Michael P. Farris, Esq.
Chairman &
General Counsel

The importance of ancient history

Volume 41, Program 7 11/5/2002

Stories about dead people from thousands of years ago have little bearing on our lives today, right? Wrong, says writer and homeschooling dad Rob Shearer on today's Home School Heartbeat.

Mike:


Rob, you recommend that parents begin teaching children ancient history at an early age. How can you defend that?


Rob:


Oh, I think it's important that we start at the beginning with our kids for a couple of different reasons. One is to give kids a perspective on where we are in this long conversation of development on what God has done to avoid the error that I'm afraid most of us got from our government school experience. And believing that the world began in 1492. One of the important reasons and one of the reasons we recommend that parents start with the history of Israel is to get the biblical pattern for how you do history and to see the ways in which God's work with Israel and through the ancient record still affects us today. Most people don't realize how much we are still influenced by the cultures of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome. Just to pick one example: most people don't realize that the American founding fathers deliberately tried to revive the institutions of the Roman Republic. They were very familiar with the details of the Roman Republic. They made some choices about the way in which our government was fashioned. In particular, they wanted to make sure they avoided the way in which the Roman Republic failed. And all of that is backdrop to the founding of the American republic, and you miss it if you don't know the history of the ancient cultures.


Mike:


Well, thank you, Rob. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.

It's vitally important that we teach our children ancient history, but how do you do it? HSLDA has some great resources that can help you teach history to your children. To get them, simply call us toll-free at 866-338-8614. That's 866-338-8614.