The War on Terror, the AIDS Crisis or Hurricane Katrina may not be taught in a traditional history classroom at the high school. However, they are just a few of the subjects covered in the new elective, Contemporary U.S. History.
This unique course covers U.S. history from 1980-2020. Taught by social studies teacher Michael Normant, the one-semester elective was added to the 2025-26 school year after an extended absence from the course catalog. Contemporary U.S. History focuses on the most recent events in the country.
Normant said that it is beneficial to learn about the recent history of the U.S. in order to understand current events.
“We owe it to our students to offer them a chance to learn a little bit about the last 40 years,” Normant said. “So many people pay attention to what’s going on in the news and are listening to the events that take place in the country now, and without the context of the last 40 years, a lot of those don’t make that much sense.”
Senior Annabelle Sneider took the elective in the first semester, compelled because Contemporary History continues on from what is covered in U.S. history the year prior. Sneider said that while many classes can be repetitive, Contemporary U.S. History was interesting because it contained brand new material.
“We continued on from what we were doing junior year. That was really cool. You just learn more stuff that you’ve never learned,” Sneider said.
Senior Trey Lerra said that although much of the history is from before he was born, it still connects to him and his peers because of its relevance in today’s world.
“It was stuff that I didn’t really know that much about because I obviously wasn’t alive at the time,” Lerra said. “But to know that it was so recent in history, and you’re working with [peers] the same age as you, you’re able to reflect on what you were learning.”
Contemporary History covers a relatively short period of time, so material is taught in much more depth than in typical history classes. Sneider said that this was intriguing because she was able to learn more about events from her lifetime.
“It’s really interesting learning more in depth about stuff. We went a lot more into the Obama administration and stuff like that,” Sneider said. “We were all just young kids when that was happening, so it was really cool.”
The class is interactive and group-based. Unlike typical history classes, it does not have many tests.
“It’s not a lecture class where you take notes. It’s more group discussions and group work,” Lerra said. “It’s unique to any of the other history classes, especially senior year, that I’ve taken.”
Normant said that students should have the opportunity to learn about this period in history because it has a lot of significance today.
“I don’t think anybody should leave high school without going out into the world understanding it,” Normant said. “So, I think students should want to take [Contemporary U.S. History] because most Brookline students are civically engaged and want to know what’s going on.”
