by Steven David Horwich
The following is an excerpt from Mr. Horwich’s new book, Not Alternative Education – Universal Private Education. This is part seven of his article, Homeschooling in the 21st Century. It deals with creating a global perspective for the homeschool student.
The United Nations was formed in the late 1940s, shortly after the end of World War II. It had the essential purpose of assisting nations to co-exist in peace. It was meant to protect human rights over state rights. Whether or not it has succeeded at its mission, it is and was noble and necessary. We are most certainly one world disunited, and that has proven to be a dangerous condition for all concerned.
Local United Nations Associations have a “catch phrase” that they used to use to promote awareness of what they call “global interdependence”. The phrase was “think globally – act locally”. What this means is that one should consider world-wide needs and then do something about them in one’s own neighborhood or nation. It is a simple but important thought, especially to homeschoolers.
How do we become aware of other people, other lands, other ways of life? Awareness of others, their differences and similarities to one’s self, starts with exposure. Exposure happens best when one travels to other places. In lieu of travel, education is the next best thing. Unfortunately most of the history and sociology taught to school children, at least in the U.S., is local in nature. Children are taught American history, but very little about world history. (Actually, given polls that demonstrate a shockingly small percentage of Americans know who George Washington was, U.S. history is not being taught well either.)
No country is an island or exists in a vacuum. The history of the United States is very brief compared to the history of most other parts of the world. The U.S. in its current form exists as an extension of European history. Our country is just one wave in the tide of history.
Education creates perspective. Perspective makes our place in the global scheme of things much clearer. An understanding of the world, its history and geography, changes one’s view of our relation with others. An example – whatever one thinks of the United States making war in Iraq, what we were doing was marching into the land where civilization started, the first cities and states. More wars have been fought over that land than can be easily imagined, and the United States is now a part of a very long river of history that flows from the fertile crescent, found in Iraq.
Homeschoolers are not limited to the state’s mandates on what to teach a child, when, or how. As homeschoolers, we are free to make certain that our children receive a broader understanding of the world, one that started long before 1776. Homeschoolers are free to investigate world geography, to locate relationships between lands tied together by waterways and land. We are free to understand world history and investigate its relevancy today. We are free to look as we see a need to look. We are not limited by a “set of standards”, so we can look at others and consider their lives, their culture, even their beliefs. A homeschooler is, in fact, as free to be exposed to, and to understand the world as his or her parents allow and support.
The limits of understanding of the world a homeschooling child will grow up with are determined by mom and dad. The parents must decide what is “appropriate” for junior to learn. I would argue that, as the student moves toward adulthood, there is great deal about history, other lands and their interactions with our own that it would be wise for a child to understand. Like it or not the world is interdependent, though we really do not want something like an all-powerful “world government”. Imagine education under the thumb of one all-powerful government intent on its own perpetuation. There’s a terrifying thought.
Consider modern global economics. A bank crash today in the U.S. influences economies worldwide and in very dire ways. Greece is today threatened with bankruptcy. If they go “belly up”, economies worldwide are threatened – which is why France and Germany recently stepped in to assist Greece. This was done to prevent a global economic crisis, not just a crisis in Greece. We are interdependent, and a homeschooler can take the time and dedicate the resources to discover the mechanics of that interdependence in ways that schools rarely can or do.
Education is about survival. Survival is at education’s very core. It is why we ultimately care about educating our young. There is little today that is more survival-oriented than a global perspective and the will to find ways to do things locally to improve the global situation. Such would (and often does) make wonderful homeschool studies and exercises!
There are numerous ways to approach teaching with a global perspective. Obviously, one might begin with the idea that world history should be the focus of history studies. I believe in following the timeline in teaching history rather than jumping around in small “units” – today the ancient history of some particular group, tomorrow something else 500 years later in history. I don’t think that such minimal and out-of-sequence studies help the student understand the flows and interplays of history. If a student “starts at the beginning” and works forward (over several years of study, without the “deadlines” schools impose), he is likely to not only “learn” history, but to understand it and be able to apply his understanding to today’s issues.
An example of how this can be done from my history curricula; I always ask students to apply what happened in the past to their own judgment and intelligence. For instance, Alexander the Great tended to do two things with defeated cities. Alexander either made conquered enemies into allies and left them with their own people in charge, or he burned them to the ground. Each approach has value and flaws from a military or human standpoint. I ask the student which approach he or she would take, and why. I do this sort of thing when teaching any part of history.
I also often ask the student to apply lessons in history to today’s situations, and in current events studies to apply the lessons of history locally to solve global problems. For instance, the world has a “food” crisis - around a billion people go to bed hungry each night. Students are asked to investigate poverty and hunger in their own country and how it is addressed. They can then investigate how their country either creates world hunger or helps alleviate it, and what organizations are active in solving this crisis. The student can then investigate such organizations to determine in what ways he may wish to contribute or get involved. These are a few ways a student can use studies to think locally, but act globally. This approach challenges the student to understand the world we live in, how we got to be as we are, and to use his “smarts”, common sense and good heart to help solve our problems.
As our children become adults, they will determine the shape of international relationships. Ignorance, forced and inculcated regional values, bigotry and insulation (the products of a public school education as often as not) will lead to a lack of understanding of the world and of others, and most likely conflict. An exaggerated patriotism enforced through education, a sense of national entitlement and “me first”, inevitably lead to a combative nation. After all, a nation is no more than its people, their education, their understanding of the world and how they apply it.
Steven Horwich is an Emmy and Dramalogue award-winning writer/director, who has split his life between the arts and education. A teacher with over 35 years and over 20,000 hours of experience from elementary school through university-level teaching, he started homeschooling his own children in 2002. This led him to author over 300 courses since 2002, a complete curricula (excluding math) for ages 5-adult, called Connect The Thoughts. Over 20,000 people have used CTT since making it available via the Internet in 2007. His curricula is presented at www.connectthethoughts.com. There is over 5 hours of film explaining his courses and approach. He has authored a book about education today, Poor Cheated Little Johnny, and a teacher training program to go with it. He currently presents a free webinar about education and homeschooling every third Tuesday.
The following is an excerpt from Mr. Horwich’s new book, Not Alternative Education – Universal Private Education. This is part seven of his article, Homeschooling in the 21st Century. It deals with creating a global perspective for the homeschool student.
The United Nations was formed in the late 1940s, shortly after the end of World War II. It had the essential purpose of assisting nations to co-exist in peace. It was meant to protect human rights over state rights. Whether or not it has succeeded at its mission, it is and was noble and necessary. We are most certainly one world disunited, and that has proven to be a dangerous condition for all concerned.
Local United Nations Associations have a “catch phrase” that they used to use to promote awareness of what they call “global interdependence”. The phrase was “think globally – act locally”. What this means is that one should consider world-wide needs and then do something about them in one’s own neighborhood or nation. It is a simple but important thought, especially to homeschoolers.
How do we become aware of other people, other lands, other ways of life? Awareness of others, their differences and similarities to one’s self, starts with exposure. Exposure happens best when one travels to other places. In lieu of travel, education is the next best thing. Unfortunately most of the history and sociology taught to school children, at least in the U.S., is local in nature. Children are taught American history, but very little about world history. (Actually, given polls that demonstrate a shockingly small percentage of Americans know who George Washington was, U.S. history is not being taught well either.)
No country is an island or exists in a vacuum. The history of the United States is very brief compared to the history of most other parts of the world. The U.S. in its current form exists as an extension of European history. Our country is just one wave in the tide of history.
Education creates perspective. Perspective makes our place in the global scheme of things much clearer. An understanding of the world, its history and geography, changes one’s view of our relation with others. An example – whatever one thinks of the United States making war in Iraq, what we were doing was marching into the land where civilization started, the first cities and states. More wars have been fought over that land than can be easily imagined, and the United States is now a part of a very long river of history that flows from the fertile crescent, found in Iraq.
Homeschoolers are not limited to the state’s mandates on what to teach a child, when, or how. As homeschoolers, we are free to make certain that our children receive a broader understanding of the world, one that started long before 1776. Homeschoolers are free to investigate world geography, to locate relationships between lands tied together by waterways and land. We are free to understand world history and investigate its relevancy today. We are free to look as we see a need to look. We are not limited by a “set of standards”, so we can look at others and consider their lives, their culture, even their beliefs. A homeschooler is, in fact, as free to be exposed to, and to understand the world as his or her parents allow and support.
The limits of understanding of the world a homeschooling child will grow up with are determined by mom and dad. The parents must decide what is “appropriate” for junior to learn. I would argue that, as the student moves toward adulthood, there is great deal about history, other lands and their interactions with our own that it would be wise for a child to understand. Like it or not the world is interdependent, though we really do not want something like an all-powerful “world government”. Imagine education under the thumb of one all-powerful government intent on its own perpetuation. There’s a terrifying thought.
Consider modern global economics. A bank crash today in the U.S. influences economies worldwide and in very dire ways. Greece is today threatened with bankruptcy. If they go “belly up”, economies worldwide are threatened – which is why France and Germany recently stepped in to assist Greece. This was done to prevent a global economic crisis, not just a crisis in Greece. We are interdependent, and a homeschooler can take the time and dedicate the resources to discover the mechanics of that interdependence in ways that schools rarely can or do.
Education is about survival. Survival is at education’s very core. It is why we ultimately care about educating our young. There is little today that is more survival-oriented than a global perspective and the will to find ways to do things locally to improve the global situation. Such would (and often does) make wonderful homeschool studies and exercises!
There are numerous ways to approach teaching with a global perspective. Obviously, one might begin with the idea that world history should be the focus of history studies. I believe in following the timeline in teaching history rather than jumping around in small “units” – today the ancient history of some particular group, tomorrow something else 500 years later in history. I don’t think that such minimal and out-of-sequence studies help the student understand the flows and interplays of history. If a student “starts at the beginning” and works forward (over several years of study, without the “deadlines” schools impose), he is likely to not only “learn” history, but to understand it and be able to apply his understanding to today’s issues.
An example of how this can be done from my history curricula; I always ask students to apply what happened in the past to their own judgment and intelligence. For instance, Alexander the Great tended to do two things with defeated cities. Alexander either made conquered enemies into allies and left them with their own people in charge, or he burned them to the ground. Each approach has value and flaws from a military or human standpoint. I ask the student which approach he or she would take, and why. I do this sort of thing when teaching any part of history.
I also often ask the student to apply lessons in history to today’s situations, and in current events studies to apply the lessons of history locally to solve global problems. For instance, the world has a “food” crisis - around a billion people go to bed hungry each night. Students are asked to investigate poverty and hunger in their own country and how it is addressed. They can then investigate how their country either creates world hunger or helps alleviate it, and what organizations are active in solving this crisis. The student can then investigate such organizations to determine in what ways he may wish to contribute or get involved. These are a few ways a student can use studies to think locally, but act globally. This approach challenges the student to understand the world we live in, how we got to be as we are, and to use his “smarts”, common sense and good heart to help solve our problems.
As our children become adults, they will determine the shape of international relationships. Ignorance, forced and inculcated regional values, bigotry and insulation (the products of a public school education as often as not) will lead to a lack of understanding of the world and of others, and most likely conflict. An exaggerated patriotism enforced through education, a sense of national entitlement and “me first”, inevitably lead to a combative nation. After all, a nation is no more than its people, their education, their understanding of the world and how they apply it.
Steven Horwich is an Emmy and Dramalogue award-winning writer/director, who has split his life between the arts and education. A teacher with over 35 years and over 20,000 hours of experience from elementary school through university-level teaching, he started homeschooling his own children in 2002. This led him to author over 300 courses since 2002, a complete curricula (excluding math) for ages 5-adult, called Connect The Thoughts. Over 20,000 people have used CTT since making it available via the Internet in 2007. His curricula is presented at www.connectthethoughts.com. There is over 5 hours of film explaining his courses and approach. He has authored a book about education today, Poor Cheated Little Johnny, and a teacher training program to go with it. He currently presents a free webinar about education and homeschooling every third Tuesday.
