Programs
Academic Program
History
About the Program
Archer’s History department believes that studying different perspectives is essential to a critical, nuanced, and informed understanding of our world. Students across all grade levels are expected to form thoughtful questions, use credible evidence for reasoning, and engage with a variety of viewpoints. Our scholars are taught that civil discourse and respectful disagreement are not only a healthy part of dialogue but also the bedrock of democratic civic engagement. Our faculty make space for both intellectual and emotional reflection and embrace teaching the full spectrum of history from oppression to resistance, sorrow to celebration, continuity to revolution.
We empower students to think like historians, which includes the following habits of mind adapted from the National Council for History Education:
-
Recognize that history is an evolving narrative constructed from available sources, meaningful inferences, and changing interpretations.
-
Perceive past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy rather than present-mindedness.
-
Interrogate texts and artifacts, posing questions about the past that foster informed discussion, reasoned debate, and evidence-based interpretation.
-
Read critically to discern differences between fact and opinion and to frame practical questions about the past.
-
Appreciate the diversity of cultures and variety of historical contexts, as well as distinguish elements of our shared and connected humanity.
-
Realize that all individuals are decision-makers but that personal and public choices are often restricted by time, place, and circumstance.
-
Negotiate a complex, often uncertain, and ambiguous world, equipped with an appreciation for multiple perspectives and multiple truths.
-
Engage in patient reflection and constant reexamination of the past and present.
In all history classes, students examine artifacts, evaluate sources, contextualize, discuss, research, and analyze modern media and current events. In addition to academic rigor and scholarship, students benefit from exploring interdisciplinary pathways along with artistic expression to enhance their learning.
Humanities at Archer
Willow S. '22
"I love that we are taught to look at everything from different perspectives than our own in the humanities. It helps me to better understand things that are happening in the world."
Course Offerings
List of 7 items.
-
History 6: Young Historians in the Ancient World
-
History 7: All Systems Go
-
History 8: The Road to Right Now
-
History 9: Understanding the Contemporary World
-
History 10: Questioning the West
-
U.S. History
-
History Senior Seminar
- Elections
- Economics
- The Pursuit of Happiness
- Gender Studies
- Ethics and Social Justice
The Archer School for Girls admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status in its hiring or in the administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, financial aid programs or other school-administered programs.
The Archer School for Girls’ mission is to educate students in an environment specifically designed for girls. As such, the school will consider any candidate for admission who identifies as a girl. Once admitted to Archer, all students in good academic standing who abide by Archer’s code of conduct and who meet requirements for graduation will be eligible to receive an Archer diploma, regardless of any change in sexual identity or other legally protected status.
