Don't Know Much About History

One of the reasons so many of us parents take on the burden of homeschooling is because we have experienced, one way or another, the biases and shortcomings of the textbooks that are used in public education. Take history books, for example. The texts being used today in most schools don't often bear a strong resemblance to what we parents were taught when we were children. And what we were taught was often a watered-down version of what our own parents were taught. I don't know exactly how it happened, but through the years, successive history texts have bit by bit glossed over key points in our history, buried certain facts that used to be considered basic, played up lesser events, and sadly come to promote a viewpoint that seems to have more to do with a political agenda than education. Going even further back in history results in an even bleaker picture, as the Judeo-Christian contribution to western civilization and the world often gets downplayed or distorted. The only real solution to the problem is to turn to different scholars and even to original sources, an intimidating task made only slightly easier by the Internet. But what sources? How do you find them? There's no way around it--parents are going to have to work to dig up the information our kids should have. We're at a distinct disadvantage as we have to fill in the gaps in our own educations. We have to play catch up so that one day our children won't have to. In an effort to help other parents, here is a list of some of the sources, both original and scholarly, that I have found useful in teaching early American history. Some of them are obvious, some might not occur to you: A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. An engaging overview of American history. The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen. Examines the founding principles of our country and where the Founding Fathers got their inspiration. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. Reasoning and defense of American constitutional principles, from the minds of some of the Founding Fathers themselves. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Not strictly history, but in its allegorical tale, very revealing of the mindset of the Puritans who carved a country out of a wilderness. Thomas Jefferson: Writings. Any edition of Jefferson's works will be illuminating. Jefferson, of course, was largely responsible for the writing of the Declaration of Independence, which remains a fundamental proclamation of the American mind. Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior by George Washington. Full of wise sayings and observations, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the book was originally written by Washington in French when he was a young teen. The Republic and the Laws by Marcus Tullius Cicero. A bit of a hard slog, but Cicero was inspirational to the Founding Fathers for his description of Natural Law and his ideas about republican government.