The Blockest. 1995

Syllabus - Adv. World Cultures 2 2017/18

To be read by PARENTS and STUDENTS DO NOT LOSE THIS - it is your GUIDE for the whole year

Andrew Frye, B.A History; M.A. Liberal Studies [Philosophy/History

afrye@grantspass.k12.or.us / 474-5710 x146

This is an RCC College Now - College Credit Course * You’ll get more info on this in October or November

Course Description

“The business of education is not to make the young mind perfect in any of the sciences, but to so open and dispose their minds as may best make them capable of any - when they shall apply themselves to it.”

- John Locke (1632-1704) Welcome to the sophomore block - or, as it is officially known: Advanced World Cultures II and Advanced

Humanities II. 1 Let’s talk about that part right there. “Advanced” implies that students are held to a higher standard, that excellence and challenge are part of the experience merited by the label (as far as labels tell us anything). Sometimes we use the term “Honors”. (You’ll notice we actually use a lot of terms to describe this class). Honor implies a reward, but it also means an ethic of honesty, responsibility, and respect. “World Cultures” means that we will study the cultures (history, customs, ideologies, art, literature, politics) of various places in the world - that is, we will try to get you out of Grants Pass and even out of our American-centered mind set and try to see things from a global perspective. Yet, as we see things globally, I think you will find that you are better able to

understand your own culture and yourself. As for the “Humanities” (that’s Zottola), it also encompasses culture. Z will guide you through the world of literature (primarily) and we also look at art, ideas, and history on his side. (Ah ha, you think to yourself, there is the integration, the reason we open the wall, have two adults – well, supposedly - in the room, and have two subjects sort of mixed up).

“History is philosophy teaching by example.” - Thucydides, ancient Greek historian

However, while this class may help you win on Jeopardy, most of you will forget most of the factoids that you learn in here. So why are we here? (Thank you for asking). Our purpose in here is not data memorization or the mad scramble for valedictorian points or other brownies, but learning. The experiences of others before you who have asked the REALLY BIG Questions and sought Truth (yes with a big T) are valuable to study, sometimes as cautions and other times as illuminations. History and literature can help us get to know ourselves better. 1 Otherwise known as the Frye-Zottola Thing, the Bastille, the Cave, the Sisyphian Rock, Room 101, Father Frye & Brother Martin, Sophomore Block, “Honors”, Advanced Humans, ‘that really hard class’, the Gulag, the Show, etc....

The class is also about some very practical skills, tools, and concepts to help you survive in any academic situation. You’ll learn how to write, how to engage in critical thinking, how to engage each other in serious discussion, how to defend your point of view, time management, note taking - in short, the skills you need to survive in college and beyond as a thinking human being in a demanding, information-packed, hectic, competitive 21st century. History is a wonderful tool for engaging in critical thinking. At this level, it’s not the dates that matter but the WHY’s and HOW’s of history - the SO WHAT. The great themes of literature also cause us to think; the two subjects are inextricably linked together. Both of them require a response of critical thought and clear, lucid, and precise expression in writing and speaking - that’s a big part of what we do. In fact, if you don’t do well with reading and writing, this class may not be for you. But if you want to improve in those areas, we are here to help.

“The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it when the conditions are still unfavorable...favorable conditions never come.”

- C.S. Lewis Not gonna lie - this is a challenging class. Quality work and deep thought are up ahead; for some of you it may be the first time you have had to really dig deep and do your best. Remember that Thomas Edison defined genius as 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration - so get ready to sweat a bit. But the purpose is to prepare you so that, in the future, you will be ready to overcome challenges as you climb toward your goals and dreams. You are honors students. I expect quality work, 100% effort and an attitude that thrives on challenges rather than whining at inconveniences. In return, you will find that we will treat your ideas with respect and we will treat you as more responsible than the average students, thus giving you more freedom - but more responsibility for your fate in this class. At times I may be like the proverbial drill instructor, at other times your cheerleader; but remember that your destiny, your grade, and what you get out of this class are up to you. Besides, you’ll be surprised what you can do if you put your mind to it. You’re not a little kid anymore, and you’ll be treated as such - have fun and good luck.

Communication

My Web Page is accessible via the district website under GPHS Faculty. Every assignment is ATTACHED to the calendar on the day it is handed out and all due dates are posted. All assignments are ATTACHED in WORD. Study guides are also posted. GO TO: www.grantspass.k12.or.us … go to the GPHS homepage, select and find my name under “staff.” Scroll down to the bottom for a calendar and all assignments. Academic Support: The first line of help is to utilize office hours or CAVE time. Parents please feel free to EMAIL [most efficient] at any time – do not wait for conferences if you have a concern. Students: My home number is 474 7671 - this is for students to use. Please do not call before 8:00am on weekends...never call after 9:00pm. (Note: parents, please call me at GPHS only, unless it’s an emergency; I have voice mail at work # 474 5710 x146)...Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions - answering them is what I get paid to do.

“I learned to look behind to see what’s ahead…and I learned never to start a land war in Asia” - Anthony Jacobs, former Frye student, reflecting at the end of the 2006-07 block

Grades & Policies Progress reports will be mailed home at the 6 week point and 12 week point in each semester. Grades will be issued at the end of the first and second semester. Parents and students are encouraged to follow progress on Power School. Visit the district webpage to learn more about how to access your account. There are 2 categories of grades: 70% for Tests [including final exams], Quizzes, and [clearly identified] take home ASSESSMENTS. Tests can be retaken. Pop quizzes cannot be retaken. All students will take the final exam. 30% for all other assignments – make no mistake, homework counts. * SEPARATE GRADES for Zottola & Frye - though integrated assignments will count in both grade books. There will be several integrated assignments during the year. Required Texts * Sources of the Western Tradition - A useful (if somewhat battered) paperback reader which we use extensively. * The Quest – the main history text and readings. You will only receive one copy but you may mark in this and it is yours to keep. * you need a set of colored pencils.

Late Work or Missing Work: Late work can be turned in for full credit until the TEST DAY for that unit. {This includes assignments due the day of the test}. Work can be turned in for late [partial] credit [no higher than a

70%] up to 2 weeks after the test date but never after the end of the semester deadline. After that, work will not be accepted (except for major semester projects). {This includes assignments due the day of the test}. Unit deadlines will be posted as the year progresses on the calendar, on the board, and on the class website. * IF YOU EMAIL WORK – it needs to be here the day it’s due by class time and in Word or pdf file format. (Google docs is annoying…I’d rather not) …Any technical issues are your responsibility. * If work is illegible, it is wrong - so be NEAT (type of you must). * Students absent on the test day are expected to have all their work done and take the test the day they return. Extended absences will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

Test Retakes {unit tests only; there are no “pop quiz” retakes} NOTE: Retakes are only allowed if all UNIT assignments for that unit have been completed. TWO OPTIONS: 1. Take home “fix”: Turn in the test with corrections and get the lowest C. * A due date for this will be posted for each test. * This option is NOT available for the final exam. OR… 2. Take an alternate version of the test for the higher grade. Only one retake test will be offered. However, students taking an alternate version of the test MUST complete option 1 as their TICKET to take the alternate test. * This option is NOT available for the final exam.2

2 Proficiency policies do not necessarily apply to GPHS classes offered for college credit through RCC or SOU, as per D7

policy and correlation agreements with those colleges.

Class Policies: And now, a few words on BEHAVIOR * Respect each other (be polite, don’t touch others or their stuff without permission, listen) * Do as you are told - promptly * Clean up your messes * Think before acting * Cheating and dishonesty are the things that really make me upset.

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE; this means...

DO NOT COPY OTHERS ON HOMEWORK DO NOT COPY PRIOR STUDENTS DO NOT COPY FROM THE NET DO NOT REGURGITATE THE TEXT VERBATIM. (This includes stealing partial phrases, or rearranging a few words here and there but essentially still copying). While it is OK to work together, actual work is to be YOUR OWN WORDS - not the TEXT, not a FRIEND, not YOUR parents. - YOURS. Any cases of cheating or plagiarism may result in a zero and a result in a referral to the vice principal.

THE COURSE - SEMESTER ONE [up to 1850]

Week 1-4 - INDUCTION INTO THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING In which you are sworn in as junior historians and join our epistemological quest; buckle up buckaroos, “thar’ be heavy seas ahead…” [{Re-} Introduction to Scholarship]…then We take a brief look at the foundations of civilization; including those amazing G[r]eeks, roamin’ Romans, and a certain Jewish carpenter with superstar qualities. In which we discover out that the Dark Ages weren’t, why no one could flea the Black Death, and why Machiavelli was no prince. [The Foundation of Western Civilization, BC[e] to Renaissance]

Week 5-7 – EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD

We travel east to learn about a prophets, gurus, and dynasties that ate duck and blew things up (but did not live in a swamp). Then we’ll go west in order to go east with an explorer whose famous for landing somewhere he did not know he was…and why the real way to go east was to go south. We’ll find out about globalization and corporate piracy – literally, arrrrgh - 600 years ago. [Eastern Civilizations and Age of Discovery, ancient times to 1700s]

Week 8-11: A MAD MONKS, A MEGALOMANIAC MONARCH, and MATHEMATICAL MAYHEM

We’ll see the return of the kings, the rise of the state and the post before Facebook that changed the world. We’ll inquire about inquisitive inquisitors, learn about a homicidal king who was obsessed with his calves and his heir, sail with a seasick admiral, and see how theological rebels created political ones. Then the geeks feel the earth move, Isaac Newton discovers that an apple a day can be more than just a dietary supplement, a Dutch lens crafter discovers little beasties, and we study cardiac logic with a guy who sewed his notes in his coat lining. [The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, 1517-1700]

Week 12-15: THE RISE AND FALL OF KINGS

Royal weirdoes galore! A giant king, a sun king, a philosopher king, and a loco king! Then we’ll clean the white board of our mind with Mr. Locke and launch a revolution with those darn Yankees. Then lots of people who dreamed a dream lose their heads - some literally - and give a whole new meaning to the term ‘revolting’; and a short guy with a Napoleon

complex - which is ok because he is Napoleon - just wants to rule the world. [Kings, Enlightenment and the French Revolutionary Era; Late 1600s-1815]

Week 16-17: SMOKE ON THE WATER…. We find out Watt’s up with a Dickens of a world which led to lots of Les Miserables, but eventually gave us flush toilets, light bulbs, and choo-choos. [The Industrial Era Begins, 1750s-1850]

THE COURSE - SEMESTER TWO [c.1800-2010]

Week 1-4: VICTORIA’S REAL SECRET…

Ah, isn’t the 19th century Romantic? Er, well, not really. Grimy industrial cities, massive poverty, and the French are always storming the barricades! We go back to when Royal Navy ruled the seas, Victoria reigned but let Parliament rule, and the working class began to really struggle. We’ll find out why Marx got so grouchy about those who were filthy rich, the later Victorians monkeyed around, tried to kill God, sought the wizards of id, and some warned that we were becoming mere cogs in the machine. [Culture and Society in the Victorian Era, 1830s -1914]

Week 5-8: BLOOD AND IRON, WHITE MEN’S BURDENS, AND THE WAR TO END ALL WAR

We go back to when it was cool to be French, a rush to be Russian, important to be Portuguese, a treat to be Dutch, even the Yanks hankered for colonies, the Belgians had more than hazelnut waffles, and Rule Brittania was more than a song …until Flanders fields ran red with the blood of millions. [Nationalism, Imperialism, WW I - 1815-1919]

Week 9-13: EXCUSE ME, IS THAT YOUR CIVILIZATION BURNING? The West gets doubly depressed, while Gandhi and other rebels are repressed, natives repossess their colonies, Stalin makes the Russians oppressed, and - in a Tolkienesque struggle of war and the Holocaust - the modern world is stressed in a dark hour indeed. [Rebels, Depressions, and World War II, 1919-1945]

Week 14-18 IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT From Uncle Joe to Gorby, the West defeats the Red Menace; only to find new challenges from the capitalist communists in Beijing, the Euphoric Eunified Euros, and a new guy just Putin his nation on top. Then we’ll try to peel the onion that is the modern Middle East and end with a bird’s eye view of the so-called Third World. Finally, we sum up our philosophical musings wondering wither or whether the West will wend its way to wisdom or woe. [Cold War, Postwar Geopolitics, and Postmodernity, 1940s-present]

“The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things - the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.” - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

AND NOW, A WORD TO PARENTS.... The honors humanities classes at GPHS emphasize critical, high level thinking, writing, and sophisticated academic skills. The workload in advanced courses, especially in the sophomore through senior years, is demanding and sophisticated. Teachers give students more responsibility and independence, but the expectations are very high. Students are expected to be self motivated and self disciplined. They will be treated as young adults in both respect and expectation. Students with extracurricular demands will be given reasonable accommodation, but are generally expected to maintain the same pace and excellence as the other students. At the same time, the block classes are places where it is cool to love learning, where students engage in old fashioned rigorous study and in independent explorations. Teachers blend the best of the old with creative simulations and activities to create an intense, fun, deep, rich, academic atmosphere in order to nurture those students who chose to make the most of their academic opportunities. The Level of Challenge - Why? In four year universities, statistics show that 3 out of 4 college freshmen will not graduate within 5 years [now the normal undergraduate stay] of entering college. For most of them, there are three problems: Poor work ethic, poor study habits, and no purpose to be there. If you have chosen to be in an honors course, I am assuming that it is my job to give your child the tools and experiences to succeed in a four-year

university setting, at least as far as the first two causes are concerned. The third, however, is up to you and your student. And, I also think you will find that your students will gain a mastery of history and ideas [teaching to that end is my duty as well] that will truly impress you. I know I am always impressed by how bright, creative, and advanced your kids are! Let me dispel two myths.... One: The purpose of school is not to get grades. It is to get an education, and those are not necessarily synonymous. If your student will learn to learn and to love learning and to do their best, they will get a just and fair grade. And, unlike college (here’s where I do not replicate the university rigor ) there are numerous second chances and safety nets to ensure that their grade is fair. Two: “Why get an honors B when I could get an easy A?” Two reasons: First, college admissions counselors prefer an honors B over a regular A as documented in Time, US News & World Report and Newsweek. Second, if you want your child to be a success when they get to college, the honors program at GPHS is one of the best preparations they can get; like a grueling practice before the playoffs. They can either get pushed hard (and, yes perhaps stumble) here - where we are ready to catch them, dust them off, and get them going again - or they can learn it their freshmen year of college where there is little help and it costs a lot of money. College professors neither know nor care who the valedictorians are in their classes - they do continually complain how ill-prepared most college students are in areas of writing, thinking, and work habits. Advanced classes are not the only paths to success - there are some other fantastic teachers here at GPHS. But, if you and your child have accepted the challenge of honors courses, then I would be derelict in my duty to your children if I did not demand their best effort and give them the training and work habits that will prepare them for a university. Oh, and they’ll have some fun and learn a lot of cool stuff, too!

What you can do.... * Every one of my assignments is handed out on PAPER, with DUE dates. There is always3 something to do (homework, project, research paper, test to study for) - and I mean always. Hold your student accountable and teach them time management. (However, I certainly encourage cutting apron strings too - it is time they grew up). * Talk to them: What are you learning about? What are you reading? (I warn you, the topics we cover are intense...and after two decades in education, I never cease to be amazed at just what your kids are capable of when challenged). Argue, debate, discuss... and listen to what they have to say. History and literature - at their roots - deal with values and the search for what it means to be human....don’t miss this conversation with your kids! * Encourage, encourage, encourage - grades are important, but they are not everything. Instead, demand their best effort...and praise them for it. * Communicate with teachers - email is most efficient. We have 120-160 students - you have one. In many cases, you will see problems before we will. Email [preferred] or call any time. You are welcome to sit in on classes any time. Don’t wait for conferences if you feel the need to talk to us sooner.

“The chief object of education is not to learn things, but to unlearn things.” - G.K. Chesterton

3 Except Christmas Break, the weekend between semesters, and Spring Break…and even then there may be an ongoing term paper that

could use work.

TEAR THIS SHEET OFF TO RETURN BACK TO MR. FRYE AWC II - PARENT / STUDENT

Student... {Print name:______________________________________________________}

I have read the entire syllabus. I understand the expectations and challenge before me and agree to do my best this year. ___________________________________________(signature) _______________(date)

Parent.....

We have read the world’s longest high school syllabus and the note to parents. We agree to encourage our student in their endeavors. We understand and support the expectations of the class. We agree to contact the teacher if we have questions or concerns. ___________________________________________(signature) _______________(date) I agree to give your students my best efforts as an instructor, to be as clear as I can in communication, to treat them with respect, to answer questions honestly, to be a positive role model and encouragement to their efforts, to reward their successes and firmly but respectfully correct their errors so that they may learn.

A. Frye THIS IS DUE ______________________________________________[tba]