The Importance Of World History

World History is a subject area taught in many schools throughout the country. It is a subject that many students enjoy participating in and learning. Despite this, World History is difficult to put into a curriculum and is generally taught in much lesser quality when compared to United States History being taught in that same curriculum; moreover, World History is never given the proper time it deserves when placed under state standards that detract from its teaching and its quality. World History planning and periodization are difficult and controversial because schools tend to emphasize United States History more in curriculum, there is a lack of time for instructors to teach it under Common Core Standards, and there are two distinct philosophies

At its core, curriculum should be focused with a purpose; moreover, the challenge of choice in curriculum arises when choosing to teach one topic can cause other topics to not be chosen. These decisions in choosing curriculum need to be carefully thought out in order to avoid potential controversy. The challenge in teaching World History is embracing all peoples around the globe; moreover, it is a task with an immense chronological scope. For example, if an instructor teaches in an area where “stakeholders,” such as school board members, parents, or fellow faculty members, favor the teaching of a more western-focused history as opposed to teaching more multicultural history, it can be difficult to choose curriculum containing World History. Most scholars agree that World History curriculum, at the very least, should include the emergence of homo sapiens (200,000-10,000 years ago), the introduction of farming and evolved societies (10,000-1000 BCE), and the expansion of trade networks (1200 BCE – 500 CE). Likewise, World History can be difficult to plug into curriculum due to the inconveniently numerous amount of Common Core Standards used in forty-four states. In fact, there are six total content standards in High School World History under Common Core each with their own set of various