BHS History Department
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I just learned by chance that history will not be offered at BHS next year
for freshmen. The school is planning to align English and history curricula
(have world history and literature in the same year, American in another).
This brings it into compliance with what is happening in the rest of the
state and should be helpful in the WASC process. This is good. I, however,
with an incoming freshman, am concerned that he will suffer from having only
three real academic classes (geometry, English, language). I think at this
stage of development, kids should be having more academic challenge. Other
parents may feel differently. I'm interested in discussion about this, and
would also encourage you to approach Dr. Lynch or the district if you have
concerns.
Lili
Well, judging from what I know of frosh history, it is not "a real academic
class." I wouldn't call it challenging either. I also think that academic
classes are the right choice for some kids, but for others, more practical
or artistic classes are better. Fewer requirements allows kids to get more
classes that are right for them so I think fewer requirements is a good
idea. Students are more likely to attend and enjoy the classes if they get
some say in what it is they are taking.
Does anyone have details about the change in the history requirement, next
fall, for ninth graders at Berkeley High? I have been told that the school
made this change without first figuring out what they are going to offer
instead. Has anyone spoken with the history department or administration
about this? Lynn
The administration decided to bring the history offerings in line with
the majority of the state and with the state framework, which meant moving
World History to the tenth grade. The History Department continues to teach
Ethnic Studies to ninth graders. Additionally the administration decided it
would be a good idea to move Social Living to the ninth grade, although that
decision took longer as it was widely discussed before a decision was made.
In looking at the impact of these changes on the incoming students, it was
decided that the two courses should be seen as a year-long introduction to
social studies and paired with the English classes in cores, so that ninth
graders continued to have the advantages of the ninth grade cores. The
history course is to meet the requirements of both ethnic studies and social
living, as well as to include an introduction to the study skills,
resources, and community of Berkeley High.
The Site Council approved funding so that the English and Social Studies
teachers could meet the day after school closed. The revised freshman core
program was reassessed, and course planning for the fall began. History
teachers spent a large portion of that day integrating the two classes to
create a course outline for the new year-long core class. A number of
history teachers took on curriculum development of the units involved.
While a great deal of the curriculum material already exists in the ethnic
studies and social living curriculums, adapting it to fit this course for
these students, while providing ninth graders with a solid introduction to
Berkeley High was their top priority. The ninth grade teachers will meet
again in August to share the results of their summer work, and will continue
to meet throughout the school year in their English/History cores as well as
with other ninth grade history teachers.
Annie Johnston, History teacher, BHS
AP History Classes
March 2001
There are two new AP classes offered at BHS in the history department this
coming fall, AP Government and AP Economics. Both will be offered as senior
electives, with the required government and economics courses as
prerequisites. Juniors particularly interested in taking these
college-level courses may want to take those required courses in summer
school or at Vista college.
There has been some concern expressed because many students were led to
believe they could take these courses in lieu of the regular economics and
government courses. The History Department, with the consent of the
principal, decided to offer them as senior electives after numerous meetings
in January and February. We were reluctant consider offering AP courses
because we are not interested in tracking our government and economics
classes. Since these classes analyze american economics and government, all
students benefit from the broadest possible exposure to a wide range of
experiences and perspectives, which only a heterogenous, untracked class can
provide. At the same time, especially those who enjoy studying social
science, to have the ability to fill their history elective requirements
with such rigorous courses. But we want to offer these classes in such a
way as to increase ALL students' access to rigorous coursework, rather than
increasing the disparity in such access, which is now the case with most AP
courses at BHS.
AP economics and government classes are, in fact, advanced courses. The
required courses give students an essential foundation for success in these
new AP classes. The curriculum is not the same -- the AP classes are
college-level courses. The economics class, for instance, will look
in-depth at macro-economics. The state curriculum standards for economics
require that all students be introduced to the basics of micro-economics as
well.
Our teachers were pretty unanimous in their desire to make sure the students
who take these courses have the advantage of the required introductory
classes offered in a heterogenous setting. We felt that this would best
ensure a larger and more diverse pool of eligible students who are better
able to succeed in those classes.
We apologize to anyone who received conflicting information.
Annie Johnston, History teacher, BHS
My history teacher told me today that ap goverment and ap economics will be
made as a history elective for seniors, AFTER we have taken regular
economics and goverment. This is a bad idea. When I asked my history teacher
about why the department decided to do this he said, that the teachers that
teach regular econ and gov would be deprived of the smartest people in the
class and would end up teaching all the less advanced kids. So the teachers
would have a harder time teaching their classes. My answer is this changes
nothing. By keeping everyone in the same class you dont get rid of the people
who dont want to learn, they have them in their class anyways. And there are
plenty of kids that are very smart but just might not want to be in AP, so
there would be no absence of 'smart' kids. Also senior year, many history
electives will get cancelled because they are smaller classes. For instance
asian studies, many kids who would want to take that would be torn between
taking that class and AP. Many would cloose AP to make their transcripts look
good, and then asian studies would get cancelled bacause not enough students
signed up for it. I think that taking a few kids out of regular gov/econ is a
lot better than destroying many elective classes.
Another point, one does not have to take regular chemistry before taking ap
chemistry, BECAUSE THEY COVER THE SAME THING. It is pointless to take 2
diffrent gov/econ classes that teach the same things, but one goes a little
deeper and does more work.
This is very unfair to the people who like history. I like history a
lot more than i like science. I really wanted to get AP credit for a class
that I like (not science) , because i think it would be interesting. But if I
have to take AP senior year I cannot take an elective that would be fun as
well.
Elliot
this page was last updated: Dec 26, 2005
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