by Lorinda K. F. Newton
Many find history to be a dull litany of names and dates, and unfortunately, some teachers teach the subject as such. Reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books as a child turned me on to history. I also grew up hearing about my mom’s family tree and my dad’s recollections of history as we watched old movies or traveled around the Puget Sound region.
You may not have grown up in a history-focused home. Still, as a homeschooler, you can encourage your children to love history. The goal of learning history isn’t primarily to create history buffs, however. The purpose of studying history is to transmit our heritage to the next generation, particularly the American heritage of liberty. As Ronald Reagan once said,
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
This summer, we’ve witnessed the effects of the public schools’ failure to pass on our heritage. First, the national report card showed that students have scant knowledge of history or civics. Many can’t even identify a branch of government! How can our republic survive if our younger citizens don’t even know how it works?
Next, young adults pulled down statues of historical figures, demonstrating they have no regard for our nation’s history. Don’t these people understand that if they destroy our heritage, we will lose our freedom?
What Is History?
Merriam-Webster defines history as
“a chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes.”
Some homeschool curricula describe history as a collection of biographies. Those with a biblical worldview refer to history as His Story, God’s meta-narrative of all mankind.
Why Teach History?
To comprehend the world in which we live and our role in it, we must understand the past. We are not born into a new world. What happened before, even thousands of years ago, shapes how we live and think today.
German historian Lother Gall explains:
“…one of the main objectives of the modern historian…is to make the individual and the public as a whole aware of the fact that social behaviour and fundamental political decisions, ideologies and economic and political systems, patterns of thought and decision-making criteria, are all conditioned by history.”[i]
Our existence only makes sense in the context of history. Del Tackett, author of the biblical worldview study The Truth Project [ii], explains
“…a proper appreciation of historical context—in other words, our place in God’s ‘larger story’—is fundamental to an accurate understanding of almost every aspect of our lives. History provides us with indispensable insights into the meaning of existence, God’s plan and purpose for the ages, man’s responsibility toward the Creator, and his duty toward his fellow creatures.”
Without knowing the historical context, we begin our lives in the middle of a movie: we don’t know what’s going on or what roles the other characters play. Today’s headlines don’t make sense without our knowing what led up to the given circumstances.
Without History, We Are Lost
Throughout the Old Testament, God calls his people to remember. To remember the Exodus, to remember his redemption throughout their history and his promises for a future and a hope. In the New Testament, Jesus gave us communion to remember him by until he returns.
Without the memory of God’s past victories, life has no hope or meaning. A people without history is lost and hopeless.
About a century ago, the US government stripped the tribal peoples of their culture by outlawing their traditional clothing, artwork, and ceremonies and removing their children to boarding schools where they were only allowed to speak English. The government wanted to force the indigenous peoples to blend into American culture.
But by cutting them off from their roots, the US government also clipped their wings. To this day, many on Indian reservations live in a state of hopelessness. I believe this is partially due to their cultural heritage being stolen from them.
As Os Guinness put it, “Those who don’t know history have no sense of identity, and no sense of wisdom as they explore where they are going to go. Without history, we’re lost.”[iii]
Without History, We Will Be Lead Astray
In addition to being lost, we can be misdirected through historical revisionism. As Tackett states in The Truth Project, “If I can change your historical context, I can determine the way you view the present.”[iv] Changing or wiping out history to create a new world order has been done several times in the modern world, and with disastrous results.
French revolutionaries (1789-1799) attempted to strip the nation of its heritage and Catholic faith by destroying churches, the aristocracy, and renumbering the year dates by calling 1789 Year 1 and instituting a ten-day work week. Instead of liberty, this nation fell to Napoleon.
The communist revolutionaries operated on Karl Marx’s statement, “A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.” The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-68) especially took this concept to the extreme as young adults took to the streets to destroy the Four Olds: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas.
Since the 1980s, the public schools and universities have taught historical revisionism with Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, and more recently with The 1619 Project and the Black Live Matters movement. They all teach students to hate America.
Remember US History to Preserve Liberty
The history of the United States of America didn’t begin in 1776, although we recognize that as our nation’s birth date. US history didn’t start at 1619 either, as the revisionists claim. Nor did it begin in 1607 or 1492. Our history belongs to the meta-narrative of freedom that begins with the biblical Exodus over three thousand years ago. Here’s a brief history of American liberty:
- God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and established the Mosaic Law, making Israel more free and just than the surrounded nations. Unlike the absolute monarchs that ruled the neighboring kingdoms, Israel’s kings were to live under God’s authority.
- The Greco-Roman world gave us the tradition of the rule of law.
- Medieval Europe
- Combining the concepts of the rule of law and monarchs living under God’s authority, the European nations developed a culture that promoted liberty more than anywhere else in the world.
- In 1215 the Magna Carta forced King John of England to listen to his nobles and not rule with absolute power.
- The American Colonial Era
- 1607 in Jamestown the first English-American government was established.
- 1620 the Mayflower Compact formed the first government for the Plymouth colony.
- The Glorious Revolution in 1688 led to the English Parliament restricting the powers of the monarchy and distributing power to the people.
- William of Orange, Queen Mary, and Queen Anne allowed the colonies to mostly rule themselves.
- 1760 George III became king. He tightened his rule over the colonists, violated their rights as Englishmen, and ignored their demands for their rights to be acknowledged.
- July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence listed the various grievances that the colonists had against George III.
- 1781 the Articles of Confederation.
- 1789 the Constitution of the United States.
Behind these historical events, our forefathers recognized that God oversees the lives of men and that all people, including kings, must submit to God’s authority.
Stand for the History of Liberty
Without being familiar with the overarching narrative of liberty, we can’t fully appreciate the Constitution and its value. To preserve this valuable inheritance, we must tell its history to the next generation and instill patriotism and love for their God-given rights into their hearts and minds. And we must train our children to do the same.
Just as the English colonists demanded that their rights be recognized by the king, we must vigilantly stand guard and ward off any threats that may usurp our liberties.
Instead of viewing history as boring, strange, and foreign, find your place in the larger story. One way is to become an involved citizen. Show your children their own place in history as American citizens by accurately teaching our history.
Lorinda K. F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings and Lorinda’s Ponderings on Facebook.©2020 by Lorinda K. F. Newton.
[i] Questions on German History: Ideas, forces, decisions from 1800 to the present. Historical Exhibition in the Berlin Reichstag Catalogue, 2nd (updated) Edition. ©1984 published by the German Bundestag Press and Information Centre Publications’ Section. English Edition. p. 13.
[ii] Tackett, Del. “Time and History: Whose Story?” Lesson 6. The Truth Project. ©2006.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
