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| French soldiers in WWI |
The Truth of War
Over 100 million people have been killed by wars in the 20th century alone. After war is over, soldiers often struggle to communicate their experiences to a larger audience, and to make the public understand what war is, beyond the messages they see in newspapers and other media. In this project, students will grapple with the question of: "What is the truth of war for soldiers?" To help them answer this question, they will take a close look at the literature of WWI and WWII, and will examine that literature through a historical lens before creating a carefully crafted writing piece that attempts to express the truth of war.
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| Painting of the Vietnam Memorial Wall |
The history of the Vietnam War is a contentious subject. There are numerous interpretations and contradictory sources abound. In this project, students will attempt to write a true history of the Vietnam War. To do this, they will have to do the work of real historians, and become skilled at interpreting and synthesizing the many narratives that go into creating a history. A major part of this project will be adding to our historical sources by interviewing a Vietnam veteran or a civilian who was alive during this era, and videotaping that interview for future use by students and historians.
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| Rwandan Genocide Memorial |
One of the hardest questions to answer in this discipline is the question of why humans continue to kill each other en masse over differences in religion, skin color, ethnicity, and culture. In this project, students will be exploring what causes genocides to happen, what the common elements are through different genocides, and what we can do to prevent genocides. This project will culminate in a professional annotation of a photograph or primary source document that aims to illuminate an aspect of a 20th century genocide.
In the year's final project, students will turn their attention towards poetry. As a culmination of all they have learned, students will choose a message or perspective on truth, power, peace or violence that they want to convey in poetic form. These poems will be performed (some live, some digitally) at our final year end Exhibition.
