Embedded Files
I teach World Civ with an amazing team of educators: Sam Adey, Tyler Ritchie, and Rishi Raghunathan. World Civilizations is a full-year required course for freshmen at University School. It is the first course in the “around the world” sequence offered by the history department in the Upper School. It focuses on world religions, cultures and political and economic systems in the non-Western world. World Civilizations also explores the interactions between those regions and Europe and the United States, which will be explored again in the sophomore Western Civilization and junior U.S. History courses. This course nurtures reading, writing, research, note-taking, discussion, and critical thinking skills that undergird the entire Upper School history department
curriculum.
World Civilizations is a survey of the societies of Asia and Africa. Each unit will acquaint students with the histories of the four major regions of the non-western world: South Asia, Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East. Students are made aware of what the region was like in its inception and Golden Age, what impact European exploration, trade, and imperialism had on the region, and what has happened and is happening since the decline of European colonial rule and after the end of the Cold War. The course also explores the role of the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries within these regions.
Besides imparting a general introduction to the past and present of Asia and Africa, World Civilizations cultivates the values and skills of scholarship and citizenship. Students in the course have ample opportunity to incorporate these contents, skills, and values through both their homework assignments and in-class activities.
Content Goals:
• To grasp the geography of the non-western world and how geography has shaped that part of the world
• To learn about those great non-western world civilizations which existed before the age of European exploration and economic expansion
• To understand the impact of European imperialism on the non-western world and the role of the United States
• To become knowledgeable about those people, events and ideas which have shaped the development of the non-western world in the 20th and 21st centuries
• To grasp those political, economic, sociological, and cultural challenges that confront non-western societies today
Skills Goals:
• To develop new reading strategies and improve reading comprehension
• To write clear, coherent, substantive papers and essays
• To think critically (e.g. comprehend, analyze, synthesize, infer, evaluate)
• To interpret political cartoons and other images and artifacts
• To improve listening, note-taking, discussion, and cooperative learning skills
• To learn to utilize technology as an educational aid in and out of the classroom
Values Goals:
• To appreciate that a knowledge of history not only helps us understand the present but also makes us aware of the possibilities and limitations of human existence
• To realize that a good citizen is one who is aware of current events beyond his or her homeland, and acts on his or her beliefs and convictions.
• To grasp that good scholarship involves the enthusiastic pursuit of truth, the exploration and testing of ideas not only in private but in public (i.e. group discussion), and respect for the rights of others to hold and express contrary opinions.
• To overcome those attitudes and prejudices which are obstacles to an empathetic understanding of other peoples.
• To have compassion for members of other cultures and to consider the broader implications of our own actions or inactions.
Page updated
Report abuse