History

We learn about ourselves much more clearly when we learn about others. The greatest insights we will ever gain are when we travel to another place. My classes help students travel through their learning. They come away with a greater sense of the world and a curiosity about what is happening in it." –Pat Grant, History Teacher

Upper School history students master a wide variety of skills, such as recognizing, analyzing, and critiquing trends, patterns, and causal relationships in history.

By reading both primary and secondary sources, students begin to recognize bias and disparity. Students are taught skills necessary to produce term or position papers. Techniques for debate, oral reporting, and group discussions are also emphasized.

The department offers a range of elective courses for students to pursue their interests beyond required topics. Each elective requires students to study a specific field of history containing a rich diversity of issues.

UPrep History students explore an exhibit during a museum field trip.

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Courses

EARLY WORLD HISTORY

9th grade
Required
Yearlong

What happens when peoples with different cultural traditions, different values, and from vastly different regions of the world come into contact with one another? When our globe becomes increasingly connected, what new opportunities and challenges are presented? Is progress a zero-sum game? Using case studies from the 1400s to the 1700s, Early World History examines the ongoing development of cultural traditions with an exploration of key cross-cultural encounters that shaped the course of world history and still affect us today. Students critically examine primary and secondary sources with an eye to seeing issues from multiple perspectives. A variety of research, writing, and public speaking assignments allow students to hone their historical understanding and refine their modes of expression.

MODERN WORLD HISTORY

10th grade
Required
One semester

This course explores global history from the 1700s to the 1940s through a variety of perspectives, including race, class, gender, nation, and community. Our two main themes are the fight for human rights and the building of an international community. After studying the Atlantic Revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, and the Age of Imperialism, students end the semester exploring the two world wars and the Holocaust. To understand different viewpoints, we watch movies, read memoirs, examine art, and engage in formal debates and role-plays. Students practice many skills, including writing, close reading, note-taking, public speaking, and collaboration.

HUMANITIES

10th grade
Required
One semester + intensive

English and History are combined into one single-block interdisciplinary humanities course to study both world literature and history. This continues the focus on identity and community that is begun in the first semester of the 10th grade Modern World History and Foundations in Literature courses. Students continue to develop critical reading, researching, and writing skills in the second semester of 10th grade Humanities.

During the intensive term, students choose one of three different tracks and conduct site visits to global organizations based in the Seattle community in order to write a six- to eight-page research paper. They immerse themselves in a research and writing process aligned with the overarching themes of the world history and literature curricula: promoting human rights and building an international community. How can we view each of these three tracks from historical, literary, artistic, ethical, environmental, and global perspectives? Students apply the lessons they have learned from previous History, English, and Humanities courses to focus on how these historical issues and topics are playing out in Seattle and in the rest of the world.

UNITED STATES HISTORY

11th grade
Required
Yearlong

This course examines historical dimensions of power in the United States from pre-Columbian times to the present day through the lens of social history. Through a hybrid chronological and thematic structure, students study people’s lived experiences as they consider the ways that conflict, ideas, structures, and resistance have shaped this nation, including its ideals, identity, and role in the world. Students show their learning of the material through presentations, debates, seminar discussions, exams, and essays, including a research paper on a topic of their choice. By tracing the evolution of the United States throughout the centuries, students will develop a deeper understanding of history’s relevance to the challenges and opportunities in our society today. By illuminating a range of histories specific to students’ identities, the course facilitates students’ reflections on what those histories mean for who they are and how they will approach coalition-building work toward improving our present and futures.

Microeconomics

9th–12th grade
Elective

This course covers many fundamental concepts in microeconomics, including supply and demand, business organization, market structures, business ethics, and personal finance. Students learn about taxation as well as purchasing insurance. The applied economics component allows students to use the concepts and principles they learn in class; students form a company to develop and market a product. Students read The Economist each week to discuss the role of economics in current affairs.

Latin American History

9th–12th grade
Elective

Latin America is a region that includes most of the countries of Central and South American (and the Caribbean). Though culturally and linguistically diverse, much of Latin America has been shaped by European colonization, struggles for independence, and globalization. Spanning from pre-Columbian civilization to the present day, this elective course offers an exploration of Latin American history with a focus on Mexican history. Students will grapple with fundamental questions such as the nature of class and race in Mexico, the diverse aspiration of various social groups during the struggle for independence from Spain, and the many legacies of the Mexican Revolution. By exploring Mexico as a case study, students will gain deeper insight into the complexities of Latin America.

Civics

11th or 12th grade
Required (one of three courses listed below)
One semester or intensive

CIVICS: POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
In keeping with our school’s mission, vision, and values, we want our students to become capable and engaged citizens, able to effect political, social, and economic change. This class examines our local and federal governmental systems and structures, the Washington state and U.S. constitutions, the judicial system, and the ways that politics and current events influence each other. The course emphasizes the rights and responsibilities of both citizens and government in the ongoing dance between the competing interests of liberty and order. The course uses a variety of media, including news articles, student-generated blogs, online forums, and podcasts. Class activities include simulations and debates surrounding current issues, panels of guest speakers, and field trips. Students participate in a Mock Congress to build an indepth understanding of the legislative process. All students also participate in either a local campaign or a practicum of observation and involvement in local government or an activist organization of their choice and are expected to commit hours outside of school to complete this experience.

ENVIRONMENTAL CIVICS
Students are coming of age in a world fraught with environmental challenges. Climate change, pollution, and natural resource utilization pose difficult challenges for office holders and voters alike. This course examines our local and federal governmental systems and structures, including the judicial system, and asks how lawmakers and citizens address the competing interests of individual rights and collective interests. How do governments address issues of climate change, which cross international borders and last longer than most terms of office? Through interactions with guest speakers, independent research, and team problem-solving activities, students gain skills to become effective change-makers within political and governmental systems. All students also participate in either a local campaign or a practicum of observation and involvement in local government or an activist organization of their choice and commit hours outside of school to complete this experience.

CIVICS: COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT
Democracy must be learned by each generation. During first quarter, students learn about the United States government and political systems in their own state and communities. During the second quarter, students will investigate how other countries’ structure and run their governments and the extent that the voices of all the people in a democratic system are valued. They will draw important comparisons among the systems they investigate. Their final project will bring together the best components to create an exemplary governmental structure. Students also complete a citizen action project by participating directly in democracy through involvement in a campaign for a candidate or issue.

Intensives

Art History and Studio Practice

Upper School

Students dive deeply into different topics and methods that have defined art movements over the ages. Through field trips, studio visits, and in-class presentations, students explore a variety of media and methods that they then employ in hands-on projects. Classical and contemporary art in the Western tradition, as well as the multitude of cultures that helped shape Western art, provide students with a window on not just historical context, but also on how and why the art was made, allowing them to hone their skills in visual literacy (their ability to “read” images). By the end of the course, students complete several sketches, drawings, paintings, and other projects that reflect and allude to the movements studied in class. Activities may include master copies, still life, collage, abstract painting, and others.

CONFUCIUS TO K-POP: EAST ASIA CHANGES THE WORLD

Upper School

This intensive course explores East Asian history and culture and its enduring impacts on the world, with a focus on regional connections. Students will learn about the arts and culture of East Asian nations and study aspects of the political, economic, and social history of the region. The course will incorporate field trips as students work on projects such as investigating memoirs from the Japanese occupation of Korea. They will pursue an independent project of their own interest and participate in a UN Council debate on a current issue.

U.S. Foreign Policy

Upper School

America’s engagement with—and connection to—the rest of the world extends far beyond its global military presence. This intensive course aims to offer a history of American foreign policy and the role the country has played in the international sphere. Students in this course will explore the history of America’s efforts in the Caribbean, American efforts to “open” Japan and China, attempts to rebuild postwar Europe, and the global economy of the 21st century.