An English class, Literature of the American Wild, has returned to Greenhill.

Previously taught by US English teacher Joel Garza, the course has been reshaped and reformed by US English teacher Trey Colvin.

Colvin is a certified Texas Master Naturalist, which is a volunteer program aimed at educating people about the environment. Colvin has had a passion for nature his whole life due to his grandmother.

“It was always something that I’ve just been curious about from childhood that she passed down to me,” Colvin said.

The course is now intended to focus more on making students more aware of nature and how they fit into it. He also feared the influence of technology in young people’s lives and wanted to focus on how the idea of nature in literature is based more on “myth and folklore” rather than science.

“I was interested in a course that got students interrogating not only nature but their own abilities or obstacles in navigating the physical space also,” Garza said.

A few years ago, the course stopped being offered. However, recently, Colvin proposed the idea of creating a class about nature in literature. Garza told him that they already had one that was in the dormant phase and suggested he use the name.

Colvin wanted to create the course because of how it relates to his ongoing project on campus: trying to plant more native plants.

The goal of the project is to restore one acre of plants on campus to fit in with the area’s native ecoregion, the Blackland Prairie.

They began the semester learning about the pilgrims and how they viewed nature.

Colvin says the lens through which they approach literature of nature is called “ecocriticism,” which is when they review historical texts and look at how they view nature.

Senior Quinn Graves is enrolled in the course. He has described the class’s teachings on viewing differences in how society perceived the wild.

“It’s really fun,” Graves said.