THE RATIONALE
It is difficult to understand today's world without a working knowledge of how events in Europe from 1453 to the present have influenced and shaped the entire world. Four examples are instructive. First, the opening of the Atlantic not only transformed the demography and future of the Americas, but transformed economic relationships between Eurasia and the Americas as silver flowed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Second, the political and intellectual foundations of this country -including our most treasured rights such as freedom of speech, religion and press as well as protections against tyranny in the form of separation of powers and due process - were derived from European thinkers and must be understood in their historical context to be appreciated fully. Third, the ideologies that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries – including liberalism, humanitarianism, socialism, feminism, and communism – form the basis of modern nation-states and political party platforms across the globe today. Lastly, European imperialism transformed Asia, Africa, and Latin America irrevocably. The modern Middle East, for instance, was formed as a result of British and French machinations during World War I and altered the world we live in today. Likewise, the trajectory of India and Pakistan was transformed by the arrival of the British, and a truly inclusive narrative of World War I and II includes the role of colonial soldiers in the British Indian Army and how this role impacted the path to independence in 1947. Finally, Russia and China's embrace of communism in the 20th century cannot be understood without its meaning intellectually as well as its context of imperialism and war.
One of the key lessons of this course is that it is a fallacy to claim any monolithic "European perspective." Rather, "Europe" always contained a myriad of perspectives based on geography, ethnicity, language, religion, socio-economic status, and ideology. This has only grown truer in the last seventy years, given post-WWII immigration to Europe from former colonies as well as the influx of refugees since 2011. Today, globalization is increasingly diminishing national borders, while paradoxically calling into question supranational organizations like the EU and UN. This course challenges students to bridge the distance between unique cultural traditions and internationalism. And close attention will be paid to how the resurgence of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia fit into the larger historical narrative of European history. Thus, current events play a large role in the course. World language teachers have lent their expertise, adding important contributions to our thinking about the linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, how language influences thinking generally and diplomacy specifically, and working to build multilingualism into our research processes.
Another important focal point of the course is intellectual history, looking to the development of ideas and ideology in history. We stress repeatedly in the course that the context, identity and experiences of the great personages of European history shaped their ideas. Nor will our pursuit of intellectual history be confined to the written word. We will explore the intersection of art with European history with a series of six lectures beginning in the Renaissance and ending in our age of Globalization by a guest art historian and two trips to the Art Institute.
HOW THE CLASS WILL BE CONDUCTED
Every day, we will use the oral communication technique of the Harkness Method (named after an Exeter alum). Simply put, this method aims at a whole class discussion of the day's reading, either using a student facilitator or a guiding discussion question. During class, we should always strive not only to respect, but to encourage, one another: our success with the Harkness method depends on the creation of a classroom community that values the free and respectful exchange of ideas, even during disagreements. This is only possible by building your courage, curiosity, and humility and deploying skills of evidence usage and analysis, listening, tone of voice and posture, and diplomacy. During the long periods, students will have yet more practice in oral communication by discussing their research of European current events toward the EU Mock Council. Finally, we may use teacher-facilitated discussions or substantive, student-led projects such as debates or salons sporadically.
Our discussions will take place in a technology-free zone, meaning students may not use laptop computers, tablets, phones, or “communicative” watches. You need to focus on communicating textual evidence to one another, listening to the words of others, and thinking about how to respond thoughtfully and diplomatically. In a sense, class time is rehearsal time. You will be encouraged to use technology to engage in cutting-edge research and writing toward your research portfolio, research paper, and preparation for the EU Mock Council. We will teach you what’s even better than Google. When students have been approved for a word processing accommodation with respect to testing, use of a school-owned computer is required to ensure the integrity of the testing environment. Students may not use their own personal computer. As with extra time, students should make arrangements in advance through their teacher.
THE BLOG
This is an AT course: there is homework ahead of every class. A blog has been created for this course (ateurohistory.blogspot.com) that you should check frequently because you are responsible for any material on it. On the “Assigned Work” page, we post homework and key future dates. On the main page, we post “Current Events” related to the European Union and its relationship with our countries (e.g., Russia, Turkey, U.S.). There are other helpful pages, including “Art History,” “Research & Writing.” You are reading increasingly complex text: the “Reading Complexity for Meaning” page is intended to counterattack some bad habits formed of reading fiction, digital news, etc. Finally, there is a “Study Guide” for each Unit to help you accurately review Harkness topics and related multimedia.
PARTICIPATION, TESTS, PAPERS AND MOCK COUNCIL
The most important focus of this introductory survey course is to improve your historical thinking, research, and writing skills with regard to complex texts. Class participation will be a significant part of your grade. Therefore, daily attendance is crucial, and your class participation grade will be affected negatively by tardiness or absences not due to illness, injury, or religious holiday. The best forms of class participation are close textual references and original, critical thought geared toward the U-High Historical Habits of Mind and the particular guided reading question(s) posted daily on the blog. Take notes on BOTH as you read.
In-class exams take place approximately every 2-3 weeks. They will contain a mixture of analytical questions based on important historical thinking skills (e.g., sourcing) using primary sources (documents, paintings, photographs, or material culture) and excerpts from secondary sources (the interpretations of historians). We expect high-level analysis and synthesis based on the unit’s readings of print and material culture. Students may NOT access any notes or study materials during testing. Your work must be uniquely your own for us to gauge your GROWTH.
During first semester, you will be assigned an analytical research paper with an annotated bibliography (10-12 pages). We will instruct you in cutting-edge research techniques to locate primary and secondary sources, you will analyze your sources using the U-High Historical Habits of Mind, develop a self-generated research question, craft an original thesis, and write analytically using evidence. Building upon the skills gained in Early World History, we will introduce you to collegiate-level, Regenstein Library print sources as well as scholarly, subscription databases. In the past, these have included “diversity, identity, and history” research papers unique to family heritage or “chains of circumstance” research papers based on the work of William Manchester.
A final, unique aspect of this course is the year-end EU Mock Council, which enables students to juxtapose current events today with their historical antecedents of the late 19th century and 20th century, using themes of liberal democracy and the rule of law; trade, competitiveness and globalization; and language, immigration and identity.
Grades are a reflection of the standard of excellence that we set for BOTH student and teacher. To encourage you to adopt a GROWTH MINDSET, our expectations as we grade will GROW as the year progresses. Your thinking should become more sophisticated over time. Further, we want to make very clear to you now that how well your assignments are written will be as important as the content when determining your grades. Unorganized writing should be avoided.
Throughout the year, you may trust that we will always keep our evaluation of your work private. We expect you to extend to us the same courtesy. We encourage you to talk to us about your grades, how you think the course might be improved, or how a specific assignment might be changed. However, we would like you to do this in private and not in front of the class. We would also expect you to discuss any problems you are having with your actual teacher before you bring in a third party. We will extend to you the same courtesy, with the exception of academic integrity issues. Those are required to be reported to Ms. Campos, the Dean of Students.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Respect the intellectual achievements of others. In other words, give due credit to the creative, the original, and the inventive. The Laboratory Schools are part of the University of Chicago, an esteemed institution where individuals are prized and credited for their ideas and hard work, and
Lab students are asked to infuse their efforts with their own creativity, originality, and inventiveness.
Our department policy is to instill academic integrity at every level through responsible research methods and honest, thorough attribution of sources. We believe these are core practices that should inform all student work. When students fall short of these standards, we assess the issue via the following categorization (examples not exhaustive), with academic consequences reflective of scope, recurrence, and deceitfulness of the offense.
You must use footnotes and a bibliography with any written or visual work you do outside of the classroom such as within a research paper or presentation. All electronic tests and the research paper will be turned in into http://www.turnitin.com. The above rules regarding academic integrity apply equally to the EU Mock Council; thus, for example, citations are expected for any outside sources such as those read or written for CCGA extra credit, Debate Team or Model United Nations.
COURSE TEXTS
We will read Marvin Perry's Western Civilization: A History of the Modern World: Ideas, Politics and Society, Volumes I and II or Combined Volumes (10th or 11th edition), Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, and the supplemental readings from our course packet. We permit either, knowing that many of you obtain copies of the 2-volume set from past students. We recommend print text over digital text. Literacy research tells us that readers comprehend complex text better in print, with a greater tendency to skim in a digital format. Sleep research tells us that the blue light emitted from screens interferes with the ability to fall asleep and causes less REM sleep. Therefore, we recommend the print version of the textbook. However, families may choose to purchase and use digital copies; in order to guard against skimming, students should plan to take handwritten notes of evidence. Recent research pinpoints a wide disparity in students’ processing performance between print and digital notes as well. The best way to take notes is to write down the guided reading question for the next day’s discussion and summarize (note page numbers in your notes) relevant ideas and evidence. The U-High Historical Habits of Mind will be equally useful in your note-taking. We encourage you to supplement your notes during Harkness discussion, current event discussions, or projects. Because Harkness discussion takes place in a technology-free zone, students will be asked to use the print copies available in the classroom, specifically purchased for this purpose.
AP EXAM
We do not encourage you to take the AP exam in European History that is given during the second week in May because this course is not focused on the exam’s requirements and includes no test prep. Indeed, we devote ourselves to critical inquiry of current events and preparation for our EU Mock Council, while other schools are drilling for the AP exam. For those who insist on taking the AP test, it has a multiple choice section, a short answer section with 4 questions, a document-based section, and a long essay section (select one question among two). The AP test uses four time periods, namely: period 1: c. 1450 to c. 1648, period 2: c. 1648 to 1815, period 3: c. 1815 to c. 1914, and period 4: c. 1914 to the present. It also provides “five themes (interaction of Europe and the world; poverty and prosperity; objective knowledge and subjective visions; states and other institutions of power; and individual and society)” See College Board, AP European History Course Overview. Make sure you purchase a brand-new review book because the test has undergone significant revisions in the last three years. Your decision to prep for the AP exam will not serve to excuse you from rehearsals and team work related to our EU Mock Council.
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