An outcome of Area III at both campuses is to help the gifted student recognize his/her gifts and use them for the betterment of self and society.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:

GS East

As a testing ground for one’s guiding principles, the Area III class provides the means for students to encounter a wide range of values and avenues of approaching ethical dilemmas. These strategies are intended to elicit open-mindedness and tolerance, as well as personal reflection and re-evaluation of value systems. While this area of the curriculum encourages the student to make commitments in resolving certain conflicts, the emphasis is always upon the process used in reaching the resolution, as this is the most expedient means of identifying the principles that are influential in one’s thinking processes.

Since value systems are constantly evolving and changing with the individual, faculty stress the importance of regularly touching base with one’s system of priorities; this awareness helps avoid falling into ruts and making critical decisions based upon principles no longer bearing their former influence. Believing it important that one’s value system be compatible with his/her lifestyle, faculty encourage students to carefully consider what values should be kept at the forefront in shaping his/her quality of life and standard of living. Besides working with the student in taking charge of his/her own life, the Area III instructors also utilize strategies that promote socially active individuals. The Socratic seminar is designed to make certain that all students voice their ideas and are participants as well as listeners. Workshops allow the students to select current issues in society, to explore possible approaches or resolutions to these concerns, and to present their findings to an audience of their peers. The ‘letters to the editor’ assignment has students research an area of concern and send their support or critique to their journal of choice for publication. Area III stresses the importance of thoughtfully sorting out one’s individual value system prior to seeking out social ills to engage.

GS West

In Area III, students encounter a forum for open, student-driven discussion. They are introduced to a process of personal and social exploration. Area III is a class of identifying values, beliefs, and opinions. The opinions explored are of ideas, theories, issues, and events occurring on campus, in the world, and even in the mind. Students are challenged to examine their own positions, articulate themselves clearly and consistently, and then consider how their positions relate to larger ethical systems and social structures. The time is taken not only identifying specific topics of conversation, but more importantly examining how conversations about those topics are had.

The Area III teacher’s role is to journey with the students, facilitating discussion, encouraging participation, and challenging ideals. The students’ challenge is to consider who they are, how they relate to one another, and what their responsibilities are to themselves, their communities, and society. Area III is striving to increases self-awareness, to help young people communicate their intellectual and emotional knowledge more articulately, and to have the experience of building community in a very self-conscious manner. Given the varied backgrounds, histories, and experiences of all participants, Area III endeavors to use our differences as a tool to grow and develop.