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Western Civilization to be replaced by World History
By Sophia Cheng
Next year, freshmen will take World History instead of Western Civilization. Teachers argue that World History is more relevant and will give students a better foundation than Western Civilization. Photo by Danielle Courtenay.
Starting next year, freshmen will take World History instead of Western Civilization as their ninth grade history course.
Though changing the curriculum means more work for teachers, social studies department chair Eric Burnett feels this it will better benefit students.
According to Burnett, the content of world history better matches the needs of international students. Discussions of the Middle East, Asia and Africa dominate the media today, and a background in World History will provide the information necessary to understanding global issues.
“Usually when we teach [Western Civilization], we talk about Asia, the Middle East and Africa] as regions that are subject to Western imperialism,” Burnett said. “We only talk about Africa when it was colonized, or we talk about Asia when spices were discovered. We want to talk about their existence for reasons other than just interaction with the west.”
SAS students must take a Western course to graduate. With Western Civilization in place, students who arrived after their freshman year were required to either take it. World History aligns better with the social studies curriculum in U.S. high schools, since world history is far more commonly taught.
“That means that anyone who comes in their sophomore, junior or senior year will not have to find a Western course to take,” Burnett said.
Burnett said that World History will prepare students for higher-level history courses at SAS. Students will have been exposed to more history and thus, will be able to determine what type of history they like best.
“Now, [students] will have a better background for pretty much all the AP history courses available at SAS,” Burnett said.
“You get a taste of the history of the whole world,” junior Hyung Yul Choi said. “After taking the course, you can choose which part of the world you are most interested in.”
While there may be adequate justifications for this change in the eyes of teachers, some teachers think that students may have a harder time with World History because more information will be packed into one year.
“The scope of Western Civ is already challenging enough to get in a school year, and that’s one region of the world,” Social Studies teacher Devin Kay said. “Add on World History. Now you’ve taken something that was challenging to begin with and made it even more difficult.”
Social Studies teacher Erik Torjesen who used to teach Western Civilization and have been teaching A.P. World History said that the coverage of material is a problem for any survey course.
“That [coverage of material] won’t be affected by this change, but we will gain immense by our own ability to make global comparison and connections,” Torjesen said.
A.P. World History has nine months – from August till March – to cover all the materials.
“We managed to cover everything by March and had a month to review what we’ve learnt,” junior Natasha Anthony said. “We were also able to gain a broad perspective of historical trends around the world.”
Students are already having difficulty remembering what they learned from Western Civ.
“If I can barely remember anything from Western Civ, how am I supposed to remember the world’s history?” sophomore Ismini Tsakiris said.
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