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The Humanities Department consists of English and
History. These are integrated in the fifth and sixth grades and
taught as separate disciplines in the seventh and eighth grades.
This is designed to help the student begin to see relationships
between disciplines and to look at both with fresh eyes. By giving
the student a comprehensive base from which he may integrate historical
subject materials with English skills, we hope to help him learn
to communicate effectively about the relationship between people,
ideas, and events. The student moves from writing simple, descriptive
paragraphs in the fifth grade to five paragraph essays in the eighth
grade. We begin by focusing on the logical organization of ideas
and by eighth grade the student is practicing how to articulate
and argue a point successfully using appropriate language, grammar,
and textual evidence.
The goal of the history program is to help the student
understand his world by studying his history. The first level is
concerned with learning how things change, the next step is to comprehend
the factors that cause change, and them to discover what strands
and elements of a society remain constant through change. Through
the study of history we are training the student to place events
in historical context as well as develop research skills and to
encourage analytical thinking. Our course content begins with early
man and ancient civilizations, sixth grade concentrates on medieval
and Renaissance Europe and the Middle East, seventh grade studies
American history, and in the eighth grade the focus is Asian cultures
and history and their effect on the economies of both Asia and America.
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