What do you mean by “Integrated Humanities”? by Sandy Belschner

Our Integrated Humanities classes are all-encompassing courses of study which include literature, history and theology. Students who complete one year of an Integrated Humanities course will receive one full credit on all three of those subjects. Some people refer to this as an “omnibus” approach.

Omnibus...what?

The word comes from the Latin word, omnis, which simply means “all”. If you plug the word into a search engine you’ll see a more precise definition: “a volume containing several novels or other items previously published separately.” That’s all well and good, but we can still be more precise.

For our purposes, Omnibus refers to an specific, all-encompassing curriculum for history, literature and theology. The Logos Online School Integrated Humanities classes use the Omnibus textbooks published by Veritas Press, our friends in the Christian, classical education community. This curriculum provides the framework for our Integrated Humanities.

What’s so special about the Omnibus textbooks?

We are pleased to use the Omnibus series published by Veritas Press as the primary textbooks for the the Logos Online School Integrated Humanities classes. Douglas Wilson, one of the founders of Logos School here in Moscow, Idaho, has his name on the front cover of the Omnibus textbooks as a primary editor. Many other people from our community have also contributed to that curriculum--N.D. Wilson, Chris Schlect, Ben Merkle, Toby Sumpter, Nancy Wilson, Aaron Rench, and more. If you pick up a copy and read the worldview summary at the beginning of any of the books listed you will find a thoroughly gospel-centered approach to this classic literature. That’s a rare thing, and it is why we are proud to use the Omnibus books as the backbone of our Integrated Humanities program.

How are the Integrated Humanities (Omnibus) courses organized?

The LOS Integrated Humanities courses use all six Omnibus textbooks for 7th through 12th grades:

  • 7th - 9th grades: The emphasis is on a dialectic or logic approach; Students are encouraged to argue with and about the material.
    • Omnibus 1 = ancient
    • Omnibus 2 = medieval
    • Omnibus 3 = modern
  • 10th - 12th grades: The emphasis is on rhetorical skills; Students repeat the historical pattern, but with more difficult material.
    • Omnibus 4 = ancient
    • Omnibus 5 = medieval
    • Omnibus 6 = modern

In each Omnibus text some books are delineated as being “primary” and some books considered “secondary.” In addition to the classic historical literature, all 66 books of the Bible are studied over the course of six years.

The work is so thorough that Logos Online School issues three credits for one Integrated Humanities class (covering history, literature and theology).

PLEASE NOTE: the LOS Integrated Humanities classes cover BOTH the primary and secondary books in the same class. By contrast, other schools split these into two separate classes, charging two separate fees for each (and still requiring that both be taken for the full credit).

What if we want to read and study a different time period than is typical in the Omnibus “cycle”?

You may step into any of the Integrated Humanities classes regardless of grade level, but we encourage you to consider the overall requirements for a balanced high school course of study. Our academic advising team will help you make the best choice for your student.

Do you really do ALL that reading?

Because the LOS Integrated Humanities courses include both the primary and the secondary material in the Omnibus textbook it ends up being a lot of reading. There’s no question that reading--just plain reading--is a big part of the course. A student who reads comfortably will be fine with the course load and will acclimate themself to the pace and the demands of a more rigorous reading schedule. And so, yes, we really DO do all that reading--most of it anyway. Teachers have the freedom to adjust to their individual classes--perhaps assigning only excerpts from some books, occasionally eliminating a book altogether if time is short. We love how the primary and secondary books complement each other so we are eager to include the whole repertoire. We’ve also found that reading along with audiobooks is a great way for students to train themselves to read faster and more efficiently.

 


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