Peg Board

IN THE
CLASSROOM
Animal House
New elective examines social engagement in the 21 st century
How does a skyrocketing increase
in the use of personal technology
correspond to record low levels of civic
engagement and social interaction?
That question formed the basis for a
new elective offered in fall 2016: Social
Animals? The Rise and Fall of Community
in the 21st Century, taught by
history teacher Catherine Stines.
From its first day, Stines said, the
class established itself as a community,
setting clear expectations and creating
a space in which all voices are heard
and validated. As a result, she said, students
found more freedom to discuss
their theories while collaborating on
projects designed to test those ideas.
“I want students to feel confident
about the world they’re going into, to
know that they are academically, socially,
and mentally prepared for whatever
comes next,” Stines said. “Above
all, I want them to learn to expect the
unexpected.”
For the first quarter, students worked
together to discover strengths and
growth opportunities for themselves,
taking Myers-Briggs tests and holding
discussions in vulnerability circles.
Through journal entries, an interdisciplinary
study of the human brain, and
individual social experiments, students
learned to recognize that vulnerability
and accountability are necessary not
only for making change, but for making
communities stronger.
Once students acquired a sense of
self and the dynamics of group work,
Chris Sano ’17 (left) and Connor Sakal ’17 create a mural designed to be a public art installation that
will allow students to register their opinions about important community topics.
Stines said, they transitioned to learning,
from a scientific standpoint, about
how humans process information and
execute tasks. Students were guided
by reading Brain Rules (Pear Press,
2008) by John Medina, while exploring
various types of communities, such as
intentional living communities, dystopian
and utopian societies, eco-villages,
families, religious communities, virtual
communities, and community careers.
“I learned how to recognize and own
my own identity within a community,”
said Mira Sneirson ’18. “These principles
can be scary and difficult to honor,
yet their presence (or lack thereof) can
make the difference between a group
thriving or floundering.”
In the next phase of the class,
students were tasked with creating
a social experiment for the Darrow
community at large, with the aim of
gathering input from a larger segment
of society while also building skills as
community organizers.
Final projects, Stines said, blended
ethnographic and anthropological
work, analysis of the Darrow community,
and personal reflections on the
students’ involvement in their communities.
Lastly, they presented their findings
to the School community, in effect
“My overall goal was for the students to feel more empowered to change the world around them.
They have already discussed implementing changes they’d like to see in the community, while also
bolstering their suggestions with qual itative evidence to back up the research.”
—Catherine Stines, History Teacher
12
PEG BOARD FALL/WINTER 2016–17