Humanities

Humanities is an accelerated, elective course unique to St. A's, made up of advanced, highly motivated students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The class utilizes the Library of Congress’ on-line collection as well as National Archives materials, and other primary sources to develop critical informational literacy skills. Students learn how to access, assess, analyze, and evaluate web-based archival materials.

The project-based class, which meets two times a week for an hour and a half each morning before school, follows a 3-year cycle of rotating topics from World War II; to the Beatles and Beyond (the decades after WWII); and Stolen Youth (Child Labor past and present).

Deborah Johnson and Mary Quish (retired St. A’s teachers) created this class and have offered it for over 20 years, based on their experiences as American Memory Fellows of the Library of Congress. They were selected as 2 of only 50 educators nationwide to be Fellows during the Library’s inaugural sessions on digitization of primary sources.