Classical Education
What is classical education?
How can you implement it in your homeschool?
Classical education:
Classical education is a type of education that has a rich history. With Christian classical education, we define it as the pursuit of Truth (yes, capital T), beauty, and goodness. And as Classical Conversations puts it- the goal is to “know God and make Him known.”
In short, classical education:
- emphasizes history, literature, and language
- is an education in the classics, English literature, the humanities, and moral virtues
- teaches students how to learn and how to think
- encourages students to pursue the why, how and who of ideas and decisions in addition to the what.
- is grounded in piety (the duty, love, and respect owed to God, parents, and authorities; the proper love and fear of God and man) the Christian classical education is the transmission of the culture of the church.
- is God-centered. All knowledge and understanding comes from God, and our education should reflect Him.
All things are created by God and for God. And this should be reflected in our education. Everything we learn points to the attributes of God. And in our learning and exploration, we reflect God to others.
Classical education relies on a three-part system or trivium style of learning with three phases: grammar, dialectic or logic, and rhetoric. Using these three phases helps to sculpt a knowledgeable, articulate, and creative student. In short, the grammar stage is where the students learn it, dialectic is where the students start to put it together and do it, and the rhetoric phase is when the students are able to teach it, explain it, and be persuasive about it – the “it” being all that they are learning. And the beauty of this is that God wired us to learn this way!
Through this three-part system for educating, we are able to see what education can really be. Instead of simply training them for a test, we can educate and nourish their souls. It isn’t just about experiences, going to college, and getting a job (which are all good things too); it is so much more! It is teaching them how to think for themselves… How to have conversations and talk about big ideas. And above all, classical education teaches virtue, character, and integrity.
Music, art, science, literature, history, rhetoric… the list goes on. The beauty of classical education is the emphasis on all of these key subjects, and seeing how they are all tied together. The students learn to see how all things are integrated and point to God and Truth. Learning is a beautiful path to the pursuit of Truth.
No matter what your calling is, it matters if you can calculate, speak in front of others, pull meaning out from a text, be able to communicate well and have a conversation, hear opposing ideas and argue respectfully. And a classical education best prepares and equips young minds for all of these things!
Grammar stage (ages 4-10):
The grammar stage focuses on absorbing information and memorizing the rules of phonics, spelling, grammar, language, history, geography, science, math, etc. Children memorize the “grammar” of things all around us. Grammar doesn’t simply mean grammar, as in the English language. Grammar means knowledge or information. And each subject has its own grammar.
You will be amazed at what your young children learn, absorb and even retain. I have watched my 4 year-old memorize countries on a map, Latin conjugation endings, history sentences, math facts, and so much more. Their young brains are sponges! We make the memory work fun, and they actually enjoy memorizing all of these things. They love the repetition. We use songs, rhymes, and chants. I mean, who has ever forgotten the alphabet song?? Songs work!
During this period, children absorb a great amount of grammar or knowledge. They will build a solid foundation of facts that they bring into the logic stage. By pouring all of this information in now, they won’t have to work as hard when they are older. The information will already be there to pull from. Then they will be able to start using this knowledge and put it all together. After the grammar stage, the students know the “what.” Now the student will be ready to move on to understand the “why” as they start to see how everything is integrated during the dialectic or logic stage.
Logic/Dialectic (ages 10-12 / 6-8th grade):
The dialectic stage emphasizes logical discussion, debate, drawing correct conclusions, algebra, thesis writing, and determining the why’s behind the information. The middle-school years are when children naturally like to question things and argue. They want to know “why” and become more analytical. Children start to think more independently. In classical education we teach them to debate and argue well! They are taught to think critically and analyze the world around them by arranging the information they have learned into well thought-out and organized ideas. It is during the logic or dialectic stage that children learn how to discern and sort information, detecting truths and fallacies through logic. Students apply logic to all of their subjects. Connections start to be made and they start making sense of the world through asking questions and critical thinking. Through logic, asking question, and analyzing, students now begin to have understanding.
“The logic of writing, for example, includes paragraph construction and learning to support a thesis; the logic of reading involves the criticism and analysis of texts, not simple absorption of information; the logic of history demands that the student find out why the War of 1812 was fought, rather than simply reading its story; the logic of science requires that the child learn the scientific method.” (https://welltrainedmind.com/a/classical-education/?v=7516fd43adaa)
Rhetoric (ages 13-18 / high school):
Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-11
The rhetoric stage continues the systematic, rigorous studies and also seeks to develop a clear, forceful, and persuasive use of language. Students are now able to start teaching, articulating, and communicating to others what they know. They learn how to be original, persuasive, and expressive. Once a student has obtained knowledge of the facts (grammar) and developed the skills necessary to arrange those facts into organized arguments (logic), the student develops the skill of effectively communicating those arguments to others (rhetoric). Students are growing in wisdom and begin to apply what they know. Each subject has its own rhetoric. Writing papers, researching, and orating are skills required in all subjects.
“To the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. Astronomy (for example) isn’t studied in isolation; it’s learned along with the history of scientific discovery, which leads into the church’s relationship to science and from there to the intricacies of medieval church history. The reading of the Odyssey leads the student into the consideration of Greek history, the nature of heroism, the development of the epic, and man’s understanding of the divine.
We suggest that the twelve years of education consist of three repetitions of the same four-year pattern: Ancients, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and Modern Times. The child studies these four time periods at varying levels — simple for grades 1-4, more difficult in grades 5-8 (when the student begins to read original sources), and taking an even more complex approach in grades 9-12, when the student works through these time periods using original sources (from Homer to Hitler) and also has the opportunity to pursue a particular interest (music, dance, technology, medicine, biology, creative writing) in depth.”(https://welltrainedmind.com/a/classical-education/?v=7516fd43adaa)
In summary, the trivium can be summarized like this:
Let’s take baking bread. In the grammar stage you learn what baking is and what you need to bake bread – the ingredients, measurements, the kitchen tools needed, etc. During the dialectic stage you get to finally bake the bread. You take your understanding of what the ingredients and tools are, and how to measure everything and you get to use the recipe and bake the bread. Finally, once you have mastered the recipe and baking the bread, you are in the rhetoric stage. And it is now that you can explain it and teach others how to do it. And once you have walked through this process, you are now equipped to go out and apply this in any area of life. The trivium gives our children the tools to go out and learn well in any area.
The trivium is reflected in Proverbs: knowledge (grammar stage), understanding (dialectic), and wisdom (rhetoric).
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
The difference
Have you ever happened to notice that your child can’t remember basic things that they learned from that school year? It’s because of the nature of public or traditional education. They’re taught it once and they move on. It is much like an assembly line factory environment. They are all molded and stamped and sent down the line to the next thing. Some are bored and not engaged while others are lost and confused, yet they move on anyway.
To retain what we learn, we need something that is cyclical or spiral by nature. And that’s the beauty of classical education. You don’t just learn something and move on, never mentioning it again. You keep coming back to it each year, digging in deeper and adding to that piece of knowledge. Through this method, information is truly cemented into the brain.
In the traditional schools, they are being taught art and music on a very minimal level. But the arts are so important! For thousands of years the arts have reflected so much about each society and culture. What’s going on politically... historically... in religion... etc. We cannot neglect this in our education.
By homeschooling and being part of classical education, I have had the privilege to see the potential of what education CAN BE! It nothing like what we have all been trained to think of school/education. After seeing several of my children come out of traditional schools and being part of traditional schools myself (even though I was in very highly esteemed Catholic schools) – I have seen a vast difference from what education is/was and what it can really be. I am bummed that I wasn’t educated this way. Homeschooling was extremely rare when I was a child, and I was wild enough that my mom probably wouldn’t have wanted to attempt it even if it was an option. BUT- through homeschooling my children in this classical method, I am redeeming the lost part of my education and learning right alongside my children. And if you are a nerd like me, it is really fun!
Picture it this way -
an analogy to learning music
In traditional school (public or private), education is treated like this:
Imagine you want to play the piano. The teacher selects a song and you begin to play. She shows you which notes to play and in which order as you work your way through the song. But she never taught you anything about dynamics, theory, scales, how to read music, what each note is on the piano, etc. She simply showed you how to play the song and that’s it. To learn more, you would have to go back to the teacher. You haven’t been given the tools to learn on your own. You might have learned how to play the song, but you have no idea how to learn another song. You are dependent on the teacher.
How is classical education different?
With classical education you start with the basics - the grammar. In this case, the grammar for learning how to play the piano would be naming notes, reading music, tempo, rests, where the notes are on the piano, playing scales, dynamics, etc. Once you know the grammar for playing the piano, then you are free to learn any song! The classical approach teaches students how to learn and how to think. And once we teach them how to learn, they can learn anything!