Mrs. Kjirsten Harpain
Kjirsten Harpain, AIA, CSI, NCIDQ, LEED AP BD+C, is a homeschooling mom, architect, and architectural specifier at Darden Architects, Inc. A former high school English teacher, she discovered Christian Classical Education a decade ago while preparing for the necessity of working while homeschooling. Kjirsten brings her expertise in architecture—particularly scale, detail, and systems thinking—to help parents and teachers guide students in understanding history with clarity and context.
Teaching the classical liberal arts by Celebrating the Timeline: An Architect's Joy of Discovering Level of Detail (LOD) in Classical Christian Education (CCE) History.
Why does it matter to memorize a timeline and history sentences? What is the “secret sauce” of Christian classical history methodology? Can adopting a perspective of scale in history illuminate understanding in other areas of learning? This presentation explores how architectural principles—especially Level of Detail (LOD) and scale—reveal the structure and connections within history. Drawing on her experience as a professional architect and homeschooling mom (Classical Conversations, then Claritas), Kjirsten shows how architects’ tools for understanding complex construction documentation can help students see historical knowledge clearly—from broad “ages” down to detailed narratives. Using the imagery of architectural drawings, the talk demonstrates why memorizing The Timeline, history sentences, and progressing through increasingly detailed historical texts parallels an architect’s progression from conceptual site plan to full construction documents. Attendees will learn to identify when students are “stuck in the weeds” or “missing the site plan” and discover practical ways to fill gaps, building a cohesive and illuminating mental model of world history. The presentation defines Level of Detail in architecture and maps it to the levels of historical study. Discussion may also explore architectural perspectives applied to communication, prioritization, and other subjects—revealing how seeing the world in scale helps students navigate, prioritize, and understand relationships.