In the Classroom: Should Myths be Taught?

This is the second installment of our series "In the Classroom." Although we will be broadening the series to examine a variety of classes throughout the school, we are currently tracking the multi-disciplinary first unit of the freshman year on the relevance and purpose of national myths. This is the second installment, a dispatch from the History class' project of examining whether various American myths should be taught in school.

Students working in their groups.

It didn't take long to get the Upper School's newest students fully immersed in Leed's Library. Last week the 9th graders were already busy conducting background research for their projects. Each group chose a myth or a group of myths to study in more depth. As a whole, the class has a great variety, from the legends of Paul Bunyan and John Henry to those based in history such as the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. A few groups are even studying within a theme, such as monster legends or cowboy folklore. The students focused their research on two things. First, they learned the myth itself and the most common versions that are told across the United States. Then they worked to fact check or debunk the story, searching out the underlying facts.




On Friday we began to shift our thinking towards whether and how the myths should be taught in schools. Each group made a list of criteria for a topic to be taught in schools. Today was the big decision day as group members shared their opinions and worked to come to a conclusion on the driving question. Many groups had members with similar opinions, but all had to work through their exact rationale as to why their myth should be taught in schools and at what age level. There were many great discussions as the groups came to a final decision together.

This week the students will finalize their project through the creation of an online poster, and we will return toward the end of the week with some more on that process.