Thoughts on the American Thought and Culture Class

Courtesy of Quote.com

Courtesy of Quote.com

Olivia Scott '17, Student Life Section Editor

This year, Marymount students had the opportunity to take a new English and History class called American Thought and Culture. This course spans the length of two class periods and concentrates on prominent aspects of United States history, literature, religion, philosophy, art, and music.

Since this is the first year it has ever been taught, Sydney Freeman, a junior, recalled, “at first, I was hesitant about taking this class because I wasn’t sure how the new program would work; however, after the first day of class, all of my reservations flew out the window.” Mr. Baker also remarked that he really enjoys teaching American Thought and Culture because, “it’s a thematic based class, so [he doesn’t] have to go chapter by chapter.” Rather, he enjoys that he is able to “teach thematically.” He elaborated that, “for example, the first unit was Women and Oppression [and] the second unit is on African Americans and oppression, so I’m able to teach to the themes… it gives me a lot of freedom to teach really what I want to teach when it comes to history.” Sydney also particularly enjoys having her English and History classes “back to back” because she believes that because they “discuss the same content,” it “allows students to grasp a better understanding of the material.”

While both the American Thought and Culture class and the AP United States History classes tackle themes of US History, Mr. Baker explained that American Thought and Culture is different “in the sense that there is not as much content that is covered. We cover a similar amount of content and we use a similar book to APUSH… but, it’s not as much.” Although, despite the fact that less information is covered in American Thought and Culture than in APUSH, students in both classes, “are expected to understand skills.” One of the most emphasized of these skills “is Change and Continuity Over Time, [or] what has changed and what has stayed the same throughout US History, and they look at that thematically.”  For instance, in “the women and oppression unit, they would look at what has changed with women since the colonial period and what has stayed the same since the colonial period.” Mr. Baker also noted that “the unit tests will be challenging.” However, “the essay writing will be just as challenging as AP US History”, and the American Thought and Culture girls will learn how to do a comprehensive research paper as well.

In addition to the content of the course, students benefit from taking American Thought and Culture because “they will learn how to do college-level research.” Students “will learn how to write things like annotated bibliographies, which you do in college. They will learn how to write a full research paper, like you will do in college, and that will definitely be the most beneficial as far as skill development goes.” By the end of the course, Mr. Baker claims, “they’ll be able to synthesize points from multiple time periods, and … will come to appreciate history more than if they were just in a class that taught it chronologically.” He also commented that students “will get to learn about history from multiple perspectives, or specific viewpoints,” such as those of women, African Americans, and Latinos.

While Mr. Baker said that he doesn’t “know if the students knew what they were getting into when they took the class,” Sydney stresses that the unique style of the course “allows [her] to understand the subject better,” and she would “strongly encourage other students to take the class!”