Foundations 1 and Foundations 1 Honors begins with the two questions: Who is the human person?  What is a civilization?  How can our study of history show us how to live more virtuously, with hope for building a more just society, to promote human flourishing in our world today?  It uses the basic categories of historical analysis--politics, economics, religion, society, technology, intellectual and artistic contributions--to deepen our understanding of human interaction with respect to human flourishing, from the first world civilizations through the 17th century.  Besides key aspects of world civilizations, Foundations 1 examines the building blocks of western civilization found in its Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman roots.  Throughout the course, students are asked to study and reflect on how, as an agent of history, one person acting alone or with like-minded people, with virtue or vice, has affected the flourishing of others in the past, and what that teaches us about living virtuously in the present.

The course content of Honors Foundations of History I is aligned with that of Foundations of History I.  Honors Foundations I is for the advanced student whose curiosity is piqued by the study of human interaction in history. Course content delves deeper into the material.  Class discussions and projects are rigorously geared for the student who is comfortable working independently as well as in groups. He or she is interested in deepening his or her knowledge and critical thinking about significant events in history that help explain human interaction and its effect on human flourishing in our world today. This course requires students to read regularly from a variety of sophisticated primary and secondary sources, and to convey and support their insights with historical evidence, both in speaking and in writing.