In an attempt to “decolonize” and diversify the HPRSS and English curricula, new courses have been added to the Course Catalogue, and existing courses have been revised to improve the inclusivity and variety of course materials. The goal is to make the curriculum reflect the diverse identities, interests, and experiences both within and outside of the Choate community. For HPRSS Department Head Ms. Kyra Jenney, making changes to the curriculum “should be about providing more educational, inclusive, equitable opportunities, experiences, content, [and] practices for our students.”
She continued, “When we have a curriculum that has content holes in it, and so far as there are things that students are interested in or there are content areas that are not covered in our curriculum, we have a responsibility to try to plug those holes and provide those opportunities and affirming spaces for students and faculty alike.”
In the HPRSS department, five new courses have been added to the Course Catalogue, including “Topics in Native American Studies”; “Queer Studies”; “Asian American History”; “Crime, Deviance, and Social Control”; and “Our School Upon the Hillside”. All of these courses are single-term electives, geared primarily toward fifth- and sixth-formers.
“Queer Studies” will explore the history of sexuality, as well as how sexuality connects with the other aspects of one’s identity. In this course, students can expect to study materials created by members of the LGBTQIA+ community and have intersectional discussions about the role of sexuality in creating queer culture.
Ms. Jenney, who proposed “Queer Studies” with Ms. Amy Howland, said, “The Queer Studies course is growing out of multiple years of both student and faculty interest and the emerging academic discipline of Queer Studies […] and then growing out of another area of our curriculum, the Women and Gender Studies course.”
“Topics in Native American Studies” will examine common misconceptions about Indigenous identity and look to provide a more holistic view of what it means to be an American. Texts that will likely be discussed include Sherman Alexie’s memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, Alicia Elliott’s A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, and Sarah Deer’s The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America.
Ms. Rachel Kesler, who proposed the Native American Studies course, said, “I hope that many [students] come out with a much broader understanding of modern Indigenous movements and also modern Native activists, and also Native authors, Native influencers — just have a better insight into what [Indigenous] country looks like today.”
“Our School Upon the Hillside” is a local, archival history course which will discuss the history of the Quinnipiac Tribe, Wallingford, the Choate School, and Rosemary Hall. This course will be taught by Mr. Jonas Akins.
The English curriculum is also shifting to be more representative of the voices and identities in the Choate community and of the world through diversifying the texts studied in underclassman classes and reviving several English electives from the past.
EN200 has been renamed “Literatures in a Global Context,” which will still focus on process-based writing, but through examining more diverse texts and genres. Because the course is required during the fourth-form year, students can gain a more comprehensive outlook on contemporary issues early in their Choate career.
Some of the revived sixth-form English single-term electives include “Sankofa: Topics in African Literature,” “Literatures of Encounter Across the Asian Diaspora,” “Latinx Literature,” “Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Literatures of North America,” “Imagined Futures and Alternate Realities: The Literatures of Tomorrow,” and “The End of Nature: Global Literatures of Environmental Justice.”
The “Literatures of Encounter Across the Asian Diaspora” course will explore the diasporas of authors from a wide range of Asian countries. The curriculum’s texts may include Haruki Murakami’s Underground, Jin Yong’s The Book and the Sword, and Prabda Yoon’s The Sad Part Was.
Dr. Amber Hodge, who worked on several of the Course Catalogue descriptions for the revived English courses, said, “‘Literatures of Encounter Across the Asian Diaspora’ is an important course because of the content but also the audience. There’s a significant presence from across Asia and the Asian diaspora at Choate, so I’m hoping students who consider themselves a part of that community will be interested in the course and that students of other identities will want to learn more.”
Although members involved in this process understand that the changes have not fully decolonized Choate’s curriculum, they do mark a step in the right direction. Ms. Kesler believes that these new changes can help “give students agency in the classroom and agency over things like assessments, what we might be talking about on the day to day, or just how we are going to cover different types of content.”
