Welcome

Dear Fellow Students,

I am very excited that we will be looking at Western Civilization together this coming year. The subject matter that we will be studying is a great deal of fun. It is also important. Understanding how Western Civilization has developed will help you understand the world around you and may even help you discover your place in God's plan.

Here are a few important details about the class:

1. You are expected to have at least started studying the material for a given week's class prior to our meeting on Wednesday morning. The better prepared you are for the class the more you will learn (and the more you will contribute to your fellow students). Write down your questions and see if we can answer them together.
2. This class is not merely about memorizing a bunch of new facts. We are going to work on thinking clearly, critically, and christianly about history.
3. I will post a list of items that I want you to look at or think about prior to our class. These posts will be on this blog at least 6 days prior to class. These will be very brief and should not take more than about 15 minutes of your time. The purpose of these posts is to give you a heads-up about where we are going. Our minds work more effectively when we have some idea in advance what we are going to be learning. Remembering to do this step will actually save you time in the long run.
4. There will be no quizzes or tests during our time together. Whether or not your parents wish to give you quizzes is entirely up to them.
5. Let's all relax and enjoy this class together. There will be a fair amount of discussion in the class and there is no need to be nervous about not knowing an answer or about making mistakes. Even if you go on to earn a doctorate in history - you will still only know a small amount of what is worth knowing. Being relaxed actually improves academic performance - plus it makes learning a lot more fun.
6. Your parents have the option of having you write a short paper for me to review. Although I will not grade the paper I will provide you with constructive feedback on your writing. If you turn the paper in to me by October 13th, I will grade your paper twice. That is, I will return an annotated copy of your first draft to you by November 3rd. You can then re-write the paper and e-mail the final version to me which I will grade a second time. For some of you this may not be worth the effort. For those of you who are juniors or seniors I would strongly urge you to consider doing this. I will spell out the details of this writing project for you more fully in a future post.
7. I am here to help you. Please e-mail me with any questions that you may have (even ones that seem way off topic.

In case you were wondering. I would prefer that you address me either as Dr. Booth or as Pastor Booth.