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Post by k8gregory on Jul 7, 2009 7:30:03 GMT -5
What a wonderful looking curriculum! I am very excited about it. I am, however, a little concerned about the religious content. We are not a religious family. I do not have a problem with him copying some but is there a lot? Are the narrations and picture studies all religious or is it just the copywork? Would they be something we could skip/substitute if it was disagreeable or would that be too much to skip adn therefore not effective?
If this is not a good fit for our family does anyone know of something exactly like it (minus the religion) that will help prepare my son? I really want to use it!
Does the teacher manual include extra information or is it necessary?
I hope this is not offensive in anyway. Thank you!
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Post by Carolyn on Jul 7, 2009 8:28:44 GMT -5
You can see the table of contents for each book in the preview available at Lulu. The winter preview is at www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/primer---winter/5702504. The Winter and Spring previews include the first lesson, so you can look there to see what sort of things the model is used for besides copying. The narrations are generally drawn from Aesop or Thornton Burgess, and would fit into a 'non-religious' category. Offhand, I can't think of any picture studies that focus on Christian themes. You could easily substitute something else for any model/painting you did not want to study with your child. The teaching helps (which are available as a low-cost download) do have extra material -- background on the painters covered in the book, and extra information about the nature studies. You can see a preview of them as well on Lulu. |
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Post by Lene Mahler Jaqua on Jul 9, 2009 16:16:24 GMT -5
Of course it's not offensive to ask that question. It's an important question.
I would say that while we do have the kids read certain passages from ancient church fathers and do have some content that is pulled from a Bible passage or from authors who are Christians, we are not self-consciously Christian such as you may see in some curriculum which either seems to preach or to assume a certain world view. We leave the evaluation of whatever we present very much to the eye, ear, and mind of the beholder, listener, thinker. We also don't assume that the kids are Christian, so nothing we write will be written in such a way that a student or teacher would feel 'left out' or judged by reading f.ex. in Aesop the parable of the Prodigal Son. In short, we don't interpret texts or tell people how to think, we present great books, including passages from the Bible, but it's there for you to read.
Also, not all of what we draw from is expressily or overtly Christian materials. F.ex. all the fairy tales, folk tales, Greek myths, Benjamin Franklin's Do-good letters, and other material do not have Christian over- or under tones. It is simply material that are worthy of reading in their own right by any human being who wants to be thoughtful and well-rounded.
One of the reasons that we present things the way we do is that we come from diverse backgrounds just within our little Classical Writing team. We would all profess to be Christian, but we span the whole spectrum of Christianity from Protestantism to Orthodoxy, and therefore present vastly different theologies, none of which are overtly presented in the texts because we wanted the texts to be available to all homeschoolers.
To conclude, unlike some curricula, we don't have a Bible verse on every page, we don't tell your student to do his devotionals, we're a writing curriculum, and our aim is to teach your student to write, while reading and studying Great Books texts.
Does that help?
Lene
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