“Core knowledge” teaching

Students at the Life Christian School learn their history lessons in some unusual ways, using their senses of hearing, sight, feel and even taste. 

Of course, they read and talk about history. They listen to lectures. But, they also may keep historical diaries, draw pictures and sometimes even eat their lessons. 

For example, before holiday vacation last month, third graders in teacher Louise Doiron’s class studied about the Lewis and Clark exploration of the Missouri River. This part of our history has a special local connection. 

Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lt. William Clark started their mapping trip at St. Charles, Mo. Their job was to explore upstream from where the Missouri flowed into the Mississippi River to where the river started in the far Northwest. 

President Thomas Jefferson had hoped their trip would open a water route all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It didn’t turn out that way. The river ended in the Rocky Mountains, a long ways from the Pacific. 

President Jefferson told Lewis and Clark to keep personal diaries on the trip and also to draw pictures of any new animals and fish they found. Doiron gave her students blank diaries so they could describe parts of the lesson in their own words and drawings. 

Remember, there were no cameras, typewriters or computers in those days. 

Eight-year-old Taylor Rohan decided to draw and describe a rabbit. One of her classmates, eight-year-old Candace Todd decided to draw a fox and then write a description of that animal. 

For eight-year-old Torie Bub, the day’s highlight was cooking. “We made soup from dry ingredients,” she said. Dried vegetables was one of the foods Lewis and Clark used. 

Back in the pioneer days, people often dried foods so they’d keep for a long time with no refrigeration. Doiron’s students also got to taste dried beef jerky. She told the kids, “I thought I’d be able to get buffalo jerky but the store didn’t have any.” 

Another part of the lesson involved a class painting a big map of the Louisiana Purchase. The U.S. purchased from the French a big part of what is now the middle of our country. This area included the Missouri River and the area that is now the state of Missouri.

The students also made copies of the French flag out of paper. 

Life Christian School is one of about 1,000 schools across the country that models its history lessons around a book by E.D. Hirsch entitled, “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” 

Hirsch is an English professor at the University of Virginia. He believes Americans will understand each other better if all have a similar “core of knowledge.” He feels, if all citizens share common learning experiences, the country will be more unified.

Superintendent Christi Checkett is in charge of turning Hirsch’s ideas into history lessons for all classes at Life Christian School. “We have isolated 100 activities from Hirsch’s book for each class so we could test to make sure students understand them,” she said.

She stresses teaching of history in different ways. She said the multi-experiences make it more likely the students will understand the lessons.

For instance, earlier in the year, Life Christian students learned about the election process. For Ms. Doiron’s class, that meant students took election messages to other classes. They also participated in a school-wide election for president, senator and governor. 

Eight-year-old David Meyer was one of the students who went to the first grade class to tell them about the election. Nine-year-old John Merz said the part he liked about the election lessons was “counting the votes.” 

Election totals were posted outside their classroom door so everyone could check them. 

Before Thanksgiving, the students also participated in Pioneer Week. Included in the lessons was the chance to earn “wampum,” which was a type of Indian money. They then could spend their “pretend” money at a country store set up at the school. 

This semester, the students will take part in a Caravan of Countries. This is part of the world history lessons. Checkett said, “Each class will pick a separate country. Then, they’ll transform their classroom into a display of that country,” she said. 

Students will study the food, music, artwork and history of each country. Then, the students will visit other classes to learn about other countries that were studied, she said. 

“We want the students to experience history with all their senses--sight, hearing, smell and sound,” she said.