Mimi Rothschild - Home School Support & Home Education News

By Mimi Rothschild

“Many public-school children seem to know only two dates–1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion.” -Mark Twain

Think about that quote for a moment. On the surface, famed author Mark Twain is shaking his head at children’s inability it remember information in which they aren’t interested. I see something deeper.

The public school system teaches children jumbles of various facts. Dates and people and events whirl around in their heads with little sense of context. The standardized tests commonly used encourage children to memorize key phrases, dates, and names. For example, students remember unrelated nuggets of knowledge with little context to connect them. After the motivation for cramming for a test is gone, the facts tend to get dumped. A child’s brain can only memorize so much at a given time.

The unfortunate result is that kids lack a sense of the “big picture” Without context, public school students are robbed of the chance to gain a full understanding of history, science, and many other disciplines.

How can homeschool parents circumvent this downward spiral? The first step is engaging your child with literature. Don’t make your homeschooler memorize highlighted dates and people in the Revolutionary War, have him or her read a historical novel like Johnny Tremain. This will bring the lesson to life and enable your child to understand what it was like to live during that particular time.

Then, encourage him to do some historical research. Allow the homeschooler to access the internet to write a report about the Revolutionary War. Have him answer questions like “Why did the colonies revolt?” and “Why was the Tea Tax unfair?” This will get the gears of your child’s mind moving. Throughout this process, your child will gain a full understanding of what, when, where, how, and most importantly, why. Finding out why things happened a certain way is key in applying historical lessons to modern current events.

Then, and only then, should you use a standardized test. Once your homeschooler has gained a well-rounded understanding of a particular time period, then you can test his or her ability to recognize particular nuggets of information like dates and famous names.