One way to think about India is as the center of the Eurasian continent, placed midway between East and West. You might ask the children to find which things about India come from the west (large-scale stone sculpture, Indo-European language, alphabetic writing), and which things come from the east (chickens, chess, paper, silk). Or, they could discuss what things India passed to the west (chess, paper, "Arabic" numerals, cotton, bananas) and what things India passed to the east (large-scale stone sculpture, Buddhism, cotton).

Another way to think of India is to compare Indian stories like the Ramayana with stories they know better. Which story elements are the same? Which are different?

Or you could discuss the caste system - what would it be like to be born into a particular caste? Who would like this system? Who would not like it? How would a system like that get started? Is there anything like that in American society?

Finally, please check out our brand-new this year section on Indian architecture - hard to find anywhere else! A good way to use this would be to do a timeline of Greek and Roman and medieval architecture along with Indian architecture and see what things are happening where - first buildings? first stone roofs? first religious buildings? Or, compare Indian architecture to Indian history on a timeline.

It's important to avoid presenting the study of ancient China as "what is different about Chinese culture from our culture today?" This approach leads to a long list of technological inventions like the telephone and the television, that we have and the ancient Chinese didn't. And if you ask what is the same, it's even worse: they end up listing so many things that are the same, that you get the idea there aren't any important differences at all!

It seems to work better to ask about choices - where did the Chinese make different choices from us? How did their choices work out? This helps the children to see that we ourselves make choices about our own society, and that it could be possible to make different choices. For instance, the ancient Chinese had an emperor, while we have a democracy. And they chose to find leaders through the examination system, where we use interviews and job experience too. You may want to have the children act out some of these choices in skits.

It can work to have the children find the many things we use today which came originally from China, too: chickens, pigs, silk, peaches, paper, chess, gunpowder, and compasses, for instance.

People have been studying the Greeks for so long that we have learned to see them in many different ways. Some people see the Greeks as the beginning of Western Civilization: if you want to take this approach, you might teach about how the Greeks invented the geometrical proof, and the scientific method, and the writing of history, and plays, and you might mention how much our literature owes to Greek mythology and our civic architecture owes to the Greek temple and how much our churches owe to the Greek basilica, and our theaters to the Greek theater.

Other people are more interested in showing how much the Greeks themselves learned from other, older cultures. If you took this approach, you might show how the Greeks learned sculpture from the Egyptians, and the alphabet from the Phoenicians, and pottery and farming and astronomy from the Sumerians, and iron and horse-rearing from the Hittites, and coinage from the Lydians.

Some people see the Greeks as very much like us; if you want to show them that way you'd talk about their democratic government, their court system, and their poetry.

Other people see the Greeks as very different from us; then they'd talk about Greek animal (and sometimes human) sacrifice, the isolation and powerlessness of Greek women, and the importance of slavery in the Greek world. They might talk about the importance to the Greeks of the agon between nomos and physis.

I think the most interesting approach is to show all of these things: the Greeks were different from us in some ways, and like us in others. We learned some things from the Greeks, and they learned some things from other people. Let the children themselves decide which things are like us and which things are different, and which things they would want to imitate and which things they would not.

The first question that comes to mind for most people about ancient Rome is, how did they conquer such a big empire? and the next question, for most people, is why did it fall? These two questions have interested people for thousands of years, and they're still good questions. Modern students may be interested in considering this from the point of view of imperialism/colonialism studies, rather than from a purely military standpoint.

Another way to approach Roman history is to look at how it was different for different parts of the Empire. Maybe each student could research a different part of the Empire: Roman Egypt, Roman North Africa, Roman Germany, and so on. Or you could compare Rome with what was going on in China, India, West Asia, and Africa at the same time.

One problem with studying ancient Rome is that we tend to think of ourselves as like the Romans, and we want them to be like us. It would be interesting to look at the ways that the Romans were like us (they had a Republic, they had sewers and public bathrooms and libraries and schools), and also at the ways in which the Romans were NOT like us (they owned slaves, their laws treated poor people differently from rich people, they did not allow women to vote, they didn't have modern medicine, most people believed in many gods, for example).

Some good activities for a whole class might include

-building a model (or a computer model) of a Roman city (you could use David Macaulay's book City)

- performing a Roman play by Plautus or Terence

- re-enacting a debate in the Roman Senate about what to do about the war with Carthage

Note: I have had a lot of requests recently from kids who have an assignment to build a model of the Colosseum. It's hard to do, and I don't really understand what they gain from it. For what it's worth, people seem to have the most success by using sugar cubes and icing, though Legos are also possible.

With the war going on in Iraq right now, there's bound to be a lot of interest in West Asia. One approach is to look at the history of West Asia to see what it can tell us about the problems that face the world today. What sorts of governments succeed in West Asia? What are the things people have fought about in the past? Is it better for there to be big empires, or small countries?

Another approach would be to look at the conflict between the people who focus on the Mediterranean Sea and the people who focus on the landmass of West Asia. How has this led to conflict? What are the different attitudes of these people?

Of course West Asia is also the home of several important world religions: Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. You could look at each of these, and their relationship to each other.

Or, you could consider West Asia's economic role as a link between China/India and Europe/Africa. How has this been important to the development of West Asia? What important ideas have been passed through this route?

Most kids find Ancient Egypt fascinating already, but it can be hard to get beyond the Pyramids and Moses to really dig down into the culture. Some topics for discussion might include

- what have we learned from Egypt that we still use today (building with cut stone, columns, pottery, linen weaving)? What did the Egyptians do differently from us (hieroglyphs, papyrus, polytheism, slavery )?

- what would it be like to live in a country where the Pharaoh owned everything, and everyone served him or her?

- how did the environment of Egypt influence the way Egypt's culture developed? Consider the role of the Nile river, the contrast between farmland and desert, the availability of building stone and timber.

- why have people (including this site) traditionally studied Egypt separately from the rest of Africa? Isn't Egypt part of Africa? What WAS the relationship between Egypt and the rest of Africa?

Here's a suggestion from a teacher at Ware Shoals High School, in Ware Shoals, South Carolina (USA):

"I had my students research the Dynasty and then present a poster board to the class with their info.on it. I also had the students to dress like the people in that dynasty did!"

The most basic fact of the Middle Ages in Europe, North Africa, and West Asia is that this is the time when the area which had been united under Roman and Sassanian rule changed into an area broken up into many smaller kingdoms. By the end of the Middle Ages, we can see the beginning of modern states in most parts of this area. So that's one interesting thing to bring out - how do we get from a couple of big empires, to more than twenty small states, during this period of about a thousand years?

Of course you will also want to talk about the things everyone knows about the European Middle Ages - knights, castles, cathedrals, and maybe the Crusades. You could easily tie this to the first suggestion - how does the breakup of the empires into small countries make warfare more common, and encourage the strength of the Catholic Church (in Europe) and Islam (in Africa and West Asia)?

Some activities for the whole class might include

- a bicycle tournament

- roleplaying different situations in skits such as:

* a young knight who wants to go on Crusade (or a young woman who wants to become a nun) discussing it with his or her parents, bishop, and lord

* a dispute between two peasants over land rights, being judged by the lord, or between a peasant accused of witchcraft and her lord, being judged by the priest or the bishop

* Crusaders who have been taken prisoner by Islamic soldiers discussing the war with them

- building model cathedrals and castles (you could use David Macaulay's books Cathedral and Castle to help).