History Spines
Query: Why is there no spine for World History: Grades 4-6?
There are many factors in the decision. Here are a few thoughts on spines and history studies for elementary students in general:
What is the role of a spine in a Charlotte Mason education?
A spine is a book that provides an overview of major events in a historical time period. Spines can be helpful to bring structure to a time period and help students get a bird’s eye view of history. Spines quickly cover the who, what, when, where and how of major events. Some spines help connect one event to another and give us a better understanding of the whole time period. Spines might explore different ideas or themes while the author guides the reader through different events in light of those ideas or common themes.
When might spines not be helpful?
When learning about events that happened in different countries around the world, it is hard to find a spine that still provides a sense of cohesion and structure to the historical events it is covering. Each country has its own unique culture, its own way of viewing the world, and its own structure of government. Older students might be able to look at the time period of 1650-1800 and see connections across countries when it comes to the ideas of the scientific revolution, trans-atlantic interaction, political revolution, and religious dissent. However younger students don’t have enough prior knowledge to read one chapter about England, then another about Russia and then another about China and try to make sense of it. Students read about isolated events and rulers that we, as adults, may know are important. However, students don’t have the context yet to know why they should be concerned about the English Civil War, the Ottoman Turks, or the French Revolution.
What factors should be considered when choosing history books?
We need to start with where children are at in their relationship with history and think about the best way to engage them and ignite an interest in the people of the past. Will a spine that gives quick overviews and includes a lot of unfamiliar names encourage young students to care or allow them to build relationships with people from the past? Will students be able to narrate that kind of book? Perhaps a spine might be considered if students already have a relationship with the subject, and occasionally we do find and use spines that have narratives which flow smoothly enough to engage students with their larger overview
However, we also want to consider Mason’s advice about living approaches to learning. She said, “With this thought of a child to begin with, we shall perceive that whatever is stale and flat and dull to us must needs be stale and flat and dull to him, and also that there is no subject which has not a fresh and living way of approach” (School Education, p. 68). Mason’s fresh approach to history was putting aside the kinds of books that provided only information about the past and replacing them with books that allowed students to live in the past and experience the sights, sounds and daily lives of the people. She stated,
“The fatal mistake is in the notion that he must learn 'outlines,' or a baby edition of the whole history of England, or of Rome, just as he must cover the geography of all the world. Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man are at home in the ways of that period. Though he is reading and thinking of the lifetime of a single man, he is really getting intimately acquainted with the history of a whole nation for a whole age" (Home Education, 281-282).
Historical fiction and biography are wonderful choices to fit this description, and they are genres which were only beginning to really come available to children at Mason’s time. So while she often had to find the best spine-type books possible, we have more genres at our disposal.
Will students miss out if they don’t read a spine for a particular time period?
For students in the elementary grades, they will encounter this time period one or two more times. Their learning will also not stop when they graduate high school. The goal is not to fill them up with all the information they will ever need but to allow them to “possess a pageant of history in the background of one's thoughts. We may not be able to recall this or that circumstance, but, 'the imagination is warmed” (Philosophy of Education, p. 178). Since history is the pivot of the curriculum, students are learning about the time period through artist study, composer study, geography, church history, literature and even handicrafts. Students also work on their Book of Centuries which provides a kind of “spine” that helps them see the connections between all the people and places of a time period. When we spoke to a Christian history professor recently, he talked about how his goal in history was to plant a seed that captivated young learners so that they learn to think of history as a rich source of insight and wisdom. One of the most important historical insights for students is to embrace the idea that the way things are now is not the way they have always been, that the past was different from the present, and yet there are things that we can learn from it. We keep these ideas in mind as we choose books that will encourage this kind of historical thinking.
In light of these factors and others, we decided to use a biography and historical fiction book based on a true story to give students a sense of the times and walk in the shoes of a few people living those days.
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