Milton Should Offer More Full-Year History Courses

By Molly O’Brien ‘26 & Nicholas Perricone ‘26

As Milton students progress in their academic careers, they gain freedom of choice in their course selections; students can choose between honors and regular classes for their science, math, and foreign language courses. The English Department offers various electives, and some enthusiastic upperclassmen even take two full credits of English, due to the plethora of options. After completing Class IV History and US History, however, students interested in history are able to take only semester-long courses. 

Milton has failed to provide an adequate selection of full-length history courses, forcing those who prefer to focus on the social sciences to sign up for undesired courses in order to fill in the gaps between the courses they would actually like to take. This disconnect leads history-oriented students to become less engaged in classes that, although fascinating in their own right, have forced their way into their schedule.

Milton Academy expects students to maintain a minimum of 5.0 credits during each semester (although 4.5 credits are technically allowed, it is strongly discouraged by the College Counseling Office), with a maximum of 5.5 credits. Each semester course counts for one half credit, while a full-length course counts for one full credit. Students who choose to take a semester history elective in the fall will be forced to find one in the spring during a similar block to fulfill the school’s credit standards. Milton does not run the same courses in both semesters, instead opting to give students different options in both semesters. Popular classes like Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Advanced History of the Cold War run one section in each semester to attempt to accommodate the enormous applicant pools. These classes, however, are limited to 14 students, meaning that just because a student signs up for it, it does not guarantee that they will get it or be anywhere near the top of the waitlist. For example, a student who chooses to take a class such as Advanced History of Modern China, which is offered in the fall, is not able to take a similar class in the spring to continue their studies. They are forced to take a class in an unrelated subject, such as Milton’s Latin American studies offering, in its place. This arrangement bars students from exploring their academic interests to their fullest extent and often drives them to abandon newfound passions in January.

Except for the required courses of Class IV History and US History (or the US in the Modern World series), the History and Social Sciences department runs no full-length courses, and the available semester and half-courses, although numerous—there are thirteen running this year—fail to scratch many students’ itch for in-depth exploration of specific topics. African American History, for example, is a favorite class for many Milton students who can only study the topic for one-eighth of their Milton tenure. Moreover, the subject matter in many of the semester courses winds up artificially shallow due to the time constraints of the semester course schedule. African American History, in our experience, makes only the faintest scratch at the topics of racial capitalism, only encouraging students to explore it for their research paper. If the History and Social Science Department had instead created this class as a full course, students would be able to make a more satisfactory bite into subtopics of interest. 

Thus, many options within history’s Course Catalog could well expand into full-year courses or merge with one another. The fall course, History of the Middle East, and the spring course, Globalization and Islam, could easily be turned into one full-year course, focused on the entirety of modern Middle-Eastern history, as they are both taught by Mr. Joshua Emmott. African American History and Advanced History of Civil Rights can also be merged into one class. While it is true that students could simply take these semester classes in the same year, not every schedule accommodates such a maneuver. There are only seven blocks in a given semester, making it difficult for the registrar’s office to align courses. Some students, who are taking other electives in the social science or science department, may not have room in their schedule to fit the ‘second part’ of a course. 

To foster deeper intellectual engagement and allow students to pursue their academic passions more meaningfully, Milton should restructure the History and Social Sciences curriculum to include more full-year courses. Doing so would align with the rigor and choices already offered in other departments. A curriculum valuing long-term inquiry as much as flexibility would ensure that students with a passion for history are not left piecing together fragmented courses and are instead equipped to think critically and build the comprehensive understanding that a Milton education promises.