High school history curriculum.

Are you considering any? Skipping history altogether? While it may be tempting to focus on more practical subjects, teaching high school history offers numerous benefits that extend far beyond this particular subject.

While I am guilty of shoving history to the bottom of the priority list, I am also here to offer you a compromise I found: teaching other essential skills through a well-put-together history curriculum is what we found to work best and what we plan to do to complete all history requirements.

As you all know, we are planning to continue doing literature-based history during middle school with the help of BookShark history, and we love the approach so far because it extends to more than history, into the realm of comprehension, culture, geography, literature, and more. What I want from history for now is to help Marc make connections.

So I was wondering if something like this exists for high school years and with hopefully even more skills integrated next to the historical facts and of course, as unbiased as possible (I thought I was looking for a unicorn). That’s how I ended up writing this review of The Nomadic Professor, an excellent, unbiased high school history curriculum that promises more than history skills!

Disclaimer: Throughout this article, I use the term “unbiased” to describe The Nomadic Professor’s history curriculum.
It’s important to clarify that I chose this term in the context of comparing this curriculum’s approach to minimizing external influences and fostering critical thinking with traditional educational methods. Recognizing the inherent challenges in achieving absolute neutrality in historical interpretation, “unbiased” here refers to the curriculum’s effort to present history through a balanced and critical lens, encouraging students to explore multiple perspectives and draw their own informed conclusions.
The aim is to highlight the curriculum’s strengths in promoting a more inclusive and thoughtful engagement with history, rather than claiming it achieves an impossible standard of objectivity.

This is a sponsored post. I was given the product to review and I might have been compensated for my time. I would never endorse or recommend programs we wouldn’t use ourselves. Read more about it in my Disclosure.

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Why we should teach high school history

I know it’s easier to shove subjects like history aside, but if we strive to provide a comprehensive education for our children and teach them discernment and reasoning, history plays an important role. I know that another reason most of us turn our backs on history is because we know most of it is biased, and we don’t want to teach that to our kids. But there are a couple of history programs out there that are different.

Historical knowledge empowers us to understand current events, avoid biases, and make informed judgments. Ignorance of history leaves us vulnerable to manipulation and hindered in our moral reasoning.

History broadens our intellectual horizons, stimulates curiosity, and encourages a lifelong love of learning. It also encourages critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation of evidence, helping us develop the ability to assess information, think independently, and make reasoned arguments.

But what I really want to transmit through the study of history is discernment.

These are the points that sold me on high school history. We have so many sources of information nowadays, and yet we place no emphasis on teaching kids to discern various sources, or the ability to make connections between events.

What if I told you there are teachers out there that saw this need of ours and created a wholly different high school history curriculum, from scratch?

The Nomadic Professor teaches historical literacy skills combined with their history video lessons and offers exciting perspectives and activities that breathe life into historical narratives. They go beyond traditional textbooks, using multimedia resources to ignite students’ curiosity and enhance their understanding. And best of all, they are unbiased and focused on teaching kids historical literacy, not just facts.

A non-biased high school history curriculum for homeschool students: The Nomadic Professor

The Nomadic Professor is an exceptional example of a classically-inspired high school history curriculum that teaches kids how to think like historians. It’s a next-level history course that we’ve been waiting for.

These courses aren’t just about memorizing facts and dates. They encourage critical thinking, analyzing different perspectives, and evaluating sources. Dr. Jackson and Noorlander even present opposing viewpoints without revealing their own biases – it’s all about fostering balanced and open-minded discussions.

And it’s no wonder it’s so great since it’s the brainchild of two educators that have a common passion for history and teaching: the high school teacher Nate Noorlander and the college professor Dr. William Jackson. They actually combined their passion for history to write their own original, unbiased history curriculum, and it’s amazing!

There’s nothing like this curriculum anywhere, and I am happy we discovered it in time! I can’t wait for all the courses to be available.

So let’s dig deeper!

Who is The Nomadic Professor? The passionate educators behind this high school history curriculum

Behind The Nomadic Professor, we have two young, passionate educators: Dr. William Jackson and his partner in crime, Nate Noorlander.

Together, Dr. Jackson and Mr. Noorlander have crafted an engaging, informative, and downright fun curriculum. Their combined expertise and passion for history shine through in every aspect of The Nomadic Professor courses. They’ve created a learning experience that goes beyond the traditional textbook approach, allowing students to explore history in a dynamic and immersive way.

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 “Little could they have known that their initial brainstorming in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf, across high Himalayan passes, and along erstwhile Viking coasts would produce an entirely unique sort of online education.“

— The Nomadic Professor

High school courses offered by The Nomadic Professor

This amazing team has several courses for high school up on their site, with more scheduled to come in the upcoming years. I just hope🤞 they will have them all out by the time we hit high school years because THIS is exactly what I have been waiting for in order to offer a well-rounded high school education to my son.

I love the classical approach of The Nomadic Professor courses. They place a special emphasis on rhetoric, logic, critical thinking, and analyzing. I am sure you cannot go wrong with any of these courses! I know it’s a bold claim, considering how new these are, but trust me, or even better, grab some samples or the FREE Speech course and see for yourself.

These are the courses offered by The Nomadic Professor as of now (you can click on each to read more – please note some aren’t available yet, but I will try to keep this up to date and link them up later)

The Nomadic Professor American History Courses overview

The Nomadic Professor’s American History courses offer an immersive and exciting journey through the rich tapestry of this nation’s past. With a four-course set, this series provides a comprehensive exploration taking students on a trans-America journey through pivotal eras and events.

Each course is meant to cover one semester, so in order to complete a full high school history credit, kids need to take 2 courses per year. This means that the full Nomadic Professor American History curriculum is meant to be completed in 2 years, making this a very rigorous and comprehensive history curriculum.

Let’s see what The Nomadic Professor American History Course covers:

The American History courses provide a comprehensive learning experience with a range of valuable resources.

There are forty units in total, each consisting of 4-5 sessions. There are over two thousand pages of engaging text, which is also available in audio/podcast format, narrated by The Nomadic Professor himself. And what sets this curriculum apart are the on-location videos filmed all over the world, immersing viewers in historical sites and contexts.

To further support high schoolers in their learning journey, the courses include guided notes, forty document lessons, rigorous self-assessments, and CLEP and AP exam preparation, among other valuable resources.

These courses are not static, they are continually updated and improved, so this means you’ll always get access to the latest version.

Purchase options: premium and standard

There are two options when it comes to purchasing The Nomadic Professor courses, and each comes with the option to pay monthly for access to all courses, or a one-time fee for one course.

Credits and accreditation

I love that The Nomadic Professor’s American History courses offer a range of credits, beyond history.

These courses cover all the necessary hours and content requirements.

Although The Nomadic Professor doesn’t provide official high school transcripts, don’t worry! Each Nomadic Course comes with an Instructor’s Guide that helps organize your coursework into a portfolio.

Or, you can go our route, and choose a flexible, accredited school like Bridgeway Academy, that accepts your choice of courses and accredits your transcripts for you. That’s what we will do, and we love Bridgeway Academy (we’ve been with them for 5 years).

Grading and duration

Grading student work with The Nomadic Professor is very easy. Daily quizzes are automatically graded and recorded in the student gradebook, saving you time and effort. For other assignments, you will need to correct the submitted work and enter scores using provided answer keys and convenient checklist rubrics.

As for course duration, each course consists of around 50 sessions, designed to be completed in 30-90 minutes each. With this efficient format, you can finish a course in 4-6 months. Plus, most students can easily complete two courses within a single school year, giving you flexibility in your learning journey.

Historical bias

According to Noolander, The Nomadic Professor is “on everyone’s [side] and no one’s [side]” (Whose Side Is The Nomadic professor On?) when it comes to teaching history. He believes that history should be taught without ideology or dogma, and students should be trained to identify evidence and challenge conclusions.

The focus is on fostering historical understanding and critical thinking rather than promoting a specific agenda.

Course set up

There’s so much information in these courses that it might feel overwhelming to even start. But the good news is that Mr. Noorlander did an outstanding job of organizing everything into easy-to-follow steps and predictable patterns.

Student dashboard

There are two types of lessons in this course:

1. lessons focused on content – these are lessons written and presented by Dr. Jackson and they comprise videos, images, text.
2. lessons focused on historical thinking – these are guided by Mr. Noorlander and they’re called document lessons because, in each, kids will analyze multiple primary or secondary sources and form their own hypothesis on the topic.

I’ll briefly take you through a unit so you see what’s inside, but you can also check out samples to see inside the courses yourself. And see The Nomadic Professor’s YouTube channel for a taste of the mini lectures on-location.

There are 10 Units in a course and each Unit is split into 3-5 Sessions. Each session is then split into Topics.

So the course is broken down into smaller steps allowing students to focus on one topic at a time.

Each topic starts with a question, guiding students’ focus throughout the materials. There are also printable guided notes, well-put-together graphic organizers that help kids keep track of what they are studying and ensure they understand the material.

Every unit starts with a big summary of what will be covered in each topic and every topic ends in a mini summary for review.

There’s a quiz for every topic and a document lesson for every unit, as well as printable materials that you can find under the MATERIALS tab.

I love that students have access to clear rubrics to guide them when they are completing their assignments.

Instructor dashboard

Every instructor has access to several tools that help organize the kids in your class, including answer keys to every assignment, rubrics for grading, and guides.

You can add students, see their progress, grade their assignments, and check the grade book to see how they are doing.

The instructor dashboard is very intuitive and easy to use but there are guides and explanations showing you what you can do step by step.

What’s so special about these online history courses?

I don’t want to go on and on about the nitty gritty of these online classes because you can find out more about them on their website. What I want to focus on in this section is what I feel makes The Nomadic Professor‘s courses truly stand out from the crowd.

Although I’d like to push American History to the last years of high school (for obvious reasons, since we live in Europe), I was so curious about this new curriculum, that I jumped right in and did the first lessons of the course myself. And let me tell you, I was blown away at the quality and amount of organization that went into this!

Marc is still too young to understand some of the subtleties of this course, and we still have more than 2 years until 9th grade, so I didn’t ask him to actually sit and do any of the work yet, but I did end up discussing facts I’ve learned from this course and trying to connect them to his previous knowledge on the topic. This course is heavy on analysis and abstract thinking, context thinking, and connecting your learning to personal experiences. It’s all about making students THINK.

It’s A.W.E.S.O.M.E! (It’s not just me saying it, even Cathy Duffy thinks it’s awesome and she incorporated it in her famous Top 103 List).

It’s all I wanted from any rigorous high school course.

So what makes it such a great option if you’re on the lookout for a great high school history curriculum?

High school history classes that go beyond history

The Nomadic Professor’s high school history curriculum takes things to the next level by going beyond just history. It covers more than the subject at hand – it incorporates skills that can be used in other subjects too. I absolutely love that!

Their document lessons are a prime example of how they go above and beyond. Not only do they teach history, but they also expose kids to different ways of thinking and analyzing information, bringing in elements of English Language Arts. The teacher doesn’t just give the answers away. Instead, he shows kids how to think for themselves by modeling his own thought processes and encouraging them to come up with their own questions.

But that’s not all. The curriculum also teaches kids all kinds of practical skills that they can use in their studies and beyond. From effective note-taking to studying techniques, conducting research, making connections, and drawing inferences, they’ve got it covered. And what’s even better is that they don’t assume kids already have these skills. They start from scratch and guide them through the basics.

Original U.S. History curriculum

The Nomadic Professor’s U.S. history curriculum is truly unique because it’s an original creation. Dr. Jackson wrote the curriculum from scratch, drawing from primary and secondary sources instead of relying on preexisting history textbooks. You can tell right away that Dr. Jackson is passionate about history and has an incredible depth of knowledge on the subject.

One of the things I love most about The Nomadic Professor’s curriculum is the idea of doing history on-location. While extensive travel might not be feasible for everyone, the curriculum gives you the feeling of virtually traveling to all the exciting places where history happened.

The curriculum is packed with incredible resources. You’ll find on-location video lessons, mini lectures recorded in Dr. Jackson’s college courses, bonus audio recordings of all the text, and so much more. They’ve really thought of everything. With images, timelines, summaries, guiding notes, and thought-provoking questions, it’s a comprehensive package that covers all aspects of learning.

This combination of resources, along with its well-organized format, makes The Nomadic Professor’s U.S. history curriculum truly one-of-a-kind.

A history curriculum that caters to all learning styles

I haven’t yet seen a high school curriculum that takes all learning styles into consideration, but The Nomadic Professor has done it beautifully.

The curriculum is set up as a mainly audio-visual course, incorporating beautiful images, timelines, and videos that provide a visual and contextual understanding of history.

With a wide array of beautiful images, timelines, and videos, they leverage the power of visuals to help kids grasp complex concepts, visualize historical events, and make connections between different elements of the past.

The bite-sized lessons are organized in such a way that they ensure maximum retention, which is another aspect I love about it.

For auditory learners, the curriculum offers valuable audio support. The audio components are recorded by Dr. Jackson himself and they are set up just like podcast episodes! They can be downloaded so teens can enjoy them from anywhere.

But what makes The Nomadic Professor truly outstanding is its consideration of kinaesthetic learners. I haven’t imagined that you can still make history engaging for kinaesthetic learners during high school years, but The Nomadic Professor has proven me wrong.

The curriculum encourages students to actively manipulate historical terms and make physical and conceptual connections between them using any medium of their choice. This approach allows kinaesthetic learners to engage with the material by physically interacting with it, which can greatly enhance their understanding and retention of the information.

And by encouraging students to form connections between the main terms of each lesson, The Nomadic Professor promotes a deep understanding of historical context, so this is a great exercise for everyone.

This not only helps students place terms within a broader context but also enables them to create mental timelines, promoting a deeper understanding of the subject.

Unbiased, neutral history curriculum for secular homeschool families

Can I just say it?

It’s virtually impossible to find a history curriculum out there that’s aimed at secular homeschool families. There’s History Quest for elementary-middle school-aged kids, and the Open History Project looks great for older students. But that’s about it.

It’s even harder to find a high school history curriculum that at least tries to be as unbiased as possible.

One of the key strengths of The Nomadic Professor’s curriculum is its commitment to presenting history as it is, without distorting or manipulating facts to fit a specific agenda. The lessons are based on rigorous research and rely on primary and secondary sources to provide a comprehensive and accurate account of historical events.

Secular homeschooling families can rest assured that The Nomadic Professor‘s curriculum respects their desire for a neutral learning environment. It avoids promoting any particular religious or political viewpoint, allowing students to form their own opinions based on evidence and reasoned inquiry.

Side note: A single aspect I noticed (that doesn’t bother us in the slightest, but might bother more strict secular families) is that they use the BC/AD notations. I also didn’t complete the full courses offered, but from what I’ve seen so far, there is nothing else to raise question marks about the secularity of the program, but if you have any questions, make sure to drop The Nomadic Professor a line, they are great at getting back to you in a timely manner.

I just love how the curriculum encourages students to explore different perspectives and interpretations of history. It recognizes that history is complex and multifaceted, not a simple subject to teach, and encourages students to consider various viewpoints and analyze historical events from multiple angles.

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Accessible, fun, rigorous

I have to admit I didn’t think I’d use all these terms in a single sentence… ever. But that’s what I feel about The Nomadic Professor: it’s rigorous, accessible, and fun!

The curriculum is presented in a user-friendly format, with clear explanations, visuals, and audio support that accommodate various learning preferences. I love how it manages to make complex historical concepts and events accessible to students of all abilities.

No one likes dry, boring history facts. Fun is an essential element of effective learning, and The Nomadic Professor understands this. By making learning enjoyable, students are more likely to be motivated and remember what they learn.

And finally, rigor is an essential aspect of any high-quality curriculum, and The Nomadic Professor’s American history courses are no exception. It’s not hard to see the amount of work and research that went behind creating this curriculum as a blend of college classes rigor with the structure of a high school curriculum. Anyone taking the advanced track would complete all assignments, ensuring they have a solid prep for any history exams.

This brings us to the next point.

A high school history curriculum that preps students for U.S. History AP or CLEP exams

Another thing worth mentioning about The Nomadic Professor’s curriculum is its flexibility and adaptability. With three tracks to choose from students can select the level of challenge that best suits their abilities and goals.

You can select from basic, standard, and advanced tracks to fit your family’s needs.

The advanced track specifically caters to students aiming for advanced placement or college credit through AP or CLEP exams. By following this track, students can engage with more in-depth content and develop a deeper understanding of U.S. history, ensuring they are fully prepared for the demands of these exams.

I also love that this isn’t strictly an exam prep course, but it can be easily toned down to only fill credit requirements for high school history, which is the way we will be using this curriculum.

Understanding and analyzing history without rote memorization

Have you ever heard about a history curriculum that’s based on understanding and analysis before rote memorization?

If you’ve been around for a while you know how much I avoid rote memorizing in our homeschool and how I prefer mastery-based curricula.

I feel that this high school history curriculum is the history equivalent of Singapore math.

One of the refreshing aspects of The Nomadic Professor’s American history curriculum is its approach to teaching history without relying on rote memorization. Mr. Noorlander emphasizes the importance of understanding and analyzing history rather than simply memorizing facts and dates out of context.

In the introductory videos, Mr. Noorlander highlights that a good history curriculum should have two essential components: teaching historical context and teaching historical literacy. While many curricula tend to focus solely on listing historical facts and events, The Nomadic Professor takes a different approach. It recognizes that historical literacy, which encompasses critical thinking and discernment skills, is equally important in understanding the complexities of history.

The curriculum goes beyond superficial memorization by incorporating the methods used by real historians. Students are encouraged to analyze primary and secondary sources, consider multiple perspectives, and develop their own informed opinions.

It’s something uniquely Nomadic Professor and I love how innovative this approach is!

A good history curriculum teaches discernment

History and discernment go hand in hand.

High school history curricula should place importance on teaching teens how to think and sift through information, yet, almost every single history curriculum out there relies on the same old system of boring, dry textbooks, full of facts, that encourage absolutely no thinking, and only ask students to rote memorize facts.

In today’s world, full of information bombarding us from everywhere, that approach just doesn’t cut it anymore!

But a good history curriculum like The Nomadic Professor can enhance our kids’ ability to exercise discernment by offering them the chance to interact with multiple sources and perspectives, encouraging contextual understanding and ultimately promoting discernment and informed decision-making.

Does your history curriculum do that? If it doesn’t, it’s time to switch to the innovative approach of The Nomadic Professor, a one-of-a-kind high school curriculum that goes beyond fact regurgitation into the realm of thinking, analyzing, and discerning.

Why I absolutely LOVE The Nomadic Professor courses

Warning: personal stories ahead, read at your own risk.

One of my best friends in high school was a boy who loved history and I always wondered what he saw in the subject that fascinated him because all the rest of us saw dry, boring textbooks filled with facts we had to memorize.

I am now realizing how much exposure to dry and boring materials can change our perception of a subject like history.

As a homeschool mom, I’ve always been on the lookout for engaging history resources for my son, wanting to avoid the dry and boring textbooks that plagued my own school experience.

When I first heard about The Nomadic Professor I thought it would be yet another boring history curriculum. I was intrigued by its on-site lessons, but I had no idea what a game-changer it would be.

The Nomadic Professor breaks away from the traditional, agenda-driven history curriculum, where students simply memorize facts and regurgitate them without truly understanding the subject. This innovative approach encourages critical thinking, analysis, and forming connections with historical events. It revitalizes history, making it an inviting and intriguing subject, rather than a dull and forgettable one.

Growing up in a former communist country, I experienced a one-sided narrative of history that did not encourage thinking or independent analysis. The Nomadic Professor’s unbiased and comprehensive curriculum offers a refreshing departure from that approach, presenting history with a focus on multiple perspectives and the complexities of truth.

The whole website is so inviting. It speaks volumes of the way history is treated over at The Nomadic Professor, with seriousness, rigorousness, and a desire to present the multiple facets of truth, just as it happened. The classic and sleek look of the website reflects the classic approach of the courses, which put a special emphasis on rhetoric, logic, and thinking.

Opening a Nomadic Professor class is like having your personal tour guide through history that’s not only passionate about the subject, but makes you feel curious about it, too.

The organization and attention to detail in all aspects of the user experience and learning processes is something I’ve rarely seen from typical online learning platforms, where the accent is usually on getting the info across and ticking the checkboxes. The Nomadic Professor is s whole new experience.

And it’s all about the people behind it! The Professor is really passionate about his subject and very dedicated and involved in making students see history through his eyes, as a subject that’s interesting and worth trying to make sense of.

I feel Dr. Jackson makes the perfect pair with Mr. Noorlander for marrying the rigorousness of a college course to the structure and level of a high school student. I have rarely seen such a well-put-together and well-executed curriculum for history.

So why do I love this course so much?

I love The Nomadic Professor because it’s different and refreshing and because it managed to bring what is perceived as a dry, boring subject up to date with technology and modern times. I love it because it’s taking advantage of the ever-questioning teenage brain to give them food for thought and encourage them to dig deeper and think, form connections, and manipulate information and facts until they make sense.

I love it because it’s so considerate of the various needs of homeschool families. Some have gifted young learners that love history, some want to prepare for rigorous exams or going to college, while some just need the basics to get a high school credit.

I love it because it’s managed to beautifully weave all learning styles in a well-rounded history curriculum and because it’s so well-organized it’s a dream to work through the lessons.

And finally, I love it because it showed me that there are young teachers out there willing to put in the hard work of bringing subjects to the kids’ level while also making them interesting, and they are able to do this in all seriousness, without losing the essence of history.

Final thoughts on this high school history curriculum

If It’s not yet obvious from the long post, I love it! Go try it yourself and see if it’s not THE ONE you’ve been looking for, too.

The Nomadic Professor is a high school history course we’ll take without hesitation for high school because of the ingenious way it makes history come alive, connecting it to all these essential skills for language arts and life!

The Nomadic Professor is the dream come true of any history teacher out there because this comprehensive high school history curriculum has it all: it’s rigorous, unbiased, engaging, easy to navigate.

The Nomadic Professor is THE history course parents should buy if they have history-passionate kids that want to pursue this line because it teaches more than historical content, it teaches historical literacy!

Homeschoolers should buy these courses because they encompass everything we want to transmit to our teens as we send them out into the world: integrity, confidence, discernment, and most of all thinking for themselves and not settling for anything less than finding their own truth in a world that’s bombarded with fake news.

So what are you waiting for?

Don’t miss this chance to explore captivating history courses at a discounted price. Enter the giveaway and use the coupon code to embark on a journey of knowledge with The Nomadic Professor. Good luck and happy learning!

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