Interactive Guide Grade 4

34 Fourth Grade Core Subjects : : Social Studies

When you studied history, were you taught the “whole story”? For example, that: • it was and is the Church—the Magisterium and faithful individuals—who first recognized and promoted the dignity of woman in antiquity—and still does, while modern society promotes her degradation? • while the Romans abandoned and exposed unwanted children to the elements, it was Catholics who stepped forward to intervene on behalf of these precious souls—and still do, while modern society promotes their destruction? • through the intervention of Pope Pius XII and the Church, more than 700,000 Jews across Europe were saved during WWII— despite the belittling and denial of this truth by modern media? • it was the Church who spoke out against slavery—and still does, in those countries where this foul practice lingers, while modern society turns its head? The Catholic Church was there! What a heritage we have as Catholics, and what a great gift to be able to teach our dear children the truth . When we began to homeschool, we quickly learned that society ignores or twists historical truths. Yet, these truths not only reveal the Church's role in transforming society, but inspire and challenge our children to be part of this transformation as well. Worse, non-Catholic texts presented an increasingly pagan perspective of the world. This was a significant problem that we encountered when we had no Catholic materials from which to teach. Perhaps you have faced this challenge in your home as well? At first, we thought that these errors/anti Catholicism could be countered simply by telling our children that the book was wrong. However, we began to see that we couldn't

teach truth by simply pointing out error. For example, if the child says that 6 x 4 is 12, how far will his understanding of multiplication advance if he is simply told that his answer is wrong? We realized that error must not only be refuted, but truth must be taught in its place. Another approach to countering socially-biased materials was to supplement with Catholic teaching. However, we soon realized that the text had already planted a confusing and false idea; now we had to find time in the school day to add “corrections” to the schedule. Instead of carving out additional time to teach the godly perspective on the topic and/or risking that our children were taught a warped view of history, we wanted to teach one, accurate lesson. But we didn't have access to Catholic texts! This desire to teach our children the truth, that Christendom has brought His Light to the world, was the primary reason that Catholic Heritage Curricula began developing and publishing materials for Catholic homeschoolers.