The Important Choice of Content
A Historical Curriculum
The students will twice cycle through the history of the world. In grades K-5, they will devote one year of study to Egypt and the Ancient Near East, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, the Modern Age, and America respectively. In grades 6-8, they will recapitulate this history by studying the ancient civilizations, then the Middle Ages, and ending with the Modern Age and America. By completing these two cycles, students will reinforce what they have previously learned as well as penetrate the meaning of history more deeply.
This means placing special emphasis on the Greek, Roman, Jewish, and other ancient Near East cultures that make up the Western tradition. This understanding of the person as a creature provides a basis for exploring and appreciating these and other pre-Christian cultures in their own right, for seeking to understand them as they understood themselves.
Is there a textbook in this class?
The use of textbooks should be minimized. This is for several reasons: to provide students a coherent history, to produce a more integrated curriculum, to introduce them to ‘primary sources’, to develop memory and a capacity for sustained attention, and to prepare them for reading great works of literature in later grades. Teachers may choose to use textbooks or other reference books for themselves in order to develop a narrative of historical continuity tailored to the school’s characteristic emphases, and some subjects (e.g., math) may require greater reliance on textbooks from students. Still teachers should strive so far as possible for ‘textbook independence’ and to devise an oral presentation of historical material in ‘lecture’ form, as a thread on which to hang more targeted readings in primary source material, ideally, whole books.
Kindergarten |
the cradle of civilization
The Cradle of Civilization sets the stage for the development of Western civilization, introducing students to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and the early Mediterranean. In addition to introducing students to the rise of cities and nations that will play a critical role in the development of early Israel, it is also essential to explain how the rise of agriculture, writing, art, technology, and architecture prepared the West for the cultural advancements of Greece and Rome. Familiarity with myths, stories, kings, and art of the ancient Near East will give students the necessary background to understand how the call to Israel as God's Chosen People distinguishes them from the surrounding nations.
First Grade |
the Greek year
Ancient Greek culture is the foundation of Western civilization, and its contribution cannot be overstated. Greek philosophy, art, and politics have been studied and imitated throughout history. The Greeks were the first to think critically and systematically about the world. What it meant to be a virtuous human being, and the transcendent ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty are illustrated in their mythology, literature, art, and architecture. They laid the foundation for mathematics, astronomy, science, and medicine. Their military skill helped to preserve their autonomy and led to their conquest of the entire ancient Middle East, which brought Greek thought and practices to the Mediterranean world. Into this world was born the Roman Empire and later Christianity, both of which adopted many elements of the Greek worldview. Although Rome replaced Greek power, Greek thought and influence was so pervasive that we remain deeply indebted to the Greeks for much of how we understand the world.
Second Grade |
the Roman year
The point of the Roman year (Second Grade) is to begin to understand the greatness of Rome, its lasting influence over all of subsequent history, its debts to Greece, and its role in preparing the world for the coming of Christ, who is the "desire of the nations" (Hag 2:7) and in whom God fulfills his promise to Abraham to bless all the peoples of the world, by uniting in the one body of Christ those from "every tribe, language, people, and nation" (Rev 5:10).
The Roman year begins in Greece and ends in Christ and his Church. In Christ, the genius of Athens, Rome, and Jeruselum converge, so that the barbarian tribes of Europe are eventually united in one communion despite the sometimes violent differences between them, and the Gospel is eventually proclaimed to the end of the earth. This convergence is symbolized by the inscription over the Cross written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. It is also evident in the art and literature of Christian Europe (e.g., Dante), which takes up the thoughts, heroes, and myths of Greece and Rome - and the ideals they longed for - and puts them in the service of the Gospel.
Therefore, The Roman year should focus on key events in Roman and Christian history. It should begin by reflecting on Roman ideals (law, nobility) and Rome's self-understanding of its 'divine' and universal mission. It should culminate in the history of the Church, its saints and heroes, its early struggle to emerge from obscurity, and its unlikely conquest of the empire. The center of this history, of course, is the Incarnation, the coming of God in the flesh, which transfigures the world from within.
Third Grade |
the Medieval year
The Middle Ages are extraordinarily important for adequately understanding the 'story of the world'. These are the 'Christian Centuries', the centuries when the Church, presiding over the ruins of the Western Roman Empire, created a single communion from the warring Barbarians and synthesized the Biblical, Greek, and Roman inheritance into a new culture that would create Europe and give it its identity.
The Medieval outlook was an entire way of understanding reality. The Medievals had a keen sense of the nearness of heaven to earth, not least because of the divine presence in the sacraments. This led them to see this world as an image of heaven, to interpret things and events symbolically, and to understand the human being as a creature created by and destined for God, understandings reflected in the densely symbolic art, architecture, and literature of the period.
They also had a keen sense of the distance between heaven and earth due to a deep awareness of the pervasiveness of sin and the suffering that was often a part of daily life. This led them to see this world as a preparation for the next, to long for it, and to understand life as an adventure, a quest, or a pilgrimage toward their true home and their true selves, as known and judged by God. This led them to take up and transform Greek and Roman ideals of beauty and nobility in the light of the Gospel, and this too is reflected in the art and architecture of the period, in love poetry, in the codes of chivalry, and the countless epics and tales of knightly quests, and in subsequent literature reflecting Medieval themes, such as the works of Lewis and Tolkien.
This longing for God profoundly shaped the culture, ultimately giving rise to the great monasteries, cathedrals, and cities of Europe and some of the greatest human achievements in art, architecture, and music. In their effort to bring all of reality within the purview of the Gospel, the Mediveals invented the first hospitals and universities and made great achievements in philosophy.
Fourth Grade |
the Modern year
The Modern Era is marked by a radical reversal in the way man conceived of himself, his place in the universe, and his relationship to God. In the religious sphere, Luther and the Reformers fractured Christianity into multiple confessions: in the political sphere, Machiavelli and Hobbes rejected the noble aspirations of Plato and Aristotle, and based their political vision on the base desires of man; in the scientific sphere, Bacon and Descartes overthrew a more holistic approach to understanding nature and focused on getting practical results from manipulating nature to conform to their own ends. Though the Modern period-inspired, and was accompanied by great achievements in art, science, and exploration, it also stripped the cosmos of its connection with divinity. It made meaning, order, and truth a relative matter. This resulted in the secular materialism and naturalism that characterizes our contemporary world.
Fifth Grade |
the American year
The American and New World years bring students, as American citizens, to understand the origins and history of their own country and to love and be grateful for what is noble in it. As the first and only nation founded on an idea - the equality of all persons - rather than ethnicity, America is unique. It has drawn and welcomed successive waves of immigrants searching for liberty to her shores. The American Year is the story of how those immigrants built the mightiest nation of modern times and ordered liberty that enabled them to do so. Reading biographies, poetry, folk tales, and learning ballads of the time, students will "enter in" to the history they study and note as well as the inheritance America has from the Gospels, Greek and Roman statecraft, and the culture of Christendom.
Ben Franklin's reported answer to the question of what the Constitutional Convention had produced, "A republic, if you can keep it" is a useful key for understanding subsequent United States history. Periodically, competing visions of "equality" arise to challenge the Founders' vision. The Founders understood equality as the equal dignity of each person ordered toward the natural law. Still, sometimes, the vision of equality is exchanged for the ideal of wealth and social condition, or equality of the individual unhinged from the natural law and human flourishing. Almost every serious political or cultural struggle in American history can be seen as the working out of competing visions of freedom as we strive to secure what Abraham Lincoln called the Great Proposition that all human beings are created equal.
Sixth Grade |
the Ancient year
Students in the sixth grade begin the recapitulation of the curriculum, now deepening their understanding through more direct contact with source texts. Throughout this year the children will travel back to Mesopotamia and Egypt, retrace their first journey through Ancient Greece and finally land in the Roman empire. It is here that the marvelous fact of the Incarnation took place.
Seventh Grade |
the Christendom year
The Renaissance would reverse some of these perspectives while continuing to depend on them, and the scientific revolution would further undermine this symbolic cosmology. With these changes in perspective, the theological turmoil of the Reformation, the ascendency of the crown over the church in the political order, and the emergence and secular state in the early modern period, the Medieval order was finally ended. Because of their many and lasting achievements in these fields of life, because subsequent Westerns often defined themselves and their society in opposition to the Middle Ages and its sacramental vision of reality, and because they created the conditions for the Gospel to be carried to the ends of the earth with the discovery of the New World, the Middle Ages left a deep and permanent imprint on the world which continues to exercise its influence over us in ways visible and invisible.
Eighth Grade |
the New World year
The Modern Era is marked by a radical reversal in the way man conceived of himself, his place in the universe, and his relationship to God. In the religious sphere, Luther and the Reformers fractured Christianity into multiple confessions: in the political sphere, Machiavelli and Hobbes rejected the noble aspirations of Plato and Aristotle, and based their political vision on the base desires of man; in the scientific sphere, Bacon and Descartes overthrew a more holistic approach to understanding nature and focused on getting practical results from manipulating nature to conform to their own ends. Though the Modern period-inspired, and was accompanied by great achievements in art, science, and exploration, it also stripped the cosmos of its connection with divinity. It made meaning, order, and truth a relative matter. This resulted in the secular materialism and naturalism that characterizes our contemporary world.