Don’t Settle for Boring!
If your student has trouble seeing the relevance of history — and let’s be honest, we all do — then it’s time to try the Knowable World approach, and start learning “anchor facts.”
As our Anchor Fact series of mini-lessons and printables expands over the coming months, the term “anchor fact” will start to become one of the most recognizable terms in the homeschooling history space. So it’s time to explain it.
To explain what “anchor facts” are we first have to step back and talk about the nature and purpose of history.
The Anchor Fact Method
If history is just “the study of the past,” then there can be no anchor facts.
If history is just looking at people and events that happened a long time ago, there is no way to choose which ones to study, or what topics to emphasize. History becomes a grab-bag.
Witness the state of history today. The result is a complete disintegration of the subject.
If history is understood differently, however, so much more is possible.
At Knowable World, the approach we take is called “present-centrism.” I’ve explained what that is in a previous Knowable World blog post.
In brief, present-centrism holds that history is the revelation and explanation of the world we live in.
By the world we live in, I mean: “the interconnected agglomeration of nearly two hundred countries that are organized into ten major cultural blocks (and various outliers), predominated by five cardinal cultures, in which the United States has primacy.”
Our target is the world. Not the past.
The past doesn’t exist any more. Why study such a thing?
Certainly not as an “end in itself.” History is not art. History is not literature.
History is a social science that aims to help us understand the world, navigate through it, and shape it for the better.
If history is understood as the study of the past in relation to the present, then it becomes possible to identify people and events of great import.
These people and events clearly stand out.
If history is understood as the study of the past in relation to the present, then it becomes possible to identify people and events of great import.
Examples of Anchor Facts
Obviously, the world would not be what it is today, if World War II had not happened. Europe wouldn’t be struggling to be a union. China wouldn’t be independent of Japan. India might not be independent. The United States would not be the world police power.
When the story of the world pivots on an event, that’s an anchor fact.
Another example is Fall of Rome in 476 AD. If Rome had not fallen, we’d all be speaking Latin today. There would be no such thing as French, Italian, Spanish, and other derivative “Romance languages.” There wouldn’t be a Germany. It would have eventually been swallowed by Rome. The vikings would never have conquered Normandy, England, or Russia. The whole world would be different.
That’s an anchor fact.
Here’s the most powerful one of all: 1776.
The world we live in is an America-Centric world. For better (most of the time) and for worse (sometimes), the United States has primacy. It is very nearly a unipolar world.
That’s why Russia is fighting to prevent Ukraine from entering the American sphere of influence, and why Europe has been infantilized to the point of being ordered around by America like a child. That’s why China is building more nuclear and coal fired power plants to obtain energy independence, and not be at the mercy of America when it comes to oil. That’s why Israel so deeply depends on American support in its struggle against Islamism, and why the Arab nations of the Middle East are desperately trying to formulate a response to the latest shifts in American foreign policy.
None of this would be, if the United States had not come into being on the 4th of July, 1776.
To express the point in precise historiographical terms: anchor facts are historical facts that exhibit exceptional, demonstrable, stand-alone present-centric cognitive value-significance.
In simple language: they are a big deal.
“Cognitive value-significance” is a phrase I had to originate, like many others, in order to articulate what present-centrism is.
History is cognition. It is learning about reality. But why? If done right, it’s because what we learns matters. It is significant.
“Cognitive value-significance” means “the value of knowing something.”
What is it worth to an American student today to know that the Shang dynasty was succeeded by the Zhou dynasty c.1046 BC, because of the Battle of Muye?
Nothing.
What is it worth to any student today to know that the Donation of Pepin is likely a spurious construct?
Nothing.
But what is it worth to know that Woodrow Wilson put America on an entirely new course when we announced that “the world must be made safe for democracy.”
A lot.
Why is America the way it is? Why is it so completely entangled in world politics? Why does it malfunction so seriously when presented with foreign policy challenges?
One of its imperatives is to defend democracy.
And that imperative was imparted to the country by Wilson.
That’s huge!
We see the consequences all around us. World War I (1914-19) is a massive anchor fact. (And yes, it’s part of our FREE American History Anchor Facts series.)
It’s because of World War I that the Islamic world became so politically disintegrated. It’s because of World War I that Russia succumbed to communism. It’s because of World War I, and the failure to process its meaning, that World War II occurred.
Getting the picture?
Anchor facts.
That’s what your kids can get at Knowable World. History that matters.
You can enjoy or Anchor Fact series of mini-lesson and printables on:
And now:
Look for:
Ancient Rome and Chinese History next, as well!
And that’s just the beginning.
We are here for you. With Knowable World, you will get the kind of history that empowers you and your family to understand the world we live in.
When it comes to our kids, for whom we hope to provide more and better than we got from our education, it is crucial that we embrace this approach. Kids naturally and rightly tune out when stories are merely about other people that lived a long time ago, somewhere else.
What does it have to do with me? That is the entirely proper response we once had, and which they continue to have, if we force-feed them a subject divorced from real life.
History is cognition. It is learning about reality. But why? If done right, it’s because what we learns matters. It is significant.
History Your Kids Will Love
You won’t have to take my word for it. Knowable World’s students will show you. As part of a new video blog series, I’ll also be interviewing my own students, and you will see what students at all levels of Knowable World are able to achieve. I am proud to say, there is nothing else like it.
And if you’re looking for just a taste of what it might be like for your family to participate, I invite you to find our Anchor Fact ™ series of printables and mini-lessons on Youtube and on this site. You can also join the growing community of parents in the Knowable World group on Facebook.
The revelation and explanation of the world we live in awaits.
Isn’t it time you made history your family’s favorite subject?
Scott Powell is a historian and teacher who has been teaching homeschooled students online for nearly 20 years (as “History at Our House”). He is the author of three books including “The 4-Hour Historian”, “The History of Now”, and the upcoming “The History of Tomorrow”. His present-centric approach was developed from the conviction that history is an essential subject that is vital for anyone who wants to live a fully engaged life and make sense of the world they live in.