History

History properly told plays a central role in the Classical curriculum.  Serious learning begins with a deep knowledge of the past, from which we gain inspiration, warning, wisdom, understanding.  Students should come to see themselves as part of the unfolding story of man, fallen but not completely corrupted, redeemed but always in continual need of redemption, loved and cared for by Divine Providence.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
History should never be a series of facts and dates memorized for passing an AP test.  Herodotus, the father of history, believed the present owes a debt of glory to those who accomplished great deeds:

These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feuds.

The greatness of the stories of history naturally awakens admiration and wonder, along with detestation of betrayals, tyrannies, luxuries and other vices:

This I hold to be the chief duty and office of the historian, to judge the actions of men, to the end that the good and the worthy may meet with the rewards due to eminent virtue, and that pernicious citizens may be deterred by the condemnation that waits on evil deeds at the tribunal of posterity. (Tacitus)

History should never pretend to be “objective”, if that means refusing to praise or blame the actions or customs of those we study.  Nor should a study of the techniques of historians cause students to lose sight of the story and its importance.

Why?
The stories of history arouse wonder, and wonder leads to questions.  “Was George Washington really a great leader, or just a figurehead?”  “Why did St.  Bernard of Clairveaux preach in favor of the Crusades?”  “What led the pagan Three Hundred to sacrifice their lives at Thermopylae?”

History is a important context in which to develop students’ reasoning powers.  Students should come to expect the actions of great men to have reasons, and not be motivated by simple passion or custom.  In history, they encounter prime examples of prudential, experienced judgement.

Other questions should arise concerning historical accounts: What view is the historian putting forth?  What evidence does he have?  How certain is his position? 

Generally, students are better served by historical accounts that are clearly arguing for positions rather than those that present their views as “just the facts”.
           
The Providential
God always watches over all people, and His Church in particular.  Students should learn to reflect on the providential significance of events they read about.

And the telling of history from a Catholic point of view is to see that human beings are, first and foremost, religious creatures who are given, what we call in our Catholic Schools Textbook Project textbooks, opportunities in time for choosing “grace-filled” change, providential evolution, if you will. Dr. Rollin Lasseter

Therefore, I want to invite you to think about history and the teaching of history not as a clinical record of the facts of the past or as meaningless events in the sequence of ages, but as a lifting of a curtain on a great drama, an invitation to step--with imagination, thought and will--into the revelation of God in human history, to lift the curtain on the greatest drama in the cosmos: Salvation history. For it was not in myth or in “Once-upon- a-time in a galaxy far, far away,” it was not in some “Land before Time,” but instead at a moment in our own, our real human history, that God took flesh in the womb of His blessed mother, Mary. Lived. Spoke. Suffered, died, and rose from death for the salvation of all mankind. In this drama of salvation history, we see the hand of God in all ages -- His hand in the advances of human technology and science and in the everyday joys, sorrows, and miseries as well.