NWA’s Humanities classes often feature material that depicts themes of violence, suicide, sexual assault and various other heavy topics. As such, the Humanities department is in constant conversation about what kind of texts are appropriate in the classroom, how to properly facilitate thoughtful reading of that subject matter and how to navigate discussion. The resounding response from the department is a belief that however difficult content may be, it is instrumental in the exploration of literature and the human experience.
Bobby Elliott, the Humanities 1 and Creative Writing teacher, includes Half of a Yellow Sun, a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in his curriculum. This historical novel, set in Nigeria during the Biafran war, features moments of sexual violence and war. The text received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and was later voted the “Winner of Winners” for the Women’s Prize for fiction.
“The books and the texts that we teach are meant to reflect the world as it is,” said Elliott. “Which is complex and hard— hard in suffering, hard in joy. That’s often the barometer: identifying texts that help students not only see the world as it is or was but also process it and think through it.”
For Elliott, the goal is not necessarily protection from reality, but guided engagement with the human condition and all its emotions. Students are not handed a 500-page novel and left alone; the Humanities teachers aim for structure and conversation. The classroom becomes a place where difficult material is able to be examined in a constructive and productive environment.
Inevitably, this process can be challenging, says Elliott. He aims to guide sincere engagement with the text while respecting the boundaries of students. However, he feels that his students repeatedly rise to the challenge year after year.
“I’ve always encountered [Humanities teachers] acknowledging heavy material, and not overstepping,” said Teagan Groves, a sophomore. “But they also don’t undervalue its importance.”
Jada Pierce, the History of Feminism and Humanities 4 teacher, frames this work through humanism–the belief that literature is a vehicle for understanding lived experience.
“There’s no human who doesn’t struggle,” Pierce said. “You don’t get good literature without the struggle. And the struggle can be dark at times.”
Rather than avoiding the darkness, Pierce believes students should encounter it within a space built on shared norms and vulnerability. She allows students to help create discussion rules at the beginning of the year and encourages them to respond from personal perspectives.
Kyle Wiggins, Philosophies of Justice, Humanities 3 teacher and head of the Humanities department pushes this idea further by challenging the language often used to describe classrooms. While many educators use the phrase “safe space,” he prefers something different.
“‘Safe Space is wrong as a term,’” said Wiggins. “What we’re really asking our students to do is be brave. There are things we will talk about that might be intellectually, emotionally hard. So there’s no safety in the sense that nothing is going to unsettle us. In fact, we will certainly be unsettled. But we will be brave in that unsettling, and we will be good to each other.”
In Wiggins’ view, education is not meant to eliminate discomfort. It is meant to build the skills to face it responsibly. Wiggins believes that the work begins before any difficult text is opened, through syllabi, expectation setting and explicit conversations about how to discuss sensitive material with both rigor and grace.
Katie Staggers, the Humanities 2 teacher, echoes the idea that heavy themes are not optional additions to literature, but central to it.
“I think writers write about the hard stuff about being a human that is messy and that inevitably veers into heavy and serious territory,” said Staggers.
For most Humanities teachers, the essential nature of teaching heavy material is to understand what it means to be a human. And to answer that question honestly, they say, students must engage with suffering, injustice and moral complexity.
“All of the English classes I’ve taken have talked about unique, heavy subjects,” said Jake Chisholm, a senior. “I think that’s really important to get a balanced view of the world.”
Chisholm noted Half Of a Yellow Sun and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, as two particularly intense texts, and Staggers’ unit on the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a potentially complex and challenging unit.
“There was a rape scene [in Half of a Yellow Sun],” said Adelena Paternoster, a senior. “I thought our discussion was handled well. We were warned ahead of time and told we could skip over it if it was too intense.”
The scene Paternoster referenced drew the attention of multiple parents and US school officials in 2020. Half of a Yellow Sun was banned by the school districts of Michigan, Florida, South Carolina and Utah, each citing the novel’s sexual violence.
This example is not a one-off; increasing anxiety around books has recently risen from parents in the US, heavily targeting topics regarding race, gender identity and sexual orientation. PEN America documented 6,870 instances of book bans in the 2024-2025 school year with Utah, Texas, Florida and Missouri implementing early 2026 strict-state level book bans.
The logic behind these parent-motivated book bans stems from fear and anxiety of losing control of one’s child and the inability to police and supervise their child’s environment. According to psychological science, instead of viewing books as vessels of knowledge, parents may see books as gateway vices to homosexuality, radicality or violent behavior.
“Parents fear that books are dangerous,” said Wiggins. “I hope they are.”
By “dangerous,” Wiggins does not mean harmful, he means transformative. Books should provoke thought, challenge assumptions and expand empathy, he believes. They should force students to reconsider what they thought they knew.
Reporting by Sasha Greenblatt and Jonas Honeyman-Colvin
Great article, Sasha and Jonas! I love the discussion you had with the HS Humanities faculty.