This Is Not a Book of Myths - Confused?

Myths are often taught as stories, not as thinking tools.

When I was studying history at Eastern Oregon University, I enrolled in a course on Russian history and empire building that I was not prepared for. On the first day, the professor handed out a syllabus that listed three dense, heavy books and weekly reading assignments that ran into the hundreds of pages. There was no soft introduction, no curated summaries, no “key ideas to remember.” We were expected to read deeply and respond thoughtfully. Not summarize! Respond.

He wanted us to wrestle with the material, to trace motivations, to examine pressures, to notice patterns in leadership and belief and power. It was relentless. I worked harder in that class than in any other I have ever taken.

And yet, it was the most compelling course of my degree.

We were not allowed to treat history as a sequence of events moving neatly across a timeline. We had to sit inside the instability of it. We studied the ambitions of rulers, the insecurities of leaders, the economic pressures that strained empires, the religious frameworks that justified expansion, the private convictions that hardened into public policy. We examined why certain decisions felt rational to the people making them, even when the consequences were catastrophic.

History stopped being a list of outcomes and became a study of human behavior under pressure.

It was uncomfortable.

It was demanding.

It was unforgettable.

That experience permanently shaped how I think about teaching history.

When I began writing this series, I knew I could not produce another book that treated myths as charming cultural artifacts and left them there. Myths, Science, and Sacred Accounts begins with creation stories from cultures around the world, but it does not approach them as decorative folklore. These narratives are entry points into much larger questions about how humans construct meaning. What does a culture’s origin story reveal about its understanding of authority? Of gender? Of order and chaos? Of the relationship between humanity and the natural world? What assumptions are embedded within the story? What fears? What aspirations?

Students do not simply read and move on. They map the regions connected to each tradition. They draft peace treaties between tribes. They examine systems of navigation and attempt their own wayfinding exercises. They analyze logical fallacies and identify bias. They evaluate the credibility of informants and weigh testimony as historians must. The stories become frameworks for examining how societies transmit knowledge, structure themselves, and justify their choices.

This is an anthropological approach to history. Archaeologists recover artifacts. Anthropologists reconstruct meaning. They ask how belief systems form, how worldviews are sustained, how communities respond to conflict, how power is legitimized. When students are guided through history this way, they begin to see patterns beneath events. They recognize that myths are not isolated tales but blueprints of belief, and belief shapes action. Action, repeated over time, shapes civilizations.

The course spans approximately 120 to 150 hours across two physical volumes, nearly 500 pages of structured, academically grounded content presented as a narrative adventure around the world by a trained griot and his young apprentice (your student).

It includes mapping, comparative analysis, research instruction, guided inquiry, rubrics, and capstone projects. It is rigorous, but it is not rushed. It is accessible, but it is not shallow. It is designed to scale from upper elementary through high school, allowing students to engage the same material with increasing depth.

History should not feel like memorizing what happened. It should feel like tracing the forces that made events possible in the first place. When students learn to examine motivations, belief systems, and cultural structures, they are not simply studying the past. They are learning how to think critically about the present. They are learning to recognize bias, to question narratives, to understand how ideas move through communities and harden into action.

This is not a book of myths.

It is a study of how humans think, organize, believe, and build the worlds they inhabit.

______

If you are a Co-Op or teacher evaluating this book for upper level humanities, preview pages are available: Look Here

For classroom sets and lead time questions, contact me directly though the form here: Co-Ops, Groups, Classrooms, Schools, and Non-Profit Bulk Orders:

Large Order Information

For Homeschool Families

Buy on Etsy

My interdisciplinary background in history, narrative analysis, and education informs every assignment in this book. My Dynamic Inquiry Style ignites curious minds with striking visuals, layered questions, and hands-on discovery. Grounded in Socratic depth — probing the ‘why’ beneath ideas — and fueled by a passion for vivid stories and real-world ties, it shapes learning into a sharp, engaging process. Crafted for thinkers, it weaves seeing, questioning, and doing into a seamless approach that nurtures both intellect and character.