Under the Same Skies

Book excerpt: Sentries of the Past is a group of 9th grade students at Webster Schroeder High School who spent six months researching the Hero's Journey pattern as outlined by mythologist Joseph Campbell. From there, the students explored how the pattern is part of the human condition and how it can be used as a tool to examine their own lives. For 60 days, my 9th graders reflected and shared insights as they explored the archetypal hero within. After completing The Sixty Day Sojourn and after reading a book of forensic anthropology, Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw, each student selected one of the four hominids studied in the work and "put flesh on the bones," so to speak. Each story included doing research on the region where the bones were found, and making educated hypotheses regarding the ancient cultures of the people who lived in those regions.