Humanities, a Class that Helps us Understand
Charles Parziale, staff writer
Humanities 201 (Survey of Western Culture I) is a class taught by David Berti, adjunct associate professor of humanities on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Three different faculty members will be teaching this course in the spring. Berti will teach a section of Humanities 201 in Spring 2019. It is a relaxed class where the students read classic literature and discuss how it relates to other books and humanity.
“I’d recommend it because Mr. Berti is a cool teacher and the books are pretty neat,” said Alexis Davidson, a student taking the course in Fall.
The 201 Humanities class is a survey of western culture that will help students understand others through their languages, histories and cultures through the variety of stories and works of literature that the students will read and discuss in class.
Students in this class build skills in reading and some writing. It helps students who seek to understand and interpret human experience from individuals to entire cultures. Engaging the students in the discovery of ancient classics to modern writings to ultimately help preserve them by making them understand their importance to civilization.
The class does more than make students understand literature. It empowers and provokes them to think independently on how to make positive changes in their communities and the world, while they discover and reconstruct the knowledge that they acquire.
Another thing students may not consider is that it can help them understand where we have come from, tracing the development of architecture from the classical columns of Greece to the reinforced steel skyscrapers of the modern age.
The class is a place to feel comfortable in, to be able to discuss what some may be afraid to, such as politics and religion.
It is also a good way to meet people in a class with a maximum amount of thirty students. Students are recommended to work together and participate in class discussions to help the students get to know one another.
HUM 201 fulfills a requirement for humanities core course for the General Studies degree program, along with a few other majors.
