This is an introductory unit to cover the basis of generational studies as well explaining how to look at modern history. The course is structured around the history of the past twenty years, but uses the lives of people in the past to show how events in our lives (and our perceptions of them) shape how we move forward.
This unit discusses child-rearing and global fears in a world before everyone became hyper-aware of the “constant threat of terrorism” and school violence preparedness. This unit discusses childbirth across time/the globe (compare/contrast), the emergence/realization of Y2K anxieties and excitement, and the role of America as a super power.
This unit follows two themes: How do we raise & educate children in the modern world? How did we react to 9/11? What were the impacts of the 2008 Economic Crash? Often those two themes overlap, just as key events in history have always shaped how we raise our offspring. This unit will look at how they were brought up, and how that differed from their parents and those around the world (past and present). It will also take time to look at the changes in the educational systems over time, as now their cohort is entering the school systems.
This unit focuses on the roll of technology, digital connectivity, and testing on the lives of the students. How did technology change during you middle school years? Was it for the better? This unit also looks at the increasing roll of standardized testing on your lives and how that factored into your education (and where those tests came from).
HIGH SCHOOL
This unit looks at what has been going on around you while you’ve been in high school: What have you seen? What have you missed? It looks at the impact that the ongoing war on terror has had on a generation of teens, the perceived adult reaction to teens, an increase in citizen activism, and how the economic choices of their lifetimes came to fruition. The unit then compares these with teens from other eras (ex: Vietnam, The Roaring 20s, and the Great Depression) to show the similarities and differences between the generations.
In this final unit, we will compare/contrast your lives with those who came before you (or who lives somewhere else contemporaneously) and will be presenting projects to the class about this topic. The final unit is discussion based, talking about the educated hypotheses that they can make about their futures, based upon those that came before them.
Units
