The study of history gives us the opportunity to expand the global view of our students. Our history curriculum is designed to make students increasingly responsible for their own education. Giving particular attention to the writing of research papers and analytical essays, we progressively build on the myriad of skills to achieve academic independence.

In this course, students begin with an overview of cultural anthropology. Using this as a basis for exploration, students survey world history from its beginnings in Africa and Asia to the advent of the Middle Ages in Europe. Main themes include the borrowings and blending of cultures, characteristics of empires, and the reasons for declines of civilizations. Students will be introduced to several historical tools, including document analysis, religious texts, archeology, and literature. A geography component, featuring many types of maps, is woven into the course at all stages.

Course materials focus on the medieval world, examining the problems of periodization through the study of Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and European empires. Shifts in cultural understandings and religious beliefs and practice are analyzed as indices to social, political, and economic change; the effects of contact and competition are evaluated and interrogated. From the demographic turning point of the Black Death to the dawn of the European Enlightenment, the meaning and context of the transition from the medieval to the modern is pursued through primary sources and other scholarly resources.

The eleventh grade United States History course will continue to strengthen our students’ observational skills, their critical thinking processes, and, of course, their analytical writing abilities. While International Relations and conflicts will still play an important role in the curriculum, special attention will be devoted to the domestic norms and policies of this great nation. Zinn’s,  A People’s History of the United States, and Schweikart and Allen’s,  A Patriot’s History of the United States,  serve as radically divergent bookend texts that our students will employ to frame this curriculum. However, it will be their research from the start of the sixteenth century right through the present day that will supply the color, texture, and style of this course. A key question to consider - has this country recognized its forefathers’ vision of a utopian,  “City on the Hill”,  that they so fervently believed could be realized upon these lands?

This year-long minor course is offered to 11th and 12th graders. It will cover five major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Major religious leaders will be studied and explored in-depth. The impact of each religion and its practices will be related to the history of its people. Readings will include text from each major religion’s source materials.