Carson's Basic American Government

[Annie G]

Next year I'll have 9th and 11th graders and we're looking for a text to use as a spine. Would the Carson book be just way too over the 9th grader's head? He did Sonlight 100 this year and is a week away from finishing it... he's done it quite easily.
Any other suggestions for a spine? This isn't something I'd hand him to tackle all on his own.
Thanks!

[Tokyomarie]

Is your son a deep thinker, likes to draw connections kind of student? If so, he may be ready to do Carson's book, though it's usually recommended for a slightly older student. If he is a "just the facts ma'am" kind of student, he might not be ready for Carson just yet.

My oldest did Carson with SL's Core 400 when she was a senior and really learned a lot.

[Annie G]

No, he's not quite there as far as the 'draw the lines to make the connections', and that was fine this year. Sonlight 100 has enough notes to guide what they wanted him to think. He's excellent when it comes to learning material but I'm thinking dd could do Carson's and I need to find a different plan for ds.
I really appreciate your input because with a title like 'Basic American Government' and some of the readers being on a 5th grade level, I really didn't know why Sonlight set the ages at 16-18. Now I know!

[jenmomof2]

We dont like using textbooks here for History/Gov studies so we were thinking about using this for 10th grade. For US History this year my son has read the entire Hakim series, lots of historical fictions, watched tons of documentaries and of course field trips galore. We love to have open discussions about history/politcs/gov around here. So my big question is, can this book be used as a base for study of Government? My son is not normally a deep thinker, was in PS until 7th grade, but is coming around to looking for more than just the facts needed for a test. Our open discussions have helped the most with that. If this might be too involved, is there any other Gov book available out there?

[Linda in NE]

Carson is very up front about his biases. He states in the introduction that most government texts discuss the current operation of our government as if things were always meant or intended to work that way. He does not. He explicitly argues that the U.S. government is an out-of-control leviathan. His conservative bias is clear, he's unapologetic about it, and (I will add) argues his position very well.

So, if you're looking for an objective presentation of facts as a spine, Carson is not for you. If you're interested in fodder for discussion, this would work well so long as you bring in other materials to present the other side (which is not hard to do, as Carson is in the minority as a government textbook writer).