March 20, 2011 7:22 AM
Catholic history textbooks
The Catholic Schools Textbook Project is something all Catholic educators - in school or at home - need to know about. So far, they've produced 4 history textbooks which cover grades 5-10. The final one is in the works.
Why These Textbooks Are So Urgently NeededThirty five years ago there were 20 major publishers producing history and social studies textbooks for American schools, including several Catholic publishers. Today there are five, and none is Catholic. In that time, content has steadily diminished in quality and quantity, becoming centered around images as the text and language have been "dumbed down". At the same time, the national system of textbook review, dominated by a few big states like Texas and California, has politicized the books that are produced to the point that history is now written more for committees of professional reviewers and activist organizations than for children.
As a result of all this, contemporary social studies books have become blander and emptier with each revision. The influence of activist organizations and the secular education establishment has produced textbooks in which the facts of Christian history are also blurred and softened - when they not ignored or distorted completely.
About the ProjectThe Catholic Schools Textbook Project is producing a 12-volume series of history/social studies textbooks and supporting materials specifically for Catholic schools and students. Textbooks that are urgently needed. Textbooks that bring history alive - in the heart as well as the mind. The need is urgent because the story of human civilization cannot be told unless the essential contribution of Catholics and the Faith that inspired them is included - and it is just this Faith that is left out of every textbook available to Catholic schoolchildren today. This project will change that situation.
The Project will make this change by creating textbooks that teach about the world - while giving the Catholic Church the position it deserves in history, without exaggerating either favorable or unfavorable realities. Written in an engaging, journalistic style, they will bring history to life with accuracy, vitality and thought-provoking energy.
Origins of the Project
The Catholic School Textbook Project was begun by Catholic teachers and educators convinced by years of experience in Catholic classrooms that serious new Catholic history and social studies books are vitally needed. Books in which the role of Christ and the Faith have not been reduced to an inadequate shadow of the truth. Sharing this conviction, in 1996, a concerned parent, familiar with the problems of teaching history in Catholic classrooms, contributed the first financial resources with a bequest of $17,000. By early 2000, the Project had enough resources to engage a team of writers, history scholars and advisors and start work on the first five volumes of the Project.We are now well into the painstaking work of writing, editing and producing textbooks for our Catholic youth: textbooks that are superior to any now on the market. Superior, first of all in content, because they tell the story of civilization in light of the universal Truth that is Catholic Faith. Superior in design and graphic appeal, using fine art and clear concise maps. They are what our children need, not only for their minds, but, for their souls.
Not just for Catholic classrooms and homeschools - families with kids in public school may also be interested in purchasing these volumes to augment the very narrow, secularized and often inaccurate education our children are receiving in public schools.
Thanks to Monica for this important information!
Posted in Catholicism, Homeschooling | Permalink
