Academics

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done remains undone.” 

Confucius

“To have a sense of creative activity is the greatest happiness of being alive.”

            Matthew Arnold

The MPH English Department recognizes the creative tension generated by the pull of the utile against that of the gratuitously beautiful; it is as necessary to have literate engineers as it is literary geniuses. We seek to balance these two energies, inculcating basic literacy while wistfully agreeing with Vico that “…in the world’s childhood, men were by nature sublime poets.” To that end, the standard survey courses are enhanced by A.P. and elective offerings, access to which any Upper School student may be granted upon receiving permission from the teacher. These courses explore a culturally diverse range of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, as well as art, film, and music. To give some idea of the range of these offerings, recent students may have read and discussed works by authors as diverse as Nelson Mandela, Milan Kundera, Stuart Dybek, and Karl Marx; discussed the uses of cinematography in Psycho and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; examined the role of gender in 20^th century literature; and written original scripts in a playwriting course. Our students assume increasing responsibility for their learning as they make choices, design projects, work collaboratively, evaluate their work, and reflect on the connections between classroom experiences and their own lives. We believe that precision of expression leads to complexity of thought, which in turn leads to empathy and engagement. To learn to express a thought efficiently is to gain access to ones better nature, and empowers one to move confidently and compassionately in the greater community.

MPH’s student literacy magazine, The Windmill, is an example of the English’s department philosophy in action. It kindles passions for poetry and prose through the medium of community participation and interaction. The Windmill has received national recognition, including Columbia University’s Gold Award for best literary magazine, First Place in the National Scholastic Press Association Competition, and numerous awards from The Empire State Student Press Association. In 2006 and 2007 The Windmill was named best over-all literary magazines for New York State schools with enrollments fewer than 1000.

The English Department also supports the School’s newspaper, The Rolling Stone, which is published four times a year. In years past, The Rolling Stone has garnered its fair share of praise and notoriety, the milestones of any publication that matters to its readers. Additionally the School’s yearbook, eMPHasis, is produced entirely by the students in a journalism course designed to support all student publications.

To foster a powerful involvement with the world of literature and writing, department members provide additional learning opportunities through interdisciplinary programming, summer reading projects, trips to theater performance and lectures by authors of national and international stature, (such as George Saunders, Tobias Wolff, Michael Herr, and Mary Karr) and student-directed writing workshops, poetry readings, and literary cafes. The teachers themselves have published their own work in nearly every genre, and serve as passionate advocates for the life of the mind as both a solitary and public activity.

It is the English Department’s goal that by the end of their time with us, every student will have taken to heart Emerson’s dictum that “No man ever forgot the visitation of that power to his heart and brain, which created all things new; which was the dawn in him of music, poetry, and art.”

English 9 is a foundational year for both content and skills. With the guidebook Models for Writers, students develop essential writing skills such as generating thesis statements, organizing paragraphs, and establishing coherence and unity throughout an essay.  Following the exclusive study of writing, students will read from the anthology The Bible as/in Literature to explore selected passages from the Bible, and make connections between the biblical readings and texts from other genres. Students will take their understanding of themes and imagery to their reading of John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace. To complement their study of the Judeo-Christian influence in literature, students will also explore Ancient Greek texts, specifically Homer’s Odyssey and Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. These readings will allow students to understand classical ideas about character and heroism, which students will then balance against later texts such as Beowulf, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.

Journalism Workshop (0.5 credit or 1 credit)

This course explores the news and the narrative forms of reporting and writing through doing and discussing. By reading, critiquing, comparing, and producing various types of newspaper, magazine, and online articles, students improve as writers and storytellers. This class explores how newspapers and magazines differ in terms of structure, voice, and audience, and how both of those print entities use new media to extend their operations online. Key concepts include interviewing, idea generation, research, ethics, the use of quotes, the role of anecdotes, voice, and audience. Assignments include feature writing, profiles, service articles, essays, news stories, experiential/participatory articles, and reviews. Depending on student interest, this class may include field trips to see news and/or magazine operations. The best work from this class earns space in MPH's school newspaper, The Rolling Stone.