A student leaves AP European History having just discussed Newton, Kepler, and the Scientific Revolution. Moments later, they walk into Honors Physics, where similar ideas arise, not as historical turning points but as equations governing motion and force.
Newton’s Principia shifts from a historical reference and text to an active tool.
The humanities at our school are essential and vibrant yet often tucked away. They offer students a home for those searching for meaning and voice, and a guide for ethical, critical, and creative thinking.
This editorial is not an argument against STEM. Rather, it is a recognition that empirical evidence can explain how the world works, but the humanities explore why it matters: its values, ethics, culture, and consequences.
I aim to illuminate and celebrate the humanities at our school as a foundation that shapes students every day.
The Rapier, Marist’s literary magazine, highlights love, passion, and dedication through the arts. The Blue & Gold newspaper informs students through storytelling and the ins and outs of real publication.
A student-driven Film Club becomes a space to interpret visual narratives through a common love of cinema. Philosophy Club invites students to question ideas that inhabit and grow in one’s mind but have not yet been articulated or spoken into the world.
Creative Writing class offers freedom to experiment with voice through poetry, fiction, and songwriting.
Even Latin taps into something more with students leading events like Mount Vesuvius and the Read-a-Thon. It is not simply a language class but a study of history and culture, and an acknowledgment of the thinkers and beliefs that are core and foundational to the Western world.
Across these spaces, students find belonging. They learn how to interpret and express ideas that are still forming.
This overlooked aspect of the humanities is highlighted by AP Euro teacher Armand Bodrug. “Students enrolled in this class usually develop into a tight community of learners,” Bodrug said. The communal learning shapes not only the individual but also their peers, leading to further communal growth.
The humanities do not stop at the humanities.
The transition from AP Euro to Honors Physics is not accidental. As teachers emphasize, Marist intentionally cultivates conceptual thinkers, students who understand not just formulas but beginnings and origins.
This design is perhaps most visible in AmEx. Taught by Mike Burns and Nicolas Hoffman over consecutive periods, the course blends American literature and history while expanding into film, art, music, food, current events, and pop culture.
Students take annual trips to Montgomery’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Burns views the class as a stepping stone. “Students discover something that resonates with them and makes them want to learn more and think deeper,” he said.
The combination of different mediums in AmEx is not knowledge for the sake of knowledge but an intentional, gained understanding of complexity and how these understandings can be used to benefit and further society.
For students who feel “not STEM enough,” the humanities provide affirmation that intelligence is not singular. They teach students how to think, not what to think.
In a world increasingly driven by speed and surface-level consumption, this deeper mode of thinking is endangered. Reading becomes an afterthought. Libraries are viewed as relics rather than homes of current, available knowledge. Devices devour. Ideas are formed in fifteen-second clips rather than through sustained inquiry. AI accelerates production and efficiency but risks dulling critical thinking.
AP Literature teacher Shannon Hipp underscores an important distinction. “So much about what our culture seems to value right now is quick, easy, productive learning over slow, challenging thinking. But the thing is: the slow, challenging thinking is in the end – if you make time for it – super rewarding,” Hipp explained.
It is precisely deep reading and reflective thinking, sitting with a poem, debating an interpretation, and listening deeply during Harkness discussions, that lead to fruitful learning.
The humanities outlets, such as AP European History, Philosophy Club, The Rapier, and AmEx, resist this erosion. Discussion becomes the work. Inquiry into complex topics, allowing new ideas to surface, serves as the core of learning and helps enhance the material encountered in classes like AP Lang, Creative Writing, AP Literature, and the wide range of religion classes.
The humanities are not hidden at Marist. They are simply waiting to be noticed, woven throughout the school.
STEM is noble and important but the humanities, lingering and nourishing, are the core marrow needed to sustain life. To recognize them is not to look backward but to ensure the continued growth of general and necessary knowledge.
