YMB #78 Civics and Current Events: A Conversation with Jill Hummer

Pam: This is Your Morning Basket where we help you bring truth, goodness, and beauty to your homeschool day. Hi, and welcome to the Your Morning Basket podcast. I’m Pam Barnhill, your host, and I am so glad that you are joining me here today. Well, on today’s episode of the podcast, we are going to be joined by Jill Hummer. Jill is the owner and author at Silverdale Press, but she’s also a college professor and a homeschooling mom. We were so happy to find her because we’re going to be talking all about current events, civics, and studying the election. All of those things are very important this fall, and we wanted to talk about how homeschoolers could be doing that in their homes and in their Morning Times. Jill was the absolute perfect person for this conversation. So, I’m not going to give anything away. We’ll get on with it right after this word from our sponsor. [spp-transcript]

This episode of the Your Morning Basket podcast is brought to you by Your Morning Basket Plus. Get the tools you need to put the joy back into your homeschool. If you have been wanting to do Morning Time in your homeschool but you’re a little overwhelmed at the idea of which resources to use or which books should you choose, we have done all the hard work for you. Your Morning Basket Plus is how you can get more out of your Morning Time with less work for Mom. In the Plus subscription, we have over 42 sets of Morning Time plans that you can download and are open and go. We also have live events every month with some of your favorite Morning Time teachers, event replays, and so much more to add to your Morning Time.

Now, we have just released our brand new monthly subscription option. Up until now, you could only get an annual subscription. That’s still available and it’s still your best deal, but if you would like a monthly option to get in and try the subscription out and see what we have available, you can find more information about that on the website. So come on over to pambarnhill.com, click the green, “Get the Tools,” button, and check out the Your Morning Basket Plus subscription today. And now, on with the podcast.

Pam:
Dr. Jill Hummer is a homeschool mom of four kids ages 11, 8, 7, and 4. She spends most of her time juggling life as a homeschool mom with her job as a professor of history and political science at Wilson College. She is the author of the book, First Ladies and American Women: In Politics and at Home. Jill has spoken at presidential libraries and has been featured on C-SPAN and The History Channel, but what she loves most is sitting on the couch reading books to her kids. Along with her husband, Jill is the founder of Silverdale Press, which provides high quality homeschool curriculum and Unit Studies to enrich your whole family. Jill, welcome to the podcast.

Jill:
Thanks, Pam. It’s great to be with you.

Pam:
Oh, I love having you on here. We have been looking for … This is like our 70-something episode and we’ve been looking the whole time for somebody to come on and have a great conversation with us about current events, and so we were just so thrilled.

Jill:
Oh, thanks, Pam. Yes, I’m excited to talk to your audience about current events. I love talking about current events.

Pam:
Oh, I think this is going to be so much fun. Well, start off by telling us a little bit about you and your family and how you got started homeschooling.

Jill:
Oh, yes. That’s a good question. I came to homeschooling reluctantly. I think you said in my bio about my kids and their ages. So my oldest is going into sixth grade and my youngest is a preschooler, and we’ve been homeschooling for the last five years, so ever since my daughter was in first grade. I came to homeschooling probably very reluctantly. I remember when I was in graduate school, I was working on my dissertation. I was engaged at the time to my husband and we were driving somewhere and we were talking, and I remember him mentioning that homeschooling was something that we should eventually consider for our kids, which of course we didn’t have at that point. And I remember thinking, “What? Homeschool?” That sounded like the craziest idea. But my husband was homeschooled back in the 90s when it was a little less common than it is today and he really loved it.

I went to public school and I was, at the time, very career focused and I was thinking, “We’re going to have two kids and they’re going to school.” And we have four kids and we homeschool.
So it wasn’t an easy decision. We prayed about it for years before we made the decision to homeschool. So it was not something that was very obvious to us, or to me, from the beginning. But definitely felt strongly led in that direction, and we love it now. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Pam:
It’s so funny how somebody else out there has different plans than what we do.

Jill:
Yes, right, exactly. Exactly.

Pam:
Oh, goodness. Well, let’s talk a little bit about this idea of … Well, let’s start with civics. When we think about the idea of civics as a subject in school, or not even as a subject in school, just as a part of our daily life as citizens of a country, what exactly is it and why is it important for us to study it?

Jill:
Yeah, that’s a great question. We get the term, “civics,” of course, this goes back to our classical training, from the Latin word, “civicus,” which means just relating to a citizen. This is the idea of, we’ll talk about Ancient Greece, going back to Ancient Greece, was that you would educate young men at the time to become leaders so that they could deal with civic matters. They needed to have an education that gave them the kind of thinking skills necessary to engage in that focused thought and reflection that could lead to the betterment of their own cities and societies. So really, civics is, I think of it as training for citizenship, ultimately. I believe that it is our job as homeschool parents to undertake this training of our kids for citizenship.

Pam:
Okay, so when we’re talking about civics and having discussions with our kids about civics and having them study civics, we are training them for citizenship.

Jill:
Absolutely. And what we’re after is to direct them (our kids) towards this enlightened engagement with their communities, with policy, with the global community, and equip them with the knowledge and skills to function as citizens. So, it’s not so narrow as you need to know the three branches of government or what the Supreme Court said in Brown v. Board of Education. When we’re talking about teaching civics, it is definitely more of a training for citizenship.

Pam:
Okay, so that kind of leads into what I wanted to ask you next is, when I think about civics and I think about doing things like, memorizing the three branches of government, it sometimes can feel like a little bit of a snooze fest.

Jill:
Sure, sure.

Pam:
I’m not denying that that’s important information to know, and I’m just going to come right out and say it, I know that information. If for nothing else than to not embarrass my former teachers on late night television when somebody stops me and asks me these questions.

Jill:
Oh, sure.

Pam:
But how do you make it more about what you said, enlightened engagement, and less about just memorizing how our government is set up?

Jill:
That’s a good question, and it’s one that, for me…I became interested in civics not through anything I learned in school. Civics was kind of a lifestyle for, I don’t want to say all members of my family, but politics and public affairs were always talked about around the dinner table, at family gatherings, and I find that that is not the case, at least among the college students that I teach. I find that that is probably a pretty uncommon scenario.

So how I grew up, my grandfather was very active in civic affairs. He always said that his goal was to have the longest obituary possible, and he did, because he was involved in everything. Volunteer firefighter, he served on the city council of his very small town in Pennsylvania, so we’re not talking about national affairs here. But he was a great example in that he was always engaged. He didn’t graduate high school. He was the child of immigrants. He didn’t have any kind of formal education. But he was one of the most enlightened citizens by virtue of his interests and activism that I’ve ever known in my life. So his life has always been a really great example to me of how we can instill that value of citizenship beyond what we think of as a traditional kind of classroom, memorizing the three branches of government, memorizing the powers of the president kind of education.

Pam:
Right. Okay. I’m loving this and I’m sitting here thinking about my family. It’s been on our list, this year especially. My kids have finally reached an age where we’re able to have these really great conversations and we can engage with each other and it’s a presidential election year and I’m thinking, “Okay, this is it. This is the year where we’re going to really kind of dig into civics and citizenship.” And I’m just thinking, “They’re going to hate it.” But when you talk about that lifestyle of civics and not just treating it as a school subject … My husband and I have these conversations all the time. What I’m thinking now after hearing you talk is that we need to pull our kids into these conversations that we’re just naturally having.

Jill:
Oh, absolutely. I think that is critical. Absolutely bring your kids into the conversation. We were always, I mean, there was never the notion that kids couldn’t participate in these discussions, which were constantly happening. They weren’t always civil, however, they did happen and they were good. It is a time where kids can wrestle with these bigger ideas and they’re not … I really don’t believe that everything should just be civics and public affairs is necessarily an adult subject. I believe that that’s something that the whole family can engage in. So yes, I completely agree. Draw your kids into that conversation. It’s not something that just the parents can do.

Pam:
Well, and you mentioned that they weren’t always civil conversations about civics, and I think this is so important because we have forgotten as a society how to have a conversation where we might disagree with each other without hating each other. And in a family, this is a place where you can disagree with each other and you’re not going to end up being uncivil or hateful or anything like that. I mean, this is the place to learn how to do that.

Jill:
Oh, absolutely. And there were never any damaged relationships, even though there were disagreements, right?

Pam:
Right.

Jill:
This wasn’t a place where everybody agreed, and it’s still not … with what the next person was saying. But they never led to any damage in relationships. And you’re absolutely right, that is a critical skill that we need to be able to have these debates without damaging relationships within the family, with our friends, with our coworkers one day. We need to be able to engage in civil debate.

Pam:
Yeah, yeah. So what age would you start teaching kids about … not just bringing them into conversations, but also doing something maybe a little more formal, whether that be just as a homeschool subject or in Morning Time, which is what we talk about here. What age do you think is a good age to start talking with children about government and civic responsibility?

Jill:
I think that even starting in the preschool years, there are things that maybe not as part of a conversation, but there are ways to … If you want to get into ways to teach civics to very young kids, I can talk about that really quickly.

Pam:
Yeah, give me some ideas.

Jill:
Okay. For your very youngest kid, again, you’re not going to be sitting around the dinner table talking about water quality or something like that. But, I mean, I remember, for example, my daughter when she was in preschool took a class at our co-op. It was called Community Helpers, but what it really was was civics. They went to the fire station, they went to the police station, they had people come into their classes. I can’t remember who, but I can think of some ideas. You could ask your local officials to come and talk to your co-op. You could make a meal for your local food bank. You could invite a news reporter or somebody from your Chamber of Commerce, all of these.

So that’s what they would do. They would go out and they would have people come into their class and just talk about what they did and how they helped the community, what some of their jobs were like. It took a lot of logistics. I give a lot of credit to that co-op teacher because that was a lot of logistics to coordinate, but she did a fantastic job bringing the community into the class and bringing the class out to the community. Again, that is training for citizenship. “These are the people who help our community, this is what they do.” It gives them a vision at a young age of how they can help and that they could one day participate. So I think that when they’re very little, preschool age, lower elementary school age, focusing on your community and what you have around you is a really great idea.

As they get older, I would say you can start bringing, without … And again, I’m going to try to talk about civics in a non-dry and boring way, like memorizing the three branches of government. Then I think as they get a little older, maybe older elementary school, one of the things to do, and this is probably something a lot of families are doing anyway, is to read biographies of great citizens. These could be presidential. As a presidential biographer myself, presidential biographies are my go-to because that’s what I know. It doesn’t have to be even somebody who was elected. It can be Sarah Josepha Hale, the mother of Thanksgiving; Ida Tarbell, a muckraking journalist. It could be anybody, any citizen who did something, was able to distinguish himself or herself through their acts of citizenship, through their contributions to their communities. So reading biographies of great citizens with your kids is another way to really talk about citizenship without it being dry and boring.

And as they get even older than that, I know a lot of homeschool families will read Plutarch’s Lives in their homeschool. I mean, Plutarch wrote that to provide models of citizenship to his readers and the American founders. I mean, that was required reading in the founding generation, Plutarch’s Lives. They all read Plutarch’s Lives. They knew that they were living in this great historical moment because they read Plutarch’s Lives. So as they get older, bringing Plutarch in, that’s always good.

And then in Morning Time you mentioned, I think … Well, I know memorizing the three branches of government can be boring. If memory work is part of your Morning Time, and this is probably a good thing for kids of maybe all ages to do, but it doesn’t hurt to memorize the Preamble of the Constitution. It doesn’t hurt to memorize the Bill of Rights. It’s not that long, the first ten amendments. It doesn’t hurt to memorize the Gettysburg Address. It doesn’t hurt to memorize some of the great speeches. It doesn’t hurt to memorize the beginning part of the Declaration of Independence. If you’re really ambitious, you can memorize the whole thing, but I wouldn’t necessarily do that. So memory work, that’s a way of teaching American values and, therefore, civics to your kids without necessarily using a dry textbook.

Pam:
Oh, these are great ideas. I’m going to go so far as to say not only would it not hurt to memorize those things, it’s a really good idea.

Jill:
It is a really good idea.

Pam:
I’m just throwing it out there.

Jill:
No, it absolutely is a really good idea to memorize all of those things. All of our founding documents are so important, especially if we’re living in the United States. It’s a great way to pass along … And since we’re not in school, some of that is … I think children here in the public school system by reciting the Pledge, if you’re still doing that, that’s one way to infuse children with our founding values. But by doing this kind of memory work, that’s, I think, another way that homeschoolers can really capture some of that as well.

Pam:
Okay. Jill, those were fabulous ideas. I love it. You just hit all the different age groups and gave us some really great things that we could be doing in our homeschool.

Jill:
Sure.

Pam:
I want to talk a little bit about the election year.

Jill:
Okay.

Pam:
It is an election year. How is this year a little bit different? What kind of things should we focus on this year that stand out to you?

Jill:
Well, okay. First of all, and maybe you can ask me a little bit about how this year, I’m happy to answer specifics about how this year may be different than other years, but I think that in terms of talking about the election or bringing the election into your homeschool, what you can do as a homeschool parent, I think that what your children see you do, as far as the election, may be in some ways more important than what you necessarily can teach them. For example, again, and this goes back to cultivating the habits of citizenship. The most important thing you could probably do for your kids this election season is take them to vote, if we can go vote in person. I don’t know if we can, but even if you live in a state where you have to do a mail-in ballot, have them sit down and fill out, not fill out the ballot with you, but watch you fill out the ballot yourself.

Allow them to participate in voting. I remember my parents, of course, they always voted and they always took my sister and me to vote. No matter young, older, we always all went to the … It was a family activity. We went to the polling place together. I remember sitting in the booth with my mom while she filled out her ballot. I remember her talking to me about it while she was filling it out. Then when I was finally old enough, I would go and vote with them myself. And so that was a huge example, because we really need to train up our kids to become voters because so many young people choose not to exercise that right that they have when they reach age 18. It’s very sad to me. So I think that’s really one of the most important things that make voting and talk about the importance of voting, making it a family activity is hugely important.

Another thing that you can do is to find ways to participate, and as a homeschooler, this is a great time to get involved in the election. I think personally that you learn more by participating than you do by necessarily reading about it in a textbook. Every year, my oldest daughter and I have worked the polls on election day. That is our activity. My husband will take the kids and we signed up to volunteer for a congressional race, actually for a US congresswoman, and we went onto her website, filled out a volunteer form, and if you fill out a volunteer form, somebody will call you. Their people are desperate for volunteers. And so we got many, many calls asking for help and the thing we chose to do was to work the polls on election day where we stood outside, handed out literature, talked to people who were coming in. My daughter did most of the work. She’s much better at that than I am, and she really loves it.

Jill:
But that’s one way we chose to get involved in the elections. Now, will we be able to do that in 2020? I don’t know. Still to be determined. And other ways you can engage as a family. Watch the debates together. As we’ve already mentioned, talk about the issues around the dinner table. Bring your kids into the discussion. So there are so many ways to get involved in the election.

Pam:
Awesome, awesome. And if you haven’t started any of this yet, it’s not too late, right?

Jill:
Oh, no. It is not too late. It has hardly even begun, so it’s definitely the … The general election, I think, will start kicking into high gear. There will be more to see as the summer rolls on and into the fall, so it is not too late. The fall is a great time to get started on it.

Pam:
Awesome. Okay, so what tips do you have for parents who feel like their own knowledge of civics or the government is lacking? What should they focus on to prepare themselves for these discussions and things?

Jill:
Oh, sure. That’s a great question, Pam. I think my biggest suggestion here would be don’t focus on what you don’t know. We’re all not experts in government and civic affairs, and that is fine. I would take the approach, try to see yourself as a co-learner along with your students. Consider yourself a facilitator of family learning rather than a teacher. You could ask your child something about what he or she is interested in, “What about the election do you want to study of the election?” And then learn it together.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that parents do their own deep dive study session, because who has time for that? But if the election is something you want to study with your kids, definitely take the approach of seeing yourself as a co-learner, see yourself as the facilitator, and learn along with your kids. That sets a great example of lifelong learning for them, I think.

Pam:
Yeah, yeah. I think so, too. We talk about that so often in Morning Time, that you don’t have to be the expert in Morning Time. You can just learn right along with your kids.

Jill:
Absolutely.

Pam:
If you find your education is lacking in this area, teach it and it won’t be anymore.

Jill:
That’s exactly right. That is exactly right.

Pam:
Yeah. Well, let’s shift a little bit to the idea of current events. We’ve talked about civics, which is the training for citizenship, and we’ve talked about the election, which is something that’s happening right now this year. But what about just in general about current events? What are current events, and then why do we want to teach these to our kids?

Jill:
Sure. Well, I mean, current events is pretty much … it’s anything that’s happening anywhere around you. So in your local community, in Africa, in the Middle East, anything that’s going on right now. And current events span … again, we’re not just talking about civics. Current events can include economics, it can include business, it can include arts, it can include technology, it can include health. So anything that’s happening now that’s newsworthy I would consider a current event. That was my definition. What was your other question, Pam? I’m sorry.

Pam:
Why do we want to bring these in and talk about these with our kids? As opposed to … We only have so much time in a school day, right?

Jill:
That’s right.

Pam:
And we’ve got to be teaching science and we’ve got to be teaching history and math and things like that, so why do we want to dedicate a little bit of time to current events?

Jill:
To current events. I would also say that current events, it’s something that may not fit easily into your school day. I think that many homeschool families would agree that they are important. They may not be able to tell you exactly why, and I can tell you exactly why. But Morning Time is a great time to include current events. I think it’s kind of like … I’m a student of the liberal arts. I’m a practitioner of the liberal arts. I feel like Morning Time is kind of this center for the liberal arts in our home education, and I think current events definitely can enhance many of the liberal arts topics because it helps our students make connections between theory and practice, between history and today, between what they might be learning in nature study and something that’s going on in the world of science today.

So I think that it’s kind of a place for our students to make some of those practical connections between liberal learning and what’s going on now. So that’s one reason. Another reason is that current events helps us to increase knowledge. It helps us to increase our knowledge in all kinds of areas, including the ones that I just mentioned. Especially if you’re doing newspaper reading. Newspaper reading can really help build language arts skills. I personally feel, and this is a belief of mine, that something has been seriously lost in this era of digital news that we’re living in. Children don’t see the rich language of the newspaper sitting around and they’re not really able to page through its pages. But I think that reading the newspaper in particular really does help us develop a better vocabulary, better reading skills, stronger spelling skills, better writing skills.

I think more importantly, though, I think that current events discussions can help prompt kids to really wrestle with big ideas. If your homeschooler is puzzling through a moral issue or heard something that maybe disturbed him or her, did she see something that challenged a belief? I think discussing current events provides, or at least allows, parents, especially of older children, a forum through which children can really talk through those difficult ideas, big questions, complex issues. So that’s another benefit.

I think that studying current events importantly … You and I know, Pam, that homeschooling is all about building relationships, and I think that current events discussions really do help to bring families together. It helps us connect with our kids over important topics. It’s a way for families to strengthen their beliefs and values. I think far better for a child to wrestle with some current events issues at home with mom and dad, brothers and sisters, than on the playground or in another public forum where parents aren’t there to moderate the discussion, right?

Pam:
Right.

Jill:
So I think that it really allows you to sort of pass along… to help your kids view current events in light of your own family’s beliefs and values. Those are some of the practical through bigger picture higher level reasons for studying current events.

Pam:
I love it. Great reasons. Great reasons. Okay, so, now we have the reasons. What about the resources? What are some of your favorite resources for current events with your kids?

Jill:
Okay. I can give you some resources, and I’ll also say that at our website, silverdalepress.com, we have a free download in our free resources section where these are all listed. So if you don’t remember them, that’s okay.

Pam:
Yeah. Just give us a couple of your favorites and then we’re going to send people over to get that free download. We’ll link to it in the show notes and they can get the comprehensive list. I had a look at this myself yesterday and there was really great insights into each of the resources on the list and I thought, “Oh, parents are going to love this one.” So I definitely want you guys to go and download the list from Silverdale Press. But Jill’s going to give us a couple highlights right now.

Jill:
Yeah. I think the main point of our resource list, I put this together for families because I really wanted them to be able to pick and choose to fit their needs. I think that you really do need to consider your own family and where your own family is before you pick a current events resource. Think about who your kids are, think about what they like, and then maybe choose a resource accordingly. I’ll give you a few examples.

One of my favorite resources is your local newspaper. The reason I say that is local newspapers are great. Typically they have softer news content, so that’s more appropriate for younger audiences. They also really give some … If you’re studying your community and your community helpers, they are also a great resource because they provide a lot of local coverage. So appropriate for young readers, kind of softer content. It’s always good to support your local community by subscribing to your local newspaper.

I subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, and that’s because of my job. This may seem a little bit odd. My kids do read it. I find that if I set it out on the kitchen table and if they’re sitting down for breakfast, they will pick it up. Do they understand it all? No, of course not. Do they read the finance section cover to cover? No, they don’t. But I’m thrilled when I see them paging through The Wall Street Journal because I know that they’re at least picking up bits and pieces. But if you have a high schooler who … Do you have a budding entrepreneur or a future business leader in your homeschool? I think The Wall Street Journal is a great publication. I read it because I really like their national coverage and for the work that I do, it’s good to be reading that kind of national coverage. So The Wall Street Journal has been a favorite publication of mine for a really long time.

If you like international news, I recommend the BBC. If your family’s interested in other cultures, the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, has a great website. If you like videos, and my kids like videos, so I’m thinking of maybe doing a little bit more of this next year. I think CNN 10 is a great resource.

Pam:
We love CNN 10, yeah.

Jill:
Oh, okay, great. Yeah, CNN 10. You know, Pam, right? 10-minute news shows geared to students. My kids, we haven’t done it, but I’m thinking about it for our Morning Time this year. I’m thinking that they would really love CNN 10. They’re at really good ages for it. Easy for moms, enjoyable for kids. Who doesn’t like educational screen time, right? It’s really great.

A lot of Christian homeschoolers, of course, like Al Mohler’s podcast, The Briefing. It’s news and commentary from a Christian perspective, so if you want to give your family a Christian commentary kind of view of the news, I recommend The Briefing.

And let’s see. One more resource, I have a list of 10 on our download. But another one that I like and am familiar with, and this may be for the busy family, is SRN News. If you grew up driving around in your car listening to the radio like I did, you’ll be familiar with the SRN News. It’s a national news network for Christian radio stations and they cover topics of interest to the Christian radio listener like religion, cultural trends, faith and public policy. It’s a headline service, meaning they’re not really going into depth about anything in the news like if you listen to a podcast or if you read an article in The Wall Street Journal, you’d get a lot more depth. But if you’re a busy family and if you like your news in bite-sized audio bits, go to SRN News, listen to their top and bottom of the hour headlines, and you’re still going to get some news in your Morning Time and it’ll be quick and dirty, but it’ll be effective as well.

So those are some of the resources that I highly recommend. There are lots more, though. The good news for families is that there are a wealth of resources for families for studying current events.

Pam:
Yeah, and the little snippets like in SRN News give you a jumping off point.

Jill:
They do.

Pam:
It makes you kind of well rounded in your understanding of what’s going on, but then if somebody takes an interest in something like a rocket launch or something like that, some debatable topic or whatever, then you could jump onto it and go a little bit further and study a little more and have deeper discussions.

Jill:
Yes. That’s a great point, too. That’s another great thing about studying current events, because if they do tend to spark interest within your children, you can kind of see what they’re interested in and then maybe follow up with a short unit study, maybe give them a topic to explore and research on their own and maybe write a small position paper on or something like that as part of their language arts curriculum. So there are a whole host of different ways current events can feed into your other subjects in your other disciplines in your homeschool.

But I think, one, current events are a critical part of your day. Definitely, Morning Time is a wonderful place for them. And two, before you pick a resource, and there are so many resources out there that make it easy for moms, definitely just think about your family, what your kids are interested in, what kind of time you have. Are you busy? Are you pressed for time? Do you have the time to sit around and read a lengthy article from The Atlantic or another news magazine? And then pick your source.

Pam:
Yeah, yeah, okay. So this was the Homeschool Current Events Quick Start Guide from Silverdale Press, and we’re going to link to this in the show notes. And just to let you guys know, it has some more of the reasons that Jill talked about today. Why study current events, the steps for getting started, five engaging questions to ask while you’re studying current events, and then the resources that Jill told us about a few minutes ago plus more, because there are 10 resources in total. So you’re going to want to go download that.

Well, Jill, let me ask you one last question before we wrap it up. If you’re sitting in a Morning Time situation and you have multiple age kids, you’ve got your whole family there in a wide spread of ages, how do you tackle some of these difficult current event conversations with your kids in an age-appropriate way? Do you have any guidelines?

Jill:
Yeah, that’s a good question. I do have a few things to think about. It’s never easy for parents to talk to their kids about sensitive topics. And of course, I do scan the newspaper. If there’s a really sensitive topic, I’m not going to set it out for my kids to flip through that day if there’s something disturbing on the front cover. But even if you’re watching CNN 10 or clicking on the BBC, sensitive topics will inevitably come up. But again, in your homeschool day, it’s better to talk about it here than your kids hash it out for themselves elsewhere.

But studying current events with different ages, so sensitive events … The first thing I would tell parents is to use their wisdom and pray about it if there’s something that comes up and your child has some really difficult questions. That’s always a good first step. Another tip I have is to … When you’re studying current events and there’s a sensitive topic or a disturbing topic or an unpleasant topic, the fact that there is unpleasantness and inappropriateness stems from the fact that we live in a fallen world. So always start with scripture. There is nothing new under the sun. Every topic that you could imagine that is disturbing to us today is in the Bible somewhere, I would venture to guess. That’s a pretty broad statement, but it’s a great time to learn about human nature, to understand that a lot of the things that we’re seeing are consequences of the fall.

So those are my first two suggestions. My third suggestion is to really … If there is a sensitive topic that comes up and you want to talk about it with your kid, one thing you could do is read an article about it. If it’s really sensitive, send your younger kids to the other room to color with crayons or something. But one thing that I have been suggesting to parents whenever there is something disturbing in the news is to pair the article with maybe a classic text that addresses the topic.

So if it’s something like racism, talk about the current event, read the article, but also, one thing that you could do to make it a little less disturbing is to, and even if you wanted to include your little kids here, pair it with a classic text like the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, for example, or John F. Kennedy’s 1963 address to Congress on a Civil Rights bill that he was about to propose. I forget the name of the address. Pairing an article with a classic text on the subject may be one way to help your kids to think about an issue without necessarily engaging in the really disturbing stuff. Do you kind of understand what I’m saying?

Pam:
Yeah, yeah.

Jill:
Okay. I mean, I wish I could think of a great way to avoid sensitive topics, but I think the fact is that they’ll probably come up, and it’s important that we as parents, that we do have a plan for dealing with them, that we think a little bit about how we’re going to handle them before. But always pray about it, start with scripture, and try to pair your articles with some classic text to give your students a broader context for maybe understanding them.

Pam:
Oh, awesome. Some really, really great tips there. Well, I just want to point out you can find Jill online at silverdalepress.com, and so many good things there. The Current Event Guide, which is absolutely free. Also, a presidential election unit study if you are like, “Okay, it’s time to study the election but where do we begin?” Which is eight lessons, and it is current for 2020. And then some fun White House unit studies as well, right?

Jill:
Yes. Yeah. So as a presidential scholar, one of the things that I like to do is to … I am very passionate about helping homeschool families engage with the presidency, which is kind of the topic that I know best. And I love unit studies and making the holidays special, so along with our presidential election unit study, we also have unit studies about the presidency and the holidays. So there are lots of connections between the presidency and the holidays, too. But Morning Time is great. When you hit a holiday, Morning Time is a great time to infuse the holidays into your homeschool, I’ve found.

Pam:
Definitely.

Jill:
Yeah, yeah. So that’s what we have.

Pam:
Well, Jill. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, do go check that out and we’ll include a link to that in the show notes. Jill, I cannot thank you enough. This has been such a fun conversation. I really appreciate you coming on and talking to us about how we can infuse our homeschools with not only the study of civics, but how we can create a lifestyle of civics in our home and the idea of civics as enlightened engagement with the community. So thank you.

Jill:
Thank you, Pam. It was so much fun talking to you. Thanks for having me.

Pam:
And there you have it. Now, if you would like links to any of the books and resources that Jill and I chatted about today, including the Current Events Guide and other resources from Silverdale Press, come to the show notes for this episode of the podcast. Those are at pambarnhill.com/ymb78, and we’ll have links to all of those over there for you.

Now, we’ll be back again in a couple of weeks with another great interview, this time with Jessica Waldock from The Waldock Way. Jessica’s also the owner and moderator of the Morning Baskets and More Facebook group. Jessica’s going to be coming on to talk to us all about doing themes in your Morning Time, following a specific theme every single month in your Morning Time, kind of like we’re doing with our Morning Time Explorations right now. So Jessica and I are going to be chatting about why you might want to do themes in your Morning Time and how making the switch to doing a thematic Morning Time really saved Morning Time for her family. Jessica’s also a mom of one, so that is a unique Morning Time situation. So if you are a mom of an only, you’re going to want to listen in on that. So, so much fun in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep seeking Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in your homeschool day.