BJU Press Blog

history

Starting History Close to Home

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photograph of Tonedale Mills in Somerset

Several years ago my wife and I bought our first home. It’s in the older part of town, and right outside the back door are the remains of a textile mill. A hundred years ago, when our house was built, the mill stood in the middle of a bustling village. Most of the inhabitants worked at the mill. There were a grocery store, several schools, some churches, and a mill-owned bowling alley. But today, the textile mill is out of business.

Since we moved into our home, I’ve had various opportunities to talk to the older residents in my neighborhood. Many of them worked in the mill back when it was producing textiles. They tell the history of their town with a mixture of pride and sadness—pride in what they enjoyed in their earlier lives, but sadness about the languishing state of their community. Their histories help me understand my community.

A Preschooler’s First Questions

As we drive across town, my oldest daughter asks questions about our community. “Where do we live?” “Why is that big building (textile mill) there?” These are natural questions for anyone to ask about their surroundings. It’s also natural to begin teaching history here, where our family lives. Knowing the history of our community helps me answer the questions my daughters ask, like “Why has our neighbor lived there so long, but the other house has a new family in it every few months?” The histories I learn help answer her natural questions.

One Sunday evening we were looking at the globe at church when she asked another natural question. “Where do we live?” We found our state, and then I explained that we live in a country called the United States of America. It is quite normal for anyone to ask questions about places and events closest to them. That tendency is natural and good. It helps people gather the information they need.

Family, Community, Nation, World

Our children should learn about their families, their communities, and then their nation before learning about the broader world. When you approach history in this fashion, it’s called expanding horizons. Children learn about their own families first, and a good curriculum teaches them a biblical perspective on families. It then explains the features of their community.

At this point, it’s appropriate to teach children about their nation’s history. They need to know their own heritage so they understand their own country, its symbols, its past, and most important, its people. Once they master a basic understanding of their country, they’re ready to begin learning about the rest of the world.

Knowledge of the Past to Serve in the Present

Providentially, my family is in America. We’re grateful for the place and time God has placed us in. And as citizens of His kingdom, we need to act in His interest. To do so skillfully, we need to understand our own nation here on earth. That’s why my wife and I want our children to have a thoroughly biblical worldview of America’s history. When our children understand the origins of our laws, institutions, conflicts, and people, they will be prepared for wise stewardship of their American citizenship for God’s glory.

Are your children receiving a firm American history foundation before learning other nations’ histories? Provide them this foundation with BJU Press Heritage Studies.

Linking Up for Thanksgiving

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Every year when Thanksgiving comes, we often ask each other the question, “What are you thankful for?” But I like the point Nancy Leigh DeMoss makes in her book Choosing Gratitude that it’s not about the what but the Who. As a Christian, I have the blessing of knowing the One to whom my thanks is directed. Everything I have and everyone I know is a direct result of His guidance in my life. Here are four ways to make Thanksgiving more meaningful for you and your family.

4 Ways to Make Thanksgiving Meaningful from the BJU Press blog

1. Rejoice in God’s blessings by meditating on the words of these Scripture passages or studying well-known thanksgiving hymns.

2. Reflect on the Thanksgiving holiday with these articles.

Thanksgiving table decorations

3. Use table decorations to share the good news.

4. Review these recipes and choose ones easy enough your kids can prepare for the celebration meal.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Remember These Dates in November

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illustration of a boy writing in a journalNovember has a heritage of blessings! There are many things to celebrate. It must be the start of the holiday season! I hope you and your family take time to reflect on God’s blessings this year (James 1:17). To start us off, here are two month-long observances worth mentioning.

Native American Heritage Month

Remember this month’s observance by highlighting the notable Native Americans mentioned throughout this post. You can also find more teaching resources from the National Archives.

NaNoWriMo

What’s the most words you’ve ever written? Try cranking out fifty thousand words this month, just for fun. Yes, fun! This special challenge does my literary-loving heart some good, although I must confess writing that many words (and having them all intelligible) seems overwhelming. Start small and find ways to incorporate National Novel Writing Month into your kids’ learning with ideas from Write a Novel in a Month.

illustration of an Egyptian mummy

November 4

The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb occurred on this date in 1922. It wasn’t until about a month later that the archeologists were able to open the tomb and discover what treasures the Egyptians had placed with his mummy. View these images of the earthly wealth that surrounded King Tut, and take an opportunity to discuss how as Christians, we can lay up treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19–21).

photograph of Marie Curie for Nobel Prize in 1903

November 7

Marie Curie was born on this date in 1867. She taught physics at the Sorbonne in France but is probably most famous for her work with radioactivity. It was through this research that Marie and her husband discovered two elements (polonium and radium). Marie also won a Nobel Prize in chemistry and another in physics for her work. This chart of the Periodic Table inspires me to remember all the elements! Can you find curium, named for Marie and Pierre Curie?

illustration of a veteran saying the pledge to the American flag

November 11

Veteran’s Day honors all the men and women who dedicate their lives to serving in the American armed forces. While this federal holiday started as a remembrance for those who served in World War I, it now serves as a day to show tribute for all service men and women from every American war.

In particular, there’s a small, but significant group who helped to defend our nation at a critical time in history. Known as the Navajo “Code Talkers,” this group of Native Americans worked with the US military during World War II. This communication system is the only unbroken code in military history. The code itself was so complex that even native Navajo speakers would not be able to make sense of the cryptic messages. Because of the classified nature of this code, these veterans were not recognized for their efforts until decades after the war ended. Watch these Navajo Code Talker interviews.

illustration of Lewis and Clark expedition

November 17

On this day in 1805, Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. Their journey took about two years—now we can travel across the continent in just hours! The purpose of their exploration was to chart the land west of the Mississippi River contained in the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark took notes on plant and animal life, geography, and Native American tribes. Their journey started in Missouri,  and they went all the way up to Oregon (where they saw the Pacific Ocean) and back again.

The success of their expedition depended in part on a Native American woman named Sacagawea. She helped the corps with her insights into Native American culture. Sacagawea’s best- known contribution to the exploration came when her own tribe, the Shoshone, agreed to provide horses to carry the corps. Checkout this interactive lesson about the expedition!

illustration of stoplight

November 20

On this day, the three-position traffic light was patented in 1923 by Garrett Morgan. Since previous traffic lights offered no warning between go and stop, this invention helped to decrease the number of auto accidents. Remember to drive safely especially if your kids are soon-to-be backseat drivers! I think a game of red light, green light would be great to include for today’s family activity. Don’t forget to add the yellow light (walking) too!

illustration of Pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact

November 21

The Separatists completed the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620.  This document listed the rules the colonists agreed to live by as their ship landed in “new” territory outside of the land granted to them by the English government. Read the text of the Mayflower Compact. Does your family have a similar “code of conduct” that your kids can relate to?

illustration of Squanto helping the Pilgrims

November 26

In the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. We often think back to the first Thanksgiving shared by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags. Many details about this event may be mythical, but we do know that the Pilgrims took a day to celebrate God’s goodness.

One of the blessings God gave to the Pilgrims was a friend named Squanto (Tisquantum). His ability to speak English gave Squanto opportunities to help the Pilgrims as they established their colony in the New World. He taught them how to live off the land and served as a negotiator between them and the surrounding Wampanoag tribe. Squanto’s efforts allowed peace to exist between the two groups for almost fifty years. Find ways to celebrate this special holiday by being a blessing to others and spending time with family. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for a Thanksgiving-themed roundup post I’ll be sharing in a couple weeks.

Why Teach History From a Textbook, Even at Home?

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photograph of books at a library

I love standing in the history section of the library and scanning the titles that line the shelves. Historical narratives tell true stories that are far more captivating than fictional stories. That’s why I head for that section of the library most often. Here are a few history narratives I’ve read recently.

  • City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley
  • The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan by Russell Shorto
  • Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan

These and other well-written historical narratives grip my attention as well as providing analysis and insight on the past. As a history enthusiast, I’m tempted to share these books with my daughters as soon as they’re capable of reading at that level. The founding and development of Dutch Manhattan is fascinating, but most textbooks only give it one or two paragraphs!

Can’t children just skip the history textbooks and get straight to these gripping stories?

I don’t believe they should. History textbooks play a vital role in children learning about the past. There are two reasons I want my girls to learn about history through textbooks before they read books like the ones I listed above.

The first reason is related to helping children learn about history the best way—through organized units of information that are balanced and chronological. History textbook authors put information into digestible portions, making it easier for children to master. But the real key is balance when it comes to historical figures and events. That way, children begin to grasp the comparative significance, for example, of the Teapot Dome Scandal and the Great Depression. The textbook also provides clarity on sequence in a narrative form.

As you can see from the titles I’ve mentioned, if my daughters’ history education focused on my favorite historical narratives (or even their favorites) it could create problems in their understanding of the past. They might be confused about the order of certain events. Their knowledge of the past would skew towards my interests. Just as a building’s framework provides structural form and support to everything that comes next, a historical framework (provided by history textbooks) will provide form and support for my daughters’ understanding of the past.

The second reason I want to use history textbooks relates to the worldview I want to teach my children. History is not just an account of events, actors, and places. It is an interpretation of the historical data. And all historians have a perspective that shapes their interpretation of the past.

Take for example Nixon and Mao, a fascinating account of skirmishes on the Russia-China border, ping-pong diplomacy, and Kissinger’s trip to China—a trip so secret that even the State Department didn’t know about it. MacMillan’s book would interest anyone intrigued by the Cold War. But her book isn’t without worldview implications. She makes this point in The Uses and Abuses of History, another one of her books on writing history:

In a secular world, which is what most of us in Europe and North America live in, history takes on the role of showing us good and evil, virtues and vices. Religion no longer plays as important a part as it once did in setting moral standards and transmitting values.

In Margaret MacMillian’s assessment, religion no longer gives us our worldview—history does. I enjoy this author’s work, but I don’t want her works of history to shape my children’s worldview. Instead, my family uses a tool that provides an organized and biblical worldview of the past. That tool is a BJU Press Heritage Studies textbook written from a biblical worldview.

One day, I want my daughters to enjoy learning about Nixon’s Chinese diplomacy and other historical narratives. But before they learn about these places and events, I want them to have a framework for these events. And that framework needs to be constructed on the foundation of a biblical worldview. After that framework is in place, my daughters can learn about the past from varied historians and correctly evaluate the worldview of those historians.

God’s Providence, Columbus’s Mistake

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Perspective matters in all of education, but it’s particularly clear that perspective impacts teaching about the past. The scene of an accident illustrates on a miniature scale how perspective influences the retelling of an event. Where a witness was standing and what he was doing at the time of the accident will dramatically affect his view of the event. Most historians aren’t eyewitnesses of the events they record, but they do have perspectives that color their narratives.

illustration of Columbus standing before the kind and queen

Christopher Columbus provides an excellent example since historians have many different perspectives about this world figure. My friend Wes wrote a blog post that questioned the morality of Columbus’s actions. But I’d like to discuss two different perspectives taught about Columbus’s scientific knowledge.

Columbus—Heroic Individualist

One educational television show teaches children about Columbus by having an “interview” with him. The man playing the part of the explorer explains that most people in his day thought that the world was flat and that anyone who sailed far enough west would fall off the edge. Columbus, however, believed the world was round and therefore thought he could reach the East Indies by sailing west.

In this widely held perspective, Columbus is seen as a heroic individualist, bucking the religious, intellectual, and political establishments of his time by boldly charting a path based on scientific fact. Secularists like this story because it pits the rationality of science against irrational notions of religion. But those details aren’t accurate. This common perspective on Columbus is one that professional historians are trying to dissuade popular culture from believing.

Columbus—Mistaken Merchant

Actually, the scientific controversy in Columbus’s day wasn’t about the shape of the earth but its size. Most people during that time knew the earth was round but thought it was a little smaller than it really is. Since Columbus was convinced that the earth was much smaller than it is, he believed Asia could be reached faster by sailing west.

The religious/intellectual establishment actually had a more accurate estimate of Earth’s size than Columbus did, but nobody at that time knew there was a large landmass in between Europe and Asia.

I appreciate how BJU Press concludes this historical account in the 3rd edition of Heritage Studies 1 (page 121):

Columbus did not reach Asia by sailing west. Though Columbus did not know where he landed, God did. Columbus did not know he had found new lands to explore. God used the voyage to change the world.

In this telling, Columbus is a mistaken merchant, but God changes the course of human events in a striking way.

Perspective really matters. Some historians want to make people the heroes and ignore what God says and does. As a Christian father, I want my daughters to develop a biblical perspective on the past. This statement from the same textbook (page 123) sums up the perspective I want them to have this holiday.

Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday of October. It is a day to remember Christopher Columbus and the land he found. It is a day to remember what God did long ago.