What Is Abandon Hopefully?
The Abandon Hopefully integrated humanities program began four years ago as a ninth-grade class for a high-school homeschool co-op. The driving idea behind that class, and the courses which followed it, was that we could best study literature as a tradition which developed over time, out of a simultaneously-developing Western culture. At the same time, we could best study history by studying not only the events of a given civilization, but also the stories its people told and, eventually, wrote. In other words, we would get at the heart of a culture through its mind, as revealed through its literature. Students would walk away with an impressive level of cultural literacy, armed to understand literary allusions, historical jokes, and pretty much anything their future college professors might reference. They would also, at the end of the day, be good critical evaluators of the ideas they might encounter in college, because they would know that ideas, good and bad, all come with long pedigrees.
As a support system, and as a way of communicating daily with students whom I saw only once a week in class, I began a blog, where I posted assignments, "lectures," links, and general resources for each period we studied. At the end of that ninth-grade year, we moved to another state, and the blog, in tandem with a yahoo group, became for the next year an online class.
Some things I learned via this experience, in no particular order:
1. While teenagers derive certain benefits from participation in a class with other teenagers, real learning takes place between the reader and the book. Discussion is icing on the cake. So is playing "Sardines" at lunch.
2. I really don't manage online classes very well.
3. Ultimately, my own strong preference is to educate my child at home, on my terms. What works for another student might not work for mine. What works for my student might not work for another.
At the end of the day, what I found myself developing was not a class, per se, or a rigid curriculum, but a set of booklists and resources for each year of high school, with ideas for implementing them in a homeschool setting, and a range of options to make each course of study customizable for a particular child.
Because of course, when it comes to education, there's no such thing as "children," as in, "What is good for children."
There's only this child, and this child, and this child, and this child . . .
Where Are Those First Abandon Hopefully Kids Now?
Three attend their local state universities.
One is studying to be a chef.
Several more attend Catholic liberal-arts colleges.
Most of these students have received at least partial scholarships to finance their educations.
One is contemplating a vocation to the religious life.
All are ardent Catholics and thinking people.
What About Accredited Programs for High School?
Well, they're out there. And many of them are excellent. We didn't use one for several fairly personal and idiosyncratic reasons:
Either they
1. Didn't line up with where we were in studying history and/or literature. We would have had to repeat things we'd already done, or skip ahead, leaving gaps in our study.
Or
2. They used too many books we'd already read by the beginning of middle school.
Or
3. They cost money we didn't have.
And besides,
4. When I looked them over, I thought, "I can do this myself, and I can tailor it to fit my family."
If this sounds anything like you, then it's my great hope that you will find what you need here to help you homeschool your college-bound student with confidence.
Who We Are:
A Catholic homeschooling family of six, currently schooling first grade, second grade, seventh grade, and senior year (!!!), using a self-designed, humanities-centered, literature-based, college-preparatory curriculum. We also have a pretty cool dog.
We have spent the last four years developing an integrated literature/history/humanities program for high school. It began as a co-op class; now we're making our resources and booklists available for you to adapt for use with your college-bound homeschooling high-school students. Our aim is not to convince you to do what we do, but to offer our resources to help you create a rich, humanities-centered, college-preparatory program to fit your family.
About Us