History Department2023-02-09T00:08:05+00:00

History

Placement Requirements

The placement process for new students is different from that for returning students. Please review the placement requirements for the appropriate group at the links below.

All placements are subject to review by the head of the department.

Grade 12

History 4 Semester Courses

The Semester History course offerings are single semester courses and can change from year to year. The registrar will work with seniors to request particular semester senior History courses in May of Grade 11.

History Course Descriptions

Introduction to Historical Studies

Available to: grade 9 students, required for those students

Knowledge of the past allows us to best understand the present, to understand the motivations of our forebears, and to consider our own beliefs and positions on issues that shape our lives. Through time, people have made choices because of the political, economic, cultural, and social forces at work when and where they lived. Our world today is inextricably linked to the choices people made in the past. As such, it is imperative that we understand the people of the past if we are to understand the choices we face today. History, at its core, is the study of the past in order to understand how and why we are at this moment. This course explores two central questions: what is history, and how do historians do history? To explore these questions we examine key events, issues and developments in the 20th century through the lenses of the diverse people who experienced them. Moving from a study of local to global history, students will learn how global events have had a local impact. Through individual and collaborative work, students begin to develop and apply the foundational skills employed by historians––active, close reading and evaluation of primary and secondary sources, crafting critical questions, contextualization, and both analytical argumentative writing grounded in evidence.

The Modern World / The Modern World Honors

Available to: grade 10 students

Note: The Modern World Honors course embarks on a study of world history from 1500 to the present, while The Modern World course centers on the last four centuries.  The modern world has been defined by massive transformation––social and political upheaval and revolution, industrialization, urbanization, global exchange and conflict, migration, and imperialism and colonization. This course combines a chronological and thematic approach to explore the historical roots of modernity. What does it mean to be modern? In endeavoring to consider the dynamic changes that modernity brings, students critically examine diverse perspectives––including people of color, young people, and women––as well as multiple points of view––oppression as well as resistance, emigration as well as immigration, the enslaved as well as the enslavers. This course challenges students to think historically, objectively, and globally, to evaluate historical sources, and to grapple with a variety of complex textual, visual, and physical materials to explore the modernization of the world and its role in shaping our contemporary world. Students who place into The Modern World Honors can expect more rigor in historical analysis and writing assignments, culminating in a self-guided research project on a topic of the student’s choice in the spring.

US History / AP US History

Type: honors available

Available to: grade 11 students, grade 12 students in special cases, for honors see placement requirements link above

In this survey course, students investigate significant events, individuals, and processes in United States history from the 16th century to the present. While organized chronologically, this course also focuses on several themes that reverberate throughout the American experience: American and national identity; labor–– both free and enslaved; migration and settlement; politics and power; and geography and the environment. Throughout the year, course concepts resonate with literary analysis and cultural themes discussed in English 3 and English 3 Honors. Students learn to focus their analysis of vital social, cultural, political, and economic moments in history by examining how they shape our perspective on current social, economic, and political issues. Students develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change. In addition, students examine competing historical interpretations, emphasizing the idea that history’s meaning constantly evolves. Students in US History further personalize the course with several research-based individual and group projects that aim to create historical grounding for our contemporary world. Students qualifying for the AP US History course will be asked to bring rigorous attention to content comprehension, historical analysis, discussion, and specific written skills. It is a demanding course that seeks to prepare motivated students for the AP exam at the end of the school year.

Stevenson Summer US History

Type: summer

Available to: high school students who have completed grade 10

Schedule: three and a half hours a day, five days a week for five weeks in the summer

Special Notes: Students taking this course are still expected to take a full load of courses in the following year. The course is in-person and our dorms are closed, so students must provide their own housing and meals.

In this survey course, students investigate significant events and people in United States history from the 15th century to the present. While organized chronologically, this course also focuses on several themes that reverberate throughout the American experience: American and national identity; labor­ both free and enslaved; migration and settlement; politics and power; and geography and the environment. Students learn to focus their analysis of vital social, cultural, political, and economic moments in history by examining how these moments shape our perspective on current social, economic, and political issues. Students develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change. In addition, students examine competing historical interpretations, emphasizing the idea that history’s meaning constantly evolves. Living on the Monterey peninsula, we have access to excellent museums and historical sites that complement our classroom study of United States history. Each Friday, students will attend chaperoned field trips, and we will visit the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, Carmel Mission, Historical Monterey Walking Tour, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the National Steinbeck Center. The cost of the field trips are included in tuition. For more information and an application click here.

AP Art History

Type: honors

Available to: qualified grade 11 and grade 12 students, see placement requirements link above

Creative expression is at the heart of what it means to be human. To better understand the human experience across space and through time, this course surveys global history from prehistory to the present through a diverse collection of works of art and architecture. Students cultivate their understanding of art within its broader historical context and gain fluency in a specific vocabulary of art analysis as they explore concepts of culture and cultural interactions, theories and interpretations of art, the impact of materials, processes, and techniques of art making. Immersing themselves in the diverse cultural productions of societies from Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, students explore how and why works of art function for those who create them, use them, and view them. They consider such issues as patronage, sex, race, and gender, politics, religion, class, ethnicity, artistic intention, and audience as they grow their skills in art historical analysis. Extensive readings, discussion of visual sources, independent research, frequent assessments, and field trips to local museums help hone students’ ability to synthesize sophisticated visual, written and verbal material to prepare for the AP examination.

The History 4 course offerings are single semester courses and can change from year to year. The registrar will work with students to request particular semester history courses in May of grade 11. Two AP history courses are also options for qualified Grade 12 students.

History 4: Economics

Available to: Grade 12 students

In this broad survey of economics, students learn foundational economic concepts, microeconomics, macroeconomics, global/international economics, and personal financial management. Students also engage in a range of projects in order to study, analyze, and dissect contemporary trends in American business, society, and politics from an economic perspective. Students develop analytical and comprehension skills to establish a basic understanding of the complex financial and economic world in which we live.

History 4: Ethics

Available to: Grade 12 students

Philosophy helps develop one’s moral imagination in ways necessary to meet contemporary challenges and opportunities concerning the promotion of the global common good. This class will proceed with the assumption that philosophical claims—e.g., about human nature, our sociality, and its normative implications—are constantly being made throughout our world, and that it is the task of the student of philosophy to uncover and examine such claims. As such, this course attempts to promote ethical reasoning and reflection, in order to help prepare students to become responsible global citizens. This can be problematic insofar as our limited experiences of the world, along with inherent psychological limitations, make it difficult for us to envision the global implications of our actions and decisions. Philosophical reflection helps in this respect since it has, almost since its inception, encouraged us to expand these limits in order to consider as nearly as possible the global (or even universal) implications of ideas and actions. The whole point of philosophy, in this view, is to consider things as much as possible in terms of their relations to everything else and to allow such considerations to challenge one’s preconceived notions of common sense and social custom. Through both reading great works in the history of philosophy and an emphasis on critical, open-ended discussion, this course will attempt to develop students’ moral imaginations by encouraging them genuinely to consider multiple, often contradictory views and to examine their own most deeply held beliefs.

History 4: History of American Music

Available to: Grade 12 students

By an amazing series of historical accidents, there grew in America a musical culture that provided the soundtrack for most of the world for most of the last century. This soundtrack ranges across a vast spectrum: blues, ragtime, jazz, country, rock, rhythm & blues, rap – all were born here. Each has its own more-focused spectrum of styles. Each was born of the multicultural stew that is American history and reflects its roots in historical immigration and migration, the painful facts of slavery, the eventful meeting of cultures and people in American cities and in the American countryside. This course will look at the roots of our music in our historical experience, and listen to a vast range of traditional, popular, formal, and experimental musical forms. It is as much about the music as it is about the history; students will be encouraged to bring their own musical experience to bear as we look at our rhythmic, harmonic, and lyrical past: guitars, harmonicas, flutes and kazoos are welcome.

History 4: History of Ideas

Available to: Grade 12 students

This class examines nearly every important philosophical school in what we know as the “western” or European tradition, as well as some non-western ideas, and primarily examines the areas of philosophy known as ontology, epistemology, and semantics: the quest for what is “really real,” what we can know about it, and what we can say about it. We concentrate on the use of logic, the nature of language, and how our ideas mirror reality – or don’t. You will come away from the course with heightened ability to detect logical flaws in arguments, and to understand that irresolvable differences of opinion often derive not from differences in fact but from different mental paradigms. Informally, we often say, “I disagree, but I understand your point of view”; you will be able to understand other points of view much more systematically. And you will be much more literate citizens of your culture. There is usually no final truth in philosophical issues; in fact, the truthfulness of positions in this field often depends on the skill and elegance of their presentation. For this reason, philosophers throughout history have commonly been derided as “sophists” – mere crafty manipulators of language. Nevertheless, there are philosophical arguments that have more meaning for us: these make the swarming confusion of the world more intelligible, or at least more tolerable. This may be the “wisdom” to which the Greek word sophia refers. Also, you will begin to see that there are mysteries about language itself that do much to control the way we think about even very simple concepts. You will also find that common sense is not the simple, objective thing we intuitively take it to be.

History 4: Legal Studies

This course will build a foundational understanding of America’s civil and criminal legal fields, foundational Supreme Court rulings, and the historical roots of revolutionary conflict stemming from interpretations of justice. Incorporating practical civic literacy, legal competency, and real-world application, students will have the ability to analyze the complexities found in the justice system. The curriculum includes case studies, debates, mock trials, and role-play exercises that will offer tangible application to help students navigate a law-saturated society and provide a window for those interested in pursuing a future in the law. In addition, we will dive into historical events to explore the legal (and often revolutionary) streams that have cultivated conflict in America.

AP Art History

Type: honors

Available to: qualified grade 11 and grade 12 students, see placement requirements link above

Creative expression is at the heart of what it means to be human. To better understand the human experience across space and through time, this course surveys global history from prehistory to the present through a diverse collection of works of art and architecture. Students cultivate their understanding of art within its broader historical context and gain fluency in a specific vocabulary of art analysis as they explore concepts of culture and cultural interactions, theories and interpretations of art, the impact of materials, processes, and techniques of art making. Immersing themselves in the diverse cultural productions of societies from Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, students explore how and why works of art function for those who create them, use them, and view them. They consider such issues as patronage, sex, race, and gender, politics, religion, class, ethnicity, artistic intention, and audience as they grow their skills in art historical analysis. Extensive readings, discussion of visual sources, independent research, frequent assessments, and field trips to local museums help hone students’ ability to synthesize sophisticated visual, written and verbal material to prepare for the AP examination.

AP Economics

Type: honors

Available to: qualified grade 12 students

AP Economics is a yearlong course that focuses on how economic decisions are made within national economic systems as a whole. This course covers the major topics of contemporary macroeconomic thought, including economic fundamentals, fiscal and monetary policy, long-term economic growth, and international trade. To expose students to real world economic applications, students collaborate in small groups to study and develop solutions to several contemporary economic challenges, including in the areas of housing, water, food, and energy. This course is designed to expose students to the intellectual environment and demands of a college level course. It is a fast-paced, content-driven class with high expectations. The course aims to prepare students for the AP Macroeconomics examination.

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