Guidelines for Parents

Dear Parents,

Do you like to learn? The love of learning can be infectious as you challenge and inspire your children with riveting questions, nurturing their curiosity. However, keep in mind this caveat: "Knowledge puffeth up but love buildeth up" (1 Cor. 8:1). Gaining knowledge of God's creation and man's response (history) is only a means to the end of glorifying Him (1 Cor 10:31). Learning history can also bring God glory as we are instructed to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Peter 3:15).

A parent who is considering having her 10th grader take this course wrote, "My daughter would like me to ask you your advice on motivation for this course. How would you encourage someone who 'finds history extremely boring?' "

History taught from the religious belief in Chance as god, i.e., evolution, or cyclical reincarnation, will not reveal the exciting, purposeful development of seeing prophecy unfolded in the linear events from the Fall, the Redemption, the Restoration of Israel, and the long awaited Rapture. God's miraculous interventions into man's plans show God's compassion, judgment, and wisdom. The pages of scripture are much more than historical documents. They are living and active, providing interpretive discernment into past and current events to all people throughout all time. History in Biblical Perspective expands on these these truths.

Your fellow servant,

Mr. N.

PS
This course is like all the others in that you only get out of it what you put into it. As you know, a good grade is not the same as a good education. I pray for all my students to have discernment in the setting of their priorities so they will work as unto the Lord, for His approval, and not for the approval of some arbitrary benchmark of man's design.

A parent asks:
This is an AP level course - do I have that right? The web site says the primary difference is the number of writing assignments - but is the content AP level?

Answer:
The scope and sequence is based on College Board recommendations for an AP World history class. Most of the required readings I have selected are aimed at the competence level of high school seniors or college freshmen. The content of an AP course is about the same as a regular world history course but the way of looking at interactions, cause and effect over time and between regions is a major difference. A typical regular world history class for tenth graders presents the material in a much more compartmentalized fashion. AP tends to jump around exploring possible connections.

Since the quizzes are “open book” that allows for differentiation of student abilities. Some take the quiz faster than others but most all are able to find the answers.

The biggest challenge of this course is in the writing. Although there are specific scoring guides, I find students struggle with the idea of a supported thesis. We spend the first few weeks on examining what this means by looking at essay examples and non examples.

If the writing load is too difficult, students can drop back to a regular history level (which has fewer writing assignments) rather than the honor’s pace.

One of my goals is to prepare students for success on the AP exam if they choose to pursue that, now or later in high school.

For more information, see the first paragraph of the course syllabus.

Psalm 22:
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD , and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him- those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn- for he has done it.

God has given the Parent Authority and Responsibility

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3

How are you taking responsibility for your gift? Are you training them up in God's word (Eph. 6:4) and protecting them from the world's vain philosophies? (Col. 2:8).

Deuteronomy 6:4-7:
4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

It is critical for parents to test all things and not forfeit the blessing of nurturing their gift by delegating their task to public or private schools. Even be wary of this World History course. (Thank you for your scrutinizing!) To help you scrutinize even more, I prefer sending all correspondence to your child, through the parents email account.

Practical Tips:

Provide sufficient oversight to ensure your child is prepared and attentive to the assignments and deadlines you endorse.
Read over your child's essays and ask clarifying questions of their thesis and organization.
Let the child suffer the consequences of not having studied when taking quizzes. Don't give the answer or do their work.
Encourage them to write for specific teacher help for better understanding of assignments.

Strengthen your own Biblical world view to help thwart the secular bombardment attacking your child's mind.

Encouraging statistics for those of you who homeschool, published in Better Homes and Gardens, August 2002:

• Twenty-six percent of homeschool students who applied to Stanford University in 2000 were accepted, nearly double its acceptance rate of traditional-school students.
• A 1999 study of 20,000 home students found those in grades first to fourth performed better than public and private school students in every subject of the Iowa test of Basic Skills. By eighth grade, the study found, the average homeschool student performed four grade levels above the national average.
• Students who are homeschooled scored an average of 1,100 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT college entrance exam in 2000....80 points higher than the national average. They outscored other students on the ACT exam.
• The winner of the 2001 Scripps Howard Spelling Bee was homeschooled. In 2000, all three top winners were homeschooled.

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