Teachers: Suzanne Hollingsworth & Luke Leba
In social studies, Luke and Susanne are faithful to the Open School tradition, while making sure that our students meet the state requirements for graduation. Since the United States is becoming more diverse every year and the world seems to shrink daily, our classes continue to emphasize some of the original Open School social studies graduation requirements from over thirty years ago - understanding other cultures and current issues.
Classes include some traditional-sounding classes and some more unusual ones:
• American History
• Citizenship
• Current Issues
• Diverse Perspectives
• Documentary Making
• Economics
• Geography
• History Projects
• Politics
• Psychology
• World Cultures
• World History
Susanne and Luke are firm believers in students demonstrating what they know through projects, and all classes require them. These can be as elaborate as History Day projects where students spend an entire trimester researching and developing, or much smaller, week-long summary projects. A few of the classes are taught lecture style, most involve a lot of discussion, and some emphasize independent and small group work throughout the trimester. Some classes use textbooks (you need one for economics!), but Susanne teaches geography almost entirely with atlases and computers. Students are encouraged to find other ways than classes to meet social studies requirements.
In addition to their high school social studies classes, Susanne teaches Thematic Journeys with Bridget and Leo (see the English section for a description) and beginning computer skills, and Luke teaches Read 180 for students who need some extra work on reading skills.
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