Studies have shown that individuals who often read high quality fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them, and view the world from their perspective. That is our goal in this this yearlong high school level class! We will read literature as an expression of those higher things that make us most human: our emotions, our recognition of the need for a moral order, and our ability to experience the beauty of the human existence. We will discuss theme, symbolism, motif, and which characters we like and which ones we don’t and exactly why. We will spend a significant amount of time on honing writing skills. For some of this class we will focus on what people usually picture when they think of writing for the real world: writing a review of a play or a movie, or writing a newspaper article. For most of this class we will focus on writing to be successful in college, the typical 3-5 page essay that your English 101 professor expects. As we progress through our year, we will be exploring the theme of upstanders vs. bystanders, what it means to be an upstander, which characters in literature are upstanders, and how can we be upstanders ourselves. In this year-long course, we will delve into the classic literary works by authors such as Harper Lee, George Orwell, William Golding, Arthur Miller, and more. Students are expected to participate in this online course similar to a brick-and-mortar class by logging in several times weekly, completing assignments on time, and interacting regularly with teachers and peers.