Homeschool curriculum and the sovereignty of God

 

There is a growing movement within homeschool curriculum writers and influencers that concerns me. As a child of the 1980s homeschool movement, I’ve seen a lot of changes over the past 40 years, and while some are amazing (hello, internet?!), some are disappointing. The topic of this post is the trend in which Christian homeschoolers are encouraged away from teaching “Providential history,” or history that recognizes the sovereignty of God.

But you see, Christians aren’t making up Providential History. It’s been a part of our nation for hundreds of years. So while some would have you believe that the uneducated, or zealous “Christian Nationalists,” are pushing an agenda, I am here to show you that Providential History was observed and documented by our ancestors, not created by Republicans.

I’ve been wrestling with this post for several months. I actually addressed it some years ago here, but the anti-Christian homeschool curriculum trend (by proclaimed Christians, no less) continues to grow.

Example: The Homeschool Historian

Last year, I was excited to discover Holly at The Homeschool Historian. As a history buff, I loved her posts and was super interested in her upcoming Chronos curriculum. As soon as it was released, I purchased a print copy for myself. What I found inside its pages was a chronological history guide for parents that included ideas for research, possible activities, and suggested books to read and places to visit. Hey! That’s how I teach my children, and how I write my own study guides.

But, here’s the problem. As a Christian who believes that the Bible is the trustworthy word of God that includes verifiable ancient history, I was disappointed to find that she sort of glossed over the ancient-biblical history timeline and leaned to more of a secular, old-earth timeframe. The book is careful to suggest that the reader should choose their theological leaning (creation vs. evolution). With this disappointment, I read through the ancient history sections, the time of Christ, the era of church history, and the Protestant Reformation. By this point I was fairly frustrated that a proud degree-holding historian and a self-proclaimed Christian would treat some amazing historical periods with such blandness.

This is what happens when historians try to be “neutral.” You can’t. There’s no such thing. In Chronos, the sources lean as “middle-of-the-road” as possible, and therefore miss numerous opportunities to highlight the Bible as a source, or the writings of the Reformers, or to share the constant flow of archaeological discoveries that place biblical events literally on the map. With the Protestant Reformation, you really need to get the story from the Reformers! It was their movement, whether you agree with it or not. Her sources are often secular (including National Geographic for the Protestant Reformation?!), which would be no problem if they were for non-religious or biblical events.

I was disappointed, so I got rid of the book. But the matter didn’t end there. Holly repeatedly warns Christian homeschool parents not to fall into the trap of Christian curriculum. I share her post in full here (with my comments in parentheses):

My fellow Christians,

Be very, very careful when buying “Christian” history curriculum. Let me explain.

1. “Christian” is often a misnomer.

“Christian” is a hugely broad term which could mean any interpretation of the word: Catholic, Orthodox, Mormon, Protestant (and within Protestantism, one of the hundreds of doctrinal flavors), Unitarian, etc. Although the word “Christian” will remove secular, pagan, or other non-Christian religious curriculum search results, the various interpretations of essential and nonessential theological issues which will undoubtedly be woven within the content of the curriculum. Curriculum labeled as “Christian” makes us feel better because it’s not secular—but does that mean it’s actually theologically accurate or historically truthful?

(I’ll give her the “theologically accurate” part. You need to know your theology and then examine the company you choose to purchase from.)

2. Propaganda, even propaganda in which you agree, is still bad history.

Good history is question-driven, not philosophy-driven. Good history considers all primary and secondary sources, is honest about its own subjectivity, and is contextual and chronological. One way to think about good history is to consider the exegesis of scripture. Bad history is philosophy-driven: it imposes certain beliefs and biases ONTO primary and secondary sources, just like scriptural eisegesis. Good history is fair, just, and honest: it’s truthful about the past, even if it makes “the church” look bad at certain times in history. (Remember, “the church” as an institution is not the same as “the Church” as the Bride of Christ. Sometimes the institutional church did horrific things in the name of Christ. Such horror is reprehensible and should be condemned in the strongest of terms.)

Bad history is propaganda which promotes a certain perspective by manipulating data through intentional bias: good history lets the historical data speak for itself.

(Agree.)

3. Not all Christian curriculum touted as “history curriculum” is developed by historians.

I would argue that a lot of them are NOT. To understand why this is dangerous and even foolish, review the first two points. Some would argue that hey, in Christian curriculum “at least history is presented with a Christian worldview”: I would argue that if you have the Holy Spirit within you, you don’t need another Christian’s interpretation of the past from a biblical worldview because you will have a biblical worldview yourself. The past ITSELF will demonstrate the truth of scripture and the sovereignty of God. You don’t need commentary of a non-historian to help God along. In fact, their commentary may frustrate the usefulness of the past as a demonstration of the sovereignty of God. This leads me to point #4.

(I disagree. What is a “historian,” and who gets to decide? If a person has read 1,000 books on history, but does not hold a degree from a university, I’d still call them a historian.)

4. The truth is still the truth even if it comes from the mouth of a non-Christian.

Some of the best historians in the world aren’t Christians, but they’re amazing historians. We CANNOT exclude people who are skilled in their craft just because they don’t believe in the Judeo-Christian God: their scholarship, in my opinion, only heightens the glory of God—because He is so PLAINLY seen throughout the historical eras (Romans 1). Good historians only further our understanding of God—whether they agree He exists or not. It would be like rejecting the skills of an expert surgeon because he doesn’t believe God created the human body, or not accepting the services of a foreign language interpreter because she didn’t believe in the Genesis account of Babel.

(Historians that do not believe in God leave out large portions of important history, plain and simple. They call the Bible a myth. They say Jesus was “just a man.” And while the Church (pre- and post-Reformation) has largely influenced history, non-Christians will often deny any good done by the Church, and focus only on the bad. If history-makers were devout Christians, this is often overlooked, and certainly not highlighted. This is incomplete history, not “amazing history.”)

In short:

Don’t waste your money or your time by searching for poorly-written, agenda-laden, and biased non-history because it feels safe.

After seeing this post shared by her repeatedly, I finally commented:

As a veteran homeschooler, I can tell you that the Christian history curricula that irks you was in response to the other extreme: ancient history being taught without the history in the Bible as fact; young earth creation instead of evolution; little mention of church history in general; the deep Christian faith of uncounted historical figures, scientists, and authors; the deep Christian faith of American settlers and founders; and so much more.

There has been a century (at least) of incomplete education in America, and the homeschool movement was in direct response to that. For at least three decades, homeschool parents are relearning history that they were never taught, including the ancient history/biblical timeline, the faith of many men of the Renaissance, the theological history of the Reformation, how the Plymouth colony was born out of religious persecution (and that the Pilgrims absolutely held a thanksgiving feast to thank God and not the Indians), the vast amount of Puritan descendants who founded this nation because of their beliefs, and on and on and on. All my life I’ve heard moms and dads say, “I never knew these things! Why didn’t we learn this part of history?”

The bias that I see in educational materials is generally this: to leave out religious principles, beliefs, and values in an effort to be neutral. But it fails miserably, to the extent that multiple generations of Americans are in the dark about some very important people, events, and concepts. A history degree from a college that operates in this manner is only perpetuating the problem. I’m not into “professionals.” I’m into truth- all of it, especially the truth that gets buried.

I get your point, but I’d love to see more emphasis on the blatant errors in secular curriculum instead of the constant bashing of Christian curriculum. It’s not nearly what you paint it to be, and I’m sad to see this post recycled so frequently.

After I left my comment, she emailed me privately. We agreed to disagree. I love her love for history, but I cannot support her curriculum for reasons stated above.

Example: Story of the World/Susan Wise Bauer

We used to love Story of the World (by Susan Wise Bauer) because of its smooth narrative and story-like presentation of chronological world history. In fact, early in my homeschool years I  devoured The Well Trained Mind by the same author because it presented a classical model of history instruction that made so much sense to me.

However, even while using the SOTW for my kids, I was sad that the biblical/ancient history timeline was missing. Many Bible events seemed to be treated more as myths or stories, but not history. I knew the author called herself a Christian, so this was confusing to me. Why write a world history and not treat the Bible as history?

As Christians, we strive to give our kids a biblical worldview. Two subjects where this is sorely needed in school is with history and science. If a Christian writes a curriculum that spans all of world history, and does not include the Bible as history, or acknowledge that God is sovereign, should we use it?

Recently, Susan Wise Bauer posted a warning about Christian curriculum, similar to Homeschool Historian:

I’ve been holding back on posting the following because I prefer to post positive recommendations rather than criticisms of specific programs.

But I think that, over the course of the next year, we’re going to hear “God’s will for our country” and “God’s purposes in history” brandished quite a bit for political purposes, so I want to point out a particular kind of history that I think we should continue to be wary of.

I call this “providential history,” and in my workshops on historiography, I define it as a form of progressive history. Bear with me for a moment: progressive history sees the story of humans as travelling forward along a road that goes in one direction, from less developed (“primitive”) towards a particular goal. Marxist history is progressive (class conflict is escalating towards rights for the masses). Whiggish history is progressive (we are moving towards a greater and greater perfection). Providential history says that we are moving along God’s timeline, from the beginning of his work with humanity, towards the inevitable end of the ages brought about by divine fiat.

More than that, though, providential history, particular for kids, takes on the job of explaining WHAT God is doing in the past, and exactly HOW he is doing it, and this is where problems arise.

So. In the fall, I got a number of marketing emails and offers for a history course called “The Pilgrim Story.” The Pilgrim Story is based on the Principle Approach (“As American Christians, the Principle Approach enables us to discern the biblical principles of government upon which our nation was founded, thereby, empowering us to restore what has been systematically dismantled over generations”) and promises to help us understand “the character of the Pilgrims and their perilous journey to the New World” by viewing “history through the lens of Scripture.”

NOTE: Read about the Principle Approach here.

If you’re a Christian (I actually am), this might sound appealing. But there’s a problem with providential history. In attempting to plumb the depths of the divine purpose (I would think that all Christians should be wary of such an undertaking), it seems, inevitably, to wrap itself up in entirely un-Christian conclusions.

Here’s the example from “The Pilgrim Story” that I would offer you.

The authors are determined to show that everything that happened to the Pilgrims on their way to the New World was controlled and directed by God. In one of the central lessons, the student is told about six different things that happened on the sea voyage. Each one, the course tells us, proves that God was entirely in control. The principle being taught: God “loves you and will take care of you. Never forgetting that God is in control.”

So here’s how God was in control (reproducing the lesson in full although not all of it is relevant):

**

God was taking care of the pilgrims, because he loved them and had a special plan for them.

God’s Providence on the Trip

a. sweet wine smell (God protected them from this)�

b. main beam cracked (God knew that they would need a screw)�c. John Howland was saved (this was a miracle)�

d. no Pilgrims died (Only a servant boy and a sailor died, none of the pilgrims. The fact that none of the Pilgrims died and all of them made it to the new world alive is also…a wonderful sign of God’s providence)

�e. Oceanus was born

�f. profane sailor died (God protected them from the mean young sailor who was unkind to them, and then the other sailors showed them more respect).

Nothing happened by accident or coincidence.

**

Let’s just look at (d) and (f) for a moment.

(d) No Pilgrims died. Only a servant boy died. This “a wonderful sign of God’s providence.”

ONLY a servant boy died.

ONLY a servant boy died.

ONLY a servant boy died.

The conclusion is inevitable: The servant boy was worth less than the Pilgrims. The servant boy wasn’t under God’s providential care. The servant boy didn’t matter.

Is that the gospel?

(f) profane sailor died. After that things were better for the pilgrims.

The inevitable conclusion: God killed him. The profane sailor wasn’t worthy of salvation. The profane sailor didn’t matter.

Is that the gospel?

Dear followers, parents and students: These are not the lessons we should be absorbing from history. Please, please keep your eyes open for “history” that teaches your students a hierarchy of worth, a false view of God, a false view of the past.

I responded:

It’s odd that, as a historian, you would neglect to inform your readers that the pilgrims themselves wrote about the hand of God in all of their history. It’s not that modern Christians are trying to twist a story to make it more “providential.” The Pilgrims wrote their story this way. They documented incidents, and they documented prayers. They actually did devote their lives to God, and they truly believed that He controls outcomes. You know this Susan Wise Bauer. You have surely read Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation,” and “Mourt’s Relation,” the first year diary of the colony at Plymouth.

I’m sorry to see this bashing of Christians seeking the hand of God in history. As a Christian, my hope is to point my children to the God that created them and the world they live in, the God who controls the heavens and turns the hearts of men, the God who gave us minds to understand and hearts to believe. Without that, what good is history? It’s just a random series of events, wars, rulers, and death.

Providential history is not your enemy.

This post confirms my decision to abandon Story of the World years ago.

Further, here’s another comment on the biblical/history timeline, and Bauer’s response.

It’s important to note here that Bauer holds a Master of Divinity degree. And she rejects the Bible as historical narrative.

The sovereignty of God

“Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.” (Psalm 115:3)

This is a topic for a whole sermon and separate post, but let me just say this: if we believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, it just stands to reason that we would believe in the sovereignty of God. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see that God makes judgements that we humans might not make. We talk about compassion, and judgement, and love, but we are not God. Trusting in God’s word also means trusting in Him (and His judgements) implicitly.

When it comes to history, our worldview shapes our understanding of historical events. We can look at the events of the past 6,000 years and see that God is everywhere, or determine that He is in His heaven and has no involvement with the human race. Susan Wise Bauer chooses the latter.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33)

So, Christian parent, what do you believe? Do you believe in the holiness, wisdom, and sovereignty of God? Or do you believe that God created us and does not govern in our affairs? Knowing what you believe is vital, because this is how you will teach your children. If you don’t know, I beg you to dig into the holy scriptures. Read them in their entirety, and understand the heart of God.

If you do believe in the sovereignty of God, your homeschooling should reflect that.

Christian homeschool history curriculum

And so this article comes full circle: curriculum that teaches about the Hand of Providence in American history.

You see, Americans today like to say that America is not a Christian nation. And looking at it today, I’d say I agree that we are definitely living in a post-Christian society. However, we are still enjoying some of the fruits of our very Christian founding: the Bill of Rights and capitalism, to name a few. Though we are far from our Christian roots, they are there.

As I pointed out in the two examples above, there is a decided trend to be “neutral” about history, and to make it non-religious. How absurd! If a historic figure was religious, we should know. If they weren’t, we should know that, too. If these figures worshipped God and attributed both good and bad circumstances to Him, we should read all about it.

And as Bible-believing Christians, we can be encouraged by their examples.

But how will that happen if we try to neutralize history? Why would Christian parents want to ignore the obvious works of God in the stories of American men and women? (It’s not just America, either. Reading about the spread of Christianity around the world is an amazing encouragement, including the martyred Christians of the early church! I am inspired by their strong faith as they were burned at the stake, and worse! Our children should be, too.)

I grew up reading books based on primary sources of American history, and it fueled in me a passion for freedom, and a knowledge of the strong Judeo-Christian roots of our nation. And here’s the thing: the freedom and blessings we have enjoyed are direct results of those roots. They cannot be separated.

It’s been tried, and you can see the disastrous results all around you. Separating the deeply held faith of our American ancestors from their story produces exactly what you see today: a nation drifting farther and farther from freedom. Because American freedom is implicitly tied to religion and morals. And not just any religion or morals. The founders repeatedly wrote that our freedom, our rights, our Constitution depend on the Judeo-Christian faith.

How do we know?

Primary sources. Read the speeches, the letters, the documents.

But that’s not how education works anymore. We get history books written by historians with their own bias. (It’s funny that Homeschool Historian and Susan Wise Bauer are against bias, while embracing their own. They are actually encouraging you to embrace their bias.) We don’t have to create reasons for what our forefathers did. We don’t have to wonder why they acted, or what beliefs they held. We don’t need new versions of the original stories. We don’t need an expert to tell us what our forefathers already told us.

The worst thing anyone can do with history is to try to understand it through our own modern lens. We have to know the people in their own time, in their own society, knowing what they believed and understood at the time they lived. But that takes time, and too many of us aren’t willing to spend the time.

And while we have an epidemic of progressive historians retelling history to make all Europeans racist and sexist, there’s that other weirdly-related segment that wants us to have “nice” history without God.

I cannot possibly re-post all of America’s strong Christian history in this already-lengthy blog post. But I’ll point you in the right direction.

1. Read your Bible, from beginning to end, in context, and repeatedly.
2. Read Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. Read Mourt’s Relation by the Plymouth founders. Get to know American Puritanism (again, get it from the source, not a modern opinion of Puritans.) The Puritans (in England and subsequently America) were deeply devoted to God. Their words and their actions illustrate this throughout the centuries. If you read what they wrote, you will see.
3. Read the writings of American colonists before the Revolution. Learn about missionaries to the Indian tribes, and captives of the Indians who praised God even through suffering and loss. Read the writings of the Revolutionaries. Get your hands on their letters, books, and speeches. (I’ll say it again: don’t read someone’s interpretation; read the full works.)
4. Read the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, two noted non-Christian founders who still repeatedly spoke about God’s hand in the affairs of America.
5. Read George Washington’s writings. You cannot possibly believe there was ever a better President than Washington if you know him. Trust me. He was the bomb.
6. Read the Federalist Papers and the letters and speeches of the men at the Constitutional Convention. See how they sought the wisdom and blessing of God, and how they attributed Constitutional freedom to the morals of the holy Bible.

Turn off the TV. Binge read American primary sources. Because what you will find there is near-constant mention of the “Hand of Providence,” “Divine interposition,” “the Almighty Ruler of the Universe,” “the religion of the Bible,” and more.

And don’t be afraid of Christian homeschool curriculum. (There are many great ones to choose from; we love and use Mystery of History.) Choose carefully. Pick up the materials and flip through them, or ask for a sample. Check the footnotes and citations.  Look for direct quotes, not taken out of context (just like you’d do with the Bible). Beware of “we are neutral” claims, because no one is neutral. Skim for obvious Marxist revisions that make all minorities the heroes and all Europeans the tyrant. Ask questions of the curriculum writers. Scour their social media pages. Get to know their views. Email them.

Look for balance. Of course, you don’t want any one-sided view of history, not even a one-sided Christian view of history. But we should all seek a complete view. That’s true education.

Here’s why this is vital: America is a unique place with a unique history. We have an incredible foundation of freedom that can only be preserved by operating in the same way the founders and those before them operated: the very morals and religion expressly defined in the Christian Bible. But too many Americans don’t know this. They never heard it, they never read it, and they have no clue how to preserve it.

But if American students (and their parents) were aware of the people behind the events, and their beliefs, their practices, and understood the times in which those people lived, I believe our nation would look very different than it does today. We would not be bemoaning the present, but would be grateful for our unique position in the world. We would not allow corruption in politics and business, because we would understand the American ideals behind small government and true capitalism. We’d understood what made America great, and we’d seek to keep that greatness by preserving our roots.

The things that made America great are not outdated: the Christian religion, hard work, freedom, individuality, capitalism…there’s nothing old-fashioned about these. Don’t look for ways to silence the good about America. Know it and teach it. The future of America depends on it.

Providential history is the Biblical worldview. Don’t be deceived by negative claims against providential history. God’s hand is clearly seen throughout history–in the lives of individuals and nations. It’s documented in the Bible and other primary sources written over the course of history.

“My counsel to Christian homeschooling parents is to stay away from “secular-humanist-washed” history curriculum. God’s hand is clearly seen throughout history.” (Heather Hall)

Remember, education is discipleship and it’s not neutral. One worldview or another is taught. Christian parents, think carefully about the worldview you teach your children. (Source: Biblical Classical Homeschoolers)

Stay tuned for a couple of follow-up posts, including a resource list of books and curriculum that I feel are pretty balanced, as well as a look at biblical history/archaeology.

• Providential History, Part 1: The Historicity of the Bible