A Word in Season, by Patricia McFarlane
45 Towering Pines
The Woodlands, TX 77381
(281) 364-1572
E-mail: patmcf@writeme.com

A Word in Season is a high school curriculum covering world, American, and English history and literature over four years; the curriculum also covers writing, although author Patricia McFarlane suggests you use a separate grammar program.  The first year’s study (36 weeks) covers “Ancient Times” exclusive of the Greeks and Romans (this appears to be primarily Biblical, along with selections from the Epic of Gilgamesh, although the samples I was sent did not include a literature list); the second year covers Greek and Roman literature in the first 18 weeks and medieval works in the second 18 weeks; the third year begins with Renaissance and Reformation (18 weeks) and concludes with the Age of Reason (18 weeks); the final year covers Romanticism (18 weeks) and Modern Times (18 weeks).  The program is Protestant and Christian in orientation (the introductory material even states that Ms. McFarlane is a dispensationalist), but apart from the first year's study, which is largely Biblical and theological in nature, could be used by home schoolers of other faiths.  I found nothing here that seemed anti-Catholic or anti-Orthodox.

Contents
Ms. McFarlane sent me the complete curriculum for the first unit of the final year, The Age of Romanticism.  Each unit consists of a spiral notebook with six sections in it: Preface (a description of the curriculum and a reading list for the unit); Teacher’s Guide (this explains the general procedure that you will follow for each week’s study and provides a bibliography); Teacher’s Syllabus (for each week, you are given a list of things to discuss with the student in history, literature, and writing; major terms are defined and timelines are provided); Student’s Syllabus (the student is told how to keep a reading journal, a writing notebook, class discussion notes, and a personal portfolio containing final copies of all writing.   For each week’s study, the student is also given a historical topical to investigate, a reading assignment, and a writing assignment); and Literature (copies of many of the required readings, especially poems and essays which might be difficult to locate; other books, which are easily found in bookstores, need to be purchased separately or checked out of the library).

Each notebook costs $85; you can buy the contents alone, shrink-wrapped, for $75.  The Ancient Times notebook is ten dollars more, but covers the whole year rather than a single semester; for the Ancient Times study, you also have to buy the Literature of Beginnings material, which is an additional $25.  Optional purchases include the “Word In Season Handbook,” which summarizes writing techniques and terms and literary terminology ($5)  and the Authors, Authors spiral-bound notebook, a chronological annotated bibliography of authors from ancient times through 1798 ($15).

Using the curriculum
Each week, the student researches a history topic and writes about it, and also reads a literature assignment.  Each week, the parent leads three 1 hour discussions with the student – one on history, one on literature, and one on writing.

For Week 14, for example, the parent is given the following three tasks:

History to be discussed: America in the 19th century, American Reform Movements
Literature to be discussed: The American Romantic Poets called Schoolroom Poets popularized romantic literature.  [A list of poems and authors follow; some of the poems are contained in the notebook, while others need to be located elsewhere.  Theoretically, the student has read these before you sit down to talk with him about them.]

[The notebook then supplies the following Teacher’s Note:]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the most popular of the four schoolroom poets.  For 18 years he taught linguistics at Harvard University in Cambridge.  His home near the campus is open to visitors who can still see his quill and ink stand on his writing table in the front study.  Longfellow is remembered for his moral tone, sentimentality, and idealism.  John Greenleaf Whittier was a Quaker poet and an ardent abolitionist, known for his humanitarianism.  James Russell Lowell was also an ardent abolitionist.  He served 19th century America as a poet, editor, and diplomat.  Oliver Wendell Holmes was a doctor as well as poet.  He is known for his wit.

Writing to be discussed: Romanticism in 19th century America had four major characteristics: individualism, imagination, nature and the settings of distant times and places.  Find examples of these traits in the literary work of the Schoolroom Poets.

For Week 14, the student takes part in these discussions.  He hands in his history essay, reads the list of poets assigned and makes journal entries on them.  (The beginning of the Student Syllabus tells the student that each time he reads an assigned literature work, he should make a journal entry that includes the title, the author’s name, the page numbers/source info, a summary of the reading, and a personal response to the selection.)  He also completes the following history writing assignment:

Writing assignment for next week: Research information for this history essay by making a comparison and contrast chart: You have travelled from Boston, Massachusetts, to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit your cousins, who live on a plantation.  Make an objective list of your observations of the southern culture and your northern culture.  Some items to include on your lists are Negro spirituals, Stephen Foster, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin¸ a northern anti-slavery sentimental and persuasive novel you have just read during your visit to the South.  Other items to include are the geography of each locale, history, the economic goods produced by the North and South, the religious traditions, social mores or values, social traditions, the sectional personalities of the North and South, and their political views and/or views on government.  [This is in preparation for next week’s assignment, when the student is told to write a newspaper article or editorial, as a Northern journalist, on the contrasts between North and South.]

Evaluation

Pros:
1) The responsibility for learning history through reading, writing, and research is placed on the student’s shoulders.
2) Literature and history are interwoven extremely well throughout the curriculum.
3) The writing assignments throughout are original, interesting, and touch on all the major literary and cultural themes that a college preparatory course would cover.
4) This is a “programmed” curriculum, which means you’ll have a schedule to follow, concrete assignments to complete, and a clear goal to work towards.
5) It’s challenging!  This is definitely above-average work for an ambitious, thoughtful student.

Cons:
1) Whew!  These are enormous assignments.  Unless you live across the street from the library, I doubt your student will be able to find all the information asked for in these history assignments, and even if he lives in the library he may be unable to locate it unless he’s had previous excellent training in research skills.  Plus, much of the information he finds is going to be lengthy and complicated (Dorothea Dix and prison reform is a HUGE topic in itself, yet it is presented as only one bit of information to be located in a lengthy list.)
2) The assignments are not always perfectly clear; if I were told to “Make an objective list of your observations of the southern culture…include Negro spirituals, Stephen Foster….social mores or values, social traditions, the sectional personalities of the North and South…” I’m not exactly sure what I’d write.
3) What this curriculum does well, it does very well indeed – it gives the student an opportunity for fascinating original research.  But there’s not much parental guidance here.  You’re supposed to lead a discussion about Romanticism and American Reform movements, yet you’re given no information; you’ll have to find this elsewhere, on your own.
4) Because this curriculum is focused on English and American literature, you appear to do mostly English and American history.
5) I’m not crazy about the division of the units.  You spend an entire high school year on the literature of the Bible and the pre-Greek, pre-Roman ancient writers, and then fly through the Greeks, Romans, and Medievals in one year; plus, that leaves you only 18 weeks to do all of modern literature (and history).

Using the program
 If you want to do a history/literature program as described in The Well-Trained Mind, but want a little more guidance in terms of how much to cover and when, this is an excellent choice.  I would go through the Ancient Literature year quickly, and linger over some of the more complicated assignments later in the course.  You’ll do best thinking of this course as a self-study for the student, though, unless you intend to do your own original research on each one of the topics in order to lead the discussion.  Have the student write the essay (I would NOT ask a student to include every topic mentioned in the assignment!); look up the topic yourself in a history textbook of your own; read the essay; and then ask the student to tell you about it.  Have the student do the Writing to Be Discussed assignment and then look over it with her.  Be sure to do Writing Strands or another writing curriculum along with this program, because the student will need preparation and guidance in order to do the writing exercises in A Word In Season (response papers, critical papers).

 This would be a wonderful resource for a co-op class, especially if it were taught jointly by a history specialist and a literature specialist.
 

Go

to the April 2001 issue page, or go

to the Well-Trained Mind Newsletter page

from Peace Hill Farm

18101 The Glebe Lane

Charles City, VA 23030