Links for the APUSH Summer Assignment |
Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat the eleventh grade.
-James W. Loewen
Welcome to Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH)!!! I am excited about the upcoming school year and look forward to getting to know you over the next few weeks. This year we will be emphasizing historical thinking skills. These skills are an integral part of what the College Board deems necessary in order to be successful when taking the test next spring. The skills are listed below. We will cover these in more detail this fall.
American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
-James Baldwin
People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the desirable and available branches of knowledge, why insist—as most American educational programs do—on a good bit of history? And why urge many students to study even more history than they are required to?
Any subject of study needs justification: its advocates must explain why it is worth attention. Most widely accepted subjects—and history is certainly one of them—attract some people who simply like the information and modes of thought involved. But audiences less spontaneously drawn to the subject and more doubtful about why to bother need to know what the purpose is.
Historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve useful purposes, the functions of history can seem more difficult to define than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually indispensable, but the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines. To start this journey into historical thinking you will need to either purchase copy of Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen or download the pdf for your tablet or laptop. We will be incorporating this book into our curriculum throughout the year.
-James W. Loewen
Welcome to Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH)!!! I am excited about the upcoming school year and look forward to getting to know you over the next few weeks. This year we will be emphasizing historical thinking skills. These skills are an integral part of what the College Board deems necessary in order to be successful when taking the test next spring. The skills are listed below. We will cover these in more detail this fall.
American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
-James Baldwin
People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the desirable and available branches of knowledge, why insist—as most American educational programs do—on a good bit of history? And why urge many students to study even more history than they are required to?
Any subject of study needs justification: its advocates must explain why it is worth attention. Most widely accepted subjects—and history is certainly one of them—attract some people who simply like the information and modes of thought involved. But audiences less spontaneously drawn to the subject and more doubtful about why to bother need to know what the purpose is.
Historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve useful purposes, the functions of history can seem more difficult to define than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually indispensable, but the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines. To start this journey into historical thinking you will need to either purchase copy of Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen or download the pdf for your tablet or laptop. We will be incorporating this book into our curriculum throughout the year.