Course Objectives:
Unit 1: Conflict and Fear
● What have we to be fearful of?
● How can fear be used to manipulate?
● How does fear drive action?
● What fears are necessary for survival?
● How does fear lead to conflict?
Unit 2: Equality and Human Rights
● What is man’s relationship to nature?
● What value is there in innocence?
● What impact does technology have on the human psyche?
● What is the value of the individual?
● What responsibility does the individual have in a society?
● How do I treat my fellow humans?
● Who am I and with what/whom do I belong?
● What does it mean to be human?
● What does adulthood mean?
● Is man naturally violent, or is violence learned?
● Should man play a “god-like” complex/role in society?
Unit 3: Women's Rights and Equality
● How does one read actively and engage with the text in order to increase comprehension?
● How does figurative language (allusion, specifically) increase comprehension of an author’s text?
● How is a theme used to convey the author’s purpose critical beliefs about life?
● How does one identify similarities and differences within a story?
● How does bias and injustice impact the world, historically and today?
● How does one identify textual information such as, central idea, the development of that idea, tone and point of view?
Unit 4: Ambition and Power
● How does society determine what is appropriate and what is not?
● How does a person make ethical decisions?
● Who or what determines what is deemed “ethical” by a society? Is it solely a social construct?
● What is ambition?
● Can the word “ambition” have positive and negative connotations?
● When is ambition a positive versus negative trait?
● Is it human nature to take advantage of those who appear to be weak?
● Are those in power selfish and self serving? Is it human nature to be selfish?
● How do individuals balance selflessness and selfishness?
● Is being powerful a virtue? Is it a vice?