I wanted to notify you all that one or all of the AtOurHouse sites may experience some “downtime” over the next couple days.

We are moving to a new hosting system in order to accommodate a far more sophisticated site being designed by CanDo.com.  Unfortunately, GoDaddy can’t seem to effectuate the move without some disruption to the current site(s).

The maximum period of disruption will be 72 hours, starting later today.

This unforeseen disruption also means that we will not be able to start registration for science and music until the process is over, even though Mr. Johnson has comfortably survived Hurricane Irene.  (Hopefully, those of you in its path we also spared.)   We will notify you as soon as we can to get the registration process started.

Our new system should be in place by September 3.  Then, as the school year progresses if not by the start of Ancient history classes on September 12 and science and music classes on September 13, we’ll be granting access to a much-improved site for all registered users!

We apologize for the inconvenience of any service disruption, but we look forward to offering you a much-improved AtOurHouse customer experience!

To continue on to the main site for the time being, please click here.

Sincerely,
Mr. Powell

If you are an American history client for 2010-11, please download and print at least one copy of the Academic Calendar and familiarize yourself with the important days off.  This will help your family plan vacations so that they don’t conflict with the program. Students should have a copy in their binder.  And one should be posted in an important place in your homeschool  — such as the fridge!

It is also important to have a printed copy of the Weekly Class Schedule, which is now available for all US time zones, and includes the class times for the honors “History of the Americas” program, which will run on Fridays.  Note especially the combined LowerEl/UpperEl and combined JuniorHigh/HighSchool classes for the History of the Americas on Fridays as this may be different than your normal class time. The Schedule contains special instructions for students in Hawaii and Arizona, whose states do not observe Daylight Savings Time.

As most of my readers know, the core HistoryAtOurHouse program is designed around a three-year rotation of Ancient, European, and American history. I remain committed to this approach, which is optimal, pedagogically speaking, in order to help students become historically-minded adults. That said, I recognize the diversity of the homeschooling community and the general interest of homeschoolers in additional content. Also, I certainly acknowledge the fact that the core content of the HistoryAtOurHouse rotation, though by far the most important material students should learn, is not the only historical information that well educated American adults should be appraised of in order to make there way through life. Nor is the core material of the HistoryAtOurHouse program the only material I am interested in! Indeed, after teaching the same type of material for nearly ten years now, I am itching to branch out a little myself! So I am planning to offer an additional “honors” course to accompany the normal American history course this year. I call it “The History of the Americas, Part 1: Canada & Mexico“.

The live classes for this additional course will run once a week, on Fridays — the one day of the week that we don’t usually have HAOH lectures, so it won’t conflict with our normal course of study in the American history program.

It will cost $20/month for live classes (once a week) or $5/month for recordings.

There will be two live classes offered Fridays: one combined class for elementary grades–30 minutes per week, and one combined class for junior high and high school students–45 minutes per week. The Elementary class will be at 10:00 AM Central Time (the usual Upper Elementary time slot) and the JH/HS class will be at 10:45 AM Central Time (the usual Junior High time slot).

(Users of both the live classes and the recordings will have unlimited access to all lectures given, once they are posted to the class webpage after each live class is given, in the same manner as recordings of all HistoryAtOurHouse classes are made available.)

What will the course cover? In essence, the course will be a parallel narrative to the one offered in American History. In it, I will teach the stories of Canada and Mexico, as America’s neighbors, friends–though at times rivals, and even enemies, and trading partners. For instance, when we cover the Age of Discovery in American history, we will cover specifically how this phase in history impacted Canada and Mexico, by looking at the work of the Cabots, Jacques Cartier, and Samuel de Champlain in the north, and more closely following the story of Spanish colonialism in Mexico. When we study the American Revolution in American history, we will cover it as well in the History of the Americas, but we’ll be exploring the Canadian or “loyalist” perspective. When we study the lead up to the US Civil War, we will look at the Canadian end of the Underground Railroad, and we’ll study Mexico’s struggles to resist French aggression during the period of the Civil War itself. Finally, we’ll trace the story of how Canada & Mexico became the countries that exist today, along side the United States, and what commonalities and differences exist between these neighboring countries of North America.

(As you may have guessed from the title, this is intended as the first installment in a type of honors program I hope to implement long-range. For instance, the next time I offer the History of the Americas, i.e. when I offer Part 2, it will likely be a history of Latin America with the focus on South America.)

For students who already enjoy HistoryAtOurHouse, this will be the perfect opportunity to get more! And it will provide students with the opportunity and the challenge to make valuable connections between material they know from American history and a wider range of historical and cultural facts. This is why I think of the program as an “honors” class.

Of course, not all students or families will wish to pursue this option. It entails more work, an additional time commitment — especially from students and families in the live classes — and extra tuition. For those who can do so, however, I am confident that it will offer many intellectual rewards. I certainly am excited about the chance to teach it!

If you are interested in signing up for the live classes in this program, please contact me directly at mrpowell@historyatourhouse.com. Based on confirmed projected enrollment from continuing Tier 2 and Tier 3 clients, these classes will definitely be offered, and like the other live classes in HistoryAtOurHouse for 2010-11, they are both very likely to be full.   Contact me ASAP to place your name on the advanced registration list.

I hope that you are as excited about this opportunity to pursue more history as I am. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best,
Mr. Powell

Here is the preface to the HistoryAtOurHouse edition:

Anyone wishing to learn history in America today faces an almost insurmountable challenge. Modern history texts – even those intended for children – impede the reader with vast quantities of non-essential information. They abound with biased content (religious, multicultural, politicized, or otherwise subjective) while omitting, or at least deemphasizing, many of the most indispensable facts that render the story of the past intelligible. Consequently, students find themselves unable to grasp the “big picture” when it comes to human history, and thus lack the foundational awareness required to appreciate the deeper meaning and relevance of its component narratives.

The tragic result for American culture is widespread and growing historical ignorance, and even disdain for history.

An explanation of the causes of the current debacle in historical pedagogy is beyond the scope of this preface. It is enough for the reader to know that A Short History of Ancient Times is different.

This book was written in a time when historians still believed that the average educated person could and should learn the basic outline of history, and that learning that outline was a necessary step in becoming a “historically-minded” adult. To facilitate the learning process, historians wrote short, accessible narratives, whose greatest virtue was that they stripped away all the minutiae and interpretive controversies that cloud the story of the past to reveal its straightforward, causal, fundamental progression of events.

I can honestly say that I could not have grasped the basic outline of history without the help of P.V.N. Myers. I am thrilled that homeschoolers will have this resource at their disposal to help them salvage history education in America.

Scott Powell
Creator and Teacher, www.HistoryAtOurHouse.com

Ancient History

THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY!

For the 2010-11 school year, the exciting HistoryAtOurHouse Ancient history program will be available to students at three levels:  Lower Elementary (ages 6-8), Upper Elementary (ages 9-11), and Junior High (ages 12-15).

The Lower Elementary program is the perfect place to start for students in 2nd-4th grade.  The Ancient World is an exciting universe, with larger-than-life characters like Tutankhamun, Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra.  It’s also an intriguing exotic world full of strange customs, mythology and ancient religions. And it’s a compelling tale of heroic deeds, such as the forging of the world’s first free societies.  Ancient history with HistoryAtOurHouse has everything that can make your first-time history student fall in love with history!

It’s also a perfect way for older students to move past simpler products like the Story of the World, and build a stronger foundation of knowledge.  For Upper Elementary and Junior High students, the HistoryAtOurHouse program provides the same inspiring stories, but with greater academic rigor.  Check out the HistoryAtOurHouse Curriculum Page to see how the program evolves to meet the needs of students at different levels.

HOW IT WORKS

HistoryAtOurHouse isn’t a bland textbook.  It isn’t a recorded reading on CD.  It is exciting interactive lectures recorded with live students and available as MP3 files for playing on your computer or portable player.  Students who use the program get exclusive access to an archive of recorded lectures on a month-by-month basis starting in September of each academic year.  They can listen to lectures, view maps and images as often as they like.  They also get geography maps and tests, and they learn how to appreciate art through the unique HistoryThroughArt program.

HOW TO LEARN MORE…

• Peruse this blog, and the main site to learn more on your own.
• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse Yahoo Group to talk with parents who already use the program.
• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse mailing list, for the latest news, including pricing options and exclusive registration specials.
• Contact Mr. Powell at mrpowell@historyatourhouse.com for a detailed syllabus for Ancient History.

European History

THE STORY OF EUROPE FOR STUDENTS OF ALL AGES

In the 2010-11 school year, European history classes are available to students of all levels:  Lower Elementary (ages 6-8), Upper Elementary (ages 9-11), Junior High (ages 12-14), and High School (ages 15-17).

HOW IT WORKS

As with Ancient and American history, students have access to interactive lectures recorded with live students and available as MP3 files for playing on your computer or portable player.  Archival access is granted on a month-by-month basis starting in September.  Students can listen to lectures, view maps and images as often as they like.  They also get geography maps and tests, and they learn how to appreciate art through the unique HistoryThroughArt program.

HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY

HistoryAtOurHouse introduced its High School level in 2009-10, and in 2010-11 will offer High School classes in both European and American history.  In this special program, students receive lectures, maps, and images as they have before, but they are also assigned independent readings and written assignments.  They are also challenged to take class notes and prepare for tests independently, although they are assisted in both these processes, to help them develop these skills for college.  The HistoryAtOurHouse High School program is the ultimate springboard into college for homeschooled students!

TO LEARN MORE…

• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse Yahoo Group to get the latest news on the upcoming European History program, including live classes and High School instruction.
• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse mailing list, for pricing and registration specials.
• Contact Mr. Powell directly at mrpowell@historyatourhouse.com with any questions.

American History

In the 2010-11 school year, Mr. Powell, creator and teacher of HistoryAtOurHouse, will be teaching live classes of American history to all levels:  Lower Elementary (ages 6-8), Upper Elementary (ages 9-11), Junior High (ages 12-14), and High School (ages 15-17).

LIVE CLASSES IN 2010-11

Every year, Mr. Powell teaches one segment of the three year (Ancient-European-American) rotation live.  In 2010-11, that will be American history.  This offers a terrific opportunity to homeschooling families who want to enjoy the value of live expert instruction.  Students in live classes call in to a conference-call at scheduled class times and talk with Mr. Powell directly.   They hear live lectures and are asked questions, and they are able to interject and ask questions themselves.  This provides a uniquely challenging and motivating environment.  Of course, recorded MP3 archives are also available to all students as they are every year.

EXTREMELY LIMITED AVAILABILITY!

Because of the growing popularity of HistoryAtOurHouse, the live Upper Elementary and High School classes were full in 2009-10.  In 2010-11, it is likely that ALL LIVE CLASSES WILL BE FULL.  This means that if you are interested in live classes, you should contact Mr. Powell immediately to see if places are available, and, where relevant to join the mailing list, so that you can be at the head of the line, if spots open up.

HOW TO LEARN MORE…

• Contact Mr. Powell at mrpowell@historyatourhouse.com for a detailed syllabus for American history.
• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse Yahoo Group to talk with parents who already use the program.
• Join the HistoryAtOurHouse mailing list, for the latest news, including pricing options and exclusive registration specials.

REGISTRATION OPENS THIS SPRING!

Registration for the 2010-11 academic year with HistoryAtOurHouse will open this June.  The best way to stay informed about pre-registration specials and to be the first in line, is to join the HistoryAtOurHouse mailing list.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This often misquoted aphorism is generally dismissed by both professional historians and laymen alike because it is seemingly facile.  Despite its apparent simplicity, however, this one statement of his — unlike his general philosophy, it must be said — is both precise and profound.  (Truth be told, I can’t find a single other historical or philosophical tenet of Santayana’s that I agree with, but I nonetheless view this statement as intrinsically valuable.)

One element of this quote that is indispensable to its meaning, but is nonetheless often misquoted, is the word “remember.”

Often one encounters instead the modified statement, “Those who do not understand the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Naturally, also, many are prone to substitute simply the word “history,” thus yielding a common variant, “Those who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it.”

The latter of these two unconscious substitutions is generally benign, but the switching of “understanding” for “remembering” is a serious corruption of the truth of Santayana’s insight.

People today commonly deride the memorization of historical facts as meaningless.  Anyone who has rote memorized information for a high school or college history test will be susceptible to this view, because, as everyone who has done this knows, once you’ve dumped that information onto the “scantron” sheet and you walk out of that testing session, you instantly forget it. Consequently, homeschoolers and other educators take the view that what matters is only a student’s understanding of history.

The problem with this view is that understanding without memorization is just as useless as memorization without understanding.  It really doesn’t matter if we understand whatever stories we hear in history class when we are exposed to them, if in the end, we don’t memorize their key elements, i.e. if we do not retain them in memory and carry them with us through our daily existence, without need for external reference.

Let me illustrate why retaining information in memory is as crucial as understanding with a couple straightforward non-historical examples.

I once understood all the basic elements of scuba diving, and after having sat through all the classes and done all the practice, I became a certified scuba diver.  Then, one summer in Mexico I went for a few dives and had a great time. That was twelve years ago.  I have since forgotten almost everything I learned.  Now, since I can’t remember what I once clearly understood, there is no way that I could safely go diving.   Similarly, having once worked as a programmer for over ten years, I understood certain systems analysis methodologies and applied them to assist my clients.  As much as I recognize abstractly the need for such a methodology in designing information systems, I can no longer implement it, because I don’t remember how to.

If I wanted to go scuba diving again, I would basically have to take a diving course all over again.  If I wanted to get back into programming, I would have to go back and study my old information systems textbooks.  In either case, I would have to repeat all the learning I did before, because I can’t remember it.

This is the situation Americans are in today when it comes to history.  How many Americans recall that the British once occupied Iraq after WWI–in a tutelary mandate to promote Western government? The United States is now in the same position, repeating history nearly a hundred years later. Does anyone remember that the British also attempted to turn tribal Afghanistan into an useful appendage to its global policies in the “great game”–another policy that America is repeating now. Nobody remembers these things.  Thus we are condemned to repeat them. Regardless of one’s political affiliations, anyone should want America’s foreign policies to reflect all the relevant knowledge that can render them viable.  Sadly, history does not figure in American policy-making or public discourse.

For those of us who know and remember history, the frustration isn’t just in seeing America make mistakes, it’s in seeing America make the same mistakes others made before, as another cycle of history repeats itself because we don’t bother to remember the past.

Because the way history is taught nowadays, it generally is.

Here’s a great example…

Who hasn’t been asked this question in what passes for a history or “social studies” class over the past fifty years?

What is worse, the question is now asked in a multiple choice format, with something like the following possible answers:

a) 1620

b) 1260

c) 1776

d) none of the above

e) all of the above

Don’t laugh!  A good number of publicly-schooled kids today would pick 1776!  (See this representative sample of high school students’ knowledge of history, courtesy of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.)

America’s students’ (and their parents’) knowledge of history is so poor because they were taught that the purpose of history was to learn seemingly useless facts like “when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock” and “who wrote the Declaration of Independence.”

Most students cannot fathom how an entire profession can exist whose purpose it is to collect disconnected atoms of antiquated information of no relevance to real life, but they can sense on some level that it is wrong. Thus they view history class as an exercise in meeting society’s irrational educational requirements, and they look to escape from those requirements as soon as possible.  What is worse, the smarter kids don’t just shrug and move on, they get angry and cynical, because their time and effort is being wasted so egregiously.

The writers of Calvin and Hobbes may be able to put a humorous spin on it, but the truth is that viewing historical knowledge as the intellectual equivalent of an appendix is a tragedy.

Why?  Because the empowerment that one can derive from history is real, and it can only be derived from history.  A mind equipped with proper historical knowledge understands how the world around it came to be (for better, and for worse), can see where civilization is headed, and more fully appreciates the man-made values that make life worth living.  By contrast, a mind that is not equipped with the unique perspective that history can provide is stranded in a world shaped by forces it does not understand, moving in a direction it cannot predict, surrounded by values it cannot fully appreciate and defend.

Consider the question of when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  To know that this event occurred in 1620 is not useless — as long as it is understood within its proper context.

In part, that context includes knowing, for instance, that the Jamestown colony was already well underway (since 1607) and that colonists in Virginia had even created the first representative assembly, the Virginia House of Burgesses, a year before the pilgrims arrived. The story of Virginia’s more secular and commercially oriented colony and its traditions of political freedom is typically glossed over in modern textbooks, and yet it is arguably more important than that of New England.  While the latter ultimately produced such greats as James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, the former’s history culminated in George Washington, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.  Unquestionably, without Virginia and the Virginians, the American Revolution would never have happened.

But knowing about specific events from the past (such as the histories of the various thirteen colonies), collecting them into “Piles, higher and Deeper” (that’s what “PhD” stands for in history!), and being able to perform academic comparisons with them is not the ultimate purpose of history. The purpose of studying history is to develop the trait of historical-mindedness -- the ability to use the past as a resource for living in the present.

Where does 1620 fit in such a perspective?  For one, knowing that the pilgrims were escaping religious persecution during the period of the “divine right” monarchy of James I is significant, because the story of the religious civil conflicts in Britain following the Reformation is one of history’s important illustrations of the pitfalls of integrating Church and State.  There is a lesson involved in this story that demonstrates a universal truth applicable to human life.

Ironically, the Pilgrims did not learn this lesson.  Even though they are often portrayed as seeking “religious freedom,” they were as intolerant and theocratic as the England they left behind — indeed more so, as the Merrymount settlers could attest.  That is why people like Roger Williams were forced to leave Massachusetts in the1630s, and why tolerationism in colonies like Pennsylvania and Maryland was such an important development in colonial history.  It was these productive contrasts to the oppressive Puritanism of Massachusetts — paired with other such instructive contrasts from history — that made possible the greatest advance in secularism in the history of world government: the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The story of 1620 is but one episode in a long chain of logical developments that carries through the Revolutionary period and brings us to a conflict that continues to simmer in American culture.  Hence its further relevance. Some of the oppressive elements of Puritanism remain in the thinking of many Americans.  There are those, for instance, who view it as entirely legitimate that the government should legislate on matters of conscience, as long as they perceive such legislation to be compatible with their interpretation of Christianity, thus making the return of theocracy to America a very real possibility. These views are not, however, compatible with America’s founding principles, that in Thomas Jefferson’s words (from the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom) “our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions,” and they are contrary to all the progress that has been achieved since 1620.

Thankfully, the genius of the architects of the Constitution continues to protect us to this day.  However, to sustain the irreplaceable value of secularism in government consistently during our own lives, we will need the same historical insight that went into creating it. It is only by studying history that one can learn not only that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, but also all the crucially connected information, such as their reasons for leaving England and the kind of colony they created, as part of the whole story which renders that knowledge meaningful and applicable to life here and now.  It is only by means of the lessons of history that we can accept with the same conviction as Thomas Jefferson the need for a “wall of separation between church and state.”

If the memorization of historical information were widely taught as a component of a proper history education that stresses these types of revealing and relevant stories from the past, then memorization would not be viewed as useless, it would be seen as worthwhile.

—————————-

For a more detailed explanation of the value of memorization in history education, see my article in Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #9, The Importance of Memorizing History.  And stay tuned to this blog for more upcoming articles on this important subject, including practical tips on how to foster meaningful memorization.

(Click on the image for a link to the full size comic.)

Hat tip: The Erlansons!