To those of you who don't homeschool, or who do homeschool, but don't know about Story of the World, it is a history curriculum, written by Susan Wise Bauer. I have never seen the original version of the curriculum, but was informed of the religious references, as Susan is a Christian woman.
I own the curriculum, and both my children have taken Story of the World classes in our homeschooling community college (yes, there really is no better way to describe this awesome place). My son is currently enrolled in Ancient History and quite enjoys the class.
Right before the winter term my son's teacher sent out a syllabus and skipped various chapters. Upon my inquiry why she chose to skip those chapters, she replied she was concerned that secular homeschoolers might be offended by these chapters, and might not appreciate it if she taught them in her class. I was puzzled by this. The notion that I might be offended by history was new to me.
The fact is, that religion is a major factor of the world's past. The Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Jews and early Christians, all of them believed in various gods. All of them needed their religion to answer those important questions: Why am I here? And how did I get here? I find ancient religion fascinating, and I want my children to know all about it. Heck, I want my kids to go to a church service, to see a synagogue, to understand what is going on behind those mysterious walls.
Denying my children religious education would be like denying them a part of their culture. Religion is what has brought us here, what has shaped us into who we are. Religion has brought out a lot of good in many, and a lot of bad in others. And I consider it common knowledge to understand what religion is, what it means, and how it impacts our daily lives.
So I will read those chapters of The Story of the World to my son, as I did to my daughter, and I will discuss them and do the activities. I will read them Bible stories, and I will try my very best to take an objective look at religion with them, however difficult it may be. :)
I like SOTW as well, though my beef with it isn't that it slants Christian (I don't think it does), but that it is a little Euro-centric.
ReplyDeleteReligious literacy is so important, no matter what you believe. I studied Greek Mythology in school and no one thought of it as religion (even though it was at one time). In fact, mythology is what led me to disbelief. Reading the stories of the bible as fiction and not fact, can only help a child to come to the conclusion that religion is nothing more than a very rich cultural tradition of trying to explain the universe.
ReplyDeleteI'm having to catch up...and see that I'm going to have to comment on your previous post, too! Anyway - we LOVE this series. And I totally agree....religion plays a big part in history - how can you avoid it? I just started the series with my daughter (after having done it with her older brothers) and we read an Egyptian "myth" (I love it how anything ancient and / polytheist is "myth" - as opposed to current monotheist "religions") and my little one said, "Hey! This is just like that baby that was in the basket. And what does ressurection mean? That is in every religious story...." Bingo! The same themes over and over - and my 8-year-old saw it in seconds. We currently have A History of God from Netflix...I had read Karen Armstrong's book. It is a great history lesson, too - you might enjoy it with your older kids. It is very interesting to see how "God" has developed over the years throughout many cultures.
ReplyDeleteAs a secular, non-theist homeschooling mom I too struggle with imparting religious literacy on my children. I am concerned that my FIL who will soon move in with us, will mess that all up. While I encourage my children to learn about all religions, I don't want them instructed/brainwashed into any one of them. We use so many terms in our daily language derived from various religious and mythological texts that we would do our children an educational disservice to ignore this aspect of learning. So, the other day, when my youngest yelled 'I'm done...' thereby beckoning me into the bathroom to wipe his rump, I quickly retreated and gasped at his older sister 'So this is what the Agean stables smelled like.' Since she was familiar with the legends surrounding Hercules she knew what I meant..
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post btw, religous literacy is important!
The link below btw is to one of the most amazing sites I've ever come across. My mother who is atheist loves that site.
http://www.reasoned.org/
I have to check out Sardine Mama's site now too :)
Marlis
http://itchyhomeschooler.blogspot.com/
It surely wasn't planned in her unschooling and we never used any curriculum in any subject, but Favorite Daughter -- a big reader who always wanted to major in creative writing and poetry -- wound up discovering religious history/culture on her own and is double majoring. Just this week she decided to write her senior honors thesis in religion rather than the English department, and she's especially fascinated with Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteOh, and no believer she! She quite openly began to call herself an atheist around age 12 or 13, first in the family to use that word.
ReplyDeleteJJ
Although we no longer home-school, I plan to buy the second part in the SOTW series. My son loved it - especially the map work! - and he still remembers quite a bit of the 'stories'. It is so well-written, and, as you say, the religious side is simply there because leaving it out would be leaving out an integral part of the story of our world's past. However, I agree with the previous comment regarding the series being VERY Euro-centric. We are Antipodeans and have an indigenous race here in Australia that is around 60,000 years old. I don't recall reading about THAT in SOTW!
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