Schools for Humans
At Empathy, Bali · facilitated by Neha
Build the history of everything into your family’s memory. From the beginnings of the universe, through life on Earth and human history, to the world we live in today: 144 short stories, with places on a living timeline. Join Neha at Empathy for weekly storytelling and activities, and carry the adventure into family life. As the stories become familiar, they give your family a connected picture of the past to return to whenever you learn something new.
Just two small groups. Message Neha for available places.
Big Spiral History is a story-based history course from Schools for Humans, designed using the ideas of the educational philosopher Kieran Egan. It takes us from the beginnings of the universe, through life on Earth and human history, to the world we live in today.
Its ambition reaches beyond remembering isolated events: build a connected history in your family’s memory, so that later learning has something to connect to. Our weekly gatherings bring that journey to children aged 6+, with Neha’s storytelling, activities and guidance for families.
Each week, a small group meets Neha for a story and a way to enter it: a question, drawing, movement, a game or making something together. The session lasts 45–60 minutes, with room to listen, wonder and respond.
The course stories use different dramatic genres. Ötzi’s death becomes a mystery; Blackbeard’s life takes a tragic form. The drama gives each encounter its own emotional shape, helping the history stay with us.
The original course’s recorded stories are around 3–5 minutes long. Our session gives us time for the telling and what we do around it. We’ll begin with one new story each week. As the children build a repertoire, we can increase the pace. Along the way, we’ll return to familiar stories and discover connections between them.
In the first week, we’ll help children set up their history memory palace: choose a familiar route and prepare places for the stories in historical order. Each new story gets an image and a place. As we return, recall and play, those familiar surroundings become a timeline the children can walk through—and learn to revisit in their imagination, wherever they go.
That first-week preparation is part of every format: school, after-school and homeschool/online. At Empathy, we’ll build the route at school. For families learning at home online, we’ll guide the same preparation in their own familiar setting. Children continuing remotely from Empathy can revisit its photographed route.
For families who want to explore history through stories, questions and shared experiences. Our first cohorts are for children aged 6+, with just 3–5 children in each group.
Children attend the weekly sessions independently, but this is a shared adventure for the family. We’ll supply tools and simple invitations to help you revisit the stories together at home—through conversation, games and remembering. Set aside around 45 minutes across the week; you don’t need to plan lessons yourself.
It may not be a fit for:
We’ll speak individually with parents before joining, so we can discuss your child, what you hope for and what we ask of one another.
We use vivid mental imagery and expressive narration to draw children into the past: how people wrestled with difficult problems and expressed their ideas in unexpected ways. We want children to fall in love with these stories, though not necessarily all the characters, and begin to see themselves as part of a world shaped by those who came before.
A story leaves room for more than one listener’s understanding. A child may notice a choice, a parent a consequence; both have something to bring to the conversation. The family can share the same stories, then return to them with different questions as the children grow.
Those returns can lead into larger arguments about the past: how societies change, who has power, how beliefs shape action, and what new technologies make possible. The first cycle gives us familiar events and people to return to when we begin asking those larger questions.
Alongside its short recorded stories, the original course supplies:
The original course is still being developed, with access to materials as they are released.
Our gatherings build on these materials through storytelling and activities chosen for the children in the group. Drawing, dramatising or playing with a story gives us ways to return to its questions and discoveries. You can explore the course team’s ideas about playing inside stories.
Each week, parents will receive a short guide with:
These encounters can fit into everyday life: a conversation on the way to school, a game after dinner, a remembered detail before sleeping. Sessions and guidance are in English; families can revisit the stories in whichever language feels comfortable at home.
A seed, a song, a building, a new invention: each has a history. So do the games we play, the words we use and the ways people organise their lives. When children ask how something came to be, their growing collection of stories gives them places to begin making connections.
Our memory palace helps hold the sequence together. Recalling one image can bring back a story and its neighbours in time. We practise the route through play and repeated returns, until children can revisit more of it in their imagination. The physical display supports that work; remembering still takes practice.
Remembering creates an opportunity for understanding. We can ask what changed, what people knew then, whose account we have heard, and how one event relates to another. Those questions give the images and stories more meaning each time we return.
We’ll work toward the full 144-story journey at a pace we can review together, rather than promise a fixed completion date.
You can explore the ideas behind the original course in Brandon Hendrickson’s introduction to Big Spiral History.
We’re forming a maximum of two groups at Empathy, with just 3–5 children in each.
Message me on WhatsApp for practical details, fees and available places.
Once the groups are formed, new enquiries will go onto our waitlist, with later joining considered individually.
Yes. These first encounters give children something specific to remember and question. Returning to them lets us explore connections, compare perspectives and discuss larger explanations of the past. The stories begin that work; they do not settle every interpretation.
The selection belongs to the BSH team. It brings together memorable events with opportunities to explore wider developments and competing ideas. No collection of 144 stories can include everything; the selection can be reconsidered as the course develops.
The source course is intended as a connected framework for the whole sweep of history, including the universe, life and humanity. Our local sessions work through that course at the group’s pace. It can sit within your family’s wider learning plan; we’ll discuss how the local pace fits yours.
No. The course reaches across world history, with Earth, life and the universe preceding humanity. It is not a national-history course, and a selection of 144 stories cannot cover every place equally.
They can encounter the same story and bring different questions to it. The course was designed to include families; local facilitation gives us room to attend to the children here. We’ll talk with you about your child’s interests and responses before joining.
History includes violence, death and suffering. Some stories or details may need to wait.
I’ll review the material first, discuss sensitivities with parents, choose the content and level of detail carefully, and listen to the child’s response. There is room to pause, choose another story, or return later.
The original course is designed primarily for ages 8–18, with younger children participating with adult support. Our ages 6+ groups are a locally facilitated approach; that doesn’t make every story suitable for every child.
We need to distinguish what evidence supports, what people believed, and what the storyteller has imagined. Those are different kinds of claim.
In the Columbus story, for example, his son’s speech is an imagined eulogy, not a surviving quotation from the funeral. A useful question for children and adults alike: “How do we know?”
Yes. Religious people, beliefs and traditions appear because they are part of human history. The distinction I want to hold is between learning about a belief and asking a child to adopt it. If a passage concerns your family, let’s look at its source together.
Children attend independently. Before joining, we’ll have a separate conversation about your child, your expectations and how the programme works. Parent participation continues at home.
Around 45 minutes across the week. We’ll provide a short guide, questions and activities. You can spread the time into small encounters that suit your family; no lesson planning is required.
In the first week, in every format: school, after-school and homeschool/online. Children joining us at Empathy will build their route at school, so those families don’t need a second one at home. Families learning at home online will be guided through the same preparation in their own setting. A photographed Empathy route supports children continuing remotely from that group.
Empathy families won’t need another display at home. For homeschool/online preparation, we can discuss physical images and practising an imagined route. Either way, the important work is linking stories to places and returning to recall them.
At one new story per teaching week, 144 stories means 144 teaching weeks. Calendar time depends on breaks and any increase in pace. We’ll start steadily, review how it is working, and discuss continuation with families.
Each week gives us stories to return to, connections to discover, and time to understand how your child responds. We’d love you to give that shared experience time to grow.
Payments are monthly. If it isn’t working for your family, let’s talk about what needs to change and whether continuing makes sense.
We’d love to continue the journey with you. Separate online sessions can be arranged at a workable time, using the familiar stories and photographed memory-palace route. We’ll discuss availability and time zones together.
Weekly at Empathy, for 45–60 minutes. Group times are confirmed before joining. We begin with one new story a week, with activities and returns woven into the session.
We’re forming stable cohorts that progress together. New enquiries go onto our waitlist once the groups are formed; later joining is considered individually, depending on space and fit.
Message Neha for fees and what’s included. Monthly payments and sibling pricing are available. Each child occupies a place in a group of no more than five.
The group continues, and we’ll give you a simple way to catch up with the story at home. A missed group session doesn’t include an individual replacement. If I cancel, I’ll offer a replacement session or credit.
Your family’s access to the original course is separate from the ongoing facilitation. We’ll explain how access is arranged when you join. SFH’s access terms apply; the course intends long-term availability but does not promise it will be hosted forever.
Story locations help us connect events to the world, but this is not a full geography programme. The course team also outlines approaches to elementary geography and geography for older learners.
A story can give children something they want to draw, describe or write about. Our invitations may include those forms of response, depending on the group. We are not offering a separate assessed writing course.
Explore the original Atoms lesson and its notes, or read the Schools for Humans course page. These describe the source course; the weekly local experience is outlined here.
We’re forming a maximum of two groups at Empathy, with just 3–5 children in each.
Message me on WhatsApp for practical details, fees and available places.
Once the groups are formed, new enquiries will go onto our waitlist, with later joining considered individually.