Upper School History

Being rooted in the tradition of liberal arts education, Boston Trinity Academy believes it is important for students to not only learn various disciplines, but to be able to see the interconnectedness of the disciplines. This allows students to synthesize various streams of thought to better understand a topic and find more meaningful solutions.

To facilitate this way of thinking, Upper School students take Humanities 9 during their freshman year. This course (2½ credits) integrates English, History, and Biblical Studies and explores themes of Western Civilization from literary, historical, and biblical perspectives.

Humanities 9 addresses the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Students explore this question by studying literature, drama, historical texts, primary sources, and the biblical narrative. They learn about the origins of early Western culture by reading Homer’s The Odyssey and simultaneously examining the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. They compare and contrast the Pax Romana with the gospel of Matthew and the history of the early church. Finally, they pursue the transforming effects of Christianity on both the Roman and Germanic cultures, from which emerge a revolutionary idea of what it means to be human.

Humanities 10 is an interdisciplinary course designed to explore two questions: Who are our global neighbors? And what are their stories?  It builds on Humanities 9, where students investigated a pair of more fundamental questions:  What does it mean to be human? And how do we make sense of forces like good and evil? Since the strongest drivers of change in world history are money and religion, this course begins (unit 1) with a two-part “Introduction”: we study the basics of economic theory as a lens through which historians interpret the past; and we explore themes in the Gospel of Luke as a platform from which Christians appreciate their neighbors and interact appropriately.  The Bible is most relevant when studied in living context both ancient and modern, and the meaning of history becomes sharpest when studied in light of the Creator of time. The bulk of the course (units 2-6) divides evenly between investigations into five regions of the world: The Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America, and East Asia.  We analyze the impact of the past on particular problematic issues today.  At the same time, we study some of life’s most difficult questions (about nationalism, slavery, marginalization, poverty and war) in light of the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. By year’s end, students improve in three broad areas: knowledge, critical thinking and writing. They gain a richer understanding of the relevance of biblical values to world problems, the contributions and mistakes made by Christians historically when interacting with their neighbors, and the challenges and benefits of integrating kingdom principles into contemporary global contexts.

AP European History students analyze and assess the distinctive nature of modern society as it emerged from medieval Christian Europe. By studying the experiences, arguments, and responses of those involved in the dramatic events from the Renaissance to our radically globalized contemporary world, students are challenged to develop their own perspectives and are better equipped to explore questions of historical identity for themselves. Students will be well prepared to take the College Board AP examination in May, but they may also take the course for non-AP history credit.

United States History: Evidence and Records runs like a college seminar. It focuses on three key themes including faith, liberty, and empire, and moves from the experiment of Colonial America to the complex global present. Students focus on “doing history” while writing eight research papers. They read extensively from original key documents and sharpen their analysis in the context of small-group discussions. Drawing on this collective work, they then write evidence-based essays tackling one major question relevant to each period.