Curriculum
Over the last thirteen years, I have developed and taught each of these 9-week courses numerous times to high school students. I have course organizers or syllabi links to each course title, if you're interested in looking at learning objectives, essential questions, and units covered in each of these courses.
Modern World Affairs & Geography B - Genocide I
In this class, we‘ll begin by defining genocide with eight stages, and we will analyze the roots of the word itself. Then, as time permits, we will travel to Asia and Eastern Europe to look at actual case studies of genocide. Students who have taken this course will follow the latest events
in Darfur. We will also look at a healing process called ―restorative justice‖ to see how countries, communities, and people come back from such horrifying and unexplainable experiences. Students may only take this course once.
Modern World Affairs & Geography C - Wealth, Poverty & Globalization
In this class, students will learn about how wealth, consumption, and waste impact people in less developing countries. We will look at ―globalization‖ as a profit driven phenomenon, not as global networking. We will look at historical and contemporary struggles of several nations and communities. We will hear voices often silenced on issues like: modern slavery, child labor, sweatshops, water privatization, and outsourcing. We will trace roots of the global AIDS crisis, food shortages, and the continued financial situations of poor nations. Students may only take this course once.
Modern World Affairs & Geography D - Cultural Globalization
Though many view the concept of globalization to either work in their benefit, or not, cultural globalization is here to stay. In this class, you‘ll follow the roots and paths of popular culture (from and to the United States), specifically hip hop music and all types of dance, and fast-food. Open your minds and be prepared to understand the complicated road on which culture travels throughout the world. Students may only take this course once.
Psychology of Prejudice
This course is designed to provide an overview of psychological theories of ethnocentrism and prejudice based on fear and misunderstandings as experienced by some groups in American history. Primary goals are for students to understand and think critically about the various manifestations of prejudice in our society on an institutionalized level, psychological perspective on prejudice, and how these theories and truths find their way into today‘s world. This course will deepen you‘re the students awareness of prejudice and commitment to challenging prejudice wherever they find it.
Most importantly, students will be reflecting about your own judgments, fears, and prejudices against people unlike themselves. They will be required to spend time in this community and reflect upon their observations and interactions. While this class is based on historical accounts, laws, and amendments, it is also about the student. Students may only take this course once.
Criminal and Juvenile Justice
Students are introduced to legal issues in the context of real life. Students will gain a practical understanding of law and our legal system along with skills essential to full participation in our law-oriented society. They will learn variations in local law and procedures that focus attention on where the student lives. Emphasis will include crimes against people and property, and the history and processes of the Juvenile Justice system. Students will also focus on current issues within the justice system. Students may only take this course once.
Street Law C - American Prison System
This course will begin with a historical appreciation for how punishment was distributed during Colonial America. We will look at the current penitentiary system from structural, philosophical, and controversial standpoints. We will analyze the prison population, recidivism rates, and programs established to support the transition between the complicated prison system and life on the outside. We will ask hard questions. What is the purpose of imprisonment? Can people change or rehabilitate in the system? How can we best maintain a safe society while treating victims and perpetrators with dignity? What would you do to improve the system? Students may only take this course once.
World History IV - Race & Hate in the Pacific War
Although the U.S. was at war with the Japanese empire for four years (1941-1945), Japan had been in conflict with China and Mongolia, and throughout the Pacific since 1931. As Japan had been vying for world status and had felt threatened by the U.S., the two empires collided with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Pacific War was fought on both fronts with propaganda, mass media, established federal laws, strong nationalism, and deep-rooted racism. Once over, the U.S. lost approximately 30,000 people, while the Japanese lost over 235,000 military personnel and civilians. Japan is the only country in the world to have survived two atomic bomb attacks.
The war in the Pacific changed the way countries mobilize for international conflict and begs the question: ―What extreme will we go to win a war?‖ 60 years later, these issues are still relevant as we analyze nuclear proliferation and bombings of civilian during world conflicts today. Students may only take this course once.
History & Geography of the Modern World B - Contemporary China
With over 1.3 billion people, China has been the fastest growing nation over the last twenty years, transitioning from a peasant, Communist, secluded state to a highly industrialized, capitalistic, competitive world market. In this class, you will get to know contemporary China – its geography, its political climate, its economy (poor and rich), its people (rural and urban), its environment, and its sacred resources. We will follow China in the news, analyze some of its past decisions, and we will make predictions about where China‘s headed. In the end, you‘ll be prepared to follow China in the news on your own, and hopefully, you‘ll care enough to do so. Students may only take this course once.
History & Geography of the Modern World C- Asia Through the Media
This class is taught on the computer through a specific website created at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts (http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/vis_menu.html). The curriculum follows several periods in Chinese and Japanese history through rich text and visuals (such as photographs, portraits, postcards, and woodblock prints). Students analyze Japan through the vantage points of American sailors and Japanese artists as they ―open‖ the ports in the 1850s, scrutinize war woodblocks and postcards from the Russo-Japanese and Sino-Japanese wars, explore Japanese society during the Meiji period through hand-colored photographs, and examine the Opium Wars in China through the lens of a foreign photographer. Students will
ultimately learn about travel, patterns of interaction, and human impact on the geography of a region through these high quality images and on-line essays. Be prepared to read and research on line for much of the class. Students may only take this course once.
World History III - Tokugawa Japan
Tokugawa is the label given to the dynasty running from 1603-1867. To appreciate the significance of the Tokugawa time period in Japan, the class will first look at the Feudal Period that prefaced Tokugawan society. Tokugawa is significant because, during these two and a half centuries, Japan was relatively isolated and free of conflict. This allowed the ruling and working classes to focus on social and economic priorities other than war and the military. In this class, we will look at these social transitions through the eyes of artists, the words of the elite, and the tales of the samurai, the farmers, and the geisha women of the cities. Students may only take this course once.
Sociology C – Tourism & Poverty in the Caribbean
Many Americans are not aware of what‘s happening to our neighbors to the south. In this class, you‘ll take an anthropological tour of islands in the Caribbean (i.e. Barbados, Haiti, and the Dominican) to see firsthand the causes, effects, and implications of tourism. Students will read narratives, short stories, and other anthropologists‘ observations. Ultimately, the student will decide how they feel about the ups and downs of tourism and poverty. Students may only take this course once.
World Issues A - Production, Consumption, and Waste
In this class, students will learn about how wealth, consumption, and waste impact people in less developing countries. We will look at ―globalization‖ as a profit driven phenomenon, not as global networking. We will look at historical and contemporary struggles of several nations and communities. Topics we‘ll follow include (but are not limited to): blood diamonds, the American rose industry, and digital dumpsites. Students may only take this course once.
World Issues B - Topics in Africa
Much of Africa‘s current struggles center around countries which were previously colonized. In this class, students will learn about current conflicts and struggles, such as blood diamonds, digital dumping, survivors of conflict (in Uganda and Rwanda), genocide, and child soldiers. They will analyze the root causes, and effects on citizens and future generations. More importantly, students will also present to the VPHS community and educate others about what‘s happening in Africa today. Students may only take this course once.
Modern World Affairs & Geography A - Geography of Poverty
In today‘s society, more than ever before, there exists a large gap between people who have a lot of resources and those who don‘t. In America, it‘s estimated over 37 million people live in poverty and that the top 1/10% of the population is worth more than the bottom 20%.
In this class, we will develop an urban anthropological lens and learn how to view these communities from this vantage point. We will then look at our own identities, before analyzing others‘. We will define poverty and place, determine how the government classifies someone as ―living in poverty,‖ and take a look at three urban communities, New Orleans (three years after the hurricane), Camden, NJ, and Cite Soleil, Haiti. We will ask uncomfortable questions, draw connections between the culture of poverty & the significant inequality of resources, and discuss what it truly means to be inner-city poor in today‘s rich world. We will also look at ways in which some urban, poor communities have healed, strengthened, and prevailed in the past. As a culminating activity, you will develop an urban plan with programs that support inner-city communities‘ different generations structurally and socially. Students may only take this course once.
Sociology D - Holocaust & Human Behavior
Sociology is a social science that looks at human society, and how people act within a group environment. Sociologists may study the family unit, gang members, military recruits, football players, or members of a dance troupe. We will also learn about human behavior through the lens of a historian, and analyze how past events, beliefs, and decisions might have lead to certain behaviors and reactions. As a class, you will be using both tools while looking at the early stages of the Holocaust during the late 30s and early 40s in Europe. Your task will be to understand the complex economic struggles, insecurities, racial and religious divisions, and stereotypes and fears, which collectively lead to the Nazi Holocaust in which 12 million people perished.
Racism and hated permeated Nazi Germany, and have woven themselves through many cultures and communities, including our own. Through this narrative, using the Holocaust as a case study, you will hopefully gain insight and awareness to speak up against such behaviors and reactions in the future. Students may only take this course once.
Sociology E - Civil Rights Movements
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most significant sources of social change in the United States during the 20th Century. This course analyzes the structure and dynamics of the civil rights movement from several viewpoints.
Many ordinary people inspired Americans of the Civil Rights Movement. These people believed that the truths spoken in the Declaration of Independence should be realized for all citizens of the United States. As a community, an ordinary citizen, and as the next generation of leaders, this quest for equality should also be your own. The greatest lesson of the Civil Rights Movement is to realize our work is not done until everyone has the right to freedom, equality and justice. In this class, you‘ll pay attention to the efforts and the effects of the Movement, and ask what you can do to continue supporting the ideals of this nation.
