New Ninth Grade History Curriculum

After years of teaching the same curriculum for ninth-grade history, the School has decided to change it, and here’s why. 

The new history curriculum being taught in the ninth grade is on ethnic studies in the U.S while the old one mainly focused on global studies. The previous curriculum dived deep into the history of three major countries: China, Russia, and Cuba. 

Although students learned the complex history, origin and impacts of those countries in the old curriculum, the School wanted ninth grade history to be centered and relevant with students in the U.S. and experiences there instead of in foreign countries as they transition into the Upper School.

In a recent interview,  Kyong Pak, the Global Studies Coordinator and Ninth-Grade History Teacher, spoke about how the School wanted to create a foundational course where all Ninth Graders could learn about identity, race, gender, class, culture, and the stories of people in the U.S. The course would teach them how to become better students and community members. 

According to Pak, the School had been thinking about changing the curriculum for years but put the process on pause because of the pandemic and the complications that came with it. She described how they thought that one year of U.S. history in high school, originally just taught in tenth grade, isn’t enough to understand the broad experiences and the history of different groups here.

The School finally decided to take action because of a new law in California, requiring all public high schools to teach ethnic studies. This law is what motivated the School to switch their ninth grade history classes to ethnic studies. 

Despite the large switch, the old curriculum wasn’t completely scrapped. The ethnic studies course still asks students  essential questions like, “What are the types of oppression in the world?”, “Why do people resist what leads to revolutions or change?” and “How do we create a more just society?” 

Ninth-Grade History Teacher Yosup Joo stated, “Ethnic studies, History Nine, is a course that will teach students how to think critically in a modern world, and our hope is that it does so in a more relevant and student-centered way than the previous curriculum.” 

Joo expressed how he enjoys this curriculum and teaching ethnic studies because it starts with the people in this nation and their own identities instead of dates and timelines.

 Pak and Joo mentioned how the main goal of the new curriculum is to let students explore and discover their own identities, while also connecting them to their family and community’s history. The School hopes students will gain more empathy with each other and learn to understand everyone’s individual background. This course can not only make every

student a better person, but it can create a more supportive and inclusive community at the School and in the world.

Ethnic studies is taught since it teaches students how to use what they learned in the future. Pak hopes that at the end of ninth grade, ethnic studies will help students feel more confident, so they can make a difference in the world. She explained, “I think so many times, students are just not comfortable having those conversations, but I think if we set it like these are conversations we’re going to have in ninth grade through studying these histories, you are going to then be better prepared for having those conversations outside of the classroom.”

In addition, Pak mentioned that ethnic studies is focused on helping  students feel more comfortable talking about their identities and exploring them so they feel more comfortable sharing them in the real world. 

Is this course a permanent replacement? Pak stated that she hopes that the change is permanent because of how it can positively affect students and their learning experience. Pak also expressed how hard the history department and school worked to facilitate this change and create new lesson plans and questions for the students. 

The School classifies this year as a “pilot year” because it’s the start of a new curriculum. Therefore, ethnic studies will be reviewed next spring to see if it should be finalized in the regular history curriculum. 

To conclude, the ninth grade history curriculum has been changed to ethnic studies because of its valuable influence on students, making them learn more about their identities and helping them critically think not just in Upper School, but beyond to make a more inclusive and just world.