Hugh Gardner is a historian and educator from Arlington, Virginia. Through his business, Illuminations, Mr. Gardner has taught in-depth, interactive history classes to thousands of homeschooled students in Virginia and Maryland since 1996. Hugh teaches several two-year, 60-week series covering the Dark Ages and Medieval times, American History, and the World Wars in addition to special seminars on cinema, propaganda, and literature topics. He has an extensive collection of artifacts, antique and replica weapons, and military paraphernalia along with games, artwork, charts, maps, and primary sources that he incorporates into his classes. Mr. Gardner is a former US government military intelligence analyst.
“My son has been in class with Mr. Gardner for three years. He has gained a vast amount of knowledge and understanding of history from Mr. Gardner. He is easily able to contribute his knowledge to conversations about world events as well as identify bias in perspectives. I could not be happier to have him teaching my sons and would rate him a 10/10. He is a truly inspiring expert and should be treasured.” -N.M. (Huntly, VA)
“When our son came home after his first class with Mr. Gardner, I asked him what he thought of the teacher and he said that Mr. Gardner’s love of history was ‘infectious’. Mr. Gardner has had a huge impact on our son’s interest in history. We have nothing but extremely positive feedback about Mr. Gardner and his course. His love of history is apparent since our son does nothing but talk about all he’s learned from Mr. Gardner, even a year later. Our son loves seeing the many genuine artifacts that Mr. Gardner brings in to class for students to see and experience first-hand. Our son has learned a great deal from Mr. Gardner. The most important thing I have to say about Mr. Gardner is that his genuine love of history has had such a deep impact on our son that he is now considering history as a college major. Mr. Gardner is our son’s favorite teacher of all. Our son may not remember what he had for lunch that day, but he remembers everything he’s learned in Mr. Gardner’s class! I would highly recommend this course to any person interested in a fun, engaging and very well taught history class.” -C.G. (Frederick, MD)
“My son absolutely loves Mr. Gardner’s class. Hugh Gardner was an excellent instructor and my son loves his teaching style with story telling to engage his students.” -C.D. (Herndon, VA)
“Mr. Gardner has had a huge impact on our son’s interest in history. We have nothing but extremely positive feedback about Mr. Gardner and his course. His love of history is apparent since our son does nothing but talk about all he’s learned from Mr. Gardner, even a year later. Our son loves seeing the many genuine artifacts that Mr. Gardner brings in to class for students to see and experience first hand. He arrives early to the class and helps Mr. Gardner set it all up. It is rare that students get to see and touch historical items and I commend Mr. Gardner for sharing that experience with his students.”
