Self Education (in college), what would help me most?

[wulfbourne]

Ok, right now I'm in college. I've got basically all my Gen Eds as transfer from my military transcripts. I'm only taking 1-2 classes a semester because right now my kids are small, and even as they get older I'll still be using much of my own time for their education and entertainment. I'll be starting on classes for my major in the next semester or two, so I'm evaluating where I want to go.

 

So, right now my declared major is English with a Natural Science minor. I picked that because I felt it would help me when I'm educating my own kids as well as because those two subjects are very interesting to me. Now I'm starting to question that. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have more History classes in there. I'm wondering if I should change to a History major with a English minor, change my minor from Natural Science to History, or if I should just try to self educate History and leave my declared major/minor as is.

 

I started thinking about this because I only have 1 History class I'm required to take and I can't decide which one I should choose. I have a choice between World History I, World History II, American History through 1865, or American History 1865-present. I want to take them all, but I don't even have any Gen Ed spaces left I can fill up. I only get money from my GI bill for courses that are fulfill degree requirements, so I'm limiting myself to those courses at the moment. I love English and Science, but I also like History and feel it would help when I go to teach my kids if I had a stronger base myself in that subject.

 

So, what would you do?

[Nan in Mass]

I've gotten one child through high school and I'm working on the next. We are more of a math/science family than an English/history family. I am not very strong in anything. I have a college degree but it is in computer science, which isn't particularly useful teaching normal school subjects. My advice is to make sure your math is rock-solid and that you can write. After that, I find science questions to be the most troublesome. I find it easier to look up answers to history questions than to look up answers to science questions. The history answers don't seem to depend as much on background knowledge as the science questions. So if it were I, I'd keep the natural science. My own background in literature is pretty poor. I had one year in high school that could be considered literature, and half a year of French literature in college. With those and TWEM, I am fairly successfully reading the classics with my children. More experience with college-level literary analysis would be nice, but for our family, TWEM's approach works. The place I miss the history is in trying to explain current events and geography, in other words, in explaining the way the modern world works. I had some anthropology and that has been very, very helpful in homeschooling. I wish I'd had a geography course. So I don't know where that leaves you major-wise. Can you make up your own major? I would want to have plenty of natural science, a little basic world history, a government class, an economics class, a geography class, cultural anthropology, a little literature, some modern history, and plenty of math and writing.

 

Sorry - I'm not sure that was very helpful.

 

-Nan

[Julie in MN]

I have a choice between World History I, World History II, American History through 1865, or American History 1865-present.

 

I suppose you'll be teaching World History I to your kids first? Maybe just start with whatever you plan to "teach" first?

 

The history course I chose in college was "Humanities," about some random era maybe in the late 1700s. But it helped me see "how to study" an era, and see all the interacting pieces in a society. The arts, the sciences, the battles, and the economics all interact to create this one piece of time.

 

So whatever you choose to study, you can do it with the idea that you're learning "how to learn" history.

 

Julie

[iluvmy4blessings]

Are you choosing a major based on a possible career goal or is it just for your own personal growth/interest. I think that would make the biggest difference. Not to be a wet blanket but there isn't much you can do career wise with either of these subjects if you stop at the Bachelor's degree level unless you plan to get a teaching certificate. If it is just for your own personal interest, then I suppose the only thing that would matter is what you find most interesting. Personally I feel English and History go very well together.

[wulfbourne]

Are you choosing a major based on a possible career goal or is it just for your own personal growth/interest. I think that would make the biggest difference. Not to be a wet blanket but there isn't much you can do career wise with either of these subjects if you stop at the Bachelor's degree level unless you plan to get a teaching certificate. If it is just for your own personal interest, then I suppose the only thing that would matter is what you find most interesting. Personally I feel English and History go very well together.

 

Mostly personal interest as well as what might help me most while homeschooling. I'm leaning towards self educating (reading a lot of books) for myself as far as History goes, because it seems like that would be easier to self educate in than Science. I just know that with the 4 year history rotation in the classical curriculum I'd be a bit lost. I don't remember learning much other than American history in school, and even that is a bit shaky in my mind.

 

I don't plan on having a career at any point. I'll probably pick up a paralegal certificate as a 'just in case' when I'm done with my bachelors. It's only 5 or 6 additional classes at my college and it will cover me in the case I need to work for my family. My current plan is to volunteer in a variety of places when I have more free time rather than have a 9-5 career for money.