Science lessons that “remember the whole” {bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Very rarely does one come across just the thing. As a would-be classical homeschooler, I always found the issue was putting into practice the wonderful ideas and thoughts I had about education.
Oh, it’s all very well to know that Aristotle thought we must keep the whole in mind when examining the parts, and C. S. Lewis made the case in Abolition of Man that the urgency is real, but I certainly was not equipped to develop a science curriculum for my children that would observe this dictum, and all that was available was yet another baking-soda-and-vinegar-style workbook.
Just shoot me now.
But Christopher Blum and John Cuddeback, two friends who each unite in his person the vision for education and the ability to express it, wrote just the thing, Nature’s Beautiful Order, a biology curriculum.
I found it in time to do it with Bridget, and it came to mind again when I was discussing, as one does, what to do for science with a friend.
I’m not getting paid for this post — I’m just passing along an important, though modest, resource that will help you get closer to the goal of passing along to your children the understanding that knowledge isn’t a matter of packing in the discrete facts but of seeing the ends of things, their essence, and their causes.
There will be time later to delve into, for instance, the workings of the cell. But I can attest for myself (and I did do college-level biology) and for my children, that the ancients, though lacking in technology, were correct in saying that we won’t grasp the meaning of these particulars if we don’t see what they are for.
Don’t make the pedagogical mistake of starting with the cell (as virtually every biology book today does).
This meaning is what this curriculum aims at. “In eighteen lessons, students are led through the animal kingdom from the invertebrate animals through the five great vertebrate classes to the culmination of the natural order, a consideration of man as the knowing animal and as a steward of Creation.”
The selections are from “writers including John James Audubon and Jean-Henri Fabre, [who] were some of the greatest observational biologists of all time. They remain useful guides, for the advances in biological science that have happened since they wrote cannot invalidate our first-hand experience of organisms as unified living beings.”
Thus, you will also need an encyclopedia and some visual references, but you will have the all-important overview. This curriculum will not be easy! Your student (and you) will be challenged.
Although it comes with a workbook and a teacher’s guide, it will not be the sort of thing that you just hand over and let the child check off boxes. To get the most out of it, a patient reading together will be the best path.
The workbooks help if you see them as facilitating your conversation; I would not recommend them as a force-feeding sort of exercise.
To get the idea of what I am talking about — where you read and discuss a book (or essays, as in this curriculum) together, see my post about Faraday’s Chemical History of A Candle.
I think it could liberate your home school to approach things like this: reading together, so that the child can see that the parents take this seriously and that we too would like to delve into the meaning behind phenomena.
This curriculum could be good for the very precocious sixth grader who demonstrates a nerdy interest in science — I do think such a child needs to know that real knowledge isn’t about accumulating facts but in seeing their relationship and causes.
It could be good for the reluctant ninth grader who feels unmoved by science as it is presented — this child needs to connect with the actual material world around him. The motivated high school student could do a lot of the work on his own, however, and learn a lot about how to use other resources to tackle difficult texts.
Both the authors are excellent writers and steeped in classical education. Memoria Press has done a great service in keeping this curriculum current and offering it to homeschoolers everywhere.
By the way, the publisher tells me that the text itself goes with either the first or second editions of the workbooks (student and teacher). But the workbooks only work within their edition, because the second one is updated with quizzes and tests.
On to our links!
Changing the wording of the Lord’s Prayer has been in the news. Our friend Mark Langley on the reason the ancient translations say what they do.
Christian feminism is an oxymoron, not upheld by Scripture or tradition.
Fr. Weinandy with a masterful treatise on the uniqueness of Christianity, well worth taking to prayer.
Jeffery Tucker on why parish music is a joke. “What’s completely amazing about the entire OCP family is how lacking it is in self-awareness. The poor quality of contemporary Catholic music is a cultural cliché that turns up in late-night shows, Woody Allen movies, and Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. It is legendary among real musicians. Ask an organist what he thinks about today’s Catholic music, and you will receive a raised eyebrow or a knowing laugh.”
From the archives:
If we are going to be thinking about next year’s curriculum:
The beginning of science is observation (keeping a nature journal is more important than you may think!)
Again, the Faraday candle resources.
Some thoughts for next year.
As the children get older, family culture:
An “Ask Auntie Leila” post on the subject of older children.
Is it too late to get my kids to help?
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