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History

2011-08-21T15:30:20Z

CeLa:

History has two meanings. On the one hand it is the sum of events in the human past. On the other it is academic discipline of researching written, oral, or archaeological sources, as well as of communicating the results of such research and reconstructing the findings into a coherent narrative or meaningful analysis. This article deals with academic history, or "'''historiography'''".

History is conventionally divided chronologically into ancient, medieval and modern periods, and into specific geographical areas (especially those controlled by a nation state or empire). Academic studies of history attempt to document past events, as well as interpret or explain them according to various methodologies. '''Prehistory''' deals with mankind before written records, and is part of [[Archaeology]], with little overlap with history. Popular history (or "heritage") is related to folklore, antiques, and old monuments; more generally it concerns memories of the past constructed by a group. Scholarly historians in recent years have been studying how popular history and heritage are constructed and how they affect people. Sacred history concerns divinely inspired events and is handled by religion scholars.

This article discusses '''historiography''', the writing of history by scholars and specialists. For lists of historians, see [[Historians]] .

British historian E. H. Carr (1892-1982) has advised that history is not a single, well-defined narrative or bundle of facts that can be memorized, but a terrain of contestation between competing and evolving interpretations whose influence is as much shaped by time and place as by any given set of facts.<ref> E.H. Carr, ''What is History?'' (1961) </ref>

Historians face seven methodological problems: how to address a past holistically, given the inevitable process of excluding certain peoples from our accounts and the issue of absent social categories; generalizing from fragmentary evidence; understanding causality; establishing differences and similarities; social constructionism; presentism and appropriate concepts; and evaluating competing explanatory accounts.<ref>Miles Fairburn. ''Social History: Problems, Strategies and Methods'' (1999). </ref>

The main source of information is written text, mainly from political, ceremonial or bureaucratic sources. Other kinds of sources include memoirs, oral interviews, newspaper accounts, and works of art. Historians distinguish "primary sources" (written sources created by participants), and "secondary sources", which is the interpretation of history by scholars.

==Etymology==

The Greek word '''ἱστορία''', ''istoría'', means "knowledge acquired by investigation, inquiry". In this sense it is used in antique expression "natural history".

In English the word went into two different directions: "story", or chronologically-structured narrative, and "history", or discourse on human events.
==Teaching==
[[File:Historiog.jpg|thumb|300px|Trends in history departments]]

History is a required subject in the schools of many countries, designed to provide a common intellectual heritage and pride in nationalism.

At the university level, history if very widely taught. In most of the world, history departments teach their own national history and a limited selection of other topics, such as Ancient History.

In the United States, history is a high prestige field, and is usually the most popular major, by far, at elite universities. History faculties, furthermore, teach a much wider range of topics and methodologies than counterparts in Europe or Asia. In terms of majors, men outnumber women by about 2:1.

In the last 35 years, trends in teaching have emerged. Intellectual and diplomatic history has lost ground, while women's history has grown explosively, as has social and cultural history. Economic history has in many cases migrated to economics departments, while political history and diplomatic history has migrated to political science departments. Ancient history long ago migrated to classics departments, and medieval history is a much smaller field than a century ago.<ref>Patricia Cohen, "Great Caesar’s Ghost! Are Traditional History Courses Vanishing?," [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/books/11hist.html?_r=1&hpw '' New York Times'' June 10, 2009]</ref>

==Approaches==

Historians of note who have advanced the historical methods of study include [[Leopold von Ranke]], [[Lewis Bernstein Namier]], [[Frederick Jackson Turner]], [[Charles Beard]] and E.P. Thompson.

In the 20th century, academic historians avoided epic nationalistic narratives, favoring more specialized studies looking as social, economic, political or intellectual forces. Demographic historians introduced quantitative history, using census data to track the lives of average people. French historians were prominent in the establishment of [[cultural history]] (such as the "histoire des mentalités"). In the U.S. "Progressive" historians following [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] emphasized the frontier and sectionalism, while those following [[Charles Beard]] and [[C. Vann Woodward]] looked for conflicts of economic interest. After 1950 intellectual history replaced the older Progressive models. After 1960 [[neoabolitionist]] historians inspired by the American civil rights movement emphasized moralistic stories, with racism as the evil that triumphed or was defeated. The "new social history" in the 1970s took a comprehensive approach to include every man, woman and child, often using census, court and tax records. After the 1970s some postmodernists have challenged the validity and need for the study of history on the basis that all history is based on the personal interpretation of sources. This approach came under blistering attack by historians such as Granatstein (1998) in Canada, and Windschuttle (2000) in Australia, leading to lively debates.

==Comparative historiography==
Herodotus (5th century BC) was a world historian as well as founder of Greek historiography.<ref> K.H. Waters, ''Herodotus the Historian'' (1985)</ref> <ref>'''Note:''' 'Historiography' refers to the writing of history, and, in a second sense, to the study of written history.</ref> His ''History'' presents insightful and lively discussions of the customs, geography, and history of Mediterranean peoples, particularly the Egyptians. However, Thucydides promptly discarded Herodotus's all-embracing approach to history, offering instead a more precise, sharply focused monograph, dealing not with vast empires over the centuries but with 27 years of war between Athens and Sparta. In Rome, the vast, patriotic history of Rome by Livy (59 BC-17 AD) approximated Herodotean inclusiveness<ref> Patrick G. Walsh, ''Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods'' (1961)</ref>; Polybius (c.200-c.118 BC) aspired to combine the logical rigor of Thucydides with the scope of Herodotus.<ref> Frank W. Walbank, ''A Historical Commentary on Polybius,'' (3 vols. 1957-82)</ref>

==Divine intervention==
Chinese, Muslim, Indian and Christian traditions of learning emphasize that God determined history and humans played only supporting roles.

Thus in China Ssu-ma Cheng-chen c. 100 BC presented a model of Chinese history that assumed Heaven choses virtuous hereditary rulers, then arranges events so that they were overthrown when a ruling dynasty became corrupt. Each new dynasty begins virtuous and strong, but then decays, provoking the transfer of Heaven's mandate to a new ruler. The test of virtue in a new dynasty is success in being obeyed by China and neighboring barbarians. After 2000 years Ssu-ma Chen's model still dominates scholarship, even among westerners who do not hold the Taoist belief that the ruler's personal virtue assures divine support.<ref> S. Y. Teng, "Chinese Historiography in the Last Fifty Years," ''The Far Eastern Quarterly,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Feb., 1949), pp. 131-156 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0363-6917(194902)8%3A2%3C131%3ACHITLF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W in JSTOR]</ref>

While the Chinese, Muslim, and Indian traditions continued their theocentric historiography, there was a radical challenge to it in Christian Europe during the [[Renaissance]]. Historians such as [[Machiavelli]] downplayed divine intervention and stressed that men made their own history, and that rulers should study history in order to shape the future. European scholars began a more systematic study of history. One Arab scholar, [[Ibn Khaldun]] (1332-1406) broke with traditionalism and offered a strikingly modern model of historical change in ''Muqaddimah,'' a brilliant exposition of the methodology of scientific history. Ibn Khaldun focused on the reasons for the rise and fall of civilization, arguing that the causes of change are to be sought in the economic and social structure of society. His work was largely ignored in the Muslim world. Otherwise the Muslim, Chinese and Indian intellectuals held fast to a religious traditionalism, leaving them unprepared to advise national leaders on how to confront European imperialism as it reached into Asia after 1500.

===Christian history===
In his 1949 presidential address to the American Historical Association, Yale Professor [[Kenneth Scott Latourette]] promoted the value of taking a Christian approach to the last two millennia.<ref>Kenneth Scott Latourette, "The Christian Understanding of History," ''American Historical Review'' 54: 2 (January 1949): 259-76. [http://www.historians.org/info/aha_history/kslatourette.htm full text online] </ref>
He argued:
:As the influence of Jesus has spread geographically, various results have followed which are evidence that the transforming power which Christians claim for it is at work….Through the expansion of Western peoples and their culture, mankind has for the first time been brought together. To the degree that this is the result of the influence of Jesus it is a partial implementation of the dream of the unity of mankind which is a feature of the Christian understanding of history. The struggle to regulate and eventually to eliminate the wars which make our shrinking globe so perilous a neighborhood owes much to Jesus….Such attempts at world-wide co-operation as the League of Nations and the United Nations are demonstrably to some extent from him.

:Much clearer is the decisive part which Jesus has had in the efforts to combat slavery and other forms of the exploitation of men by their fellows….The list is long of the Spanish and Portuguese laymen and clergy who, inspired and sustained by their Christian faith, labored to guard the non-Europeans in the colonies in both hemispheres from the callous selfishness of their fellow countrymen. The place of his Christian faith in impelling Wilberforce in his campaign against the Negro slave trade is well known. So, too, is the role of the Quakers, Samuel Hopkins, and those touched by the Finney revival, consciences made sensitive by commitment to the Christian faith, in the movement for the emancipation of Negro slaves in the United States. We are all aware of the efforts of the Christian missionary, David Livingstone, to curb the slave trade in Africa itself. Less familiar is the share of such Christian missionary leaders as John Philip and Cardinal Lavigerie in the campaign against African slavery. Christianity has been one of the most potent forces making for the liberation and advance of the depressed classes of India. Jesus was a major inspiration of Gandhi. In land after land he has contributed to the emancipation of women. In the impact of Occidental upon non-Occidental peoples Christian missions and other agencies inspired by him have made for improved medical care, for public health, for better methods of agriculture, and for schools and universities better adapted to the new day than were their predecessors. Increasingly these features of the influence of Jesus have been spreading and now in varying measure embrace mankind.
==Leading historians==
see [[Historians]]

==Field of History by period and place==
===China===
[[China, history|Chinese historiography]] was developed by Ssu-ma Cheng-chen, whose model of regime virtue and divine intervention led to thousands of historical studies along exactly the same lines.
===Ancient===
*[[Ancient History]] studies the Middle East and Europe before 450, with emphasis on Greece and [[Ancient Rome]]. The The Association of Ancient Historians was formed as recently as 1974, and has 800 members in the U.S. and Canada; it does not publish a journal.<ref> See [http://associationofancienthistorians.org/ Association of Ancient Historians]</ref> See also [[Classics]].
===Medieval===
*[[Middle Ages|Medieval History]]: Deals with the Middle Ages (between ~500-1453) especially in Europe and the Middle East. Major themes include the Church, the Holy Roman Empire, agricultural change, the [[Crusades]], and intellectual and cultural trends.
===Modern===
*[[Modern History]]. "Early modern history" covers Europe about 1450 to 1648, with special attention to the [[Renaissance]], the [[Reformation]], warfare, science and technology, the rise of the nation state (especially England, France, Spain, Prussia and Russia), and explorations of the [[Atlantic World]]. "Modern History" (since 1648) covers a vast array of topics, including the [[Industrial Revolution]] and the [[Enlightenment]].
====Atlantic====
[[Atlantic history]]: a recent trend; studies the interaction of Europe, Africa and North America and South America, especially before 1800

====Contemporary====
[[Contemporary History]], since 1945

==Schools and fields of History==
===Cultural===
*[[Cultural history]] is the dominant style since the 1980s. It uses linguistic and cultural evidence to explore the inner psychology of societies. This became a dominant theme in the 1980s, especially influenced by careful analysis of exactly how key words were used. For example, the study of [[Republicanism]]. There is no separate society or journal.

Sometimes called the "linguistic turn," cultural history was heavily influenced by postmodernism, cultural anthropology and literary criticism. It turned away from the social science approach of [[Social history]]. Important influences came from French cultural critic [[Michel Foucault]], American anthropologist [[Clifford Geertz]], British labor historian [[E. P. Thompson]] and American intellectual historians [[Hayden White]] and [[Dominick LaCapra]].

Critics complain its narrows historians to an exaggerated emphasis on race, class and gender, while slighting empirical archival research and losing sight of larger issues. Cultural history made huge inroads against social history in the 1980s and 1990s, but now has receded into a general background in historical studies, less controversial and less cutting edge than it was twenty years ago.<ref> On the linguistic turn see Gabrielle M. Spiegel, ed. ''Practicing History: New Directions in Historical Writing'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Practicing-History-Directions-Historical-Rewriting/dp/0415341086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209889975&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; Lynn Hunt, ed. ''The New Cultural History'' (1989)
</ref>

===Social===
*[[Social history]] includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life, history of social organization, and history of social movements and deliberate attempts to induce social change, whether from the top down or from the bottom up. It exploded on the scene in the 1960s, quickly becoming one of the dominant styles of historiography. The French version, promulgated by the [[Annales School]] influenced much of Europe and Latin America. It is the study of the lives of ordinary people. It was revolutionized in the 1960s by the introduction of sophisticated quantitative and demographic methods, often using individual data from the census and from local registers of births, marriages, deaths and taxes, as well as theoretical models from sociology such as social mobility. The '''New Social History''' emerged in the 1960s to dominate professional scholarship in the U.S.<ref> See Olivier Zunz, ed. ''Reliving the Past: The Worlds of Social History,'' (1985) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=958580 online edition]</ref> and and Canada.<ref> See Michael S. Cross, "Social History," [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0007523 ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008) online]</ref> see also [[Social History, U.S.]]. There is no society for social history, but the field is covered in the ''Journal of Social History'', edited since 1967 by Peter Stearns.<ref>See [http://chnm.gmu.edu/jsh/] </ref> It covers such topics as gender relations; race in American history;
the history of personal relationships; consumerism; sexuality; the social history of politics; crime and punishment, and history of the senses
**[[Demographic history]] is the study of population history and demographic processes, usually using census or similar statistical data. It became an important specialty inside social history, with strong connections with the larger field of demography. See [[Demography]], [[Life expectancy]], [[Demographic transition]], [[Fertility]], [[Mortality]]

[[Image:DEMOCRATIC.JPG|thumb|320px|Turner's frontier made for democracy]]

** See [[Frontier Thesis]], for Turner's theory of how the frontier shaped American values
**[[Ethnic history]] covers the history of American ethnic groups (usually not including blacks). The Immigration and Ethnic History Society was formed in 1976 and publishes a journal for libraries and its 829 members.<ref> See [http://www.historians.org/affiliates/immigration_ethnic_his_soc.htm Immigration and Ethnic History Society ]</ref>
***The American Conference for Irish Studies, founded in 1960, has 1,700 members and has occasional publications but no journal.<ref> See [http://www.acisweb.com/index.php American Conference for Irish Studies]</ref>
*** The American Italian Historical Association was founded in 1966 and has 400 members; it does not publish a journal <ref> See [http://www.aihaweb.org/ American Italian Historical Association ]</ref>
***The American Jewish Historical Society is the oldest ethnic society, founded in 1892; it has 3,300 members and publishes ''American Jewish History''<ref> See [http://www.ajhs.org American Jewish Historical Society] and [http://www.ajhs.org/academic/history.cfm journal]</ref>
*[[Labor history]], deals with labor unions and the social history of workers. See for example [[Labor Unions]]. The Study Group on International Labor and Working-Class History was established: 1971 and has a membership of 1000. It publishes ''International Labor and Working-Class History''.<ref> See [http://www.newschool.edu/gf/history/ilwch/ Study Group on International Labor and Working-Class History ]</ref>
** see Bryan D. Palmer and Todd McCallum, "Working-Class History" [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0008710 ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)]
**H-LABOR is a daily email-based discussion group formed in 1993 that reaches over a thousand scholars and advanced students.<ref> See [http://www.h-net.org/~labor/ H-LABOR website]</ref>
====Women, gender, family====
*[[Women's history]] exploded into prominence in the 1970s,<ref> See [http://www.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women.html American Women's History: A Research Guide]</ref> and is now well represented in every geographical topic; increasingly it includes gender history.<ref>see [http://www.amazon.com/Companion-Gender-History-Blackwell-Companions/dp/1405149604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203919125&sr=8-1 Teresa A. Meade and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, eds. ''A Companion to Gender History'' (2006)]</ref>
**[[Family history]] emerged as a separate field in the 1970s.<ref> see [http://jfh.sagepub.com/ ''Journal of Family History'', quarterly since 1976]</ref>
***see Neil Sutherland, "Childhood, History of," [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001579 ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)]
====Annales School of social history====
[[Annales School]], the French approach to [[Social history]], emphasizing geography, long durations, quantitative data and "mentalités"; focus is pre-1789; highly influential in Europe and Latin America

===Black history===
[[Black history]] or "African American history" studies blacks in the United States. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History was founded by Carter G, Woodson in 1915 and has 2500 members and publishes the ''Journal of African American History;'' since 1926 it has sponsored Black History Month every February.<ref> See [http://www.asalh.org/ ASALH]</ref>

The history of [[slavery]] has always been a major research topic for white scholars, but they generally focused on the political and constitutional themes until the 1950s, generally ignoring the black slaves themselves. During [[Reconstruction]] and the late 19th century, blacks became major actors in the South. The [[Dunning School]] of white scholars generally cast the blacks as pawns of white Carpetbaggers but [[W.E.B. Dubois]], a black historian, and [[Ulrich B. Phillips]], a white historian, studied the African-American experience in depth. Indeed, Phillips set the main topics of inquiry that still guide the analysis of slave economics.

In the black community, in the first half of the 20th century Carter G. Woodson was the major scholar studying and promoting the black historical experience. Woodson insisted that the study of African descendants be scholarly sound, creative, restorative, and, most important, directly relevant to the black community. He popularized black history with a variety of innovative strategies and vehicles, including Association for the Study of Negro Life outreach activities, Negro History Month (now [[Black History Month]], in February), and a popular black history magazine. Woodson democratized, legitimized, and popularized black history.<ref> Pero Gaglo Dagbovie, "Making Black History Practical and Popular: Carter G. Woodson, the Proto Black Studies Movement, and the Struggle for Black Liberation." ''Western Journal of Black Studies'' 2004 28(2): 372-383. Issn: 0197-4327 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

Benjamin Quarles (1904-96) and John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) provided a bridge between the work of historians in black schools such as Woodson, and the black history that is now well established in mainline universities. Quarles grew up in Boston, attended Shaw University as an undergraduate, and received a graduate degree at the University of Wisconsin. He began in 1953 teaching at a black college in Baltimore, followed by Brooklyn College and finally professorships at the elite University of Chicago and Duke University. Franklin was less a scholar than a symbol of the acceptance of black history in the academy.

Black history always sought out black agency--even slaves had a certain amount of control over their lives. The assumptions was that slaves were passive and did not rebel was debated in the 1950s and rejected. Many of the white scholars were former Communists or members of the far left, and they looked for violent rebellion. They found few such rebellions, but much unrest. Herbert Gutman and Leon Litwack showed that in reconstruction how former slaves fought to keep their families together and struggled against tremendous odds to define themselves as free people. [[Robert Fogel]], a former Communist who moved to the right, enraged the left when he used quantitative methods to show that the housing, food, clothing and living conditions of the slaves were reasonably favorable. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics for his work.

Today proponents of black history argue that it promotes diversity, develops self-esteem, and corrects myths and stereotypes. Opponents, including [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]] and [[Oscar Handlin]], complain that such curricula are dishonest, divisive, and lack academic credibility and rigor.<ref> Abul Pitre and Ruth Ray, "The Controversy Around Black History." ''Western Journal of Black Studies'' 2002 26(3): 149-154. Issn: 0197-4327 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Comparative===
[[Comparative history]] looks for similarities and differences between societies or civilizations; [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] made it fashionable in 1940s, but has been in decline ever since as historians prefer specialized research topics
===Political===
[[Political History]]: It is the study of political institutions, voter behavior, legislative behavior, leadership and practical politics. Since the 1980s much of political history in the U.S. has migrated to [[Political Science]].
**In 1929 English historian Lewis Namier, in ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (1929), revolutionized the field. He rejected the "Whig interpretation" that said a two-party rivalry of Whig and Tory, underpinned a constitutional monarchy in Britain, which had a modern cabinet system based on a party majority in the House of Commons. Namier, by looking at all the individual MP's, argues the king conducted his role within the limitations of authority permitted by the constitution, while the Whig historians claim that the king fomented turmoil against the constitution.<ref> Peter Thomas, "Reappraisals in History," ''Institute of Historical Research'' (2002) [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/reapp/lewis.html online edition]</ref>
===Diplomatic and military===
[[Diplomatic history]]: deals with international relations. Both historians and political scientists are involved.

[[Military History]]: The study of military practice and theory; wars and battles; technology; organization of armies, leadership and soldiers; also [[Naval History]]. Much of the field is handled by non-academics and amateurs, as military history has a marginal status in most research-oriented history departments. see [[Society for Military History]]
===Economic and business===
[[Economic History]]: Covers topics from agriculture, technology and business organization, and includes population studies and the reconstruction of economic indicators (like GDP). One important new branch is [[Business history]]. Since the 1970s much of economic history, as well as [[History of economic thought]], has migrated from history departments and journals to economics - while [[Marxism|Marxist]] interpretations of history are most often found in literature departments, not history departments.
** See Ian M. Drummond, "Economic History" [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0002512 ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)]
** See Duncan McDowall. "Business History," [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0001133 ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)]
====Rural and Agricultural history====
The "Agricultural History Society" was established in 1919 and has 1200 members who focus on the history of rural life, especially in the U.S.<ref> See [http://www.aghistorysociety.org/ Agricultural History Society'']</ref> Since 1926 its journal ''Agricultural History'' has been the journal of record which publishes articles on all aspects of the history of agriculture and rural life with no geographical or temporal limits.<ref> See [http://www.aghistorysociety.org/journal/index.html ''Agricultural History'']</ref>
===Science and technology===
[History of Ideas]] is a field founded in U.S. by [[Arthur Lovejoy]], dealing with the inner ("internalist") history of ideas. It contrasts with the [[intellectual history]] promoted by [[Merle Curti]] that stresses the links between ideas and external social and economic forces.<ref> Donald R. Kelley, "Intellectual History in a Global Age," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 66#2 (2005) 155-167 in [[Project Muse]]; Donald R. Kelley, ed.,''The History of Ideas: Canon and Variations'' (1990); Donald R. Kelley, ''The Descent of Ideas: A History of Intellectual History'' (2002). </ref>
*[[History of Science]] - History of scientific thought and technique.
**[[History of Medicine]] The American Association for the History of Medicine, founded in 1925 has 1,300 members, split between amateurs and professional scholars. It covers a worldwide range of topics and publishes ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine''. <ref>See [http://www.histmed.org American Association for the History of Medicine] and [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/bulletin_of_the_history_of_medicine/ ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'']</ref>
*[[History of Technology]]
**[http://echo.gmu.edu ECHO (Exploring and Collecting History Online), a portal to over 5,000 websites on history of science]
===Urban===
[[Urban history]], deals with cities, and became of importance in the 1970s
===Environment===
[[Environmental history]], began in the 1970s, like the modern environmental movement itself. It includes many long-term studies of climate and, especially, changes in the land caused by society.<ref> J. Donald Hughes, ''What is Environmental History'' (2006), [http://www.amazon.com/What-Environmental-History/dp/0745631886/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204302678&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]; J. Donald Hughes, '' An Environmental History of the World: Humankind's Changing Role in the Community of Life '' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-History-World-Humankinds-Environment/dp/0415136199/ref=pd_sim_b_img_4 excerpt and text search]</ref> The journal ''Environmental History''<ref> See [http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/EH/]</ref>, begun in 1996<ref> see [http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/EH/ehback.html]</ref>, is co-published by the Forest History Society, founded in 1946,<ref>See [http://www.foresthistory.org/index.html] </ref> and the American Society for Environmental History, founded in 1977.<ref> See [http://www.aseh.net/]</ref> The latest online bibliography includes 40,000 titles.<ref>See </ref>
===Religion===
'''Religious history''' covers the world's religions, and is split between academic history departments and theology schools. The American Society of Church History, founded in 1888, has 1600 members and publishes the journal ''Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture.''<ref> Issues since 1932 are in [[JSTOR]]. See [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm] and [http://www.churchhistory.org/churchhistory.html]</ref>
The American Catholic Historical Association, established in 1919 at a time when most Catholic historians were affiliated with Catholic colleges, has a membership of 1,015 and publishes the ''The Catholic Historical Review.''<ref> See [http://research.cua.edu/acha/]</ref> Most of the scholars belong to the church they study.

The [[American Academy of Religion]] formed in 1964.

Religious history, which had before appeared as just one feature of a wider cultural and social landscape, after 1990 became an autonomous subject with its own rules and transformations. This has brought great advances to its study: historians are less and less willing simply to convert religion into a epiphenomenon of other forces, social, political, economic, or cultural.<ref> see "Religion and the historical profession," in [http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/12/30/religion-and-the-historical-profession/ ''The Imminane Framce'' (Dec. 2009) online symposium]</ref>

===World===
[[World history]], a teaching field (rather than a research field), developed by historians of Asia and Latin America to provide a counterpoint to the "Western Civilization" emphasis that dominated history teaching after 1920. In interpretations of world history, the most influential scholars were [[Oswald Spengler]] in the 1920s, [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] in the 1950s, and William H. McNeill in the 1970s.<ref> See William H. McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History" (1994) [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/10/041.html online version]</ref>
===Local===
[[Local history]]. The American Association for State and Local History, established in 1940 has 5,997 members, and is based in state and local historical societies in the U.S.<ref>See [http://www.aaslh.org/] </ref>

*[[Antiquarianism]] uses historical data without the theoretical structure of historiography, to look at topics that happen to interest the amateur because of proximity, age and accumulated myth. It is not well regarded by academic historians, but finds a place in local historical societies and draws attention from the media.

==National debates==
Historians inside a nation often engage in extended debates about the nation's history, and how to teach it. In the case of teaching Japanese history in the schools of Japan, other countries (especially China and South Korea), have officially complained.
===Germany===

The Historikerstreit
<ref> see Jane Caplan, et al. "The Historikerstreit Twenty Years On." ''German History'' 2006 24(4): 587-607. Issn: 0266-3554 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>
===Netherlands===
The pioneering cultural historian [[Johan Huizinga]] (1872-1945), wrote ''The Waning of the Middle Ages'' (1919) and ''Homo Ludens" A Study of the Play Element in Culture'' (1935), which expanded the field of cultural history and foreshadowed the historical anthropology of younger historians of the [[Annales School]]. He was influenced by art history and advised historians to trace "patterns of culture" by studying "themes, figures, motifs, symbols, styles and sentiments."<ref> Peter Burke, Peter, "Historians and Their Times: Huizinga, Prophet of 'Blood and Roses.'" ''History Today'' 1986 36(Nov): 23-28. Issn: 0018-2753 Fulltext: [[EBSCO]]; William U. Bouwsma, "The ''Waning of the Middle Ages'' by Johan Huizinga." ''Daedalus'' 1974 103(1): 35-43. Issn: 0011-5266; R. L. Colie, "Johan Huizinga and the Task of Cultural History." ''American Historical Review'' 1964 69(3): 607-630 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1845780 in JSTOR]; Robert Anchor, "History and Play: Johan Huizinga and His Critics," ''History and Theory, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb., 1978), pp. 63-93 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2504901 in JSTOR] </ref>

[[Jan Romein]] (1893-1962) created a "theoretical history" in an attempt to reestablish the relevance of history to public life in the 1930s at a time of immense political uncertainty and cultural crisis, when, in Romein's view, history had become too inward-looking and isolated from other disciplines. Romein, a Marxist, felt that history must contribute to social improvement. At the same time, influenced by the successes of theoretical physics and his study of [[Oswald Spengler]], [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], F. J. Teggart, and others, he spurred on the development of theoretical history in the Netherlands, to the point where it became a subject in its own right at the university level after the war.<ref> A. C. Otto, "Theorie En Praktijk in De Theoretische Geschiedenis Van Jan Romein" [Theory and Practice in the "Theoretical History" of Jan Romein]. ''Theoretische Geschiedenis'' 1994 21(3): 257-270. Issn: 0167-8310 </ref>

==Revisionism==
Revisionism is a reversal of opinion, and generally is used for historians who reverse the old "orthodox" or standard interpretation. The first "revisionist" debate came in the 1920s when a new group of historians rejected the thesis that Germany was "guilty" (primarily responsible) for causing the Great War, a proposition that was included in the [[Treaty of Versailles]].<ref> See Samuel R. Williamson Jr. and Ernest R. May, "An Identity of Opinion: Historians and July 1914," ''Journal of Modern History'' (2007) Volume 79, Number 2, 335-87 </ref>
===Whig Interpretation===
The [[Whig Interpretation of History]] refers to histories that are too present-oriented when dealing with the past. Whig historians saw British history as the inevitable unfolding of progress, especially liberty and parliamentary rule, with the inexorable defeat of Toryism and absolute monarchy. 20th century downplay the Whig approach and drop the notion of inevitable progress. They now warn against looking at the past as a simple pathway to the present, insisting there were always multiple contingencies along the way.<ref>Herbert Butterfield, ''The Whig interpretation of history'' (1931)[http://books.google.com/books?id=Ia6IpQKrx58C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false excerpts]</ref>

Histories of science often take the Whiggish approach, ignoring the dead ends and focusing on the steps that led to the present.

==Meta questions? ==
Does history repeat itself in cycles? Are there long-term patterns? Are there patterns that cover the rise and fall of entire civilizations? Are there lessons to be learned. Historians often claim that the study of political, military and business history teaches valuable lessons with regard to past successes and failures of leaders, military strategy and tactics, and business success and failure.

The use of history to study the rise and fall of nation-states or civilizations, in the style of [[Edward Gibbon]] (1737-1794), [[Oswald Spengler]] (1880-1936), Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968), or [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] (1889-1975), has fallen out of fashion, as most no longer have faith that such a project is possible. However William H. McNeill (1917- ), a Toynbee student, has tried his hand at it, and [[World history]] is in fashion.
==Postmodernism==
Since the 1970s the [[postmodern]] sensibility has appeared in historiography, especially in pulling most (but not all) historians away from "big" questions and grand themes, and focusing them on small topics that are approached from many directions, often with ambiguous results.
===Popular aphorisms===
Spanish philosopher [[George Santayana]] commented, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Many historians have echoed the line. The German philosopher of history [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] remarked that "What history and experience teach us is this: that people and government never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it." Hegel was paraphrased by [[Winston Churchill]], who said "The one thing we have learned from history is that we don't learn from history." Ortega Y Gasset (1883-1955), Spanish philosopher said, "We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to escape from it." The aphorisms are entertaining and are often given out to popular audiences, but scholars pay no attention to them.

==Further reading==
For a detailed guide see [[History/Bibliography]]

* Arnold, John H. ''History: A Very Short Introduction'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/019285352X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208378482&sr=8-7 excerpt and text search]
* Bass, Herbert J. ''The State of American History'' (1970), essays by scholars [http://www.questia.com/read/28078091?title=The%20State%20of%20American%20History excerpt and text search]
* Bentley, Michael. ''Modern Historiography: An Introduction.'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108204588 online edition]
* Burrow, John. ''A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century'' (2008), 544 pp; covers Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius, through Gibbon, Macaulay, Michelet, Prescott and Parkman to Butterfield, Trevelyan and Toynbee. ISBN 978-0-375-41311-7 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0375413111/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Cantor, Norman F. ''Inventing the Middle Ages.'' (1993)
* Carr, E. H. ''What Is History'' (1961), a famous interpretation of historiography.
* Fischer, David H. ''Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought'' (1970) 368pp; influential and entertaining guide by a leading scholar [http://www.amazon.com/Historians-Fallacies-Toward-Historical-Thought/dp/0061315451/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1 excerpt and text search]
* Foner, Eric. ed. ''New American History'' (1997)
* Gilderhus, Mark. ''History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction'' (6th ed. 2006), 160 pp, textbook
* Howell, Martha C., and Walter Prevenier. ''From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods'' (2001), 207pp [http://www.amazon.com/Reliable-Sources-Introduction-Historical-Methods/dp/0801485606/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3 excerpt and text search]
* Iggers, Georg G. ''Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Historiography-Twentieth-Century-Scientific-Objectivity/dp/0819567663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198041017&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Kelley, Donald R. ''Frontiers of History: Historical Inquiry in the Twentieth Century'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Frontiers-History-Historical-Inquiry-Twentieth/dp/0300120621/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209904366&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Ritter, Harry. ''Dictionary of Concepts in History'' (1986) [http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Concepts-Reference-Sciences-Humanities/dp/0313227004/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197753622&sr=8-4 excerpt and text search]
* Spiegel, Gabrielle M. ''The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography'' 1999) [http://www.amazon.com/Past-Text-Practice-Historiography-Re-visions/dp/0801862590/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209889975&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Spiegel, Gabrielle M. ed. ''Practicing History: New Directions in Historical Writing'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Practicing-History-Directions-Historical-Rewriting/dp/0415341086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209889975&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Stokes, Melvyn. ''The State of U.S. History'' (2002) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102287734 online edition]
* Storey, William Kelleher. ''History: A Guide for Students'' (2nd ed 2003), 128pp [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195166094/ref=pd_cp_b_1?pf_rd_p=317711001&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0801485606&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=14YNGGE7TKBNHRS45T67 excerpt and text search]
* Thompson, James Westfall, and Bernard J. Holm; ''A History of Historical Writing'' (1942) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9276002 vol 1: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Seventeenth Century online edition] [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=58613485 vol 2: 18th and 19th centuries online edition]; detailed discussion of the work of major historians
* Wish, Harvey. ''The American Historian: A Social-intellectual History of the Writing of the American Past,'' (1960) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98866105 online edition]

====references====
<references/>
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Historians]]
[[category:Asian History]]

Homeschooling

2011-08-21T15:29:42Z

CeLa:

[[Image:Homeschool.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A young homeschooled student]]
'''Homeschooling''' consists of the practice of students receiving education from a parent or guardian, or instructors acting under the direction of a parent or guardian, rather than from teachers in a formal school setting like a [[public school]]. Virtually every area of the United States has local support groups for homeschooling, which often meet in church facilities. Nearly 7% of college-educated parents homeschool their children.<ref>http://www.sagus.us/blog/blog_details.asp?ID=18&p=7&s=7&s2=7</ref>

Homeschooling has grown by almost 75% in the last 8 years<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/09/educating-children-evolution-home-schooling</ref> and in a recent survey "the average homeschooled student scored at the 88th percentile" in the core subjects of reading, language and math.<ref>http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/washingtontimes/200908100.asp</ref> The most successful [[mathematician]] in contests in history, Reid Barton, was [[homeschooled]].<ref>http://www.amstat.org/PUBLICATIONS/amsn/index.cfm?fuseaction=highlights0812001</ref> The top college football player and the first to win the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, [[Tim Tebow]], was homeschooled until college.<ref>http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/783999/heisman_trophy_winner_tim_tebow_puts.html</ref> A Wimbledon tennis star, Melanie Oudin, chose homeschooling beginning in 7th grade: "With how much I improved in the first year at home, I knew it was the right choice."<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/kevin_armstrong/08/13/melanie.oudin/index.html#ixzz0VSMpJSxF (her twin sister remained in public school)</ref>

In the [[United States]], an estimated one to two million students are homeschooled, or nearly one out of every 30 students.<ref name="USA Today">http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-04-homeschooling_N.htm</ref> Homeschooled students make up many of the top college and graduate students in mathematics today.<ref>For example, Princeton University math prodigy Arie Israel "never attended a regular school. His parents home schooled both him and his older sister, Rachel, allowing them to work at their own pace and discover their own interests. His dad, Benjamin, a computer programmer, helped him with math and science, while his mom, Rebekah, taught him English and history." [http://weblog.science.fau.edu/info/images/israel.html]</ref>

Homeschooling, like being self-employed, requires more self-discipline and greater initiative. Many parents understandably give up or burn out after homeschooling for years, just as many people who try to be self-employed do also. Without a rigid schedule and structure to the day, there are constant distractions and excuses to making the same effort that one makes when told to do something. Initiative is required for homeschooled teenagers to meet other homeschooled teenagers, for example, and many return to [[public school]] in the absence of that effort.

Homeschooling [[parent]]s oversee their children's education, usually providing some of the instruction themselves. In addition, homeschooling enables them to mix-and-match other instructional approaches, including:
* attending a weekly course provided in many communities by the homeschooling community
* using a correspondence school (or the modern video- or [[computer]]-based equivalent)
* taking classes at local museums or nature centers
* joining with other [[family|families]] to share teaching responsibilities in a co-op
* encouraging the student to self-instruct using library books, traditional textbooks or workbooks, knowledgeable mentor's and/or hands-on experiences
* hiring a tutor for certain difficult topics, like [[physics]]
* attending a brick and mortar institution for certain classes and taking other classes at home

Homeschoolers often include local "after school" enrichment programs like scouts, 4-H, sports, [[music]] lessons, karate or dance classes, public library programs, and summer camps as part of their educational program. Some areas have extracurricular clubs and activities specifically for homeschoolers, some allow homeschoolers to participate in local [[public school]]'s after school activities, and some homeschoolers participate in extracurricular activities independently from their schooling through private organizations. In 2003, "76 percent of homeschool graduates surveyed between the ages of 18 to 24 voted within the last five years, compared to only 29 percent of the corresponding U.S. population."<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35226</ref>

==Homeschooling Statistics==

In the [[United States]], homeschooling includes an estimated that 1.1 million students - about 2.9% of children in grade K-12 - as of 2007. "The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003."<ref name="USA Today"/><ref>[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/estimated.asp] Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 Statistical Analysis Report, National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES 2006-042, Feb 2006.

A 2005 estimate from the [[National Home Education Research Institute]] places the number between 1.9 million and 2.4 million while the [[National Center for Education Statistics]] estimates that the number of students being homeschooled increased by 29% from 1999 to 2003. Christian Examiner, Sept. 2007, Vol 25, No 9, Pg 1</ref>

Families who homeschool their children do so for a number of reasons. A 2001 study by the [[US Census Bureau]] found that the single largest reason that parents homeschool is that they feel they can give their children a better education at home. This accounted for 50% of the homeschooling families; [[religion|religious]] reasons came in second at 33%.<ref>Home Schooling in the United States: Trends and Characteristics, by Kurt J. Bauman, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, August 2001, Working Paper Series No. 53 [http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0053.html]</ref> Other frequently mentioned reasons include dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools, the ability to provide religious or moral instruction along with academics, the ability to control what the child is being taught, flexibility in meeting the needs of a child with special needs (such as a physical or mental health problem, a temporary illness or giftedness), flexibility in scheduling family life, and concern about safety, drugs, and peer pressure at other schools.<ref>Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 Statistical Analysis Report, National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES 2006-042, Feb 2006>[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/TableDisplay.asp?TablePath=TablesHTML/table_4.asp]</ref>

Admissions departments at major [[college]]s are now familiar and comfortable with homeschooling, according to a 2004 Boston Globe article. The article quotes a [[Liberal Arts college|Williams College]] admission officer as saying: <blockquote>"We read homeschoolers' applications just like any other application. They don't get any special consideration, but they're not discriminated against, either. Their applications are interesting, and they've certainly done independent work their whole lives."</blockquote> It notes that the acceptance rate of homeschoolers at Williams is 20 percent,<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/03/21/schoolhouse_rocked?mode=PF Schoolhouse rocked] "home schooling has gone main stream, especially in Massachusetts. It's estimated that as many as 20,000 children here have abandoned test-crazy public schools and high-priced private schools for the comfort of the living room couch. But most surprising of all is that Harvard, BU, Brown, and other colleges are welcoming homeschoolers like all other students." Source for Williams College admission officer's quote, 20% figure.</ref> virtually identical to its overall acceptance rate.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-02-collegerates_x.htm College acceptance rates]: Williams, 19.2%. U. S. News and World Report</ref>

In the [[United States]], some states permit homeschooled students to participate in [[extracurricular activities]] at their local public schools.

The states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming in one way or another expressly allow equal access. In most other states, participation is worked out on a case-by-case basis. <ref>HSLDA: State Laws Concerning Participation of Homeschool Students in Public School Activities [http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000048.asp]</ref> In addition, some states, such as Alabama, are considering equal access legislation. <ref>HSLDA: Alabama - Legislation for Participation in Public School Activities[http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/al/200705010.asp]</ref> In New Jersey, school athletic associations dominated by public schools exclude homeschoolers from participation in athletics, even though they allow students at different charter schools to participate.<ref>[[New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association]]</ref>

===Academic level===
Many studies over the last few years have established the academic excellence of homeschooled children.<ref>[http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp Academic Statistics on Homeschooling]</ref> Most recently, the average ACT (American College Testing) score of homeschooled students in 2009 was higher than the national average.<ref>http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090827/avg-act-score-of-homeschoolers-beats-nat-l-avg/index.html</ref> ACT-tested graduates reporting themselves as home-schooled numbered 4,593 in 2000, a 41-percent increase. Home-schooled students achieved a composite average of 22.8, 0.1 points higher than in 1999.<ref>http://www.act.org/news/releases/2000/08-17-00.html</ref> An extensive 2009 nationwide study conducted by Dr. Brian D. Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute,<ref>''Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics''</ref> found that homeschoolers scored 34-39 percentile points higher than the norm on standardized achievement tests. The new study was described as “the most comprehensive study of homeschool academic achievement ever completed,” in which Ray surveyed 11,739 homeschooled students from all 50 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and drew from 15 independent testing services. Demographically, 82.4 percent of homeschooling parents identified themselves as Protestant Christian, 12.4 Roman Catholic, 1.1 percent atheist/agnostic, 0.8 percent Mormon, 0.4 percent Jewish, 0.2 percent Eastern Orthodox Christian, and 0.1 percent Muslim. Neither the income or educational level of parents appreciably affected the results.<ref>[http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090811/study-homeschoolers-scoring-well-above-public-school-peers/index.html Aaron J. Leichman, Christian Post Reporter, ''Study: Homeschoolers Scoring 'Well Above' Public School Peers'''] (Tue, Aug. 11 2009 09:26 AM)</ref>

==Reasons for Homeschooling==
Reasons for '''homeschooling''' include:<ref>For 57 unique benefits of homeschooling, see [http://capitolhillcoffeehouse.com/more.php?id=5239_0_1_0_M].</ref>

*Seeking a higher academic level, and avoiding violence, intimidation, invasions of privacy (e.g., searches) and other hostile aspects of the [[public school culture]].<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/RevealingStatistics.html#Sec13 ''Revealing Statistics: Education and Media'']</ref><ref>As an example of the violent culture at [[public school]], "parents said there have been violent incidents, mostly fistfights, at the high school every day this week. 'My daughter is terrified,' said Elizabeth Sabalu, whose daughter is a junior. 'She doesn't want to come to school any more.'" [http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/877459,CST-NWS-skul04.article]</ref><ref>"Nationally, about 160,000 [[student]]s miss [[Public schools|school]] daily because they [[fear]] being [[Bully|bullied]]," and in [[Hawaii]] students viciously fight each other and post videos of it on [[YouTube|Youtube.com]]. One victim is now "being [[homeschooled]] at state expense."[http://starbulletin.com/2008/05/18/news/story01.html]</ref>
*Freedom from a culture of depression and [[Liberal_bias_in_academia|liberal]] and/or [[atheistic]] bias found in public and many private schools.<ref>http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol3/iss1/art2</ref><ref>http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/17963/liberal_bias_in_our_schools.html</ref><ref>http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/04/conservatives-underrepresented-in.html</ref>
* A more flexible daily schedule, ability to take vacations and travel during the school year, less commuting, and a healthier diet.<ref>Obesity in [[public school]] students from junk food appears worse than in [[homeschooled]] students.</ref>
* Avoiding the frequent illnesses, unhealthy obesity, and fatigue that result from the daily routine of [[public schools]]
* Avoiding conflicts with [[public school]] officials.
* More time spent by parents with their children in formative years.
* Avoiding objectionable [[vaccines]], "mental health" screening, and questionnaires.
* Avoiding competition between genders, including public school [[feminists]] favoring girls over boys.<ref>Nicola Pearson ''Don't teach boys to be like girls'' Times Newspapers (July 8, 2008)</ref><ref>Holly Robinson, ''Teachers Don't Like Boys, Mom'' huffingtonpost.com (June 17, 2009)</ref>
* Developing the discipline to be self-employed as an adult, and to work at home.
* Creating an environment in which students are less likely to pick up life-long unhealthy habits from peers, like [[drug addiction|drug abuse]], [[tobacco addiction|smoking]], [[sex addiction]], [[pornography]], or [[alcohol addiction|alcohol]].
* Having the time and availability to learn a trade or profession as an apprentice, as has been done throughout history.
* Homeschooling is often an essential approach to achieve the very best in many fields, from [[mathematics]] to [[music]] to certain sports.<ref>For example, [[Jordin Sparks]] (b. 1989) became youngest winner of the music talent competition "[[American Idol]]" after she left [[public school]] for homeschooling to concentrate on her singing.[http://www.pr-inside.com/singer-jordin-sparks-12-400-video-newest-r592857.htm]</ref>
* Be part of a community that has a much higher percentage of adopted children than formal school; the homeschooling community has a refreshing culture of life.
* Avoiding being subjected to [[homosexual agenda|homosexual]] indoctrination.
* Avoiding political indoctrination.
* Homeschoolers are seen to develop independent thinking and self-reliance that help insulate them from techniques of mind control that afflict public school students and teachers<ref>This is most recently illustrated by techniques of mind control employed by the Obama campaign.[http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0089]</ref>

It should also be noted that stay at home moms, the most common teachers for homeschooling, reported having happier lives than their working counterparts.<ref>http://www.momlogic.com/2008/07/sahm_wahm_happiness_poll.php?icid=100214839x1204880052x1200231518#start</ref>

==Homeschooling worldwide==
A thriving homeschooling movement exists in Canada, and homeschooling also fares well in Australia and New Zealand. It is relatively new in South America, and reportedly faces strong government resistance in places such as Brazil. Homeschooling also faces significant challenges in many other counties. The governments in Shanghai and Beijing are largely opposed to homeschooling. In European countries it is sometimes more restricted than the United States, or illegal, such as in Germany. In Switzerland, many cantons still allow homeschooling, but not all. <ref>http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/Switzerland.htm</ref>Sweden recently passed legislation which is expected to ban all homeschooling, except for children with medical exemptions, or foreign workers with the appropriate work visas. <ref>Hilary White, ''Socialist Sweden Moves to Ban Homeschooling'', LifeSiteNews.com August 11, 2009 (August 11, 2009)</ref><ref>http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-europe</ref> Recently alarming in England is a June 11, 2009 report on home education by Graham Badman, former Managing Director of Children, Families and Education in the County of Kent, which would effect critical changes in regulation of homeschooling. The report, which was accepted in full by the British Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, uses the [[United Nations]] Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to militate against the educational rights of parents.<ref>http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200906161.asp</ref> An example of such possible restriction is seen in the United States, in which a New Hampshire Court ordered a thriving, 10 year old homeschooled Christian girl to attend public school, solely in order to expose her to "different points of view at a time in her life when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief and behavior."<ref>http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090829/homeschooled-girl-ordered-to-attend-public-school-over-her-rigid-faith/index.html</ref><ref>http://onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=659638</ref>

==History==

In the United States, opting out of [[public school]]s is not new. When [[Thomas Edison]]'s public school teacher said he was "addled," Edison's mother took him out of public school and taught him at home.

Education at public school year-round from about ages 6 to 18 became common only in the 20th century due to compulsory education laws. The first [[law]] requiring attendance at public school passed in [[Massachusetts]] in 1852; the second such law passed in [[Washington D.C.]] in 1864; and most states did not pass mandatory schooling laws until between 1870 and 1917.<ref>[http://www.ncsl.org/programs/educ/CompulsoryEd.htm Compulsory Education], National Conference of State Legislatures: "More than 150 years have passed since Horace Mann helped Massachusetts establish a statewide system of education that eventually led to the requirement that all children attend public school. In 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass compulsory school attendance laws, and by 1918, all states required children to receive an education."</ref><ref>http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kellmeyer/050428</ref>

But even under compulsory education laws in the late 1800s, the school year was only twelve to twenty weeks long. Very few stayed in school from ages 6 to 18. For example, by 1900, only 6% of Americans had graduated from a formal high school. Moreover, these students did not learn basic skills like reading in school; they learned those at home.<ref>''id.''</ref>

Baltimore's Calvert School began selling the school's curriculum to parents in 1905. Within five years, more than 300 children were enrolled in Calvert's correspondence courses. Over the next hundred years, Calvert served over 500,000 children from a wide variety of families nation-wide and around the world, including missionary families and those in remote locations.<ref>Calvert School Homeschooling: A Century of Tradition and Innovation [http://www.calvertschool.org/education-services/home-school-history/]</ref>

The homeschooling ''movement'' began in the 1960s from very different ideological sources. [[Seventh-Day Adventists]] Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore pioneered homeschooling as a result of their research into education and their concern about the harmful effects of schooling on students, particularly boys, between ages 5 and 15.<ref>http://www.moorefoundation.com/article.php?id=2</ref> On the other side of the political spectrum, John Holt wrote a book critical of schooling in 1964, entitled ''How Children Fail.'' Holt was "a left-winger who regarded schools as instruments of the bureaucratic-industrial complex."<ref>Micklethwait, John and Adrian Wooldridge, ''The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.'' Penguin, 2004. pp. 190-1</ref> More generally, millions of Americans were alarmed at the 1962 [[U. S. Supreme Court]] ruling which banned school-sponsored prayer in public schools, and many of those parents began to look for alternatives.

Truancy laws brought pioneering homeschoolers into conflict with local officials. The first [[New York Times]] story on "home schooling" appeared in 1974, and concerned two parents charged with "educational neglect" by the [[Westchester]] County Department of Social Services. Tests showed that they performed at or about grade level "except for one who is a little slow in reading," and the parents received strong support from a state senator.<ref>"Parents Accused in Home Schooling," ''The New York Times,'' July 28, 1974, p. 45</ref> By the mid-1980s the ''Times'' was running articles with titles like "Schooling in the Home: A Growing Alternative" and "There Are Benefits In Homeschooling," and states were legalizing homeschooling.<ref>Belluck, Pam (1998), "Life After Home Schooling," ''The New York Times,'' November 1, 1998, p. ED26: "Some 15 years after states began legalizing home schooling in earnest, these early graduates are starting to make their way in the world."</ref> A 1997 article said "It's not only [[Christian fundamentalists]] any more" and a 2003 article noted "Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home."

== Prominent people who were homeschooled ==




Throughout history, a remarkably high percentage of accomplished people were homeschooled, including many great [[mathematician]]s. Here is a growing list of such achievers:

*[[Ansel Adams]], (1902-1984), the finest landscape photographer of the twentieth century. "At twelve, unable to stand the confinement and tedium of the classroom, he utterly disrupted his lessons with wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers. His father decided that Ansel’s formal education was best ended. From that point forward, the boy was homeschooled in Greek, the English classics, algebra, and the glories of the ocean, inlets, and rocky beaches that surrounded their home very near San Francisco."<ref>http://wy.essortment.com/anseladamsbio_rjrq.htm</ref>

*[[John Adams]] (1735-1826), U.S. President. Learned to read at home, and was then taught in the kitchen by a neighbor with a handful of children. He matriculated to Harvard College at age 15.<ref>http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/notable.htm</ref>

*[[Louisa May Alcott]] (1832-1888), the author of ''Little Women'' and other great works, was taught by her father.<ref>http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/louisamayalcott.html</ref>

*[[Alexander the Great]] (356-323 B.C.), the greatest military leader of all time, was taught by his father and, as arranged by his father, by [[Aristotle]].<ref>http://history.boisestate.edu/WESTCIV/alexander/03.shtml</ref>

*[[Susan B. Anthony]], leading pro-life feminist and advocate of women's suffrage. Her father homeschooled her.<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*[[Julian Assange]], the founder of WikiLeaks. David Brooks wrote, "His mother didn't enroll him in the local schools because, as Raffi Khatchadourian wrote in a New Yorker profile, she feared 'that formal education would inculcate an unhealthy respect for authority.'" <ref>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10335/1107188-109.stm</ref>

*[[Jane Austen]] (1775-1817), one of the most popular novelists of the early 19th century, was school-educated for only a year, after which she was taught at home by her father, her brothers, and herself, using their large family library.

*[[Benjamin Banneker]] (1731-1806)) wrote the first almanac by a black man and helped survey [[Washington, D.C.]]. Banneker was taught to read and write by his grandmother in rural [[Maryland]]."<ref>http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Banneker.html</ref>

*[[Clara Barton]] (1821-1912), pioneering nurse during the [[Civil War]], founder of the [[American Red Cross]]. Barton was homeschooled, and at 15 started teaching school. She later attended the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York. <ref>White House Dream Team: Clara Barton[http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/dreamteam/clarabarton.html]</ref> <ref>Clara Harlowe Barton, Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" edited by Patricia L. Faust
[http://www.civilwarhome.com/bartonbio.htm]</ref>

*[[Alexander Graham Bell]] (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone. His deaf mother taught him to read and write, and he returned the favor by inventing the telephone to try to help her (and other deaf persons) communicate.

*[[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] (1906-1945), a [[Christian]] who spoke against [[Hitler]] and was martyred for doing so.

*Willard S. Boyle, the inventor of the CCD that is at "the heart of virtually every camcorder, digital camera and telescope" and is used in "every picture on the Internet, every digital and video camera, every computer scanner, copier machine and high-definition television," and for which he was awarded a shared [[Nobel Prize]] in Physics in 2009.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/science/space/10boyle.html?emc=eta1</ref>

*[[Mary Breckinridge]] (1881-1965), pioneering American midwife and founder of Kentucky's Frontier Nursing Service. Mary's father was a diplomat, and she was educated in America and abroad by private tutors.<ref>Frontier Nursing Service[http://www.frontiernursing.org/History/MaryBreckinridge.shtm] </ref>

*[[William Jennings Bryan]], [[Secretary of State]] under President [[Woodrow Wilson]] and before that was the founder of the modern [[Democratic Party]]. He was also the leading critic of the [[theory of evolution]] who prevailed in the [[Scopes Trial]] and was perhaps the greatest orator in [[American]] history. He was homeschooled until age 10 as his mother taught him to stand on table to recite his lessons.<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*[[William F. Buckley]], leading [[conservative]] intellectual. He was homeschooled by his parents and tutors.<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*[[Robert Burns]] (1759-1796) [[Scotland]]'s national poet.

*[[Andrew Carnegie]] (1835-1919), the brilliant American businessman and philanthropist of the late 1800s, his father was a poor weaver and Andrew dropped out of elementary school<ref>http://www.education-reform.net/dropouts.htm</ref> and had only five years of formal schooling.<ref>http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/carnegiemedal/background.html</ref>

*[[George Washington Carver]] (1864-1943) Botanical and agricultural researcher and educator. Born a slave, Carver "learned to read, write and spell at home because there were no schools for African Americans in" his area.<ref>http://lib.iastate.edu:9060/gwc/bio.html</ref> He did not attend school until age 12, when he went to a one-room schoolhouse in Missouri; he later graduated from Minneapolis High School in Kansas. Became the first black student at Simpson College in Iowa, transferred to Iowa Agricultural College in 1891. Earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and agriculture in 1897.<ref>MSN Encarta Encyclopedia - George Washington Carver article [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574196/Carver_George_Washington.html]</ref><ref>George Washington Carver, By Mary Bellis [http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa041897.htm]</ref>

*[[Augustin-Louis Cauchy]] (1789-1857), one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, was taught by his father during an 11-year retreat to the country to escape the [[French Revolution]]. His father "wrote his own textbooks, several of them in the fluent verse of which he was master. Verse, he believed, made grammar, history and, above all, morals less repulsive to the juvenile mind."<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics," 273 (1937).</ref><ref>http://james.fabpedigree.com/mathmen.htm#Cauchy</ref>

*[[Pafnuty Chebyshev]] (1821-1894), one of the greatest Russian [[mathematician]]s, was homeschooled until college.<ref>http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Chebyshev.html</ref>

*[[Agatha Christie]] (1890-1976), best-selling English mystery writer. Christie was homeschooled by her mother, who encouraged her to write from a very early age. At sixteen she was sent to finishing school in Paris. <ref>PBS Mystery Series "Miss Marple" site: Biography of Agatha Christie[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/marple/christie.html]</ref>

*[[Winston Churchill]] (1874–1965), [[British]] statesman. It was at home that he was taught how to read, write and do math, and was not enrolled in a school until several months into the school year at the age of seven. After only about two years at that school, he was abruptly pulled out and then spent several years under the instruction of two maiden sisters in a less formal school setting.<ref>William Manchester, "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, VISIONS OF GLORY 1874-1932 (Little Brown & Co.).</ref>

*[[Charles Dickens]], prolific [[English]] author who could not afford school. His "passions for reading were awakened by his mother," who homeschooled him with a curriculum that included English and Latin.<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*James B. Eads, the greatest river engineer ever; by age 13 he spent his "time reading in his library. So began Eads' education as an engineer. He tinkered with his own inventions at home, building a six-foot long model steamboat when he was in his early teens. And he was intrigued by the inventions of others."<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eads/peopleevents/p_jbeads.html</ref>

*[[Thomas Edison]] (1804–1896), the most prolific inventor in the history of the world and considered by many to be the most influential person of the last 1000 years.<ref>http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm</ref> His mother pulled him out of public school at age 7, after just a few months, and began homeschooling him by reading from the Bible.

*[[Paul Erdos]] (1913–1996), the most prolific [[mathematician]] of the 20th century, was taught at home until college.<ref>http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Erdos.html</ref>

*[[Pierre de Fermat]] (1601?-1665), the greatest [[mathematician]] of the 17th century and the founder of the modern theory of numbers, was homeschooled.<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics" 57 (1937)</ref>

*[[Benjamin Franklin]] (1706-1790), a leading [[Founding Father]] and prolific inventor and statesman, only attended part-time school from ages 8 to 10.<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/148 Benjamin Franklin, ''Autobiography.'']</ref>

*[[Robert Frost]], the leading [[American]] poet of the 20th century and winner of the [[Pulitzer Prize]]. He "disliked school so much he became physically ill; what schoolwork he did was done at home until he passed the entrance exams and entered high school."<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*[[Evariste Galois]] (1811–1832), among the brightest mathematicians ever and the founder of Galois groups and fields and Galois theory. "Until the age of twelve Galois had no teacher but his mother, Adelaide-Marie Demante."<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics," 362 (1937). Galois' life was tragically cut short at age 20 in a [[duel]], and his work was published posthumously.[scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/Galois.html]</ref>

*[[William Hamilton]] (1805-1865), the greatest Irish mathematician and biggest contributor since [[Isaac Newton]] of [[mathematics]] to [[physics]]. He was taught by his uncle, the Reverend James Hamilton.<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics," 340-41 (1937).</ref>

*[[Matthew Henry]] (1662-1714), "nonconformist" Presbyterian minister in England, and author of ''Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible'', perhaps the most esteemed devotional commentary of all time. Under State persecution, Henry was homeschooled by his father, and for a time by a tutor, before moving on to a Christian school in 1680.

*Zac, Taylor, and Isaac Hanson, of the band [[Hanson]]. Educated at home by their mother, and later by a tutor. <ref>Hanson: The All American Boys[http://www.drdrew.com/DrewLive/article.asp?id=1112]</ref><ref>Hangin With Presents
Hanson[http://www.agirlsworld.com/rachel/hangin-with/hanson.html]</ref>

*Jaime Herrera. She was recently elected to the U.S. Congress.<ref>http://www.earnedmedia.org/toshm1203.htm</ref>

*[[Fred Hoyle]] (1915-2001), the greatest British physicist of the 20th century, received a "homespun" education in which he sneaked away from his school for 60% of the time between ages 5 and 9.<ref>"My earliest research work was in truancy from school, in which I was successful enough to whittle down the time I spent mewed up in classrooms to something like forty percent of what it was supposed to be between the ages of five and nine." Fred Hoyle, ''Mathematics of Evolution'' at p. 1 (Acorn Enterprises 1999). Note, however, that Hoyle's parents were also apparently unaware of his [[truancy]].</ref>

*[[Julia Ward Howe]] (1819–1910), abolitionist, writer, and women's rights activist. Julia was educated by tutors at home and in girls' schools until age 16. <ref>Open Connections Program, Women Working 1800-1930, Harvard University Library: Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)[http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_howe.html]</ref>

*[[Carl Jacobi]] (1804-1851), a prominent and prolific German mathematician, was taught at home until the age of 12 and was taught the classics and [[mathematics]] by a maternal uncle.<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics," 327 (1937).</ref>

*[[Joan of Arc]] (1412-1431), one of the greatest military leaders ever. Taught domestic skills and religion by her mother. <ref>"As a child she was taught domestic skills as well as her religion by her mother. ... It was my mother alone who taught me the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' and the 'Creed;' and from none other was I taught my faith."[http://www.stjoan-center.com/#bio A Short Biography of Saint Joan of Arc][http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm New Advent - Catholic Encyclopedia - St. Joan of Arc][http://joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_biography.html Biography of Joan of Arc]</ref>

*[[John the Apostle]] (c. A.D. 20-100), the author of the [[Gospel of John]], considered by many to be the greatest written work ever. He also wrote several other books in the [[New Testament]]. His parents placed him, most likely as a child, under the homeschool-like teaching of [[Jesus]] rather than a more traditional school setting.<ref>In an approach common among homeschoolers, John's parents placed ''both'' their sons under the homeschool-like teaching of Jesus.</ref> John became the first to develop [[Christian]] [[faith]] and his work has since spread Christianity to billions.<ref>For growing evidence that John was a child, see [[Mystery:Was John a Child?]].</ref>

*[[C.S. Lewis]] (1898-1963), the author of the ''Chronicles of Narnia'' and other famous works, was taught at home by his mother and a governess until age 10, and later sent to be taught by a tutor to prepare him for [[Oxford]].<ref>'''Lewis, C. S.''', ''Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life'', London: Harvest Books (1955) ISBN 0-1568-7011-8</ref>

*[[Abraham Lincoln]] (1809-1865), American president. "Though his [formal] education was limited to a few months in a 1-teacher school, Lincoln avidly read books such as the Bible, ''Pilgrim's Progress'' and Weemss ''Life of Washington''."<ref>http://www.civilwarhome.com/lincolnbio.htm</ref>

*Countess Augusta [[Ada Lovelace]] (1815-1852), a visionary programmer and namesake of the [[ADA]] programming language, was homeschooled by governesses and tutors hired by her mother.

*General [[Douglas MacArthur]], the leading [[American]] general of the 20th century, both in [[World War II]] against [[Japan]] and in the [[Korean War]]. His mother homeschooled him until the age of 13, at which point he attended West Texas Military Academy.

*[[Marcus Aurelius]], Stoic philosopher and last of the "five good Emperors" of Rome. In his Meditations, he says that he learned from his "great-grandfather, not to have frequented public schools, and to have had good teachers at home, and to know that on such things a man should spend liberally."

*[[Benoit Mandelbrot]], a [[Yale]] mathematics professor known as the "father of fractals" and the person who coined the term,<ref>http://www.creativitysoftware.com/fractals-images/pages-hs/mandelbrot.htm</ref> received no extended formal schooling and was taught at home by his uncle beginning at the age of 12.<ref>http://www.fractalwisdom.com/FractalWisdom/fractal.html</ref>

*[[Mark]], also known as John Mark, the author of the earliest [[Gospel]] who learned by tagging along with his mother, who was a follower of [[Jesus]]; Mark witnessed the teachings and [[Passion]] at an age of perhaps only 10 years old.

*[[Yehudi Menuhin]] (1916-1999), noted violinist and conductor, never attended school, and was taught Mathematics, History and Hebrew by his father, and French, German, Italian and Spanish by his mother.<ref>Slater, Elinor and Slater, Robert ''Great Jewish Men'' (Jonathon David Publishers; 1996) ISBN 0-8246-0381-8</ref>

*[[John Stuart Mill]] (1806-1873), influential 19th century political and economic philosopher, was home-schooled by his father, James Mill. He learned Greek at age 3, Latin at age 8, studied economics, history, science, etc. before age 10.

*[[James Monroe]] (1758-1831), highly successful U.S. President, homeschooled until age 11.<ref>http://www.presidentialavenue.com/jam.cfm</ref>

*[[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] (1756-1791), German composer. "He was educated by his father, Leopold Mozart, a violinist of high repute in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg."<ref>[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]</ref>

*[[Isaac Newton]] (1643-1727), considered the greatest physicist of all time. He was homeschooled until age ten, and then was an underachiever at school until he lodged with the headmaster.<ref>http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Newton.html</ref>

* [[Christopher Paolini]] (1983-), the author of the best-selling [[Inheritance Trilogy]] ([[Eragon]], [[Eldest]], and [[Brisingr]]). He was homeschooled by his parents, through an accredited correspondence course from the American School in Chicago, Illinois, from which he graduated with his high school diploma at 15 years of age. <ref>Book Browse Author Biography: Christopher Paolini[http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=934]</ref>

* [[Blaise Pascal]] (1623-1662), one of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers of all time, was homeschooled by his father.<ref>E.T. Bell, "Men of Mathematics," 74-76 (1937).</ref>

* [[George Patton]] (1885–1945), one of America's greatest generals. He was taught at home until age 11 based on his "father's theory of education" that "youthful mind should be led along a path that parallels the development of the mind of the race" by being read to by elders.<ref>http://www.pattonhq.com/unknown/chap01.html The Patton Society ("The Early Years")]</ref><ref>;http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=517</ref>

* [[Henri Poincaré]] (1854-1912), one of the greatest mathematicians ever and an original developer of the [[Theory of Relativity]]. Poincaré, who had diphtheria as a child, received special instruction from his gifted mother and excelled in written composition while still in elementary school. He entered the Lycée in Nancy (now renamed the Lycée Henri Poincaré in his honor), in 1862 and spent eleven years there. He entered the École Polytechnique in 1873, graduating in 1875. After graduating from the École Polytechnique, Poincaré continued his studies at the École des Mines. <ref>Jules Henri Poincaré[http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html]</ref>

* [[Alexander Pope]] (1688-1744), one of the greatest and most-often quoted [[English]] poets and essayists. "From Twyford School he was expelled after writing a satire on one of the teachers. At home, Pope's aunt taught him to read. Latin and Greek he learned from a local priest and later he acquired knowledge of French and Italian poetry."<ref>http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/apope.htm</ref>

*[[Ferdinand Porsche]] (1875-1951), designer of the [[German]] Porsche automobile. He was homeschooled and self-taught during his formative years,<ref>http://famousbrandnames.blogspot.com/2007/02/porsche.html</ref> which is ironic given that homeschooling is illegal in [[Germany]] today.

*[[Richard Dawkins]]

*[[Satan]]

* [[Eleanor H. Porter]] (1868-1920), author of the classic 1913 novel ''[[Pollyanna]]'' and its sequel ''Pollyanna Grows Up'', about an eternally optimistic missionary child who, by playing the "glad game", transforms an entire community. Porter, a Christian and a member of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]], was "educated in public schools during her childhood until illness caused her to turn to private tutors. She then attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts."<ref>Bestsellers,
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ''Pollyanna'' [http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/search.cgi?title=Pollyanna]</ref> <ref>Bestsellers,
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' [http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/search.cgi?title=Pollyanna+Grows+Up]</ref>

*[[Joseph Priestley]] (1733-1804), the father of modern chemistry and the discoverer of oxygen, dropped out of school as a teenager and privately learned geometry, algebra and numerous languages.<ref>Robert E. Schofield, ''The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley.''</ref>

*[[Bernhard Riemann]] (1826-1866), a German recognized as the greatest modern mathematician. He was taught at home by his father, a Lutheran minister, until he was ten. After that he was tutored by a teacher from a local school until he entered the Lyceum in Hannover at 14. <ref>School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland -- Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson[http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Riemann.html]</ref><ref>http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/199899/bioriema.htm</ref>

*[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (1882-1945), U.S. President. He was educated by private tutors at home through age 14, then entered Groton, an elite private school in Massachusetts, in 1896. <ref>The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. "Franklin D. Roosevelt." Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, et. al. (Hyde Park, New York: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, 2003).
[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/roosevelt-franklin.htm]</ref>

*[[Theodore Roosevelt]] (1858–1919), U.S. President. "Roosevelt never enrolled in a public school. He was mostly instructed by private tutors until he entered Harvard College in 1876."<ref>http://law.enotes.com/presidential-biography/theodore-roosevelt-administrations/education</ref>

*[[Erwin Schrodinger]] (1887-1961), was one of the developers of the theory of [[quantum mechanics]] in physics. "He was not sent to elementary school, but received lessons at home from a private tutor up to the age of ten ...."<ref>http://bdaugherty.tripod.com/berlin/schrodinger.html</ref>

*[[Adolf Hitler]]

*[[Joseph Smith]] (1805-1844), was a mayor, a lieutenant general, a political theorist, a city planner, and a religious organizer and the founder of the Mormon Church. He was deprived of a formal education but was mainly self taught and "instructed in reading, writing, and the ground rules of arithmetic.".<ref>History of Joseph Smith, Jr., by himself, in Joseph Smith's Letter Book at Kirtland, November 27, 1832 to August 4, 1835 (Church Historian's Library, Salt Lake City, Utah).</ref><ref>http://www.pbs.org/americanprophet/joseph-smith.html</ref> His mother said that he was often "given to meditation and deep study."<ref>History of the Prophet Joseph, Improvement Era, vol. 5, p. 257.</ref>

*[[George Bernard Shaw]] (1856-1950), author. Tutored in the classics by a clerical uncle until he entered school at age 10. Left school by age 15. <ref>Encyclopedia of World Biography on George Bernard Shaw[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/george-bernard-shaw/]</ref> <ref>Dictionary of Literary Biography on George Bernard Shaw[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/george-bernard-shaw-dlb/]</ref><ref>George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950 Biographical Sketch[http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/shaw.gb.bio.html]</ref>

*[[Mark Twain]] (real name was Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910), American author and satirist who said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Attended school through the 5th grade, where he "excelled only in spelling" and was frequently truant, then worked as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper. His mother said, "He was always a great boy for history, and could never get tired of that kind of reading; but he hadn't any use for schoolhouses and text books."<ref>The Mark Twain House and Museum: Biography of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain [http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml]</ref><ref>The Project Gutenberg E-Book of Mark Twain, by Archibald Henderson
[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/8/7/6873/6873.txt]</ref>

*[[Alexis de Tocqueville]], a Frenchman who came to America in 1831, when he was 25 years old, and wrote a two-volume definitive study of American culture entitled ''Democracy in America''.

*[[Leonardo da Vinci]] (1452–1519), Italian artist, inventor, and all-around "Renaissance man". Leonardo went to school in Vinci, where he learned to write, to read and to calculate, and was taught geometry and Latin. At 14, Leonardo moved to Florence where he began an apprenticeship in the workshop of Verrocchio. <ref>Leonardo da Vinci[http://www.kausal.com/leonardo/childhood.html]</ref>

*[[Laura Ingalls Wilder]], the author of the Little House on the Prairie.<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

*[[Andrew Wyeth]] (1917- ), American artist, was tutored at home until he was 18. <ref>The Homeschooling of Andrew Wyeth, A Conversation with the Artist, Gifted Children Monthly, May 1986, Vol 7 No. 5.[http://www.nfgcc.org/51.htm] </ref>

*[[Frank Lloyd Wright]] (1867-1959), considered the finest architect ever, was taught at home by his mother who dreamed that he would become an architect. She used "Froebel's geometric blocks to entertain and educate her son" as his father led the family among various Baptist churches, where he preached.<ref>http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/archs/wright/bio/index.html</ref> Wright then attended high school but dropped out of college.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0942394/bio</ref>

*[[Brigham Young]], first governor of Utah, the leader of the [[Mormon Church]], and founder of 200 towns and villages. He was homeschooled and had only "11 days of formal education."<ref>http://www.homeschoolutah.org/pages/pastandpresent.htm</ref>

In addition, a number of prominent people have chosen to homeschool their children. [[David Guterson]], author of the novel ''Snow Falling on Cedars'' (1994), which won the 1995 [[PEN/Faulkner Award]], also wrote ''Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense'' (1992), an account of his family's homeschooling journey.<ref>www.randomhouse.com: David Guterson [http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/snow/guterson.html]</ref> Actor and recording artist Will Smith and his wife actress Jada Pinkett Smith homeschool their children.<ref>Reader's Digest: Will Power: Will Smith is One Driven Guy[http://www.rd.com/content/will-smith-interview/1/]</ref> Michele Bachmann homeschooled her own children, but Minnesota authorities prohibited the homeschooling of foster children (Michele Bachmann also had 23 foster children).<ref>http://www.radioiowa.com/2011/03/23/three-prospective-gop-candidates-make-pitch-to-home-schoolers-audio/</ref> Roseanne Barr stated in an interview that she has started to homeschool her 11-year-old son.<ref>Reuters Interview - Roseanne Barr says age gives her a louder voice [http://in.news.yahoo.com/070322/137/6dlba.html]</ref> Kristin Maguire, head of the [[South Carolina]] board of education, which governs all its [[public schools]], homeschools all four of her children.<ref>http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/01/09/17stjour.h27.html</ref> Elizabeth Edwards, the late wife of the [[Democratic]] vice-presidential nominee (2004) and presidential candidate (2008) [[John Edwards]], homeschooled both of their youngest children.<ref>http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2007/11/elizabeth-edwar.html</ref> The wife of [[Glenn Beck]] homeschools their children.

Others were taught to read at home prior to any school. For example, [[Ronald Reagan]] was taught to read by his mother before attending school;<ref>http://americanhistory.about.com/od/ronaldreagan/p/preagan.htm</ref> the only African American man to win the Wimbledon tennis championship (in a stunning upset that relied on a brilliant strategy), Arthur Ashe, was nicknamed the "genius" and had been taught to read by his mother at age 5.

==See Also==
*[[People Who Arguably Were Homeschooled]]
*[[Homeschooled celebrities]]
*[[List of homeschool curriculums]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Homeschooling|Articles about '''Homeschooling''' from previous "In the news"]]
*[[Homeschool Legal Defense Association]]
*[[Homeschooling in England and Wales]]

===External links===
*[http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/view/rc/s31p54.htm Christian Children Must Have More Than A Fighting Chance] - Four reasons to homeschool your children, by [[Art Robinson]]
*[http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/famoushomeschoolers.htm] - List of homeschooled achievers.
*[http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-294.html Isabel Lyman, ''Homeschooling: Back to the Future?''] The Cato Institute (January 7, 1998)
*[http://www.homeschoolcentral.com/ Homeschool Central - Free Online Resources for Homeschooling]
*[http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/autism.htm] Homeschooling for Autistic Children

===Further reading===
* Gaither, Milton. ''Homeschool: An American History'' (2008) 273 pp. The standard scholarly history

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Homeschooling|*]]

Finland

2011-08-21T15:29:23Z

CeLa:

{{Country
|name =''Suomi'' ''Finland''
|map =Finland rel96.jpg
|map2 =Finland location.png
|flag =Flag of Finland.png
|arms =Arms of Finland.png
|capital =Helsinki
|capital-raw =
|government =Parliamentary Democracy
|government-raw =
|language =Finnish, Swedish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Tarja Halonen
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Mari Kiviniemi
|pm-raw =
|area =130,558 sq mi
|pop =5,296,128 (2007)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$193.491 billion (2005)
|gdp-pc =$40,197 (2005)
|currency =goat testicles
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''Republic of Finland''' (''Suomi'' or ''Suomen tasavalta'' in Finnish, ''Republiken Finland'' in Swedish) is a country of northern [[Europe]] known for its largely [[social democracy|social democratic]] economic system. The Finnish [[conservative]] party, the [[National Coalition]] led by [[Jyrki Katainen]], is its principal conservative organization.

The state capital is [[Helsinki]] and the principal exports are machines, electronics (for example cellphones) and forestry products. [[Finnish]] is the principal language spoken, a [[Finno-Ugric]] language. Like many nations that do international business, or have a strong tourist trade, many Finns speak English to facilitate communication with other countries. The second official language is Swedish, which has the same status as Finnish in the country. Finland is known as "the land of lakes".

==Geography==
[[File:Mantyluoto, Pori, Finland..jpg|thumb|left|Mäntyluoto, Pori.]]
The area of Finland is approximately 338 000 square kilometers, with a north-south axis of 890 kilometers. Most of the landscape is covered with lakes and forests. Finland is often called the "Land of Thousands of Lakes", which is true, because the number of lakes in the country exceeds 188 000, of which about 56 000 have an area of one hectare or more. In the sea there are more than 3 000 islands. Cultivated land and habitation only account for 17% of the land area, rest being mainly [[Norway spruce]] forests.

Finland is bound by [[Sweden]] in the Northwest, [[Norway]] in the North, [[Russia]] in the East, the [[Gulf of Finland]] in the South and the [[Gulf of Bothnia]] in the West.

==People==
*Population (September 2007): 5.29 million.
*Population growth rate (2006): 0.4%.
*Ethnic groups: Finns, Swedes, Lapps, Sami, Roma, Tatars.
*Religions: Lutheran 82.5%, Orthodox 1.1%.
*Languages: Finnish 91.5%, Swedish 5.5% (both official); small Lapp- (0.03%) and Russian-speaking (0.8%) minorities.
*Education: Years compulsory--9. Attendance--almost 100%. Literacy--almost 100%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate--2.8/1,000 (2006). Life expectancy--males 75.8 yrs., females 82.8 yrs.
*Work force (2.65 million; of which 2.44 million are employed): Public services--32.8%; industry--19%; commerce--15.6%; finance, insurance, and business services--13.8%; agriculture and forestry--4.7%; transport and communications--7.4%; construction--6.7%.

===Culture===

[[File:Yyteri beach during Yyteri Beachfutis Finland.jpg|thumb|left|280px|Yyteri beach during Yyteri Beachfutis.]]
Finnish people (Finns) are known for their love of nature. Nature is prominent in the works of Finnish artists, such as [[Jean Sibelius]], [[Aki Kaurismäki]], [[Alvar Aalto]].

The great masters of Finnish literature include [[Mika Waltari]], [[Väinö Linna]], [[Johan Ludvig Runeberg]]. Finland is a bi-lingual country and has produced its literary heritage in both Finnish and Swedish. The beloved Moomintrolls were created by the writer and graphic artist Tove Jansson.

Another important facet of traditional Finnish culture is the love of the Finnish [[sauna]].

Northern Finland is home to a culture called the [[Sami people]], or [[Laplanders]], which are known for wearing red clothing and herding reindeer. Santa Claus is based on this culture.

They are considered a high context culture.
<div style="font-size: 80%">
{|class="wikitable" align=right border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 10pt; margin-right: 1pt"
!colspan=4|Population of Finland, 1750–2000<ref>{{cite book | last=Aunesluoma | first=Juhana | coauthors=Heikkonen, Esko; Ojakoski, Matti | title=Lukiolaisen yhteiskuntatieto | language=Finnish | publisher=SanomaWSOY|WSOY | date=2006}}</ref>
|-
!Year!!Population!!Year!!Population
|-
||1750||align=right|421,000||1880||align=right|2,060,800
|-
||1760||align=right|491,000||1890||align=right|2,380,100
|-
||1770||align=right|561,000||1900||align=right|2,655,900
|-
||1780||align=right|663,000||1910||align=right|2,943,400
|-
||1790||align=right|705,600||1920||align=right|3,147,600
|-
||1800||align=right|832,700||1930||align=right|3,462,700
|-
||1810||align=right|863,300||1940||align=right|3,695,617
|-
||1820||align=right|1,177,500||1950||align=right|4,029,803
|-
||1830||align=right|1,372,100||1960||align=right|4,446,222
|-
||1840||align=right|1,445,600||1970||align=right|4,598,336
|-
||1850||align=right|1,636,900||1980||align=right|4,787,778
|-
||1860||align=right|1,746,700||1990||align=right|4,998,478
|-
||1870||align=right|1,768,800||2000||align=right|5,181,000
|}
</div>

 

===Population===
Finland currently numbers 5,302,778 inhabitants and has an average population density of 17 inhabitants per square kilometer. This makes it, after Norway and Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Finland's population has always been concentrated in the southern parts of the country, a phenomenon even more pronounced after 20th century urbanization.

The share of foreign citizens in Finland is 2.5 percent being among the lowest of the European Union countries. Most of them are from Russia, Estonia and Sweden.

===Religion===
[[File:Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral Finland.jpg|thumb|left|Helsinki, Lutheran Cathedral.]]
Most Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (81.7 percent). With approximately 4.6 million members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world. A minority belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church (1.1 percent; see [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]). Other Protestantism denominations and the Roman Catholic Church in Finland are significantly.

The main Lutheran and Orthodox churches are constitutional national churches of Finland with special roles such as in state ceremonies and schools. A university degree in theology is compulsory for Lutheran priests. Representatives at Lutheran Church assemblies are selected in church elections every four years.

Even though the membership in main Lutheran church is high, the population is not highly religious. Polls suggest that 28-60% of the population to be either agnostics or atheists. <ref>http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html</ref>

===Government===
====President and cabinet====
Elected for a 6-year term, the president:
*Handles foreign policy, except for certain international agreements and decisions of peace or war, which must be submitted to parliament, and EU relations, which are handled by the prime minister;
*Is commander in chief of the armed forces and has wide decree and appointive powers;
*May initiate legislation, block legislation by pocket veto, and call extraordinary parliamentary sessions; and
*Appoints the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet (Council of State). The Council of State is made up of the prime minister and ministers for the various departments of the central government as well as an ex officio member, the Chancellor of Justice. Ministers are not obliged to be members of the Eduskunta and need not be formally identified with any political party.
The president may, upon proposal of the prime minister and after having heard the parliamentary groups, order parliament to be dissolved, and a new election held.

====Parliament====
Constitutionally, the 200-member, unicameral Eduskunta is the supreme authority in Finland. It may alter the constitution, bring about the resignation of the Council of State, and override presidential vetoes; its acts are not subject to judicial review. Legislation may be initiated by the president, the Council of State, or one of the Eduskunta members.

The Eduskunta is elected on the basis of proportional representation. All persons 18 or older, except military personnel on active duty and a few high judicial officials, are eligible for election. The regular parliamentary term is 4 years; however, the president may dissolve the Eduskunta and order new elections at the request of the prime minister and after consulting the speaker of parliament.

====Judicial system====
The judicial system is divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction and special courts, with responsibility for litigation between the public and the administrative organs of the state. Finnish law is codified. Although there is no writ of habeas corpus or bail, the maximum period of pretrial detention has been reduced to 4 days. The Finnish court system consists of local courts, regional appellate courts, a Supreme Court, and a Supreme Administrative Court.

====Administrative divisions====
[[File:Gulf of finland.jpg|thumb|Gulf of Finland.]]
Finland consists of five provinces and the self-ruled province of the Aland Islands. Below the provincial level, the country is divided into cities, townships, and communes administered by municipal and communal councils elected by proportional representation once every 4 years. At the provincial level, the five mainland provinces are administered by provincial boards composed of civil servants, each headed by a governor. The boards are responsible to the Ministry of the Interior and play a supervisory and coordinating role within the provinces.

The island province of Aland is located near the 60th parallel between Sweden and Finland. It enjoys local autonomy and demilitarized status by virtue of an international convention of 1921, implemented most recently by the Act on Aland Self-Government of 1951. The islands are further distinguished by the fact that they are entirely Swedish-speaking. Government is vested in the provincial council, which consists of 30 delegates elected directly by Aland's citizens.

====Military====
Finland's defense forces consist of 35,000 persons in uniform (26,000 army; 5,000 navy; and 4,000 air force). The country's defense budget equals about 1.3% of GDP. There is universal male conscription under which all men serve from six to 12 months. As of 1995, women were permitted to serve as volunteers. A reserve force ensures that Finland can field 490,000 trained military personnel in case of need.

====Political parties====
Finland's proportional representation system encourages a multitude of political parties and has resulted in many coalition governments. Political activity by communists was legalized in 1944, and although four major parties have dominated the postwar political arena, none now has a majority position. In elections held in 2007, the Center Party (Keskusta), traditionally representing rural interests, kept its position as the biggest party. The then-opposition Conservative Party, however, came away as the biggest winner, gaining 10 seats and becoming the second-largest political party in the country. The Center then formed a four-party governing coalition with the Conservatives and the Swedish People's Party and the Greens. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) suffered a defeat in these elections and fell to the third position among the big parties. Of the other parties, the True Finns, the Green League, and the Swedish People’s Party were able to gain seats in parliament. The Conservative Party received the portfolios of foreign minister, finance minister, and defense minister, among others, and became an important player after a long interval.

===Principal Government Officials===
[[File:Tarja Halonen 2003.jpg|thumb|Tarja Halonen, 2003.]]
*President--[[Tarja Halonen]]
*Prime Minister--Mari Kiviniemi
*Foreign Minister--Alexander Stubb
*Ambassador to the United States--Pekka Lintu
*Ambassador to the United Nations--Kirsti Lintonen

{{Clear}}

===Foreign Relations===
Finland's basic foreign policy goal from the end of the Continuation War with the U.S.S.R. in 1944 until 1991 was to avoid great-power conflicts and to build mutual confidence with the Soviet Union. Although the country was culturally, socially, and politically Western, Finns realized they must live in peace with the U.S.S.R. and take no action that might be interpreted as a security threat. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened up dramatic new possibilities for Finland and has resulted in the Finns actively seeking greater participation in Western political and economic structures. Finland joined the European Union in 1995.

====Previous relations with the Soviet Union, and today with Russia====
[[File:Uspenski cathedral Helsinki.jpg|thumb|The Uspenski cathedral of Helsinki; with its golden cumpolas and redbrick façade, the cathedral is one of the clearest symbol of the Russian impact on Finnish history.]]
The principal architect of the post-1944 foreign policy of neutrality was J.K. Paasikivi, who was President from 1946 to 1956. Urho Kekkonen, President from 1956 until 1981, further developed this policy, stressing that Finland should be an active rather than a passive neutral. This policy is now popularly known as the "Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line."

Finland and the U.S.S.R. signed a peace treaty at Paris in February 1947 limiting the size of Finland's defense forces and providing for the cession to the Soviet Union of the Petsamo area on the Arctic coast, the Karelian Isthmus in southeastern Finland, and other territory along the former eastern border. Another provision, terminated in 1956, leased the Porkkala area near Helsinki to the U.S.S.R. for use as a naval base and gave free access to this area across Finnish territory.

The 1947 treaty also called for Finland to pay to the Soviet Union reparations of 300 million gold dollars (amounting to an estimated $570 million in 1952, the year the payments ended). Although an ally of the Soviet Union in World War II, the United States was not a signatory to this treaty because it had not been at war with Finland.

In April 1948, Finland signed an Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union. Under this mutual assistance pact, Finland was obligated--with the aid of the Soviet Union, if necessary--to resist armed attacks by Germany or its allies against Finland or against the U.S.S.R. through Finland. At the same time, the agreement recognized Finland's desire to remain outside great-power conflicts. This agreement was renewed for 20 years in 1955, in 1970, and again in 1983 to the year 2003, although the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the agreement's abrogation.

The Finns responded cautiously in 1990-91 to the decline of Soviet power and the U.S.S.R.'s subsequent dissolution. They unilaterally abrogated restrictions imposed by the 1947 and 1948 treaties, joined in voicing Nordic concern over the coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and gave increasing unofficial encouragement to Baltic independence.

At the same time, by replacing the Soviet-Finnish mutual assistance pact with treaties on general cooperation and trade, Finns put themselves on an equal footing while retaining a friendly bilateral relationship. Finland now is boosting cross-border commercial ties and touting its potential as a commercial gateway to Russia. It has reassured Russia that it will not raise claims for Finnish territory seized by the U.S.S.R. and continues to reaffirm the importance of good bilateral relations.

====Multilateral Relations====
Finnish foreign policy emphasizes its participation in multilateral organizations. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the EU in 1995. As noted, the country also is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Partnership for Peace as well as a member in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. As a NATO partner, Finland had 100 troops in Afghanistan as of September 2007.

Finland is well represented in the UN civil service in proportion to its population and belongs to several of its specialized and related agencies. Finnish troops have participated in UN peacekeeping activities since 1956, and the Finns continue to be one of the largest per capita contributors of peacekeepers in the world. Finland is an active participant in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and in early 1995 assumed the co-chairmanship of the OSCE's Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Cooperation with the other Scandinavian countries also is important to Finland, and it has been a member of the Nordic Council since 1955. Under the council's auspices, the Nordic countries have created a common labor market and have abolished immigration controls among themselves. The council also serves to coordinate social and cultural policies of the participating countries and has promoted increased cooperation in many fields.

In addition to the organizations already mentioned, Finland became a member of the following organizations: Bank for International Settlements, 1930; International Monetary Fund, 1948; International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1948; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1950; International Finance Corporation, 1956; International Development Association, 1960; European Free Trade Association, 1961; Asian Development Bank, 1966; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1969; Inter-American Development Bank, 1977; African Development Bank, 1982; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, 1988; the Council of Europe, 1989; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Central and Eastern Europe, 1991; World Trade Organization, 1995; and INTELSAT, 1999. Finland entered Stage Three of EMU (the European Monetary Union) in 1999. All the Nordic countries, including Finland, joined the Schengen area in March 2001.

==Economy==
[[File:Logs in Yyteri 2009.JPG|thumb|left|300px|Logs in Yyteri.]]
Finland has an industrial economy based on abundant forest resources, capital investments, and high technology.

The Finnish economy has made enormous strides since the severe recession of the early 1990s. Finland successfully joined the euro zone and has outperformed euro-area partners in terms of economic growth and public finance. In the last few years, the Finnish economy has performed reasonably well. Total output was 5% higher in 2006 than in 2005, but economic activity leveled off in the latter half of the year. GDP is predicted to grow by 4.4% in 2007, while 2008 is likely to show a slower rate of growth, estimated at 3.3%. Despite the current favorable outlook, there is a degree of uncertainty in the Finnish economy caused by the large fluctuations in electronics industry production, together with resource constraints. Cost and price pressures have increased, and there is a threat of industry’s price competitiveness starting to weaken.

Unemployment decreased significantly from 1994 to 7.7% in 2006 and is expected to drop to 6.7% in 2007. A relatively inflexible labor market and high employer-paid social security taxes hamper growth in employment. Labor bottlenecks are becoming more common in certain sectors, and this will increasingly restrict growth in output in the future. The main constraint to medium-term economic growth will be the drop in the population of working age once the post-war baby boomers reach retirement age.
[[File:Headquarters of Nokia Keilaniemi Finland..jpg|thumb|The headquarters of Nokia Corporation in Keilaniemi, Espoo, 2005.]]
Exports of goods and services contribute 32% of Finland's GDP. Metals and engineering (including electronics) and timber (including pulp and paper) are Finland's main industries. The United States is Finland's third most important trading partner outside of Europe. With a 3.8% share of imports in 2006, the United States was Finland's seventh-largest supplier. The total value of U.S. exports to Finland in 2006 was $2.6 billion. Major exports from the United States to Finland continue to be machinery, telecommunications equipment and parts, aircraft and aircraft parts, computers, peripherals and software, electronic components, chemicals, medical equipment, and some agricultural products. The primary competition for American companies comes from Russia, Germany, Sweden, and China. The main export items from Finland to the United States are electronics, machinery, ships and boats, paper and paperboard, refined petroleum products, telecommunications equipment and parts. In 2006, the United States was Finland's fourth-largest customer after Germany (11.3%), Sweden (10.5%), and Russia (10.1%), with an export share of 6.5%, or $5 billion. However, trade is only part of the totality: the 10 biggest Finnish companies in the United States have a combined turnover that is three times the value of Finland's total exports to the United States. About 2.3% of the Finnish GDP comes from exports to the United States.

Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imported raw materials, energy, and some components for its manufactured products. Farms tend to be small, but farmers own sizable timber stands that are harvested for supplementary income in winter. The country's main agricultural products are dairy, meat, and grains. Finland's EU accession has accelerated the process of restructuring and downsizing of this sector.
*GDP: $210.8 billion (EUR 167.9 billion).
*GDP growth rate: 5%.
*Per capita income: $40,036 (EUR 31,886).
*Inflation rate: 1.6% (2006 average); 2.6% (September 2007).
*Natural resources: Forests, minerals (copper, zinc, iron), farmland.
*Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (2.9% of GDP): Products--meat (pork and beef), grain (wheat, rye, barley, oats), dairy products, potatoes, rapeseed.
*Industry (30.1% of GDP): Types--metal (including electronics and electrical equipment) and engineering, forest products, chemicals, shipbuilding, foodstuffs, textiles.
*Trade: Exports--$77.08 billion. Major markets--EU 56.9%, Russia 10.1%, U.S. 6.5%, China 3.2%. Imports--$68.9 billion. Major suppliers--EU 55.3%, Russia 14.1%, China 7.5%, U.S. 3.8%.

==History==
[[File:Johan Ludvig Runeberg statue Finland.jpg|thumb|left|Johan Ludvig Runeberg statue.]]
The origins of the Finnish people are still a matter of conjecture, although many scholars argue that their original home was in what is now west-central [[Siberia]]. The Finns arrived in their present territory thousands of years ago, pushing the indigenous Lapps into the more remote northern regions. Finnish and Lappish--the language of Finland's small Lapp minority--both are Finno-Ugric languages and are in the Uralic rather than the Indo-European family.

Finland's nearly 700-year association with the Kingdom of [[Sweden]] began in 1154 with the introduction of Christianity by Sweden's King Eric. During the ensuing centuries, Finland played an important role in the political life of the Swedish-Finnish realm, and Finnish soldiers often predominated in Swedish armies. Finns also formed a significant proportion of the first "Swedish" settlers in 17th-century America.

Following Finland's incorporation into Sweden in the 12th century, Swedish became the dominant language, although Finnish recovered its predominance after a 19th-century resurgence of Finnish nationalism. Publication in 1835 of the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala--a collection of traditional myths and legends--first stirred the nationalism that later led to Finland's independence from Russia.

In 1809, Finland was conquered by the armies of Czar Alexander I and thereafter remained an autonomous grand duchy connected with the Russian Empire until the end of 1917. On December 6, 1917, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Finland declared its independence. In 1918, the country experienced a brief but bitter civil war that colored domestic politics for many years. During [[World War II]], Finland fought the [[Soviet Union]] twice--in the [[Winter War]] of 1939-40 and again in the [[Continuation War]] of 1941-44. This was followed by the [[Lapland War]] of 1944-45, when Finland fought against the Germans as they withdrew their forces from northern Finland.

During the Continuation War (1941-1944) Finland was a co-belligerent with [[Germany]]. However, Finnish Jews were not persecuted. Of the approximately 500 Jewish refugees who arrived in Finland, eight were handed over to the Germans, for which Finland submitted an official apology in 2000.<ref>[http://www.uta.fi/~tuulikki.vuonokari/fin-1.html Jews in Finland During World War II]</ref> Also during the war, approximately 2,600 Soviet prisoners of war were exchanged for 2,100 Finnish prisoners of war from Germany. In 2003, the Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted an official request for a full-scale investigation by the Finnish authorities of the prisoner exchange. It was established there were about 70 Jews among the extradited prisoners but none was extradited as a result of ethnic background or religious belief.

Treaties signed in 1947 and 1948 with the Soviet Union included obligations and restraints on Finland vis-a-vis the U.S.S.R. as well as territorial concessions by Finland; both have been abrogated by Finland since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.

{{Template:Copyright Details (US Government)}}

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Finland]]
[[Category:European Countries]]
[[Category:EU Members]]
[[Category:Nordic Countries]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Separation of Powers

2011-08-21T15:29:17Z

CeLa:

The '''separation of powers''' is an important part of the [[United States Constitution]], and was originaly proposed by the [[Enlightenment]] philosopher [[Montesquieu]]. With the checks and balances created by the separation of powers, each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others. This way, no one branch becomes too powerful. A strict separation of powers doctrine has two prohibitions. First, no branch may encroach upon the powers of another. Second, no branch may delegate to another branch its constitutionally assigned power.

The three branches of government are the [[Legislative branch]], the [[Judicial branch]] and the [[Executive branch]]. The Legislative branch consists of the two houses of [[Congress]]: [[The United States Senate|The Senate]] and [[The United States House of Representatives|The House of Representatives]]. The Judicial Branch consists of the [[Federal Court System]] led by the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]]. The Executive branch consists of the [[Prisident of the United States|President]] and his [[U.S. President's Cabinet|Cabinet]].

[[James Madison]], Americas fourth President, at the [[Constitutional Convention]] in 1787, proposes to set up the three branches of the U.S. government; Judicial, Legislative, Executive. He discovered this as the model, reading [[Isaiah]] 4:3 “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us.”

==Powers of the Three Branches==

===Powers of the Legislative Branch===
The powers of the Legislative branch are listed in [[Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution|Article I]] of the Constitution, including: 
*[[Impeachment]], (The House) 
*The trial of impeachments, (the Senate) 
*Power To lay and collect [[Taxes]], [[Duties]], [[Imposts]] and [[Excises]], 
*to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States, 
*To borrow Money on the credit of the United States, 
*To regulate [[Commerce]] with foreign Nations, 
*To establish an uniform Rule of [[Naturalization]], 
*To establish uniform Laws on the subject of [[Bankrupcy|Bankruptcies]], 
*To coin Money, and regulate the Value thereof, 
*To establish Post Offices and post Roads, 
*To constitute [[Tribunals]] inferior to the Supreme Court, 
*To declare War, 
*To raise and support Armies, 
*To provide and maintain a Navy, 
*To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. 
*Ratify Treaties, (two-thirds vote of the Senate) 
*Confirm Presidential appointments, 
*Override of Presidential [[Veto]] (two-thirds vote of each house) 

===Powers of the Executive Branch===
The President has the following powers: 
*Veto of [[act of Congress|acts of Congress]]
*Commander in Chief of the [[United States Armend Forces|Armed Forces]], 
*Power to pardon, except in cases of impeachment, 
*Make Treaties 
*Appointment of Ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, Judges to the federal courts, and all other Officers of the United States, 

The [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] has the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.

===Powers of the Judicial Branch===
The [[Jurisdiction]] of the Federal Court System includes:
*All cases arising under: 
**The Constitution, 
**The Laws of the United States, 
**Treaties, 
*All Cases involving: 
**Ambassadors, 
**Public Ministers, 
**Consuls, 
*All cases of: 
**[[admirality]] 
**[[maritime Jurisdiction]] 
*Controversies
**To which the United States shall be a party, 
**Between two or more States, 
**Between Citizens of different States, 
**Between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under [[Grants]] of different States, 
The Power of [[Judicial Review]] was added by the Supreme court Decision ''[[Marbury v. Madison]]'' by Chief Justice [[John Marshall]]. The power was said to be implied in Article III Section 2 of the Constitution.

==Checks and Balances==
All three branches check and ballance each other.

===Legislative Branch===
The Legislative branch is checked by the other branches because of the following: 
*The Prisident's veto power, 
*Judicial review, 
*The Vice President is President of the Senate and has the Tiebreaking vote. 

The Legislative branch checks the other branches the following ways: 
*They confirm the President's appointments, 
*They have the power to impeach the President, 
*They can override a Presidential veto, 
*The President cannot make any law that has not been passed by them, 
*They can impeach Judges, 
*They can limit the jurisdiction of the courts. 

===Executive Branch===
The Executive branch is checked by the other branches because of the following: 
*The President's appointments are confirmed by the senate, 
*He is subject to impeachment, 
*He cannot make laws that were not passed by congress, 
*The laws that he does sign are subject to judicial review, 
*His veto can be overturned by a two-thirds vote in congress. 

The Executive branch checks the other branches because: 
*The president has veto power, 
*He appoints judges, 
*The Vice President is President of the Senate, and has the tiebreaking vote.

===Judicial Branch===

The Judicial branch is checked by the other branches because: 
*It's judges are apointed by the president, 
*It's judges are confirmed by the senate, 
*Congress can limit it's jurisdiction, 
*Congress can impeach judges. 

The Judicial branch Checks the other branches through the following: 
*Judicial review, 
*The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the impeachment of a president.