Interdisciplinary education in the United States can trace its genesis from the early pragmatists, a group of seminal thinkers and activists that included not only John Dewey, but also Jane Addams and W.E.B. du Bois. Together, they influenced a stream of thought and practice that regarded knowledge, not as a commodity, but as the interweaving of received tradition, personal experience, an imagination bent toward understanding, and the will to make the world a more humane place. Interdisciplinary education thus seeks to promote a different way of learning that allows for learning to make a difference.
Interdisciplinary learning fosters higher-order cognition and cultivates critical thinking skills by compelling students to transcend the artificial boundaries that traditionally divide academic disciplines. The rewards of interdisciplinary studies are further enhanced through student-centered education that promotes both individual initiative and group collaboration.
The Interdisciplinary Program encourages student-centered interdisciplinary education by offering recognition to students in good academic standing who participate in specifically designated courses of study characterized by academic rigor, collaborative teaching and learning styles, and carefully integrated curricula. As is the case with Honors and AP courses, the College Counseling Office highlights a student’s participation in the interdisciplinary studies program during the college application process.
Three interdisciplinary programs are offered:
Interdisciplinary Program: American Studies (two credits; one in English and one in history)
American Studies blends the core curricula of the standard U.S. History and American Literature courses into a single course that explores the cultural, historical, literary, and artistic heritage of the United States. The course is structured around 1) conceptual frames of narrative, persona, mythology, and setting; and 2) the themes of environment and ecology, religion and science, agrarianism and urbanism, heroes, the gothic, race, class, gender, imperialism, industrialism, consumerism, and sexuality. Course materials include primary and secondary sources found in traditional history and literature studies, as well as the film, art, and music of America. Students engage this material through close reading, literary analysis, analytical writing, and Harkness discussions. Classes are two periods long with two teachers guiding intellectual discourse. Teachers focus extensively on the writing process, and students have the opportunity to pursue research projects in some depth throughout the year. Carrying two credits, American Studies fulfills graduation requirements in both English and history at the junior level.
Prerequisites: English 10 or equivalent and World and European history or equivalent.
Interdisciplinary Program: American Humanities Honors
This program is designed to enable junior year honors students to develop an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of American society and culture. All students participating in the program must enroll in an advanced US history course (U.S. History Honors or AP US History), an advanced English course (American Literature Honors or Advanced Placement English Language), and Religion in America Honors. By participating in these three carefully integrated courses, students employ an interdisciplinary, student-centered approach towards exploring the nature of American social and cultural institutions as they are shaped by a multitude of factors, including geography, immigration, pluralism, religion, capitalism, democracy, nationalism, Americanization, imperial expansion, and the ideologies of race, class, and gender. Stressing more than mere content, the program heavily emphasizes the development of critical reading, writing, and analytical skills, as well as the application of content knowledge to the students’ lives.
Interdisciplinary Program: Environmental Studies
This senior-year program requires simultaneous enrollment in Advanced Placement Environmental Science and The Universe Story. Simply put, students study the scientific structures of earth cycles (hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere), the history of the planet, the impact of humans on planetary systems, and the ways cultures have and do construct our perception of and interaction with nature. |