2news In Flight Student repeats as talent winner • Junior Brayden Dickerson won first place for the second year at the annual Arts for Individuals talent show on March 4. Dickerson sang and played an original song, “Shining Bright,” on the piano. • At the annual Western Carolina University Foreign Language Competition, sophomore Ally Pfotzer placed first in Spanish show-andtell; senior Katie King placed first in Spanish Level 4 extemporaneous speaking; and students competing in Spanish music placed first. In the French competition, senior Katie O’Shea placed third in French Level 4 extemporaneous speaking. • All JROTC cadets, friends and family members will attend the military ball and awards ceremony at the Bonclarken Conference Center on April 8. • FFA members attended the state livestock judging competition on March 29 in Raleigh and took fifth place. • The Hunter Safety Shooting team took third place at the district tournament on March 19 and qualified for the state shooting competition on April 30. The team placed first in both shotgun and rifle competition.
wingspan • april 8, 2011
State’s U.S. history curriculum expanded to two semester courses Natalie Rice
A
Junior Editor
s if high school isn’t intimidating enough, when the seventh graders at Rugby and middle schools across the state enter high school as the Class of 2016 they will have one more required core class to worry about. They will be the first students to be required to pass two U.S. history courses to graduate. “We have always thought that cramming all of U.S. history into one semester was not really good for the students,” social studies teacher Angela Perry said. “U.S. history, and history in general, is basically the only course that gets longer. It continues to grow because yesterday was history. Today we’re making history, so it makes sense to have it in two courses,” Perry said. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has recently approved the new Social Studies Essential Standards for grades K-12. The part of the new standards that will change high school social studies curricula the most is the addition of a second required U.S. history course. The U.S. History I course will feature a study of European exploration of the New World through the Reconstruction Era (post Civil War). The U.S. History II course will feature a study of the 19th century to the current time period. The main question with the addition of a second course is when the two U.S. history courses will be taken.
At one point, the first U.S. history course was considered for implementation in the eighth grade, but this plan was changed when social studies teachers decided that U.S. history is too difficult for younger students, Perry said. Perry and social studies teacher Frank Gerard are proposing two different plans for when the two courses should be taught. The first would be for world history to remain in the ninth grade, civics and economics in the 10th grade, U.S. I in the 11th and U.S. II in the 12th grade. The second plan would be to move civics and economics from the 10th grade to the 12th and replace it with U.S. I. U.S. II would then follow in the 11th grade, keeping the two courses in consecutive years. Civics and economics would be taken in the 12th grade. When the new sequence of social studies courses is decided, it will be the same at all high schools in the county excluding Hendersonville High. “The reason for this countywide decision is because we have a lot of students who transfer from one school to another. So we need to be consistent across the board. The only school that will be different is Hendersonville because they are on the traditional schedule as opposed to the block,” Principal Dean Jones said. However, at the very least, one semester will be between the two classes. A student could even have U.S. History I in the fall of one year and U.S. History II in the spring of the next, which would put an entire year between the courses. “I think the space between the classes is the only bad
Egypt (cont. from Page 1)
Claim to Fame
“At the time that I was there, I think there were a few minor protests going on, but it was nothing like what’s going on now. I think we saw one that was maybe like 10 people protesting outside a government building, but it was just 10 people; it wasn’t anywhere near the thousands that were doing it just recently.” In addition to Mubarak’s Emergency Law, one of the main issues the Egyptian people face is poverty, Layman said. Many people resort to selling goods on the streets, and children will beg people for money. “It’s very hard for them to get hot water, clean clothes and food. The poverty level between the upper class and the lower class, there’s such a huge divide,” Layman said. “You either get into places that make High Vista look like the slums or you’re living in dumps. There’s no really inbetween. A lot of places are just run down.” Layman had the opportunity to learn about the Muslim faith. From his experience, he feels he gained a perspective on the religion that not many Americans have the opportunity to see. “The American media makes it (Islam) come off as being extremely radical. Even before I went, I had this impression that Muslims as a whole are more devout than Christians, but because I went there, I saw that there were people that were sort of lax in their religion,” Layman said. “Overall, I feel like because their religion is so much more ingrained in their culture than it is for people in the United States, they are a little more closely connected to it, but not as much of a difference as it’s portrayed to be.”
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thing that I could see out of this change. Due to the time that will pass between the two classes, there would most likely be a review period of about half of a nine weeks at the beginning of U.S. II. This situation will take away from learning the 20th century in a whole semester, but it just can’t be helped. I don’t see any way we could put both classes into the same year,” Perry said. It is unclear what will happen to the Advanced Placement U.S. History option students currently have. Teachers will fight to keep the AP U.S. History course, Perry said. Word from NCDPI will come about whether AP U.S. History could follow U.S. I, which would then allow the student to have the four credits required for social studies. If only the AP course is taken, students would be required to take a fourth course such as AP Human Geography. Another concern about the addition is that students will have 12 elective classes rather than the current 13. The local requirement of 28 credits to graduate will remain the same. This could be an issue students in classes such as Allied Health II, which requires two consecutive periods in one of a student’s senior semesters. Under the new social studies standards, financial literacy will be stressed. “I certainly think that students need to be aware of the financial world before they go out into it. Everything from as simple a task as having a debit card to writing checks to keeping account balances, all the way up to investments and retirements. Financial literacy is very important,” Jones said.
Practicing in a dress rehearsal, seniors Eric English and Kara Hamilton (above) act out a scene from the spring musical, Fame. Sophomore Candice Holden and senior Daquan Waters (left) perfect a dance number in dress rehearsal. Fame was performed March 31 to April 2.
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