AEC Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 I'm looking at history programs for my history-loving 8th grader. He enjoyed SOTW, the per-chapter 'tests', etc that we did when he was younger. I'm looking at History of the World - starting with the ancients. Structure, scope, study & teaching guide, and overall level looks great. Some of the negative reviews on Amazon are giving me pause. In particular, I'm concerned about the presentation of events described in religious texts (the Bible) as historical fact. I don't view religious documents (the Bible, the Book of the Dead, the Qur'an) as primary sources for establishing historical occurrences. To be clear, I absolutely agree they are primary sources for the culture and beliefs of the historical peoples associated with them and I'm all for raising awareness and understanding of such works. The example most frequently discussed in the reviews is the presentation of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, en mass, as directed by God and lead by Moses, as historical fact based on its inclusion in the Bible. If you've read the text - would you agree with that description of it? How frequent is this issue throughout the text? I have no problem pulling multiple points of view into our curriculum and having a near-HighSchooler do some cross-verificatiion to establish his own opinions. I'd rather not take on a text we're going to spend a year arguing with, though. thoughts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 My guess is that if you discard religious writings as a basis for cultural discussions, there might be very little information left to go on for these ancient cultures. HoAW is a study of ancient cultures based on what is left recorded about the people. It's been a couple of months since I read over the Moses section, but you will certainly find many instances where it talks about events that may or may not have really happened, but are assumed to be true from the cultural perspective. The chapters on Ancient China particularly come to mind. It's good reminder that I will want to have those discussions with DD14 this year as we go about the difficulties of studying ancient cultures. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GThomas Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 When my dd was in 8th grade last year, we switched over to History Odyssey by Pandia Press. We enjoyed SOTW but wanted something at an older level for her. These are secular study guides. http://www.pandiapress.com/publications/history-odyssey/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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