Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live - world history spine? (a bit long)

[Alphabetika]

I am trying to design a world history course for my dd's last two years of homeschooling. She does not like to study history in a textbooky way. She tried it that way with American history because she thought she'd like the structure and predictability. She didn't. She is one of those people who likes to study big things "through the back door." That is, she likes to study specific topics in history, the small and quirky, more than the big, overarching, vast and overwhelming picture.

 

Still, I feel she needs a rhetoric-stage trip through "the big picture." The last time she studied world history was with the old Sonlight 2 when she was in 3rd grade.

 

She is an arts/creativity-oriented girl who is very interested in working in other cultures, perhaps in urban ministries or worship music. She wants to go to a junior college and become an EMT (she's interested in the practical skills that would give her), then go to Biola (a Christian uni here) and major in intercultural studies, with a view towards missions. I am trying to design a course for her that would include sort of a "culture of western civilization" focus from a Christian perspective, as well as a history of the Christian church, complemented with lots of readings on missions and missionaries, social justice around the world, and other relevant topics. I have lots of the supplementary books and I have a film series about the history of the church, but I need a spine for the history that is not textbooky.

 

So, here, (finally!) is my question: What do you, Hive-Mind, think of the book/film series, How Should We Then Live, as a history spine? Is it sufficient if used with the study guide that comes with the DVDs? I'd love to hear of anyone's experience using this.

 

Thank you for reading this far, and for any insight you can share. :001_smile:

[Alphabetika]

Anyone? :bigear:

[Miss Marple]

OK, I've debated with myself about whether I can really answer your question. But I have used HSWTL several times and am rather familiar with it. So maybe my response will help in a small way.

 

I would not use HSWTL as a spine because it does not give a broad enough coverage of any civilization. I think it is an excellent "jumping off" text/video that would invite one to study a topic in a deeper way. Personally we used them as "additional" material.

 

Another good series is the Drive Through History dvds. I think they are actually a bit more indepth that HSWTL dvds, but both bring different issues to light. One could easily use both (and I plan to do just that this coming year).

 

The Reformation Overview dvd series is also excellent for church history. We may touch on some of these, but I haven't really figured out where we will end this coming year in our history studies.

 

I have decided to use two texts as spines - Spielvogel's Human Odyssey and Oxford's First Ancient World (or something like that). We'll just do the few chapters in HO that pertain to ancient history (ala Lori D's schedule). We'll add in Great Books selections to round out the literature portion of the history study.

 

SWB's history series comes highly recommended and does not read like a textbook. I decided against them because of their length - my boys are already overloaded with reading this coming year. But I thought they looked intriguing and could easily serve as spines.