In the sixth-grade curriculum, students learn about major Western and non-Western civilizations with macro and micro historical processes considered. Included are the early societies of the Near East and Africa, the ancient Hebrew civilization, Greece, Rome, and the classical civilizations of India and of China. In studying the ancient world, students should come to appreciate the special significance of each civilization in the development of our human story. Students will learn about major figures that helped establish these early societies and their codes of ethics and their rule of law; major figures such as Hammurabi, Abraham, Moses, Qin Shi Huang, Pericles, and Asoka. Students also learn of those who extended these early empires and carried their influence into much of the ancient world, including Hatshepsut, Emperor Wu of Han, Alexander III of Macedon, Julius Caesar, and Augustus Caesar. Students will study whose ideas and teachings became enduring influences in Western and non-Western thought, especially Socrates, Jesus, the Buddha, and Confucius. For all these societies major contributions, achievements, belief systems, politics, geography, economics, and social structures are empathized.
Grade Seven World History and Geography
Medieval and Early Modern Times
The study of world history and geography continues this year with an examination of social, cultural, and technological change during the period A.D. 500–1789. A review unit on the ancient world begins with a study of the ways archaeologists and historians uncover the past and then use significant information to write histories. Focus is given to significant empires and events including: Fall of Rome, the Rise of Islam, the spread of Islam through Africa, the rise of the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations, China and Japan during the Middle Ages, Europe during the High Middle Ages, and concludes the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. By developing world maps and timelines, students can locate these cultures in time and in place, compare events that were developing concurrently in the world, and observe the transmission of ideas, beliefs, scientific developments, and economic trade throughout this important period of history. With every civilization and empire studied major contributions, achievements, belief systems, politics, geography, economics, and social structures are empathized. .
Grade Eight United States History and Geography
Growth, Conflict, and American Government
The eighth-grade course of study begins with an intensive review of the major ideas, issues, and events preceding the founding of the nation. Students will concentrate on the critical events of the period from the framing of the Constitution to World War I. Students are to research the American past through a macro and micro historical perspective including: the African-American experience, the Native-American experience, religious experience, women’s history, the impact of technology, and the development of democracy. Study of an all-inclusive history helps students to better understand the significant events of the history of the United States and the Americas.
