2024-2025 Course Flipbook v2 - Flipbook - Page 40
12TH GRADE HISTORY PRACTICUM
The required (6-11) scope of history courses at The Field School is designed to give
students a breadth of exposure to global and United States history. In these senior-level
practicum courses, students will make their mark on the many 昀椀elds of practice (policy,
diplomacy, arts, education, etc) in which we see historical knowledge and thinking skills
at play by combining specialized knowledge with skills that they have developed and
honed throughout their Field careers. Each of the following courses requires that students
engage in intensive reading, deep analysis, dynamic discussion, and interest-driven
research.
HISTORY
HISTORY PRACTICUM: HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Holocaust and Human Behavior uses the curriculum from the Shoah Foundation
and Facing History & Ourselves, nonpro昀椀t educational organizations which seek
to engage students of diverse backgrounds in examining racism, prejudice, and
antisemitism to promote a more humane and informed citizenry. Throughout
the course, students make essential connections between history and the moral
choices they confront in their own lives. Through a rigorous examination of the
scope of Jewish history and a particular focus on the shtetl experience, the
failure of democracy in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, the events of the
Holocaust, and the legacy and memory of acts of genocide on citizens, students
learn to combat prejudice with compassion, indifference with participation, and
myth and misinformation with knowledge. By studying the human choices that
led to critical historical episodes, students learn to identify how issues of identity
and membership, ethics, and judgment have meaning today and in the future.
Students read The Wave by Todd Strasser, Night by Elie Weisel, The Sun昀氀ower by
Simon Wisenthal, excerpts from People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn, as well as
an abundance of primary sources including recorded testimony. Students apply
the expertise they cultivate in this course to an extensive legacy project that is
class-coordinated to have an intentional impact on the Field community. This
