This year the Rivers history department initiated the first phase of a long-planned shift in the history curriculum with the launch of a brand-new ninth-grade course titled Perspectives in World History (PWH). Students and teachers alike have responded favorably to this new offering, which approaches world history from a thematic perspective that emphasizes the historical roots of present-day issues such as “wealth and poverty,” “the environment,” and “violence and conflict.”
PWH seeks to confront ninth-graders with relevant issues seen from multiple points of view and challenges them to grapple with ambiguity and contradiction in an effort to develop their own critically-informed opinions. PWH is internet-based, research and writing intensive, and skills-oriented. The course aims to equip students with the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate a rapidly changing, expanding, and globalized world.
The ultimate goal of the changes we are making in the history department is to foster passion for historical inquiry in our students. We hope to kindle this passion during the freshman and sophomore years through exposure to newly-conceived year-long courses, and then fan it into flame junior and senior years by allowing students to delve deeply into more specific areas of study. Many of us recall from our college days that experience of opening up the course catalogue and pouring over page after page of history offerings, wishing we could somehow take them all. This is the sort of experience we hope to present to our Rivers students.
The second phase of changes will unfold this coming academic year and involves shifting United States History, traditionally taught during the junior year, to the tenth grade. As history faculty members, we wanted to offer a greater degree of choice to students interested in history and to shift the balance of course offerings away from the traditional, year-long survey course and toward a variety of diverse and interesting history electives. By moving U.S. History to the tenth grade, we will eventually open up both eleventh and twelfth grades to electives, many of which are totally new and currently in the planning stages.
U.S. History will remain a graduation requirement, and will be taught to both tenth and eleventh graders next year until it can transition fully into the sophomore year. We are already referring to 2012-2013 as “the year of United States History” in the history department! Students who receive the necessary departmental recommendation will have the option of taking the Advanced Placement U.S. History course, which will be available to both tenth and eleventh graders next year. Honors U.S. History will be offered simultaneously for qualified students.
The third and final phase of the course changes will commence in the fall of 2013. By this time PWH will be in its third year as the foundation of the Upper School history experience, U.S. History will have settled into its new position in the tenth grade, and juniors and seniors will have many exciting electives to choose from. Each elective will fall into one of four “strands”: ancient history, early modern history, modern history, or U.S history. Examples of elective topics will include: modern Latin America, modern Africa, modern India, disease in history, Muslim Empires, the Maya & Aztecs, war in the nuclear age, and “Big History.” As a consequence of moving AP U.S. History to the tenth grade, AP Modern European History – arguably the most advanced history course offered at Rivers – will be open to both juniors and seniors beginning in the fall of 2013. In an effort to provide an uninterrupted strand of Advanced Placement courses to qualified Upper School students, we are also considering offering AP Government as an option to juniors and seniors. Finally, the Rivers history department will continue to offer the option for Independent Study, effectively a one credit “elective” in which interested students may arrange for directed study of a historical topic of their choice with a history faculty member.
Our aim is both to inspire in students a lifelong love of history and instill in them the qualities of a good historian: analytical, informed, open-minded and perceptive.
