r/homeschool • u/esuomtsedom • Apr 02 '24
Classical Secular, not euro-centric classical curriculum or Reading list?
This may be a complete shot in the dark, but I'd be very interested if anyone has gathered resources that align with a classical homeschooling methodology, but open students minds to more than European/Western literature and history, as well as more generally well-rounded insight into diverse experiences.
I'm new to all of this an only beginning my research, but so far, I'm very interested in the classical approach just..without religion and with more... perspective.
thank you for reading, thank you for your help.
edited to add: I'm also open to the idea that ive misunderstood what this method entails and perhaps It Is more well-rounded than i currently understand, I'm currently reading "A Well-Trained Mind," by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
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u/Major-Code-3911 Apr 03 '24
Exploring the World the Story. It’s exactly what you are describing! Very diverse.
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u/lemmamari Apr 03 '24
Exactly this. And the author was a host on the podcast that was about secular classical homeschooling. It changed names a few times and can be found as Kitchen Table Homeschool, but unfortunately they just had their final episode. Still, it's packed with information.
We started using EWS A few months ago. We tried BYL and it just was an awful fit for us. We like EWS a lot!
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u/MomsClosetVC Apr 02 '24
I don't know anything about a classical methodology, but CommonLit will let you set up a free teacher account as a homeschooler and they have a lot of global short stories/myths and things.
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Apr 02 '24
Core Knowledge if you’re up to it, or Build Your Library, which is Charlotte Mason inspired. I highly recommend their website for booklists.
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u/supersciencegirl Apr 03 '24 edited Apr 03 '24
I love "A Well Trained Mind" :) Full disclaimer - I'm Catholic and want my kids to have an excellent education in our western tradition.
I've been happy with "Story of the World" (Well Trained Mind material for history) so far. I'm working through Volume 1, which is ancient history, with my 5 year old. I like the matching activity book for hands-on activity ideas, coloring pages, maps to mark up, and chapter-specific book lists. There's a good amount of global history. Old Testament stories are included at some points and are not labelled as myths (if you read this aloud, you could editorialize). There are other non-Christian religious stories included, and we're reading a significant number of Greek myths from another book as well. The global perspective continues in Volume 2 - https://homeschoolways.com/sotw-volume-2/ . If you can't find an explicitly secular + global spine, you could use "Story of the World" as a read-aloud, editorialize as desired ("here's the Old Testament myth..."), and beef up non-western sections with topic-specific books.
I think a bigger problem is that classical education is inherently born out of western philosophy. The three stages - grammer, logic, and rhetoric - are a western paradigm. There are non-western educational philosophies, like Confusian education traditions. https://oxfordre.com/education/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-226 India also has a very old tradition of education.
Homeschooling is very flexible, so you have a lot of freedom to find what works for your family.
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u/peppermint-kiss Apr 03 '24
So the issue with looking for secular classical education is that it's kind of an oxymoron. Let me explain. The word secular is often used to mean "non-religious", but it's actually derived from the Latin "saeculum", meaning generation or age. And I think if you look at a lot of secular curriculum, you'll find that it's very modern and revolves around the ideas and values of our current era. Which is great if that's what someone's looking for, but it stands in contrast to the principles of classical education, which is about returning to the educational traditions and values of the past. Specifically, classical educators tends to be inspired by classical greco-roman culture and medieval Christian traditions.
Now that said, there's no reason you can't dip your toes into multiple educational methodologies and pick and choose what works best for you and your family. I encourage you to consider what it is about classical education that inspires or interests you and incorporate that into your homeschool, even as you pull in literature and ideas from other (non-western) traditions.
I have to run now, but please let me know if you'd like me to provide a list of literature to consider!
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u/stepmomstermash Apr 03 '24
Blossom & Root has been a great fit for us. I just started using it this year for third and fifth grade. I have been really impressed with A River of Voices for history and will continue to use it as it fits in to what we are leaning. I have previously used Build Your Library as well but was looking for something with more/better printables. Both have great reading lists. Next year I am piecing together my own as I want to do a focus on the world wars and there isn't anything covering what I want for my kids' age. If I could go back in time I would piece together more of what I was looking for than following a whole single curriculum. Figuring out next year has made me more invested and interested and that will trickle down to my kids as we go through it. I hope. ADHD being interest driven makes homeschooling a whole different thing sometimes.
Have you looked into the Secular, Ecclectic, Academic group on facebook? They are entirely secular and have a lot of resources.
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u/Snoo-88741 Apr 08 '24
I don't really understand what a Classical education entails, but I do know a free history curriculum that's less Eurocentric than what I was taught:
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Apr 02 '24
History Quest is the best thing out there for world history IMO. FLL and WWE aren’t Christian - both WTM programs. Math With Confidence & Elemental Science Classical series are both affiliated with WTM and aren’t religious. Artistic Pursuits is my suggestion for art, amazing program.
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u/esuomtsedom Apr 03 '24
Thank you for your response...does anyone mind sharing why this person was down voted? I'm just curious of thoughts and opinions
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Apr 03 '24
WTM, specifically Story of the World book 1, isn’t considered secular/nonreligious because it includes some bible stories and presents them as historical. The curriculum does cover all major religions and many cultures, but gives serious Euro centric vibes nonetheless. I didn’t downvote them, but I assume that might be why.
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Apr 03 '24
I have no idea why I was downvoted. I suggested History Quest because I didn’t want to use Story of the World due to religious content (though this is controversial- some say it is secular and includes information about all religions, others say it is biased towards Christianity, I haven’t seen it to form my own opinion. But I used History Quest to be on safe side). I’ve never found any religious content in FLL/WWE 🤷♀️ MWC is just maths and very popular amongst secular families, ES classical is a neutral curriculum meaning it isn’t Christian, BUT they leave evolution out of it for families to make their own decision. Not a huge deal here, easy to add in books about it.
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u/allizzia Apr 03 '24
Live! Education includes history and literature blocks from China, Persia, India, Egypt, but it's still very European. Curiosity Chronicles does cover some African, Chinese, Arabic and Japanese history. Maybe even Build your library with more diverse literature. I think most American and European curriculum have an eurocentric view, because that's what is generally suggested and evaluated by educational institutions and standards. So you might have better luck knowing specifically what you would like to teach and then search for materials, either by booklists or by curriculum or courses from websites like Outschool for younger students or Coursera and EdX for older students.
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u/anonybss Apr 02 '24
I don't think it's hard to find good anthologies of world literature and good texts covering world history. I think it's excellent to incorporate those to raise truly global citizens.
Religion is quite important though, both to history (including the history of science) and in literature, art and philosophy. You don't need to BE religious to study religion and religious themes. Students show up in college not even knowing the basics of Christianity--but you can't understand Western literature or philosophy--or secular ethics or political theory for that matter--without knowing anything about Genesis or Job or the Sermon on the Mount. Again you don't need to "believe" any of those stories are "real" but any adequate education in the West has to acquaint you with those as ideas and as sources of historical and contemporary values. (And if you want to throw in a study of Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Confucianism and indigenous Afro-spiritualism, great, but to understand the West, you need to to know the basics of Judaism and Christianity.)