Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Are the differences between "Western" history and "World" history important? You bet! Rob Shearer joins Mike Smith to tell you why on today's Home School Heartbeat.

Mike:


Rob, why is it important to understand the differences between "Western" history and "World" history when teaching our children?


Rob:


The problem is not really World history. I'm a huge believer in making sure that we cover for our children the various cultures around the world and the history of all of the regions of the world. The problem is the way in which a lot of curricula approach these issues. They treat World history almost as if everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame. And we don't dare say that any particular culture, any particular age, any particular region ever achieved anything that's excellent or superior to any other because we wouldn't want to hurt anybody's self esteem. And the problem with that is it's just not true. I mean, there are particular places, there are times, there are cultures, there are regions that achieve things of excellence. And we need to be able to point to those and praise them for the excellence and then point to other places where there are failures and use them as the examples to avoid. So the problem, is there's really no moral basis, and it avoids really acknowledging the central role that Western culture has had in World history over the last 2000 years. You can argue that Western culture's dominance has not always been a good thing, but it's a mistake to pretend that it just didn't happen.


Mike:


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


Learning the lessons of history is so important, but how do we make ancient history exciting for our children? If you want to make history come alive for your children, contact HSLDA for more information.