Is there a prepared history-in-reverse curriculum?

[malyita]

My DH feels very strongly that history at least at the higher levels ought to be taught present-to-past to make all the vital connections and seem at all relevant to the student, and mostly has me convinced. It won't be an issue for a while as we are starting with SOTW to get a general foundation and cement the ideas of "time" and "past" which are really still a little fuzzy for dd1. It has been nagging at me, though, so I thought I'd find out if there is anything out there. Googling has been less than productive on actual curriculum, though has turned up many academic articles supporting the approach.

 

DH says though inferior, history tends to be taught from the past because it is much easier. Thinking about how to do it the other way round, I have to say I agree. I'd love to not need to tackle that myself (though due to his passion we would probably try to switch history to time when he is home and have it be his baby, I just like keeping our family time clear of required tasks). Has anyone already worked this out so I don't have to? DH has some great ideas (start with major organizations that are in the news, EU, OPEC, etc, and then discuss how they formed and why, what came before them, and so on), but I worry he doesn't really have the time to develop this. We are starting at this age by talking about our family history (what was the world like when Mom and Dad were born? Grandparents? Great Grandparents? etc), but I am a planner and wish I knew where we were going from there no matter how far out that is.

[peacefully]

When I was a high school English teacher, I had a colleague who taught history this way. He began the year with current events, helping his students to identify key themes. He also guided them toward asking essential questions about why certain events happened in a particular place or time. Then they began to unravel history going backward. They didn't always go back in reverse-chronology. Sometimes they skipped around a bit, looking for what were the most direct connections to their questions. Some of my students were in his class, and I can say that while I didn't know this teacher personally, I always heard RAVE reviews of his classes.

 

I also wish I knew of a prepared curriculum that did this, but I have a feeling that this particular teacher brought his own passionate understanding of history to the table, and it would be very hard for someone like me (with a very shaky grasp of history) to duplicate the experience he created. If I were to go hunting for a such a program though, I'd try looking at Social Studies School Service first. It's an absolutely enormous catalog of social studies/history/geography resources.

 

I'll be keeping my eye on this thread to see if anything good turns up! :bigear:

[Chris in VA]

While I don't agree with this method, I will say that I think there's an old PBS series that took an idea or invention, and then traced it backward. Perhaps looking up something like that would be interesting.

 

I do think there are other ways to make history relevant. One good way is to compare and contrast daily life in different time periods and cultures.

[Donna A.]

My DH feels very strongly that history at least at the higher levels ought to be taught present-to-past to make all the vital connections and seem at all relevant to the student, and mostly has me convinced.

 

Your dh and I, along with Yllek's colleague, may be the only three people on earth who agree with this philosophy. :D

 

Case in point: As a brand newly-converted Christian back in 1989, if I had begun reading the Old Testament first, I might never have made it to the New Testament where Christ comes in and the church began. But because I read the New Testament first and I saw many, many references back to the Old, it made me curious and I wanted to know what those references meant. That inspired then to go back and read the Old, and I better understood the purpose of a lot of what they did during that era (not to mention simply enduring through the hard parts!) because of having read the New Testament first.

 

Now, as to whether there's a curriculum that DOES this, I have no idea. I haven't seen any. However, I do know of a few that study American history, geography, and maybe a general overview of world history before beginning ancients. The ones I know of are heavy in Christian content, though, and your post doesn't indicate if that's something you want. But maybe you could take a look at them just to see their scope & sequence, and then make up your own based on some of what you see there.

 

My Father's World

Heart of Dakota

some textbook publishers such as Abeka and BJU

 

Actually, here's one that can be done secularly... be sure to read her article below the history S&S: http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/chronological-history-plan.html

[sassenach]

Intriguing! Your dh seems to have a passion for it, could he design something? Maybe a rough outline and then you could use something like tapestry of grace to fill it in?

[stripe]

Nebel talks about this briefly in his Elementary Education book. You can search inside Amazon and find this around on p64. You might also want to look at My Backyard History Book for ideas.

 

Additionally, I think Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years by David Sobel might interest you.

[EKS]

You actually get these connections when you do the history cycle more than once.

[Donna A.]

You actually get these connections when you do the history cycle more than once.

 

Yes, but in the meantime, you have to slog through a few thousand years' worth of history in which you have no idea how it pertains to you. And MOST children don't remember MOST of what they "learned" during that first cycle. It's all just fun and games.... or dread, depending on the child and how it's being taught. Why not start with something that's personal... their own home land and culture? (Many Christians have other reasons for waiting, too, but the OP didn't express concern about that, so I won't go into it.)

 

Btw... Not arguing with you personally, Kai... just the principle. ;)

[Kathie in VA]

While I don't agree with this method, I will say that I think there's an old PBS series that took an idea or invention, and then traced it backward. Perhaps looking up something like that would be interesting.

 

I do think there are other ways to make history relevant. One good way is to compare and contrast daily life in different time periods and cultures.

 

I was thinking of "Connections" for you. Although I think this focuses more on science (available in most libraries). Then there is also the History of Science with the New Way Things Work (hmm again focused on science but there's plenty of history there also). At the min these might give ideas on how to do this for other things like current politics, business, education, religions of the world, modes of travel, etc. Sounds like lots of trips to museums would be good too.

 

hth

[leeannpal]

I have just begun to think about making a homeschool integrated social studies curriculum. I've been a middle school teacher, and I teach this way. Usually when I begin an area of the world or a specific country, I start with the physical geography and major cities, then we study the people groups and cultures-the current events, current government and economics of the place-,and then I tackle the history of the country or region. By this time, the students have enough of a grasp of the modern day people, places and issues of the place, that they tend to have a deeper understanding of the history, why things happened, and how they influenced the people and cultures.

[sagira]

Yes, but in the meantime, you have to slog through a few thousand years' worth of history in which you have no idea how it pertains to you. And MOST children don't remember MOST of what they "learned" during that first cycle. It's all just fun and games.... or dread, depending on the child and how it's being taught. Why not start with something that's personal... their own home land and culture?

 

When reading Charlotte Mason's Home Education book, she advocated starting with the child's own physical geography (nearby hill, brook, etc.), to describing the local area and people, then start reading books about different cultures and lands. Then it would make sense to the child.

 

In the same way you could technically start with the history of the child's city, state, and so forth to encompass the whole United States. I'm now intrigued and wonder if this is a good idea to start our American History studies with.

 

We already did SOTW 1 and 2, and ds enjoyed them both. He has a good imagination, and he grew up in a home where we have Egyptian references and items as decorations. Dh loves ancient history the most, Mama loves the Middle Ages. Now ds and I are going to learn American History together in 3rd Year. I don't know too much about it.

[EKS]

Yes, but in the meantime, you have to slog through a few thousand years' worth of history in which you have no idea how it pertains to you. And MOST children don't remember MOST of what they "learned" during that first cycle. It's all just fun and games.... or dread, depending on the child and how it's being taught. Why not start with something that's personal... their own home land and culture? (Many Christians have other reasons for waiting, too, but the OP didn't express concern about that, so I won't go into it.)

 

Btw... Not arguing with you personally, Kai... just the principle. ;)

 

I'm just sharing what I've seen with my own children.

 

Actually, the littles don't need to remember what they learned in first grade for this to work. They need to remember what they learned in fourth grade. Another way to reinforce the modern/contemporary stuff is to compress the four year world history rotation into 3 years and then do a year of American during the fourth year. But actually, the key is to get a good year of contemporary issues in before the high school rotation. Then they are old enough to understand the issues.

 

So here is my ideal sequence:

 

K--World geography and American history (brief)

1-3--World history

4--American history

5-7--World history

8--World geography with contemporary issues

9--American history

10-?--World history (can be anywhere from one to three years long)

 

It's not necessary for little children to know or understand contemporary issues up front. The goal is for them to get it by the time they are adults.

[DarlaS]

I have just begun to think about making a homeschool integrated social studies curriculum. I've been a middle school teacher, and I teach this way. Usually when I begin an area of the world or a specific country, I start with the physical geography and major cities, then we study the people groups and cultures-the current events, current government and economics of the place-,and then I tackle the history of the country or region. By this time, the students have enough of a grasp of the modern day people, places and issues of the place, that they tend to have a deeper understanding of the history, why things happened, and how they influenced the people and cultures.

 

 

Sounds intriguing. Kind of like taking cultural geography a step further. Since that's not typically done until about gr 6, it might be a bit of a challenge to find suitable materials for younger grades.

[malyita]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I would love to see this discussion go even deeper, or even team up with some interested folks to develop this sort of plan as it doesn't seem to exist (other than a very interesting Russian history curriculum I discovered that was developed after the USSR fell and the re-writing of history taught in schools needed to be re-written; I'll look more into that when we are ready for Russia.)

 

yllek: That sounds exactly like what we want to do, and unfortunately I'm not a history major or even buff!

 

 

My Father's World

Heart of Dakota

some textbook publishers such as Abeka and BJU

 

Actually, here's one that can be done secularly... be sure to read her article below the history S&S: http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/chronological-history-plan.html

 

I will definitely check these out, although we are not a Christian family. They could still be very helpful if we have to design our own.

 

Nebel talks about this briefly in his Elementary Education book. You can search inside Amazon and find this around on p64. You might also want to look at My Backyard History Book for ideas.

 

Additionally, I think Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years by David Sobel might interest you.

 

I already have EE in my Amazon cart and MwC out from the library. Apparently I was on the right track and didn't even know it!

 

 

I think there's an old PBS series that took an idea or invention, and then traced it backward.

 

Thanks for the lead! I would love this for our current plan focusing on the social history based on our family history. I'm currently planning on choosing a few topics (food, transportation, shelter, what did kids do for fun, etc) and listing/comparing them for each generation's childhood. I had wanted to choose some invention and trace it back, and this would be perfect!

 

I was thinking of "Connections" for you. Although I think this focuses more on science (available in most libraries). Then there is also the History of Science with the New Way Things Work (hmm again focused on science but there's plenty of history there also). At the min these might give ideas on how to do this for other things like current politics, business, education, religions of the world, modes of travel, etc. Sounds like lots of trips to museums would be good too.

 

hth

 

This could definitely work for us. We already plan all other studies around science (develop math story problems or real experimental math from current topic, find related fiction literature, choose our FIAR book on the topic, and then use that book to do copywork for handwriting, key reading words to learn, study the geography of the area from the FIAR, etc).

 

 

In the same way you could technically start with the history of the child's city, state, and so forth to encompass the whole United States. I'm now intrigued and wonder if this is a good idea to start our American History studies with.

 

 

Hmm... you've got me thinking too. Maybe we do the family history thing, then state history, then focus on the pioneer movement (we are in the Pac NW) and native tribes, then US history, then start with DH's ideas on the major multi-national organizations to branch into world history starting with NAFTA nations... that should cover us for several years...

[stripe]

You might be interested in these articles from Childlight USA's blog about Charlotte Mason's book of centuries -

 

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/the-book-of-centuries-revisited-by-laurie-bestvater/

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-book-of-centuries-revisited-part-ii-by-laurie-bestvater/

 

in which she also references this old article from one of CM's schools

http://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR34p720BookofCenturies.shtml