Students need to learn to cast a critical eye on all the information they receive… unless it’s parental advice, of course – ha! All kidding aside, a great way for your children to begin to learn how to assess incoming information is through teaching primary and secondary sources.

I began focusing on the importance of primary and secondary sources when we started participating in National History Day (NHD) seven years ago. NHD urges students to find quality resources when doing historical research.

Differentiating between primary and secondary sources is a tremendously useful skill for formal research and informal information gathering. Our students need this skill, whether the info is coming from a live speaker, the internet, or a textbook.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-hand accounts from someone who had a direct connection with the event or time period. These sources can include interviews, diaries, photos, newspaper articles, and other original documents.

It’s important to note that primary sources are rarely unbiased. The student must learn to look at the origin – the speaker, author, artist, etc. They should learn to search for opposing viewpoints in an attempt to get a balanced picture.

Water - a precious resource.
Water’s a precious resource in Colorado but a newspaper article gave us a look at it from the perspective of Texas and Mexico.

We’re studying water rights and yesterday we read a newspaper article about the current clash over water from La Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua, Mexico. The conflict is over water usage and the sharing of water rights between Mexico and Texas. We were able to read quotes from both Texans and Mexicans and gain some perspective into both side’s viewpoints.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources include interpretation and analysis. This includes most all of our curriculum. Textbooks often includes some primary source information but it’s mostly a synthesis and presentation of findings.

It’s undeniable that we all look for curriculum that supports our world view. One of the things that’s so appealing to us as homeschoolers is that we can teach towards our bias, whether it’s philosophical, religious, political, etc. Many textbooks are overt about their bias while others are less so. For example, typical textbooks about the colonization of North America are from the colonists’ perspective, not that of Native Americans.

Taking a photo laying down on your back in the woods gives you a different perspective.
Different perspectives can give you a new appreciation of a subject.

I do want to point out that it can occasionally be a good exercise to crack open a book with a different bias. You can explore it with your children and explain why you may or may not agree with that bias. In doing so, you’re teaching them to recognize other perspectives and why people hold those views. It’s a good introduction to learning how to work with people that you perceive as ‘different’ from yourself. It might even provide an avenue for discussion about prejudice.

You should also be aware of the date your curriculum was published. When I first started homeschooling, Pluto had just been demoted to dwarf planet status. Yet our science books all listed Pluto as a planet. So I threw out all our science books… not really.

You don’t need to forego used curriculum because some of it may be dated. However, you should check for updates, particularly with science and technology, countries where borders and politics may change, and well, lots of other things. Also, if you have time, it doesn’t hurt to check out any current news items on ‘old stuff’. For example, we were studying art history a few years ago and I happened across a news item of a Degas painting found on a bus in France in 2018. Nothing perks up a lesson more than something quirky like that.

Smoke from a Colorado wildfire.
The Middle Fork Fire last month.

For our recent unit study on wildfires, we used several online resources. I checked dates so we could follow up afterward if needed for more recent info. And we talked about the bias – for example, a farming cooperative website in Iowa views agricultural burning very differently from an environmental conservation group in California – not that that’s a big surprise. It was just interesting to read well-written arguments for both sides. On a positive note, we found a great article about at least one solution that satisfies both farmers and environmentalists.

With all the information available to us almost instantaneously via the internet, it’s more important than ever to be able to sort through it for clarity and understanding. Helping your students identify primary and secondary sources provides a solid starting point.

The Best Resource

The best resource is, of course, you. You’ll guide your children through learning how to research and process information. You’ll teach them how to distinguish between primary and secondary resources. And you’ll look at the information with them through your undeniable bias, your value system. It’s important that each of us teach what we think is ‘right’… along with a healthy respect for other perspectives.

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