In the beginning..the time line method of studying history

October 13, 8:02 AMIndianapolis Homeschooling ExaminerBetty Malone

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Columbus sails the Ocean Blue in 1492

Children in public school begin their study of history (or social studies) with a child centered perspective, moving from the child and his family, to the child in their school, to the child in his neighborhood and on to city, state and country. Eventually they make it to the world around middle school years. This is now the tried and tested way that social study curriculums are designed in the majority of school systems.

There is good reasoning for that approach, the idea that a child's world is what he knows and as he grows, he will make vital connections that will allow him to gain a global perspective.

When we began homeschooling in the fifth grade, our daughter was studying United States history at school, following a year of Indiana history in the fourth grade. We came home and began our history study where she had left off in the fall. But each new period brought many unanswered questions from her.

She couldn't understand why those terrible Spaniards were so mean to the natives in the southwest and in Florida. She didn't understand freedom of religion and the Puritans search for that leading them to leave their homes and sail across the Atlantic. For that matter, she was just figuring out what the Atlantic was and where in the world all those other countries were. For us, one question led to another and resulted in a book from some other time being read, until finally, we gave up the United States and decided to begin at the beginning.

That beginning will be different for every family. Your beginning might be the religious text of Genesis and move from there. Our beginning began with the study of evolution and prehistory. We didn't dwell heavily on the science of evolution but we did introduce the two conflicting ideas that still prevail in America, creation by an omniscient God and evolutionary progression on a Darwinian scale. When asked what I believed, I told her we would discuss it in a few years when she was old enough to have the discussion and be able to contribute her ideas. I asked her to just continue to read, think and listen and she would discover what seemed true to her, eventually.

We then moved away from apes turning into men or God creating Adam and moved on to early man and how history began. On a linear scale we began in Africa about 20,000 years ago, moved around the middle east, and over to those great caves in France. We marveled at those amazing cave drawings, made a few ourselves on dark brown paper. (We still have those somewhere?) And slowly we began to move forward in history. We constructed a timeline that ran down the upstairs hall and as we made the slow, methodical march toward the present, she noted important dates, people, events that interested her. This was her understanding of her past. Of course, Mom and Dad contributed to that, by guiding along, finding great books to read, attempting to answer her questions, watching historical movies from each period, reading the literature and plays of early Greece, and studying the ancient texts, brought to her level.

We marveled at the translation of Beouwolf in the 7^th grade as we entered the middle ages. We attended Rennaissance Festivals, she became an interpreter at our local one, we made costumes, studied Shakespeare, visited museums to see the art of the period, read the biography of the first Queen Elizabeth, read historical fiction about so many Queens! History slowly built, and we began to introduce the serious themes, the search for freedom, religion, and social justice. We studied the growth of kingdoms, empires and the everyday man's search for a way to crawl from peasant poverty to middle class life.

Along the way we journeyed away from Europe to other parts of the globe to see what the Aztecs and Incas were doing before those terrible Conquistodores attacked them. We went back to Indiana to see what the woods native American civilizations were building at Mounds Park in Anderson, when the English were becoming a “civilized” nation. We returned to the Middle East and saw the Muslim Empire preserve history while Europe was wracked by the Dark Ages. We saw the return of enlightenment and the discovery of America.

We watched the slow steady movement forward so that when she reached high school and we attacked the United States historical and political landscape, she had the background of the world behind her. It is no coincidence that she maintains a global perspective, loving her country and it's storied past, but understanding that it is one piece of the puzzle and not the defining one. There is little nationalism in our home, but great pride in our achievements and a real understanding of our place in the world and the work we must all continue.

Because if the picture of history is that every man and woman and child deserves a life of liberty, justice and happiness, not just Americans, then we have far to go to attain that goal. That timeline expands and we see the line stretching forward. We can see that while religions, kingdoms, governments, and famous men and women have struggled, grown, fallen, prospered and survived, the slow steady progress of history has empowered ordinary men and women to have a better life.

Our world is endangered now, by the excesses of man and if that progress is halted, it will be because we have failed to teach our children, the importance of the planet upon which they ride out their historical lives. And that is the same for homeschool families or public school families.

As you study history with your child, beginning at the beginning is a good place to begin!