“Next in order to religious knowledge, history is the pivot upon which our curriculum turns.” (Vol. 6, p. 273)

Why Teach History?

A while ago I saw a video of university students being asked simple history questions like, “who won the Revolutionary War?” and “what was the Civil War about?”

 Many students couldn’t answer them. 

I thought that the creator of the video must  have hand-selected the worst videos for dramatic effect. Surely the majority of American college students were given a better history education than this video implies. After some research I found that  “Just 13 percent of eighth graders were considered proficient” in history, down from 18 percent a decade ago. There was a smaller drop in civics knowledge: 22 percent of test-takers were considered proficient, down from 24 percent in 2018. 

Turns out that video wasn’t too far from the truth: many Americans lack a decent (and essential!) understanding of their own country’s history. But why? 

Natalie Wexler, journalist and author, asked a similar question. She wanted to know why there is such a wide gap in knowledge between high-income families and low-income families. In The Knowledge Gap, she investigates why so many kids are falling behind in basic knowledge like American History.  She found that most elementary schools only teach social studies once a week. But, reading and math usually take up those weekly lessons because of the high pressure to do well in state testing.  I interviewed Wexler on the podcast if you’re interested in learning more. 

She discovered the biggest reason is that schools just don’t have enough time to study history. It is true now and it was true in Charlotte Mason’s time. She said that teachers in her day said they don’t have enough time to give more than a “skeleton of English history.”

But she  considered history a vital part of education. She said it was the “pivot upon which the whole curriculum turns.”

So, why should we study history? Here are a few reasons Charlotte gave for studying it:

• “It informs us of the worthiest minds that were in the best ages”
• “It is necessary to know something of what has gone before in order to think justly of what is occurring today.” 
• “Rational, well-considered patriotism depends on a pretty copious history reading”

Instead of telling you exactly how to teach it (which would be a system), I’m going to talk about the principles that Charlotte gave. Following principles and a method gives us much more freedom to adapt to our family’s needs. 

Principle 1

Learn Chronologically. don’t handpick random events and time periods. History should be taught chronologically. Simply start somewhere and go forward in time. Once you get to the present time, start at the beginning again. Mason taught in a rotation, or cycles,, and so do I. However, there are a different ways to rotate time periods. For the past few years I’ve taught the way she did in her schools: A four-year cycle with some ancient history each year. However, I think I may move to a 6-year cycle after this year. Especially since we are scheduled to start the rotation over again with ancient history.  

ROTATION  1

• 800-1650 AD
• (Age 10+ study 3500-550 BC)

ROTATION 2

• 1650-1800 AD
• (Age 10+ study 550-100 BC)

ROTATION 3

• 1800-1900
• (Age 10+ study 100 BC – 350 AD)

ROTATION 4

• 1900-Present
• (Age 10+ study 350-800 AD)

A Delectable Education made a visual representation of this 4-year rotation

Alternatively, you can do a 6-year rotation

• YEAR 1 | Ancient History and Greece
• YEAR 2 | Ancient Rome and Medieval
• YEAR 3 | 1000-1700 US History + World History
• YEAR 4 | 1700-1800 US History + World History
• YEAR 5 | 1800-1900 US + World History
• YEAR 6 | 1900-Present US + World History

Principle 2

Use Living Books. The goal for this age is to give them a foundation of knowledge. They get this through reading LOTS of living books. Children love history when they learn it through the right books.  Charlotte used three history books:  a spine, which is a broad look of the events and people of that time period. A biography , and a historical fiction. 

Read a variety of books written by a variety of authors. Don’t tell your child how to think about a certain event. Avoid books that tell children how to think, but instead simply tell the events or actions of a person and allow the child to draw their own conclusions.

Supplement those books with primary sources — photographs, documents, journals, newspapers, etc. I don’t start 

Principle 3

After reading, children tell about or write about what they learn. This is called narration and is a hallmark of Charlotte Mason’s methods. When children are young they simply answer open ended questions, like: “tell me everything you know about Abraham Lincoln.” or “Tell me a story you read about today.” As they get older narration becomes written and more structured, like: “Describe the events that led up to the Civil War.” or “Write a poem about the battle of Gettysburg” or “Compare and contrast the Revolutionary War and the French Revolution.”

Principle 4

Use timelines, calendars, charts, and a “book of centuries” to keep track of time. These tools may seem simple, but they are powerful! I’ll talk more about these tools in a later post. For now, just know that it’s important to record and organize events and things in a central place to discover patterns and relationships.

Principle 5

Practice masterly inactivity. This simply means to be intentional about your interactions with your children. Charlotte says to avoid asking questions to help him reason, paint fancy pictures to help him imagine, or draw out moral lessons to quicken his conscience. Just read the book and ask some simple, open-ended questions.

Finally, let your child form their own opinions of people in history. Read a feast of authors. Don’t tell your children how to think and avoid history books that read like propaganda. 

How I Teach History

After trying the 4-year rotation of 3-streams of history I decided there was just too many moving parts and we weren’t able to dive deep into that time period.

When I tried planning for a 6-year rotation I lost too much sleep trying to decide how to divide up thousands of year into 6 school years. Finally, I had an epiphany: just study history. Start at the beginning and move forward. When we finish a spine, whether it’s in the middle of a year or at the end, we begin reading the next one. There is no reason certain historical time periods have to fit nicely into a school year.

Charlotte started kids in first grade with a well-written and well-illustrated volume on their own country’s “heroic age.” Mason used the first third of Our Island Story, which is a history of England. It is the myths and legends before recorded history. Since I’m teaching a family and not a class of kids the same age, I like to simplify by combining ages whenever possible. I use picture books for form 1, which is ages 6-9. So any kids in that age range read picture books about whatever time period we’re studying in American History. Kids in form 1 only study American history. I’ve gone back and forth with having them study ancient and world history, or following Charlotte’s advice and have them study their own country’s history. I’ve decided that kids need a strong foundation of their country’s history before studying ancient and world. So I read aloud to my form 1 kids from Stories of America (from Simply Charlotte Mason) and/or a variety of picture books.

Once they’re in 4th grade they jump into whatever historical time period the family is studying. When my kids can read well on their own I add chapter book biographies and historical fiction to the spine.

My kids read their own books about the time period we’re studying. After each reading my kids come to me to narrate, and older kids write down their narration. Once a week is our “history” day. In Family Gather we have a discussion on what we’ve read. Since we’re studying the same time period and topics we can have meaningful discussion and everyone has something to contribute. Our family gather is when we go over primary documents (my favorite source is Words That Built a Nation). On our history day we also record in book of centuries, century chart, and timeline.

How Often?

Form 1 | 2 days a week for 15 minutes

Form 2 | 3 days a week for 25 minutes

Form 3 | 3 days week for 30 minutes

My kids in form 2 and above spend 1 day/week on their US history spine, 1 day/week on world history spine, and 1 day on their biography.

When we are studying ancient history we spent 2 days on spine and 1 day on biography or historical fiction.

And that’s the basics of teaching history at home! Do you have any questions? What works for your family?