Curriculum Close-up: Studying Nature in New York

By Elli ’23

Sitting in orderly rows, skimming through dry, outdated texts, grudgingly writing uninspired essays: these things won’t be found in Packer’s “Natural Selections: Literature, History, and Politics of the Environment” class, taught by History Teacher Dr. Ryan Carey and English Teacher Dr. Peter Melman. Using everything from Instagram posts and current events to transcendentalist teachings and religious texts, this interdisciplinary Upper School course examines how nature writing has influenced the way Americans understand and interact with the natural world. The class is available to twenty-four Packer high school juniors and seniors each semester, who can take it for either English or History credit, and I enrolled last fall not entirely knowing what to expect. The description in the course catalog promised that “by exploring the recent history, literature, and culture of the twentieth-century ‘environmental movement,’ we will begin to understand how contemporary environmental problems and solutions come from our shared (and often divisive) environmental past.”

In class, we found ourselves examining themes of race, religion, solitude and selfishness, beauty, values, history, politics, and our own perceptions and opinions about the world around us. In one memorable outing, our class headed to the nearby Gowanus Canal, one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the country, to consider nature in our local community. Prior to our trip, we’d read different passages of commentary on urban nature—including J. Drew Lanham’s “Birding While Black” and Jenny Price’s “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in LA”—and were tasked with relating what we’d read to what we saw that day. We also spent weeks investigating, documenting, and observing local species of birds found in our own neighborhoods, such as white-breasted nuthatches, rock pigeons, and cardinals.

We used different mediums to present the results of our studies, such as creative writing, web design, music composition, sculpting, coding, and so much more. For my project, I built a music box that played a piece I’d composed inspired by the birdsong I’d heard on our outings. Other students created colorful journals using homemade paper to document their observations throughout the course.

One classmate, Ryan ’23 said, “As a senior, I wanted to take a class that helped expand my thinking and learn more about how nature plays a part in the world of both politics and the environment overall.” Sandy ’23 most enjoyed the environment in the classroom: “Listening to what both my teachers and my classmates had to say, I found myself thinking more intensely in this class than I ever had before.”

Dr. Melman and Dr. Carey structure the class as a stimulating conversation that engages everyone in the room. “I think the ideas that are exchanged are sort of college [level],” notes Dr. Carey, adding that since the course can be taken as either an English or a History class “it draws from multiple disciplinary perspectives and habits of mind.” Students describe the way Dr. Melman and Dr. Carey work together, ultimately providing them with a platform to deepen their understanding and form their own opinions: “They really let students find the answer for themselves by providing guiding questions. They also pushed us to the what and the how by transcending our thinking and bringing it to the next level.” Ryan said. “It’s clear that Dr. Melman and Dr. Carey wanted us to have tangible takeaways from this class,” Sandy added. And we did. We are now better able to see the nature that’s all around us all the time, even in the middle of New York City. We are also aware of how our perceptions are influenced and informed by many factors like religious teachings, marketing techniques, and American history.

Dr. Melman and Dr. Carey agreed that this class tends to be “a perspective shifter....We provide different perspectives and students can agree with what they want but generally come out of the class with a different sensibility than when they entered. That can be very thrilling as a teacher.”

Photos by Kennedy ’23. Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

With Purpose and Heart Maps: First Grade Self-Portraits

In social studies, First Graders are learning about self and community. By sharing their stories, experiences, and identities with one another, they nurture belonging in the classroom, connecting through their similarities while appreciating and celebrating each other’s differences.

Students discuss the concept of visible or “outside” identity as what you can see by looking at someone, and think about how this differs from invisible or “inside” identity. Teachers may use books such as Sarah Finelli’s My Map Book, Katie Kissinger’s All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin or Our Skin by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli to guide and supplement project-based learning about various aspects of individual and community identity.

To explore their inside identities, students create Heart Maps based on teacher prompts like “What are the things that you love the most? If we could see inside your heart, what would we find there?” Each child draws and writes about their favorite people, places, and activities in different sections of their Heart Maps—each section representing its own special place inside their heart—before completing the finishing touches with watercolor.

Creating 3D self-portraits helps students explore their visible or “outside” identities. They begin by examining the physical details that make us all different and special on the outside. Children study their faces in the mirror, draw their features, mix different colors of paint to create their own unique skin color, and choose yarn that represents their hair. It’s affirming and empowering for young children to slow down and appreciate all the details of their

Artwork by students from the class of 2034: Flynn, Priya, Saana, Tommaso, William, Maggie, Leila, Sage, Quinn, Jane, Liv, Henry, Winston, Mason, Ava, Chloe, Orla face and the uniqueness of their individual skin tone, as well as the distinct, beautiful features of their classmates. First graders learn that we all have similarities but are wonderfully different— both on the inside and on the outside.

First Grade Teacher Courtney Sockbeson contributed to this article.