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WTM history sequence is very diff from trad ps one


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You are right.

 

Here in California, for instance, one year each of American and World history is required for high school graduation. Most colleges want to see at least that, but you can certainly have more.

 

My understanding of what is recommended in the WTM is to do a Great Books study in high school, rather than having separate history and literature courses. History is an integral part of such a study as you review the history of the time period of the work in order to have some kind of context for understanding it.

 

The way I'm handling this is to have the 2 traditional history courses (one year of each) along with 4 literature courses which will be our attempt to tackle a great books study.

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at the heart. WTM organizes through the lens of a historical sequence and through a concurrent Great books study -- very logical. PS approaches history topically. If you want your child to study a la WTM, I think it would be appropriate to plan to include in your student's college apps a statement of educational philosophy that would provide a rationale for the difference. I have found that most people when faced with something unexpected can move to acceptance of the difference, if someone helps them understand.

 

For my final student, 9th grade will be the year of Modern World History, then in 10th we'll start GB, or at least PDG books. ;)

 

ETA: here in TX, PS students usually do a minimum of Am Hist, World Hist, and a year of Gov't/Econ, often with an additional year of some kind of social studies. The next suburb over, where we have most of our friends and go to church, has a huge high school with 4K students on one campus. You are pretty much either a "barely" student or on the honors/AP track. Most of my kids' church friends are in those high-achieving classes, because the other ones are so wretched. It's pretty sad. (OTO, sports and band are excellent, so families move there from out of state for basketball and band.)

Edited by Valerie(TX)
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I just recently turned in a scope and sequence to a college honors program that reflected an interdisciplinary combination of American history, world history, literature and composition. The transcript showed 2 credits of world history, 1 credit of American history and 3 credits of high school English. (An additional credit of American history and an additional credit of English were taken at the community college for dual credit). I could have left that alone, but it was important to me to explain what my daughter did to earn these credits and how the literature and composition were interwoven with the history.

 

This was very well received by the college honors program and apparently helped to snag her one of the only 15 spots in the Scholars program. The director of the honors program complimented that scope and sequence and went so far as to tell Sarah that he was excited to see a homeschooler get into the program (it's apparently not common in this school) and the fact that I referenced The Well Trained Mind was personally reassuring to him as that is the path he and his wife had chosen to follow with their young children.

 

So, all that to say, choosing a high school path that is different than the "norm" might require extra explanation but can pay off richly during high school and after.

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When my oldest entered high school, I stopped following the WTM schedule and went to a more traditional schedule.

 

The main reason: my 9th grader was not mature enough to really tackle Ancients the WTM way. That was before SWB published History of the Ancient World.

 

Secondary reason: we felt a need to become more traditional in our approach. Not that we have abandoned classical education. In fact, my job as teacher is now much easier using more traditional textbooks and high school course sequence.

 

We still pretty much follow WTM up to 8th grade, then switch to our states graduation requirement courses for high school.

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I think I'll label them World History 1 and 2, for ancient and med/ren history, and then "The U.S. and the World 1 and 2" for pre-modern and modern. Government and Econ will be separate courses for my kids, so they'll have 5 credits of social science in all. You can't study US history without looking at the world anyway. The more I read history myself, the more I just can't bear to leave any of the history cycle out of high school.

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my 9th grader was not mature enough to really tackle Ancients the WTM way. That was before SWB published History of the Ancient World.

 

 

 

That is a very real concern. I am delaying my son starting high school for this very reason. He is having a gap year next year because I cannot see him being ready to tackle the Ancients in the fall.

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I chose to do two years of Omnibus, which was Ancients and Medieval history, then 20th century, then Great books of the Early Modern Era, along with a semester of Gov't. Ds also took a psychology elective credit at CC.

On our transcript, I put the following--

 

English 9: Great Books of the Ancient World

English 10: Great Books of the Medieval World

English 11: Great Books of the 20th Century

English 12: Poetry and Short Story Semester

English 12: Great Books of the Early Modern Era

 

World History: Ancients

World History: Medieval

World History: 20th Century American History in World Context

American Government

 

We covered all our bases this way. I would have added Econ, but ds graduated a semester early and I figured he had enough to get into his school of choice.

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"The U.S. and the World 1 and 2" for pre-modern and modern.

 

I like those names and may borrow them in a couple of years! This year I am labeling my dd's class "World Geography with Modern History" since geography is the freshman high school class around here, and we are studying the modern age.

 

Cathy

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  • 4 weeks later...
I agree, and IMHO it boils down to a philosophical difference at the heart. WTM organizes through the lens of a historical sequence and through a concurrent Great books study -- very logical. PS approaches history topically.at the heart. WTM organizes through the lens of a historical sequence and through a concurrent Great books study -- very logical. PS approaches history topically.

 

I don't think it's a difference in only educational philosophy. It's a difference in view of humanity. My state is recommending that kids read "global studies" books that demonstrate that historical accomplishments are accidents of geography and debunk the myth of the great men model with people as the protagonists driving the historical narrative forward.

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I think I'll label them World History 1 and 2, for ancient and med/ren history, and then "The U.S. and the World 1 and 2" for pre-modern and modern. Government and Econ will be separate courses for my kids, so they'll have 5 credits of social science in all. You can't study US history without looking at the world anyway. The more I read history myself, the more I just can't bear to leave any of the history cycle out of high school.

 

:iagree:

 

That's pretty much the way we did it. I did do them out of order. I called them "Early American History," "Modern American History," "Ancient World History," and "Medieval World History." We did a unit of Civics combined with Ethics in 11th grade, and a unit of Government combined with Ethics in 12th grade.

 

HTH,

 

Lori

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I think I'll label them World History 1 and 2, for ancient and med/ren history, and then "The U.S. and the World 1 and 2" for pre-modern and modern. Government and Econ will be separate courses for my kids, so they'll have 5 credits of social science in all. You can't study US history without looking at the world anyway. The more I read history myself, the more I just can't bear to leave any of the history cycle out of high school.

 

:iagree: I did this for my oldest.

 

With my next, we are doing it a little differently. So far, she has done World 1 and 2 (ancient in 9th and med.ren in 10th grade). Next year she will do a year of American History and a semester of Government. When she is a senior, we are planning a year of AP European History and a semester of Economics. The order will be a little different but she asked to focus on United States History next year so I am happy to set it up for her this way.

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