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Your Ideal Humanities Education for MG/HG student


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DD11 is coming into the age of parental worry over education, I think :)  She's quite bright, capable at math but not in love with it, and really tends toward the humanities; this has largely been reflected in intelligence testing.

 

At the moment we are pretty sure we will have to homeschool through high school.  I would like to give her the best education I can.  For a moment consider that money is no object, college path is no object, and just focus on the education itself.  What would you use?  Providers?  She is very parts-to-whole (AoPS has been a serious challenge) and we value a classical education. 

 

I am particularly interested in how to structure history and literature.  I can teach writing through university level but most of my lit and history background is modern.  Unless something changes, science and math will likely just be a standard progression of AP or DE classes, depending on what is available.

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Also, I wonder to what extent political/social/religious ideology influences your plans for humanities students?  I mean, with a mathy student it's not really a concern, nor for the most part with science (as far as I'm aware), but I feel like with the humanities it makes a huge difference.  We are quite conservative but not religious, fwiw.

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We have done literature and history as an integrated course, a bit along the suggestions of TWTM. We used a lot of books and documentaries in the middle grades and a ton of Great Courses lectures in high school. I am not a classics scholar, so  I brought a classics scholar (the wonderful Elizabeth Vandiver) into my home via CD and we listened to all her lectures. Ditto for other areas of history. Many of the GC are outstanding and present a historical analysis of great depth. We comnied with a textbook as a spine. 

In the upper grades, we uncoupled literature and history because of kids' preferences; both took some courses at the university. One year, DD completely unschooled English and chose all her lit by herself.

She is now double majoring in an interdisciplinary humanities major and physics.

 

If money is really no object, I would add a lot of international travel. 

Edited by regentrude
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Dd is very much a humanities girl.

 

We are using "The History of the ____ World" books by SWB as a history spine in high school going through the history cycle as recommended in TWTM. We have added in Teaching Company lectures each year (she did Ancient last year and doing Medieval this year)...about 3 different courses/year (I could give you course titles but would have to go look at them). She is also studying literature along with history...reading from the Bedford Anthology of World Literature books that correspond with the period being studied but also going more in-depth with Teaching Company lectures (also recommend the Elizabeth Vandiver courses...dd loved the Odyssey and Iliad courses) on some of her readings. This year I got some audiobooks as well to listen to on our travels. 

 

In addition to the history-related studies and readings with me, dd also goes to a tutor who works with her 3 hours a week on writing and in-depth literature studies. Sometimes the in depth studies are related to works from the time period in history and other times they are books dd wants to read. Last year (and maybe the year before), dd kept a blog with the tutor who worked with her on editing, different styles of writing, etc... This year dd is working on writing a short novel (well, it might not be so short by the time she is done), so they are doing a lot with editing, re-writing, researching for writing (I think dd spends more time researching than writing some weeks), etc... They also did a unit on poetry this year for about three months.

 

Next year, the tutor wants to go in a different direction and work on non-fiction writing, journalism, researching source authenticity, and reading/analyzing non-fiction writing. So dd and I will do all the history related reading at home. Dd may take a college class or two next year as well...we are researching that option and have an appointment with the DE director at the college at the end of this month.

 

I didn't really think to add (until I read regentrude's response)...we do quite a bit of traveling, mostly here in the US but in the past 12 months have been to Ireland, Scotland, England, and will be going to Thailand. We visit historical sites and research culture when we travel. We have also followed dd's interests and go off on bunny trails...last year she was very into learning all things Irish so she did a couple online Irish history courses, watched a number of videos we found, and read books on early Irish/Celtic history, culture, Irish/Celtic mythology, etc...

 

Editing to add (since others have mentioned these areas): Dd is also doing a French course (Breaking the Barrier with French in Action and learning Irish with a tutor who gives her assignments weekly. Music is a given for her...actually takes up most of her time. She takes a 2 hour classical violin lessons weekly, a fiddle lesson now and then, and has performances nearly every weekend (fiddle is why we get to travel so often).

Edited by Donna
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I don't have an overall plan, but I'd want to see some understanding of economics included, because it just plays such an important role in, well, everything. I liked "The Worldly Philosophers" by Heilbroner (it's been a long time since I've read it though). 

 

A year as an exchange student in a foreign country would be good, I think.

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My 10 year old is a humanities guy, I posted on the logic board, there is a thread there I will look for and link. Also Ruth (lewelma) posted a few times about her humanities plan for her younger. I'm on my phone but I'll come back, I've been figuring this out for my own kid.

 

ETA: Here is my thread on the logic board:

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/625413-if-you-have-a-kid-that-prefers-the-humanities/?hl=%2Bhumanities&do=findComment&comment=7227101

 

Here is the language arts focus thread from Lewelma

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/583726-accelerating-language-arts-for-a-holistic-learner/?hl=%2Blanguage+%2Barts+%2Bplan&do=findComment&comment=7217898

 

 

For my 10 year old, he is very humanities oriented, music is his big thing, he was a precocious reader and testing always confirms he's more verbally gifted than visual-spatial STEM kind of gifted.

 

I'm planning on lots of plays, supporting his music making, and lots of writing, both creative and essay/report writing.

 

We will study the classics, I majored in English and thankfully kept my papers (printed out as no computers will read my hard disks anymore! :lol: ) so I'm going to model some units after classes I took.

 

He's doing Spanish with HSA and we will continue prioritizing that.  I'm going to try to talk him into Latin again because I think he would really get a lot out of it, but I ultimately leave it up to him so we'll see how it goes.

 

History and science are a little up in the air as far as high school.  We follow TWTM loop for both.  We are taking 2 years for US history.  For these logic years, I'm keeping it light.  We are using Hakim's History of US this year and next, with documentaries and geography stuff. 

 

For 7th grade I'm looking into the Build Your Library 8th grade plan.  We probably would only use it for the Hakim Story of Science series and add in our own literature, as that won't be on level at all. 

 

Science, we are using Unzinggo for this year and next.  Next year he wants to learn Astronomy so I joined a local Astronomy club, and we will get a subscription to Great Courses Plus. After that he's due for Chemistry and I'll cross that Bridge when we get to it.  We have used the MEL kits with great success so I might add those back in but as far as what we will use, I'm not sure.

 

I have found a lot of science "lit" for him and he's really responding to it.  These two books especially, https://www.amazon.com/StarTalk-Everything-Travel-Sci-Fi-Universe/dp/1426217277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489511855&sr=1-1&keywords=star+talk+neil+degrasse+tyson

 

https://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Blunders-Einstein-Scientists-Understanding/dp/1439192375/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489511873&sr=1-1&keywords=brilliant+blunders

 

I don't have much planned as far as high school is concerned.  We were originally planning to send the kids to high school but the closer we get the more I'm feeling like that might not be the best option. I will leave it up to them as far as high school, so again, I have to wait and see.

 

Sorry for the ramble, I've been obsessing over humanities this week!

 

 

Edited by Runningmom80
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 I would like to give her the best education I can.  For a moment consider that money is no object, college path is no object, and just focus on the education itself.  What would you use?  Providers? 

 

 

 

*Rubbing hands in glee*

 

If my DD were to show deep interested in humanities; economics, sociology and philosophy would be the only subjects I would focus on. Economics, philosophy and mathematics overlap at some places so, Economics would, by default, cover applied mathematics and statistics. And sociology would take care of a bit of anthropology, history, psychology, child development, human development.

Philosophy- starting with Aethetics and ending with Epistemology.

 

I would likely use (translated) original work (Durkheim, Mead, Marx, Keynes, Adam smith, Kant, Heidegger etc). I don't know how I would pull this off in elementary, but I can see this coming together middle school and up.

 

 

eta: Missed adding that my DD isn't (for now) inclined towards the humanities but her mum certainly is! That above would be *my* ideal in humanities education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ebunny
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I would really like to pair history and literature a la WTM but I feel like that precludes APs, largely, which makes me somewhat nervous.  An integrated program of study that way really appeals, though, esp. as she is so interested in the classics.  

 

For languages we are planning Latin and Greek through Lukeion; has anyone taken their history/lit courses?  I am thinking of running history and lit through CLRC but I am not sure about the rigor.  

 

Philosophy and economics are great ideas and something we've been thinking about too - we were going to maybe do Intro to Logic and Intro to Philosophy through CLRC and/or some Great Courses.  

 

As far as economics and sociology - my education is largely in literature and history, though of course you get a fair amount of sociology and economics through those, I think my study would have been fuller and deeper with a prior understanding (especially of economics), so that is a great idea.  

 

Regentrude, I will look up Elizabeth Vandiver.  Do you watch the lectures or just listen to them?  DD and I spend a fair amount of time in the car, and we try to always have an audiobook going  - I wonder if the lectures would work in that format?

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We were going to do Lukeion history or lit run next year, but Ds was feeling like it might be too much. He is taking second year Latin and Writing and Composition next year for sure. He took grammar through them this year. We will see how he feels as time moves on for Greeks and Romans or for literature. The descriptions list a fairly significant time commitment (1.5 hours) for the classes. He has asked for lit to no longer be tied to history (though he is going to free read it, so I do not understand this). He wants to study various classic lit selections, but not necessarily all from one time period. He really likes fictional parodies of myth or classic stories.

 

He really likes the freedom of Great Courses Plus for history. He can watch art, literature, travel, history, language, all about a part of the world or a time period. It is no pressure and dense content. He then writes up papers of various areas on interest.

 

Languages are a big one over here. Currently it is Latin, Spanish, French. He dropped Greek and Japanese after spending a year on each. If I had infinite money, I would either travel around the world, pay for fancy language camps, or hire language tutors.

 

Music is also very important to Ds. He is in performance piano now, and wants to begin violin in the next year or so. He takes a separate class with his instructor on musical history and theory. Honestly, if I could do it over again, I would have started these much earlier.

 

Biblical study has helped Ds understand so much from his literature. Things like recognizing the story of Genesis and Cain and Abel references through out Mice and Men. Doing the Bible as literature or comparative religion has proven to be immensely beneficial. So many of the world faiths have extremely similar mythology.

 

Geography has also done a lot more than I anticipated. Knowing both physical and cultural geography has really given Ds a lot more depth to his reading and analysis of literature. I really wish we could spend four months, every other year traveling to various historical places around the globe.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My kids are younger, but I am a humanities girl through and through, and have lots of plans and ideas for the future.

 

As a high schooler, taking AP Art History and English Lit at the same time and seeing the overlap in philosophies and movements and causation was an eye-opening experience. That interconnectedness is something I love about WTM's plan for history and great works. I want to use Art History materials split up over the four years of high school to add to the WTM way, and add another layer of connections. I've thought about doing something similar with the history of science during the middle grades.

 

Also, visiting archaeological sites and museums, traveling, performing Shakespeare, meeting a Holocaust survivor, etc. would be wonderful to include in history.

 

I have plans for a combined economics/personal finance/entrepreneur course for either late middle or early high school (before the age when they can get a normal job). It involves learning high school level economics, budgeting and things like balancing a checkbook, how insurance and loans work, managing the family grocery budget, hands-on investing, coming up with an idea for a mini-business, and developing and executing a business plan.

 

It is a requirement of our homeschool that they each learn an instrument up to a certain point, to get past the difficult learning phase to when they can really make music, and then they can choose whether to continue. (I just have to figure out when exactly that decision point will be.)

 

For foreign language, if money were no object, it would be awesome to have native-speaking tutors and extended travel to gain fluency.

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  • 1 month later...

We were going to do Lukeion history or lit run next year, but Ds was feeling like it might be too much. He is taking second year Latin and Writing and Composition next year for sure. He took grammar through them this year. We will see how he feels as time moves on for Greeks and Romans or for literature. The descriptions list a fairly significant time commitment (1.5 hours) for the classes. He has asked for lit to no longer be tied to history (though he is going to free read it, so I do not understand this). He wants to study various classic lit selections, but not necessarily all from one time period. He really likes fictional parodies of myth or classic stories.

 

He really likes the freedom of Great Courses Plus for history. He can watch art, literature, travel, history, language, all about a part of the world or a time period. It is no pressure and dense content. He then writes up papers of various areas on interest.

 

Languages are a big one over here. Currently it is Latin, Spanish, French. He dropped Greek and Japanese after spending a year on each. If I had infinite money, I would either travel around the world, pay for fancy language camps, or hire language tutors.

 

Music is also very important to Ds. He is in performance piano now, and wants to begin violin in the next year or so. He takes a separate class with his instructor on musical history and theory. Honestly, if I could do it over again, I would have started these much earlier.

 

Biblical study has helped Ds understand so much from his literature. Things like recognizing the story of Genesis and Cain and Abel references through out Mice and Men. Doing the Bible as literature or comparative religion has proven to be immensely beneficial. So many of the world faiths have extremely similar mythology.

 

Geography has also done a lot more than I anticipated. Knowing both physical and cultural geography has really given Ds a lot more depth to his reading and analysis of literature. I really wish we could spend four months, every other year traveling to various historical places around the globe.

 

What did you use to study geography? (Please don't say a globe. :lol: )

 

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I realize this is from March, but I am assuming that since it is a wide open question about the future that you are still thinking this through.

 

My graduating sr is a lover of all things language, but equally advanced in math (which she didn't really care for until she discovered that she loves econ this yr.) Everything for her personally started to come together in 7th grade when we did an Anne of Green Gables study. I used an annotated Anne to guide me toward all of the literary references Anne makes. The list is actually quite wonderful. Off the top of my head, I can remember Marmion, Lady of the Lake, Siege of Valencia, Edinburgh after Flodden, Idylls of the King, King Lear, Prelude to Childhood, etc. Dd fell in love with epic poetry and Shakespeare that yr.

 

I integrated history. We read Canadian and British history. We did an in-depth study of the the Tudors to Stuarts. Science was completely interest led in 7th.

 

In 8th she binged on more epic poetry along with short stories. She read Paradise Lost and Divine Comedy. She loved them both. We designed an ecology study for science that was centered around reading about different ecosystems and environmental impacts.

 

When she started high school, she wanted to continue to pursue her education the way we had been doing it. I told her that I wasn't sure how her transcript would be perceived bc it would be completely untraditional and not "validated" by outside sources. She was willing to take the chance of limited options bc these were the ideas she wanted to pursue. High school was a study of literature, culture, language, and history all interwoven. Her literature studies were everything from Russian lit (War and Peace) to fairy tales to Tolkien and Lewis. She studied 3 foreign languages. Her histories were not your traditional high school sequence but covered Russian history, communism, French history in French, etc.

 

I am glad I let her make the decision to forge her own path. Lack of APs and DE did not impact her acceptances at all. The response was actually the opposite. Admissions seems to appreciate her love of learning and self-motivation. Her writing reflects her passion for language, so her essays were strong.

 

Fwiw, she has decided to pursue Econ and international business as a career. No idea is that is what she will stick with or not. She really found Econ fascinating this yr and he idea of being able to merge that with French has strong appeal to her.

 

(I'm curious as to where she is going to place in French at college. At a recent dinner party that her Francophone tutor had with her Francophone friends, the adults present thought Dd was French until she was introduced as her tutor's American "adoptee." That level of achievement happened bc we didn't DE. It happened bc Dd pursued mastering French under her own steam.)

Edited by 8FillTheHeart
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