HUM 101 — The Ancient World

The Canon · 2 units · Semester 1 · Required core — everyone takes it

Overview

The oldest stories we have are survival manuals for being human, and they are still about you. Fifteen weeks inside Homer, the tragedians, Thucydides, and Plato — and none of it read alone. This is the Double Feature Method: every unit pairs the text + a film + an album, discussed as one conversation, so the argument crosses three thousand years without slowing down. The Odyssey beside The Endless Summer; The Republic beside The Matrix.

This is how the Canon works at SDIT: not literature appreciation, but a working toolkit. Odysseus engineering his way past the Sirens is systems thinking about human weakness, three millennia before anyone called it that. You read these books because the people who build the things you admire read them — and because every day of this course hands you a question you will actually use.

One day a week, about ten minutes a sitting, plus the reading that pulls you in. The course ends the way every SDIT course ends: in a made thing, defended out loud.

The Two Registers

• Catalog register: Survey of ancient Mediterranean literature and philosophy — Homer, the tragedians, Thucydides, Plato. Close reading, discussion, and critical writing.
• Teaching frame: The Double Feature — the text, a film, and an album, discussed as one conversation. The ancient question carried into the present decision.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course you can:

1. Read an ancient primary text closely and accurately reconstruct its central argument. → Breadth of Mind
2. Trace one idea across a text, a film, and an album, and defend the connection with evidence from all three. → Judgment
3. Write short critical responses that make a claim, support it from the text, and survive line-editing. → Articulation
4. Produce a made response — essay, short film, recorded piece, or designed object — and defend it in seminar. → Craft · Articulation

Each outcome maps to the five institutional outcomes (Judgment, Command of Intelligence, Craft, Articulation, Breadth of Mind) — the assessment spine of the degree and its accreditation evidence file.

The Made Thing

A made response to the ancient world — an essay, a short film, a recorded piece, or a designed object — defended in seminar. It enters your portfolio and is reviewed at the annual gate.

How You’re Assessed

• Short written responses, line-edited and revised — the work is the writing, not a quiz about the reading.
• The made response, defended out loud in seminar at the end of the course.
• Periodic unassisted writing. AI tools are open for drafting and study; the institution certifies the human, so part of your writing happens with the tools closed.
• Everything lands in your portfolio, reviewed against the five outcomes at the end-of-year gate.

The Daily Path

One session per course day — each one built to look easy and pull you in: one thing to experience, one idea, one question to carry. The schedule below is generated from the course’s own day files.

Day 01 — The Oldest Story Is About You

Ten minutes. One painted cup, eight lines of poetry, one question.

Begin Day 01 →

Day 02 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 2. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 03 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 3. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 04 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 4. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 05 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 5. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 06 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 6. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 07 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 7. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 08 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 8. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 09 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 9. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 10 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 10. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 11 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 11. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 12 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 12. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 13 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 13. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 14 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 14. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Day 15 — coming soon

Being written — publishes with Week 15. All five courses advance together, week by week.

Every course here is built to one standard: it ends in a made thing you can show, and it ships day by day.