Next week Honors Humanities classes will visit the National Gallery. The students are working on a philosophical unit on Beauty, which asks the question what makes something beautiful? What is the purpose of beauty? Finally they will evaluate if there are connections between beauty, goodness, and truth? Students in several English classes visit art galleries and museums to integrate art as a medium with their readings and writings. The class has learned about classical, medieval, and modern conceptions of love and beauty. Students will start with Barnett Newman’s “Stations of the Cross” in the East Tower and then spend the rest of the day looking at pieces in both the East and West buildings. The culmination of the unit will include a paper on a particular object from the trip.
Tuesday the Boys and Girls Varsity Basketball teams played against Washington Math and Science at home and Wednesday the Middle School teams played against DC Prep! Teams were victorious in this busy week of home games.
Seventh and eighth graders had their winter theater showcase last week. Students from Mr. Birkenhead’s theater class performed plays in the MPR. Eighth graders performed scenes from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical by William Finn. Seventh graders performed scenes from Fools by Neil Simon.
Mr. Liu’s government class visited the oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. They were present for some of the case of Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro. The class watched court proceedings, including hearing Justice Sonia Sotomayor question one of the lawyers alongside all of the justices. The trip was the culmination of a semester in which the students learned about the Supreme Court and all nine justices and debated several Supreme Court cases.