Life beyond the great books? Heresy?

[MommyThrice]

I had high school all planned for my oldest (guinea pig) ds. My plan was to cover 6-8 classics from Omnibus I-II and use Notgrass World as a spine.

 

Last night I was planning out next year for my younger two sons and realized how many really good books my oldest will be missing if we spend all our time on classics. I'm thinking of books from Sonlight & TOG lists that I always considered too easy for hs. I've always pursued the "classical" style, but I'm not sure I want to push him (or me!) through 4 years of really difficult books.

 

I'm sensing that our years together are quickly slipping away :sad: and I want to make them meaningful. Not fluffy and easy, but with meaningful discussions. I want to have plenty of time to discuss economics, current events, theological things. We're planning a long trip to see Virginia, Boston, battleground sites, etc... Not exactly in line with his study of ancient history, but we just haven't been able to do this before now.

 

Do I really need to cover all the classics - all the time? Have any of you faced this delimma? What did you decide and how did you reach your decision?

 

Tracie

[Chris in PA]

Tracie,

I was faced with the same decision with my oldest. We chose to use Notgrass as our spine as well (World and American history). I debated about trying a great books study but realized that with my dd is just wouldn't work. Plus I really doubted my ability to carry out a great books study ala the WEM. I am a chemist and quite frankly I feel very inadequte with that type of literary analysis. So we read a lot of really good books with a few great books here and there. There are too many good books out there I wouldn't want my children to miss. Some books we read, analyze and write a paper. Others we read for the enjoyment of reading and good conversation. My dd has found that Dickens is one of her favorite writers.

 

If I thought my dd would have enjoyed a great books study, we would have found a way to make it work. But she is very math and science oriented so I have done what I think best for her. You need to do what you feel is in the best interest of your ds.

 

HTH and I haven't muddied the waters too much. I have no regrets about my decisions and my dd is finishing up 11th grade. I really feel like it is slipping away.....

[JennW in SoCal]

I'm with you on cherishing this special time together. Your children have years ahead of them for studying the Great Books, but you only have a short time to enjoy these years with your teens. And, the Great Books improve with the age of the reader -- I certainly got more out of the Iliad than my 14yo ds did this year!!

 

I just spent 4 days on a car trip with my 14yo, listening to a Robert Heinlein audio book for most of it. It was a memorable trip, and my ds was happy and engaged in the tours we did as well as in the book we were listening too. It was like the carefree days of our early homeschool years when learning was always fun and natural. It was completely outside of my planned syllabus, but I feel rejuvenated after it.

 

So, read what you want. Throw in a great work here and there, but through your discussions of pretty darn good books your teens will still get the sense of how to read, how to analyze and discuss. Enjoy your time with them guilt free -- that is one of the special rewards of homeschooling.

[Guest]

And, the Great Books improve with the age of the reader -- I certainly got more out of the Iliad than my 14yo ds did this year!!

 

This is so very true. Certain authors, certain topics, seem to require adult perspective to have an emotional as well as intellectual appeal or resonance with the reader. This doesn't mean that students shouldn't read any of them, but that they're not going to take away what adults do, or even, in some circumstances, take away much of anything.

 

As much as I am attracted to the idea of Great books, I feel it leaves out as much as it encompasses. One area I am focusing on as my daughter gets older is current events and social issues, which are basically untouched by the classical curriculum. There are a lot of really well-written, acute, useful books out there about topics ranging from child brides in Yemen to medical research to where our food comes from to newly emerging information about how the brain works (and the use of this knowledge by an increasingly powerful advertising industry). When kids graduate from high school, they are not only bound toward college or the world of work; they are also newly minted voters who need to have some idea not only of history -- which of course is relevant to today's events -- but to have an acquaintance with a huge array of pressing political, economic, and social problems on which they will be asked to vote or act.

 

One idea I have been toying with (my daughter will be in 9th grade next fall, so I'm still playing around with ideas) is to pick a series of such current issues, based on her interests, and approach them historically -- to "do" history not chronologically, but as background and context for a particular conflict or problem, and then spend time reading several recent books discussing that topic from different points of view.

 

Another idea -- which attracts me but not at this point my child -- is to bring this same type of approach to bear on education itself: read current articles and books about educational reform, explore a broad history of education in this country, do a little cross-cultural comparison (this is extremely difficult to find), discuss things like the SAT and AP courses from various points of view. I think a junior or senior would be better off for a little perspective on these issues, which become so agonizing and stressful in the final years of high school.

[Cedarmom]

I used Omnibus, and read great books. But we didn't do all o them. We did some of the secondary books in Omnibus (good books vs great) and took time off to explore other things such as economics, going to Washington DC, and debate. This year (his senior) we are not doing any great books. I am rather sad about that. Hopefully we may still it one in. But I let him have more control over his senior year, and he wanted to focus on speech and debate, and a few cc classes. All of which are good choices too. I hope that by doing what we have I have taught him the skills and whetted his appetite so that later in life he will read more of the great books.

[MommyThrice]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I'm a perfectionist by nature, and skipping all those classics somehow seems less than perfect. It's just a case of too little time and too many books. And they would look so good on a transcript. ;)

 

KarenAnne, you are so right about adding in current events and social information. I want to be the one to help my child think these things through, not someone else when he goes off to college

 

Cedarmom, we spend a great deal of time on speech & debate, too. That has sparked so many ideas of topics I want to study. It's part of what is leading me away from classics only. It really has taugh my ds how to think logically and analytically.

[TravelingChris]

I have three children and I did or will do a different amounf of classics with each one. My oldest did the whole WTM thing. It suited him very well and he is now a senior in college majoring in philosophy.

 

My second started out with a chronological schedule and stopped soon after Egyptian lit and then Gilgamesh. Why? Well she was also taking movies and lit and she got majorly sick. We stopped ancient history and ancient lit. Thne the next year, we decided to do American History and American Lit. This year, she is finishing American History and doing British Lit. Next year she will do World History and World LIt. She reads plenty of classics and mostly in chronological order, but divided by where they were written. Her future major will be something in social sciences.

 

My third will be neither a humanities nor a social science major. She may be math, physical sciences, or engineering. WHat does this mean for me? Less classics, slower reading schedule, more emphasis on math and science. I do want her to get some classics but she isn't a fan of reading those as much as the first two. My older ones loved to read classics. She doesn't. So she will do some but I will probably be adding more non-fiction reading for her.

[MerryAtHope]

I read a lot of the classics in college rather than in high school, though I did read some in high school as well (with two English majors for parents feeding me books to read all the time, there was no choice!). I think some are even better for college--a little maturity and more life experience can make a lot of difference in comprehension and analysis. I plan to mix some in for my kids but I'm not concerned about what I don't cover.

 

Merry :-)