HUMANITIES

THE HUMANITIES OUT AND ABOUT

Hard to believe but we are halfway through the 2022 school year. Now that we have had a chance to experience something like normal teaching and learning, you understand the benefits of face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. Not to mention the equally important social connections. 

Walking into a classroom, you can feel the willingness to learn. In Humanities, an important part of our several programs in History, Geography, Politics, Legal Studies and the Commerce options are the excursions. With most restrictions having lifted, students now have the opportunity to apply their geographical skills, as an example, on field trips; to visit places of national interest to reinforce history learning; or to observe the practical operation of their learning in workplaces such as law courts. Incursions, too, are again providing students with firsthand accounts from practitioners. 

The following events are recent or forthcoming excursions or incursions which enrich the learning experience:

• McKinnon's amazing Year 10 Commerce students visited the Old Melbourne Gaol to participate in a mock trial during their legal studies unit. Students attended Melbourne's original Magistrates Court where they sat in the dock, banged the gavel and got a greater appreciation for how the likes of Ned Kelly, Chopper Read and Julian Taylor may have felt as they entered the historical courtroom. McKinnon students reenacted a culpable driving case in which a young man was tragically killed, they honed not only their respect for the law but driving too; 
• Year 10 Geography camp;
• Visit to the Holocaust Museum.

If the Humanities faculty has one clear mission, it is to turn out critical thinkers who can make sense of uncertain times and who know to treat all facts so-called and the blandishments of political and commercial messaging with a healthy scepticism.

Simon Hughes

Learning Area Manager of Humanities