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While it may not seem so, there is a method to my madness with my kids. I firmly believe we need to understand the why’s of history to understand what happened and why. It’s the basis of my history lessons and why I will always teach history.
I know more than enough to teach my kids the why’s and the how’s of history for elementary school and junior high school. But, I knew I wanted more and to go deeper for high school history. I know it’s still a few years away, but I’ve been keeping an eye out, and I finally found what I wanted, Dave Raymond’s Modernity.
(I was given a free copy of Compass Classroom’s Modernity* to review, and there are affiliate links in here marked with an *)
Compass Classroom’s Modernity
I’m going to confess I got this originally thinking I could use Compass Classroom’s Modernity* to supplement our modern history lessons this year. I was wrong.
While the kids could watch and understand the materials, to really get everything out of this history curriculum the kids really needed to be in high school. Now, I’m sure you’re going, “Okay Ticia, then why are you telling me to get this?”
Because if my 6th-grade kids could handle a high school curriculum then it’s not strenuous enough. All too often homeschool curriculum says “you can use it with all ages,” and the high school students are left without a robust enough curriculum. That is not the case here. Actually, I called my friend Amanda whose son is going to be studying modern history next year as a junior in high school and told her she needs this curriculum.
I watched the videos and was fascinated with how he talked through the lessons. It was a great look at how our worldview has changed over time (FYI this is a Christian curriculum, so it is told from that viewpoint).
How the structure of the lessons works in Dave Raymond’s Modernity
Each lesson is divided into five video parts. We watched about three decades worth together (1940s-1970s, I really wish I’d had this back when we were studying the French Revolution), and then I watched more on my own because I wanted to learn more myself. We would watch the videos as we ate lunch. That’s our habit, we watch an educational video or documentary during lunchtime (chosen by me to cut down on arguments).
As we watched I would pause the video from time to time to talk about it. The why’s and the how’s and how people are reacting to their beliefs.
What I love about the Compass Classroom Modernity videos
- The video length, it’s probably about the length of a lecture in MWF college classroom.
- The variety of topics covered, it touches on science, religion, philosophy, art, culture, and events. All of which impact history (an example of art impacting history is this Queen Elizabeth lesson we did earlier)
- The variety of materials brought up and quoted. Dave Raymond quotes from a staggering variety of sources as he covers history. I’m actually reading a Bonhoffer biography* because he peaked my interest in the man as I listened to the videos.
This is a great worldview course. Seriously, it is going to bring up some amazing discussions with your high schooler. Oh, I just thought of another friend whose child would love this. They’re not homeschoolers, but their daughter loves stuff like this. I spent an hour talking with her about everything from the differences between the schools in Australia and the United States (they moved here from Australia a few years ago), near death experiences, and the dearth of thoughtful materials for teens ( a topic she is passionate about).
Now if I had high schoolers, I would have gone on to give them the assignments in the student reader and worked through that with them in the teacher manual* (scroll down and find the Modernity Downloadable Course Materials). If you’re curious what you’re getting into you can download those for free.
The student and teacher manual all by themselves are a great resource, and I appreciate them being available in Nook format, since we are a Nook family for many years now. I know that is a small detail, but it’s an appreciated one.
If you are a print family, you can get the student text and teacher manual for $25, which I’d estimate is about the cost of printing the materials, so pretty good deal.
Small nitpick. I wish the menu was clickable, because I’m lazy. But if that’s my biggest complaint, then that is pretty minor.
What I love about the student text and the teacher manual

- Quotes he says in the video are often in the student text (I didn’t catch if all of them are there, but my quote book has several new entries now)
- The additional reading for the students
- The teacher manual has several different suggested projects that are great if you live in a state that requires a certain number of hours for a high school credit (including tips on how to count the hours)
- There are semester long projects. Seriously, that is so cool. There are also year-long projects suggested. This is an area I am not good at. I’m a fire and forget type of girl. so I appreciate suggestions on longer projects.
Get your own copy of Dave Raymond’s Modernity
You can buy your own copy of Dave Raymond’s Modernity at Compass Classroom for $89. You can get the streaming option, but I appreciate having the physical discs in my hands for watching. I don’t know why, I just do.
Comments
2 responses to “What does worldview have to do with history?”
Sounds intriguing. I shudder to think that we are now only 2 years away from high school!
I know! How did it happen?
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