History

Divine Mercy Academy will use a historically based curriculum, rooted in an understanding of the human person as a creature, created in the image and likeness of God. From this starting point, the curriculum presents history as a coherent story propelled by the human desire for God and God’s coming to meet, inflame and satisfy that desire in Christ.

This means placing special emphasis on the Greek, Roman, Jewish, and other ancient Near East cultures that make up the Western tradition. This understanding of the person as a creature provides a basis for exploring and appreciating these and other pre-Christian cultures in their own right, for seeking to understand them as they understood themselves.

But rooting history in the understanding of the human person as a creature with a natural desire for God also orients those cultures toward the coming of Christ, after which they are taken up, transformed, into a new Christian culture in which the deepest of human longings and the highest of human aspirations are met by a gift from God which surpasses all these. Other subjects such as literature, art, and music and even math and nature studies complement this understanding and deepen it. For instance, a class studying Greek culture in the Grammar stage might read and discuss stories from Greek mythology to think along with the Greeks ‘from the inside’. A class studying the Middle Ages in the Logic stage might learn Gregorian chant in music, or consider the symbolism of Gothic architecture in art or the symbolism of shapes in medieval stained glass in conjunction with their introduction to geometry.

The coming of Christ and the Church is central to history.

As Christ reconciles all things to himself, his Church and the culture to which it gives rise takes up and transforms all that is beautiful, good, and true in pre-Christian culture and becomes a decisive reference point for all world cultures thereafter. Understanding the human person as a creature and seeing all of history and all cultures as expressions of the human desire for God and as lived answers to ultimate human questions, students should learn to appreciate the great cultures of history on their own terms, seeking to understand them as they understood themselves and resisting the prejudice that equates the newest with the best.

However, they should understand history neither as a story of constant progress culminating in the present, nor as a series of disconnected events lying side by side in time, but as the story of the world’s anticipation of and longing for the truth and happiness revealed in Christ and the events his incarnation sets in motion.

They should therefore have a special understanding of those classical cultures—Greek, Jewish, Roman—which become ingredients of Christian culture. They should read those portions of the Bible that are contemporaneous with the historical period they are studying and appreciate the window that the Bible provides into the development of this history. And they should seek to understand the birth of modern culture as an event within Christianity, as simultaneously a development of Christian culture and a reaction against a Christian view of reality.

Students should thus come to understand American history as a chapter in this larger story.

American history should be studied in the same spirit of love for truth, goodness, and beauty that animates the rest of the curriculum, and American history and culture should therefore be viewed through the same lens as other historical cultures: as a lived answer to these fundamental human questions. American history should therefore form in students a love of their country and its ideals, but it should also encourage them to subject that love and those ideals to the still higher love for the truth of God and the human person revealed in Jesus Christ and through his Church. In this way, the study of history should prepare students to become both virtuous and responsible citizens and faithful Catholics and begin to equip them with the tools of discernment necessary to live deeply Catholic and deeply human lives amidst increasingly challenging times.

The study of history in these terms is central to “incorporating our students into the wisdom of two thousand years of Catholic thought, history, culture, and arts.”

Students are incorporated into the received wisdom of the Christian tradition in two ways: first, by understanding themselves as products and heirs of a culture which represents the deepest of human longings, the highest of human aspirations, and the most profound of human artistic and cultural achievements; and second, by making the desires and questions that have animated and propelled that history their own—Who am I? Who is God? How am I to live? What is goodness? What is truth?

The proper presentation of history should therefore further cultivate the art of questioning, as an expression of their innate desire for the happiness found in God.

Lower Elementary (Lower Grammar)

-Understand history and culture as human desire for goodness, truth, and ultimately God

-Develop basic knowledge of ancient civilizations in ancient Near East and their

relationship to one another

-Develop basic knowledge of history of Israel through the Bible and in context of ancient

Near East

-Develop basic knowledge of the geography of the ancient Near East, including

Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt

-Develop more detailed understanding of Greek civilization: people, places, geography,

religion, government, economics, art, architecture, music, technology, and culture

-Understand how Greek civilization contributed to Christianity

-Develop better understanding of Roman civilization: people, places, geography, religion,

government, economics, art, architecture, music, technology, and culture

-Understand how Rome became the home of the Roman Catholic Church

-Begin to see how Christianity transformed the Roman Empire

-Begin to see Greek and Roman contributions to culture

-Learn to identify the basic geography of Greece, Rome, and their neighbors

-Memorization of key historical facts

-Beginning map reading and recognition

-Use a globe

-Understand a timeline

-Ability to narrate historical stories

-Begin to see connections between historical events and themes

-Beginning ability to formulate and discuss philosophical questions

-Artistically render historical scenes from imagination

-Develop memory

-Develop ability to listen and recall

-Develop an interest in history

-See relevance of past to present

-Appreciate Greek philosophical ideals

-Begin to see an integrated conception of the world on which the beliefs of Western

Civilization are based

Upper Elementary (Upper Grammar)

-Understand key figures and events of Medieval, Modern, and American history

-Appreciate how the lives of the saints shaped the respective historical periods

-Know how people in the Middle Ages understood God and man

-Recognize how Medieval culture exhibits an understanding of truth, goodness, and

Beauty

-Know that Christianity has shaped the world and that the expansion of Christianity has

brought increasing liberty, reason, and culture

-Distinguish how the Modern period differs from the past in its understanding of God and

man, and truth, goodness, and beauty

-Understand how America understands God and man

-Recognize how American culture exhibits an understanding of truth, goodness, and

Beauty

-Understand history of America in the context of Catholic and world history

-Appreciate the novelty of America in relation to its European origins

-Understand what it means to be a good citizen

-Understand difference between Medieval and Modern political forms

-Understand key technological developments of the historical periods they are studying

-Recognize basic geography (major world land masses and bodies of water; European and U.S. states and capitals)

-Memorize songs and chants for relevant kings and queens, states and capitals, original 13 colonies, etc.

-Recognize major periods of history using timelines

-Understand how the differences between these periods and cultures are reflected in art

-Compare, contrast, and explain the essential characteristics of cultures, governments, and figures in different historical periods

-Memorize significant dates and be able to build timelines from them

-Recognize correlation between “secular” history and Biblical/Church history

-Explain cause and effect of historical events

-Discuss philosophical and theological questions which arise from history

-Narrate historical stories

-Read and recognize symbols on maps

-Recognize how geography contributes to historical events

-Write biographical reports and do basic research on important figures in history

-Understand the contribution of major historical figures

-Continue to develop an interest in history

-See the relevance of past to present

-Develop love of country

-Develop a desire to be both a good citizen and a faithful Catholic

-Begin to understand themselves and their culture as historical

-Continue developing curiosity to know how things came to be and why people acted as

they did

-Appreciation of the beauty of saints and integrity and courage of heroes

-Cultivate a desire to imitate the good qualities of these saints and heroes

Middle School (Logic Stage)

-Understand the Incarnation as the decisive act of God in history

-Appreciate how the coming of Christ transforms history

-Understand history and culture as the human desire for goodness, truth, and God Himself

-Understand themselves as part of the Israel, Egypt, Greek, Roman, Catholic story

-Understand how the differences between these time periods and cultures are reflected in their civilizations: religion, philosophy, government, economics, art, architecture, music, technology, and culture

-Understand key figures and events of Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and American history

-Understand difference between Ancient, Medieval and Modern political forms

-Understand how the lives of the saints shaped the respective historical periods within

which they lived

-Understand how people in the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods differ in their

concept of God and man

-Understand how the respective time periods pursue and express truth, goodness, and

Beauty

-Know how Christianity has shaped the world and how the expansion of Christianity has

brought increasing liberty, reason and culture

-Understand the historical and philosophical roots of modern materialist atheism

-Understand history of America in the context of Catholic and world history

-Understand the novelty of America in relation to its European origins

-Understand key technological developments of the different historical periods

-Recognize basic geography

-Recognize major periods of history by using timelines

-Acquire familiarity with primary sources characteristic of each period

-Acquire facility in reading primary sources of various kinds

-Discuss philosophical and theological questions which arise from history

-Recognize correlation between “secular” history and Biblical/Church history

-Explain cause and effect of historical events

-Compare, contrast, and explain the essential characteristics of cultures, governments, and figures in different historical periods

-Think and write imaginatively from within the mindset of different historical periods

-Analyze the importance of significant new ideas as they emerge in history

-Memorize significant dates and be able to build timelines from them

-Deepen appreciation of history as an expression of man’s desire for God and his pursuit

of goodness, truth, and beauty

-Evaluate world events and historical characters from a Catholic perspective

-Draw on past ideas to evaluate present assumptions and deepen self-knowledge

-Appreciate the beauty of saints and the integrity and courage of heroes

-Develop a desire to be both a good citizen and a faithful Catholic

-Develop a sense of inquiry

-Develop a comprehensive and ordered sense of the world

-Cultivate a desire for wisdom