“How did we get here from there?” This essential question is the basis of the Global Western Civilization course. The course is designed to expose the learner to the development of Western Civilization while endeavoring to connect and compare the roots of Western Civilization to other peoples, cultures, and civilizations around the globe and through time. Through each semester of study there is an overarching essential theme that threads all the units of instruction together. Each semester of study also moves the learn through a deliberate progression of historical analysis skill sets development. The course under takes its survey journey in the fall term, with “the beginning;” a survey of Creation stories from around the world, moves through ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages and finishing up with the significant global shifts that occur with the Age of Exploration. The fall term is threaded together by the theme of “authority.” Sources of it, who wields it, and influences of it. The historical skill emphasis for the fall term is the development of primary source analysis and application skills. In the spring term the course moves forward with revolutions, nationalism, the World Wars and wraps up with the Post-Cold War world. For the spring term the essential theme shifts to “Identity;” how is it shaped, how groups use it, and the change that shifts in identity generate. The historical skills facet of the course moves from document analys is to document use and application for the substantiation of data based historical argumentation. The critical guiding aspiration for the course instructors is to set up the 1st year Oaks High School learner with the applicable skills for a successful career as a student of history during their time at Oaks Christian.

“How does this connect to me?” This essential question is the basis of the Global United States History course. The course is designed to take the learner of United States History on a journey of realization that the Unite d States did not develop in a vacuum isolated from the rest of the globe. For example, how did the Haitian Revolution make it possible for President Jefferson to complete the Louisiana Purchase? The course has an overarching theme that carries on throughout the entire year; “What is the United States of America?” Using document analysis skills developed from the First-Year course, students will develop an ongoing exploration (written product) of the essential theme at the conclusion of each unit of study. The Second-Year course will also endeavor to develop the learner’s presentation skills as there is an emphasis on project-based learning in the course. The fall term starts with the “push-pull” factors of colonization, moves through the founding and forming of the United States, and ends with the Progressive Era of reform. The spring term begins with the United States venturing onto the world stage with its own form of Imperialism, the shaping of a modern United States, and wraps up with the Post-9/11 world of today. A critical guiding principle for the course instructors’ is to connect current events to past events whenever possible so that the learner sees how history is not just a thing of the past.

How does a particular place influence the people that live there? What is culture? These questions are just some of the ones that we will study in this course as we focus on becoming globally-minded citizens. Throughout this course, we will “travel” around the world to learn about different countries while also studying the essential elements of both physical and human geography. Students will get numerous opportunities to apply the knowledge learned in class to real world scenarios through project-based learning.

How has history impacted film? How has film impacted history? Events in history have paved the way on numerous occasions for the film industry to become what we know and love today. Not to mention, history has provided some of the most riveting stories in cinematic history. Likewise, film has become a crucial medium in teaching people about history. In this course, we will study film and its impact on society decade by decade since its creation. We will also endeavor to learn about each decade and various historical events around the world through films.

This course provides students with an overview of the history of the Christian Church, and its place in world history, from the Church’s inception in the 1st century AD to present-day. Students will engage through project-based learning by focusing on major events in the growth and development of the Church, and how the Church interacted with the pagan cultures surrounding it. The course will include content from the 3 major divisions of Christianity--Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant--to encapsulate a more global view of the Church, rather than a strictly Western-based analysis. Students will develop and further their study skills through this course, including primary document analysis, map reading and analysis, critical thinking, and research.

The Vietnam War is a complex and controversial subject. This course will endeavor to navigate the contentious story by presenting perspectives of all sides, including: The Cold War Context, VietnameseNationalism, U.S. PresidentialPolitics, American servicemen and women, Vietnamese civilians, as well as the American Home Front.

The aim of the course is to recount the state’s history from its origins to the present. Our study of California will start with its physical geography and human geography of the Native Americans who settled in California. European discovery and Spanish colonization lead us to the Mexican era. The class will then spend a good amount of time on the Americanization of California and its eventual statehood in 1850. The course will then move through the late 19th century and lead into the pivotal 20th century and the events that have shaped California into the state we know today

“While the history of war is not the history of mankind, humankind’s history cannot be studied fully without reference to war. Moreover, the way in which a nation wages war reveals a great deal about its basic values. Thus, the illuminating qualities of war should be greater interest to the historian of society than the actual stuff of warfare, such as armaments, battles, and tactics. To examine a nation’s experience of war, and its response to it is to learn something fundamental about a nation’s values and its social order.”

-Historian, Ronald Wells

World War II is an epic story. The purpose of this course is to enter into the World War II narrative and become familiar with its participants, their service, and their sacrifice. The course also allows us to examine war itself and to seek to understand why humans wage war as well as investigate what waging war says about us as a people.

Putting women at the center of interpretation, this course will explore the impact of historical events on the lives of women in the United States as well as around the world. The course will take a thematic approach as to how political, social, cultural, and economic forces influenced behavior and societal expectations for women. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Students will learn how a wide variety of women responded to shifting trends and examine how their active participation helped shape societies. Students will apply analytical reading and writing skills. “Close reading” and “active reading” of primary and secondary sources will be modeled and practiced. Assignments will include guided writing responses, research-based presentations, and active classroom discussions.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” an American creed was birthed elevating the social and political expectations of an aspiring nation to an extreme, never before expressed by a people. The values of Equality and Liberty immediately produced a national conundrum: How would the United States of America fulfill its founding ideals and satisfy its vow to all its inhabitants? This national dilemma sparked a movement which began from the inception of the “idea of America” in the late 1700’s and continues today. This Civil Rights course aims to investigate select episodes of the American story in which the involvement of individuals, groups, organizations, and government acted and agitated to transform the U.S. into a more perfected version of itself. This is the story of US.

Toys have always been an integral part of children’s lives and children’s lives have always been an integral part of a societies’ cultural valuation. By studying the history of toys we can see parallels in the development of human societies. Toys, as a cultural byproduct, reflect what the society that produces the toys finds important. Toys for role play. Toys for instructive purposes. Toys that have no genuine practical value beyond frivolity. From a wind-up glided Spanish Galleon toy in the home of a New York Socialite to a Dust Bowl Okie’s old shoe made into a baby doll with a face drawn on the heel, what children played with present a “keyhole” view into the larger room of how the people lived, when they lived, and what they valued. Toys seem to be timeless in the fact that modern toys have roots in ancient societies. The Toys course will look at the early history of toys from around human history and progress through the modern era. Being that the course is a Core Choice there will be a centralized focus on Toys as part of the American experience.

This course includes a study of the Constitution of the United States with an emphasis on American institutions and ideals. Attention is also given to the principles, operation, structure, purpose, and functions of the federal, state, and local government.

Prerequisite: US History and teacher recommendation

AP United StatesHistory (APUSH) is a challenging course that is meant to be the equivalent of a freshman college course and may earn college credit based upon their AP exam score. It is a two-semester survey of American history from the colonial era to the present. Political, social, diplomatic, economic, and cultural/intellectual history shall be studied. Emphasis is placed upon critical and evaluative thinking skills, essay writing, interpretation of original documents, and historiography (the writing of history itself). In addition to providing a sense of historical memory and perspective that will include wrestling with what a Christian worldview of the past might be, another goal of teaching history is to equip students with the necessary tools for them to become independent learners of history in the years to come. These tools include familiarity with primary sources and the ability to analyze and evaluate critically. Reading from period historians and eyewitness accounts, essay writings and the discussion of ideas and concepts in class are the means of equipping our students with these tools of learning.

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation

The purpose of the AP WorldHistory course is to develop greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts in interaction with different styles of human societies. This understanding is advanced through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. The course highlights the nature of changes in international frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge used in conjunction with leading interpretive issues and types of historical evidence. The course builds on an understanding of cultural, institutional, and technological precedents that, along with geography, set the human stage. Periodization, explicitly discussed, forms an organizing principle for recognizing change and continuity throughout the course. Specific themes provide further organization to the course, along with consistent attention to contacts among societies that form the core of world history as a field of study which allows for the development of comparisons and evaluations of change over time.

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation

AP Human Geography introduces students to college-level introductory human geography or cultural geography. The content is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline’s main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies are drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human–environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction. (This course is also a part of the Institute for Global Leadership course list).

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation

In AP European History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from approximately 1450 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course also provides seven themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: interaction of Europe and the world, economic and commercial development, cultural and intellectual development, states and other institutions of power, social organization and development, national and European identity, and technological and scientific innovations.

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation

This American government and politics course requires the development of a significant level of abstract thinking that goes beyond mere description of factual information and practical knowledge. This requires careful and rigorous attention to the subject and its presentation in the course. The instructional methods and products associated with this course will provide students with the opportunity to develop a factual working knowledge of American government and politics as well as the sophisticated explanatory skills to demonstrate that knowledge. It is critical that students develop the ability to express themselves clearly and in an organized fashion

Written to the college board objectives, the student’s performance on the AP exam will reflect the college readiness of the exam respondent. Therefore, there will be extensive reading, rigorous exams, numerous writing assignments as well as other products associated with topics covered. The underlying purpose of all assignments and instructional strategies is twofold: to develop in students a confidence to be informed and active citizens participating in the political process, and to prepare students for the successful passage of the AP exam. Students must be actively engaged in their own learning in order to learn effectively. It is therefore quite important for students to take initiative in the coverage of material, timely completion of assignments, and proper preparation for assessments.