                                     Ms. Sallows