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 Social Studies
U.S. History I, a one semester class, surveys the period from before European contact, up to the Reconstruction after the Civil War. The first half of American and U.S. history is viewed in the light of different peoples mixing and separating, redefining themselves as a new people or being redefined, being disenfranchised, or forming new political bodies to express the popular will. The experience of Native Americans, Africans, Europeans, Puritans, Quakers, Cavaliers, Scots-Irish, Tories, Patriots, farmers, merchants, masters and journeymen, masters and slaves, Confederates, and Yankees are all studied through this lens. The history of the United States contains interwoven traditions, some suppressed, some sugar-coated; unearthing or correcting these alternative views and finding connections with our present can be a form of self-awakening, maybe even letting us redefine the idea of being an American and reclaim a voice in these confusing times. Our work aims to help us identify with these struggles. We move around, visit local sites, and do some simulations and enactments. There is a lot of reading a required written response each week. Reference to local history takes us on short local trips, land and building surveys, and documentary archive research. The mid-term assignment is a short persuasive essay exploring a historical controversy. The course features a culminating research project. Required products for this larger project include a class presentation and either a regular paper or a short paper combined with another form such as a series of maps, graphic displays, re-enactment, or material artifacts. Bibliography (partial): Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States; James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me; Carl Degler, Out of Our Past; Boorstein and Kelley, A History of the United States; Sellers et al., As It Happened; Juhnke & Hunter, The Missing Peace; David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed; Nancy Woloch, Early American Women.
U.S. History II, a one semester class, proposes that economic growth is the key factor to watch to understanding how U.S. society got into the pickle we find ourselves in in this modern era – facing ecological and energy crises, consumed with pop commercialism and culture wars. We begin before the Civil War with the Commercial and Industrial Revolutions (how did they happen?) and go up to the 1970's. Robber barons, U.S. imperialism, wars against Native Americans, labor unions, populism, socialism, anarchism and progressivism, the Great Depression, the Cold War, changing patterns of transportation (car culture), work (wage labor), settlement (suburbs!), and land use (factory farming) all can be related to the growth of the modern economic system. We move around, visit local sites, and do some simulations and enactments. There are readings and a required written response each week. Reference to local history will get us into short local trips, land and building surveys, and documentary archive research. The mid-term assignment is a short persuasive essay exploring a historical controversy. The final research project requires a class presentation and either a regular paper or a short paper combined with another form such as a series of maps, graphic displays, re-enactment, or material artifacts.
If you want to challenge yourself further, take US History I & II and add an optional independent study. The goal is to prepare students to take the US History AP Exam, or the less-difficult US History SAT Subject Test. Students participate in the usual day-to-day history class, but do additional work, estimated at four hours per week, including a short essay every week. In addition to all readings from the regular course, there is a weekly reading from the college textbook by Paul Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007). We schedule a check-in time weekly outside of class to strategize on study plans, critique essays, and more. This course was authorized to use the "AP" designation by the College Board on 1/7/08.
What happens when the oil runs out? Oil is a highly-concentrated, easily portable source of energy which has made our society what it is today. Yet some say that we will soon reach the peak of global oil production and that oil will then become extremely expensive. How will our society change if and when that happens? How much does our culture depend on cheap energy; what would a future without it be like? And what can we do about it? Weekly Assignments: Each unit (usually a week) has a reading, and a one-page response paper, often focusing on actions or strategies. The major project involves identifying and carrying out either
This one semester class chooses a format (e.g., blog, wiki, paper handbook) and publishes its work for use by the other members of the community (e.g., the board’s Sustainability Committee). Potential projects include: Making biodiesel in a five-gallon pail, growing oil (for biodiesel) with algae, applying for a grant (write first draft) to install a full-scale renewable-energy system at TMS, buying & installing a small photovoltaic (PV) panel, doing a house-by-house energy audit for one source (e.g. oil, electricity, wood, etc.), organizing an awareness event at a local school or church, insulating the water heaters and installing timers on them, doing a rough ecological footprint or carbon audit for the campus, using a book or website calculator, or writing a budget for offsetting TMS’s carbon footprint using RECS.
This one semester class looks at Quaker history in what is now the the United States from the early settlements when Quakerism and Anglo-European colonialism were in their infancy. 2010 marks the 350th anniversary of the founding of New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the oldest Yearly Meeting in the world. We focus primarily on Quakerism in the northeast, exploring the earliest attempts of Quakers to establish themselves in Massachusetts. We explore the history of Quakers and African Americans through a book called Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship. We will also consider Quaker education, and what a small group of committed people can do in the face of danger, as well as what Quakers are doing today to make a positive difference in the world.
This one semester course is run as a seminar. Expect a heavy reading load, and research and reporting on topics of particular interest to you. The goal of the course is to develop our individual definitions of radical witness both historically and in contemporary life, and to compare, contrast, and redefine our definitions based on research and reflection. An emphasis is placed on effective action and symbolism, and the role that moral and spiritual beliefs play in choosing to take a stand. You will be asked to write three short (2-3 page) papers or one longer paper (8-10 pages) on a topic or topics approved by the instructor.
Religion has been described as our human response to the dual reality of being alive and knowing we are mortal. In this one semester class we look at many of the ways human cultures have responded to this truth and other spiritual dilemmas. As a class we study early religions (Pagan, Druid, Native American, Mythology), Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Humanism. We look for common themes and significant differences, and explore how each belief system has influenced today’s world. Students have the opportunity to learn about a religion not included above and present findings to the class.
Inspired by Vermont’s Bread & Puppet Theater and other resources, this one semster course combines creative, hands-on mask and puppet making and performance with an exploration of various social change topics, determined by members of the class. Using everything from paper bags and socks to larger-than-life constructions (made mostly of found and free materials), we aim to create simple, short performance pieces that are both fun and provocative. Each student proposes a minimum of 4 pieces, 2 in the first half of the term, 2 in the second. As a group we choose at least one piece a week to produce and present. Students who choose to take this course for a social studies elective researches and writes at least one 5 page paper on a topic chosen with the teacher, related to one of their 4 pieces. Students taking the course as an art elective take the lead on planning and producing at least two of the pieces presented, one in each term (see details in syllabus). All students in class take the lead on at least one piece and be involved in producing and/or performing at least four. The goal of this course is to give each student an opportunity to learn ways to combine concern for particular social justice issues and effective ways to express that concern and teach others through performance art, specifically using masks and puppets of their own creation. We perform, critique and fine tune our pieces here in the school community and in the Jaffrey/Rindge broader community as well. We document and promote our work through photos, press releases and possibly videos. | ||||||||||
