The Essentials
Despite the shifting sands of federal and state standards, the WHS History Department exists to pass down the intellectual, political, and cultural traditions of Western Civilization in general and America in particular. These are the essential goals that all history courses possess in order to create the perfect citizen.
-
Identify major international alliances of the World (i.e. United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).
-
Identify current American allies and threats.
-
Summarize the current American policy in the following locations: Middle East, European Union, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Orient.
-
Differentiate between current and potential nuclear powers.
-
Compare and contrast the following economic systems: communism, capitalism, mixed, socialism, and traditional.
-
Explain how money and banking influence foreign and domestic policies.
-
Identify the contemporary countries and international organizations that are newsworthy.
-
Properly use an atlas to identify and locate places and regions on a map.
-
Compare and contrast conservatism and liberalism.
-
Differentiate among the different styles of government (i.e. communism, democracy, and socialism).
-
Summarize major turning points in history that relate to global conflict and economic depression.
-
Identify significant historical and contemporary individuals in American government.
-
Discuss the role of the citizens in different social and historical context.
-
Enhance the historical diction of students (i.e. laissez faire, coup d’état, mobilization, appeasement, nationalism, imperialism, terrorism, brinkmanship, mutually-assured destruction).
-
Answer one simple question: Why is history important?