.:. P H I L O S O P H Y .:.

What is the philosophy of Greenleaf Press?

Greenleaf Press is committed to "twaddle-free", living books. We believe that history is both important and exciting and that our kids can share that excitement. If our children are to understand the roots of our modern-day mixed-up world, they must study history. We're also thoroughly convinced that studying history with our children provides us with a wonderful opportunity to reflect with them on moral choices and Godly character.

We think there are two important principles involved in teaching history to children: BIOGRAPHY and CHRONOLOGY.

One of the best examples of history presented in the form of biography is the BIBLE. When God wanted to teach his people their history, he taught them about the lives of specific individuals. There are lessons to be learned from the good kings (virtue to imitate) and the rotten kings (sins to avoid). The Bible is also brutally realistic in recording the failings of the good guys and the occasional (if only accidental) virtues of the wicked. The history of the Old Testament is not a long dry procession of dates to memorize and unfamiliar names to fill in blanks, but the life stories of people who interest us.

It is significant that the Old Testament stories are what fathers are instructed to teach their children, "talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deut. 11:19)

When we read about Moses leading a rebellious and grumbling people across a desert, we identify with Moses. When we read the story to our children, our children identify with Moses -- until it is not only Moses that we see, but ourselves, acting under seemingly impossible circumstances.

Just as the child identifies with Moses, he can also identify with other historical figures and analyze the wisdom and folly of their actions. When at the center of all this is the question, "What does God think about this action, person, behavior?", then the study of history (even the study of very pagan nations) takes place in a way in which the God of History is ever present. The study of history becomes not merely the study of nations, but a moral training ground where the wise and the unwise are observed, and the consequences of wisdom and folly may be dissected under a teacher who charges less than Experience.

Not just Biography, but Chronology

The second important principle in teaching history is CHRONOLOGY. This is the area in which the majority of history curricula disappoint us. Most elementary grade curricula spend four, five, or even six of the seven years studying exclusively American history.

It seems to us very odd to spend three years studying 200 years of history and one year cramming down the other couple of thousand. V.M. Hilyer, late headmaster of the Calvert School, describes the unfortunate consequences of too much American history in his introduction to A Child's History of the World:

In common with all children of my age, I was brought up on American History and given no other history but American, year in and year out, year after year for eight or more years. So far as I knew 1492 was the beginning of the world. Any events or characters before that time, reference to which I encountered by any chance, were put down in my mind in the same category with fairy-tales. Christ and His times, of which I heard only in Sunday-school, were to me mere fiction without reality. They were not mentioned in any history that I knew and therefore, so I thought, must belong not to a realm in time and space, but to a spiritual realm."

Thus, in organizing a course of study for children, we chose to break with the tradition that attempts to condense the study of world history into a one year course. We decided to spread the material out over the elementary school years and proceed at a leisurely pace that would allow the child to "live with" the material for a period of months.

A suggested scope & sequence

By the time the child has completed the seventh grade he should have covered the full span of western and American history and thus be ready to begin again in greater depth a study of History and the Humanities at the high school level.

Our scope and sequence for grades 1-7 looks like this:

• First Grade - Old Testament history
• Second Grade - Ancient Egypt
• Third Grade - Greece & Rome
• Fourth Grade - Middle Ages
• Fifth Grade - Renaissance, Reformation and Explorers
• Sixth Grade - 1600-1800
• Seventh Grade - 1800 to the Present

This course of study IS adaptable if you're starting history with an older student or want to cover the material in fewer years.

What kinds of books are in the Greenleaf Catalog?

You will find sections in the catalog covering each major historical period in order, with a variety of biographies, reference books, and historical fiction. For Israel, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and Reformation there are Greenleaf Study Guides and Greenleaf Study Packages.

We also do seminars!

We have several seminars which we present regularly:

• How to teach the Bible to Your Children
• Twaddle-Free History
• A Walk through Western History (very politically incorrect!)
• Curriculum-Dependent No More!
• Developing a Christian Philosophy of Education
• Observations on Church History - semper reformata

Call or write if you would like to arrange a presentation for your support group, church, or book fair.