“Mom, could you please take me to the craft store? I want to make a gift for my friend’s birthday.”

Remember the simple question: “what does it mean?” In this case, the message is clear. My daughter wants to make a gift for her friend and she needs supplies. Since she is not driving yet, I am the chauffeur, and she needs my help. A cheerful countenance, bright eyes, and petitioning hands all tell me that she is (1) excited to surprise her friend with an unexpected, homemade present and (2) hopeful that I will assist.

The challenge of understanding texts is more difficult than understanding face-to-face conversations, live action, or recorded action. In face-to-face conversations, we are able to take the actual words that are being spoken and factor in the facial expressions, vocal modulations, and body language to accurately determine meaning. Live speeches, movies, and documentaries all allow the spectator to watch the speaker as if they were talking in person. Recorded audio lectures are a bit more difficult to interpret because the listener cannot see the speaker; however, the speaker’s intent can be generally gauged from the rising or falling voice, the pauses, the speed of delivery, the repetition of key phrases, and the emphasis on certain points. Although sometimes other issues are simmering under the surface, most parents sitting across the breakfast table from their children will be able to accurately interpret the speaking child’s requests and concerns.

The Message is More than Information

In some respects, reading texts is like all other forms of communication. There is an addresser, a message, and an addressee. In both oral and written communication, the addresser assumes that he will be understood. The message is more than information. The addresser has presumably structured the message to achieve a certain goal: influencing the addressee to respond in some manner.

In the scenario with my daughter, she wanted me to make time during the daily to take her to the store. She wanted to influence me. The Lord of the Rings movies are not just entertainment; the producer structured the message so that the ring reminds me of my own temptations. He wanted to influence me. The professor who delivers the mp3 lecture on “American Political Thought” is not just passing on facts; he communicates his interpretation of facts and either persuades me to adopt or reject his position. He might even convict me to find a few books at the library for further understanding of the issues. He wanted to influence me.

Ambiguities Get in the Way

So, too, the author of a text, whether as antiquated as the Dead Sea Scrolls or as recent as yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, wanted to communicate in such as way that his message was understood. He called his reader to action. He influenced. But the problem with written communication is that we can’t stop the conversation and ask for clarification. If there were several craft stores in my town, and my daughter didn’t specify which one she wanted to go to, I could interrupt the dialogue to ask her whether she meant Joann Fabrics, Michael’s Crafts, or Hobby Lobby. I cannot interrupt a written conversation to clarify ambiguities. I can’t say, “You’ve got to be kidding!?” or “I just don’t get it…what are you talking about?”

Time Gets in the Way

Another issue that makes interpreting texts more difficult than interpreting face-to-face conversations is the problem of time. In almost every case of literary communication, the sender (addresser) is distant in space and time from the receiver (the addressee). I might be able to leave a question or comment on the Wall Street Journal blog and receive timely feedback, but I certainly cannot write the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls to clarify a misunderstanding. Does the text stand alone, or do I have other means of interpreting what the author meant? I do have other options for understanding. These three methods for interpreting textual meaning will help me answer the simple question, “what does it mean?”

Get Behind the Text

The primary question of this interpretation method is “what did the author mean then?” The text itself is not the focus…the text is a window into the intention of the author and into the historical events at the time. Behind-the-text readings generally ask questions like:

• What did the author intend to accomplish by writing this text?
• Did the events in the book really happen?
• What did those events mean historically?

Get in the Text

“What does the text actually say?” is the primary question of this method of interpretation. Unconcerned with historical events or concerned about errors that might arise from trying to figure out the author’s intent back then, this approach takes more of a literary view of the text. The text is viewed as a cultural artifact. In-the-text questions include:

• What did the author say?
• Do the literary tools that the author used support his point?
• What is the effect of the author’s message on me today?

Get in Front of the Text

Finally, a reader can get “in front of” the text to determine meaning. In this method, the reader is not focused on the intent of the author or the impact on the particular reader, but the one who uses this method looks at the variations in interpretations. He recognizes that every reader can potentially interpret the text differently simply because readers are situated in different cultures and different times. Under this method, the Gentiles in 3rd Century A.D. Corinth might interpret chapters 15-17 of the Gospel of John quite differently than the readers of evangelical 21st Century America. The content alone is not important. People in different cultures bring different presuppositions to the text which impacts how they answer the simple question, “what does it mean?” Questions of this method might be:

• What did medieval knights on Crusade think this text meant?
• What was the culture like during the Crusades in Europe?
• What presuppositions do Christian knights bring to the text?

All Three Methods are Viable

Each of these methods has validity. You can combine the methods, or use one method for a particular text and another for a different text. My personal preference is to get behind the text because I enjoy history, but I could get behind-the-text to examine ancient Greece as it impacted Homer’s Odyssey as well as front-of-the-text to try to understand how my Western Civilization forbears like the Puritans understood Homer’s Odyssey. The choice is yours. Allow your homeschool teens to experiment by trying each of the methods in interpreting the texts that they read. Just make sure that you are also involved in discussing their understanding and offering possible counterpoints as you help them discover the not-so-simple answers to the simple question, “what does it mean?“

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In my next post, we’ll talk about training our children for influence.

Tags: communication, homeschool, interpret, interpretation, lectures, speeches, understanding conversations, understanding texts

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at four unusual qualities that we hope to foster in our children, especially those older kids who have substantially mastered the three skills of the trivium and are ready to advance towards supervised independent study of subjects. What four qualities are we cultivating? We want our rising classical scholars to:

• Master the material

• Exhibit self-discipline

• Interpret meaning

• Influence culture

Insightful interpretation comes after a full knowledge and understanding of the topic is mastered. You cannot effectively interpret the facts if you no nothing about the underlying causes. The maestro who can bring a musical score to life or the Indy Car driver who can observe the signs of an engine problem have both learned how to interpret meaning because they have exercised self-discipline to become masters of their material. Your children have been observing and accumulating knowledge for years. Now it’s time to interpret the knowledge.

The Simple Question

How can you explain the concept of interpretation to your teens? Some people use the word interpretation as a synonym for translation as in determining the original intent of a foreign language text or conversation. Others use the word interpretation to describe the process of personalizing a dramatic script for public performance. For classical Christian homeschool students and parents, interpretation boils down to one simple question.

What does it mean?

“It” can be an idea, a spoken word, or a deed. The question is the same whether you are reading a text, listening to a conversation, or watching live and recorded action. What is the meaning of this chapter, this lecture, or this documentary?

To interpret is to understand the central message, themes, or truths

Knowing facts is not enough for our kids. Train them to ask the simple question (”what does it mean?”) by consistently asking them to tell you what “it” means as you supervise their work.

The Not-So-Simple Answer

You have enough life experience to know that asking a simple question does not always result in receiving a simple answer. Such is the case with interpretation. The answer is not always clear, nor is the answer always quickly obtained. Sometimes it takes a lot of pondering, exploring, dissecting, and reassembling to figure out the meaning of an idea, word, or deed. Often, especially in the case of the classics, the definitive meaning changes or deepens as each new generation reads and interprets the text while bringing their own perspectives to the material. The classics are considered timeless because they discuss some of the most important questions about being human, so don’t expect simple answers.

For a teen tackling the unabridged classics, understanding the central message takes time and careful thought. In the early childhood years, you have given them the three foundational tools so that they can thoughtfully analyze the possible messages and use the English language to effectively communicate their understanding by summarizing an abstract, composing an essay, or narrating the major points.

But effective communication is not a one-way street. If your kids write or narrate their understanding, you have to be available to listen to their points and ask questions about the idea. They need your participation so that they can wrestle with any counterpoints that you might suggest. Conversations are crucial to clear understanding.

Supervise the Quest for Truth

Many Christian home school parents avoid discussing ideas which are controversial. I have a dear friend who protected her daughter from certain ideas while she was living at home. When her daughter left for college, her faith was shattered because she internalized these new ideas as truth. This young woman now calls herself an atheist and is outraged that her parents withheld the “truth.” My friend’s heart is broken with grief and self-doubt. Should she have discussed both sides of evolution with her daughter? Would things have turned out differently if she and her husband had seriously talked about the opposing position instead of indignantly dismissing the counterpoints as rubbish?

Take this opportunity, while your kids are still living at home, to shepherd them in the discovery of truth. Introduce them to the classics. Don’t be afraid to talk about all the possibilities of meaning. Help them exercise their thinking skills while under your care. If you have trained them in righteousness and not just religion, then they should be able to distinguish truth from falsehood.

“My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures- then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.” (Proverbs 2:1-11 NRSV)

You don’t have to share the point of view of every writer or speaker, but you can learn from those with other viewpoints. Most of the people that your adult children will encounter when they leave your safe home will have viewpoints about the meaning of life that are drastically different from your own. Prepare your children now, while under your tutelage, to use their language, thinking, and communication skills to interpret meaning, using the classics as their laboratory, so that when you finally send them out, they are ready to respond to the world’s biggest questions with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

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Next, we’ll look at three practical methods for interpreting meaning.

Progressive responsibility and appropriate consequences are two characteristics of self-discipline in a classical home school. But those are not the only attributes. Supervised independent study is the pinnacle of self-discipline to which all parents using this classical homeschooling method should aspire. When your children have substantially mastered language, thinking, and communication, pay attention. You will probably notice that your preteen or teen is also regularly teaching himself the material instead of relying on you to relay knowledge.

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David and I belong to a local health club. During the first few months of our membership, we hired a personal trainer to (1) perform some tests, and (2) show us how to use the equipment correctly. We had to fast from food and drink (no coffee…oh the headache!) the night before the first test, and when we arrived that morning, we had to wear this strange mask that measured our resting heart rates over a 20 minute interval. Next we both got on a treadmill and, still wearing the masks, ran a difficult course of increasing elevation to determine our body’s minimum and maximum metabolism. We were told to do as many push ups as we could (I hate pushups), and timed abdominal crunches. Finally, we were weighed (gasp…did I really weigh that?) and the dreaded pincher tool grabbed our thighs, waists, and arms to measure body fat percentage.

After all the results were entered into the computer program, a concise report was generated which gave us our personal baselines for improving our health IF we ate a healthy diet, exercised aerobically, and lifted weights. Personal goals for weight loss, strength, and body fat reduction were established. We then began a 12 week program with a personal trainer who used our personal plans to teach us how to use each piece of equipment without injury. Each week we saw improvement in strength, endurance, and weight loss as she challenged us to work at our maximum abilities.

When we began the program, we had high hopes that we would see results immediately (after all, we had doubled our exercise time!), but each week, we only saw little gains. However, now that the entire regimen with the personal trainer is over, we clearly see a difference in the way we look and feel; the physical results are measurable and positive. Neither one of us met the computer’s prediction by the end of the 12 weeks, but we are both still faithfully working towards those goals and know that, with time and practice, we will arrive at our destination even if it takes longer than expected.

Although we greatly enjoyed our personal trainer, we no longer need her help. She gave us all the guidance and even shared copies of her twelve plans with us so that when we were ready, we could launch out on our own fitness adventure. If we need any help, we can find her quickly and resolve any concerns or questions that we have.

Supervised Independent Study is like a Personal Training Program

Coaching your maturing child to the point of supervised independent study is like starting a fitness program. Imagine that you are the personal trainer, and he is the trainee. After all those years under your careful guidance, he has learned how to use the language to express his thoughts in writing and in speech. In essence, you have taught him how to learn!

As he gains confidence and age, he begins to take ownership of his own learning as he acquires more knowledge and interprets the meaning of what he’s learning. Not only have you taught him how to learn academics, but you have taught him administrative skills, too. Over the years, you have no given him more and more responsibility. You’ve shown him how to regulate his own schedule. Perhaps you even have him check and correct his own work now.

Once you determine that he is ready to begin the systematic study of subjects like economics, history, and philosophy, your role as personal trainer changes. Just like our personal trainer showed us the ropes then released us to implement the regime on our own, so, too, you need to release your child to supervised independent study when it is time.

If there are subjects that you or your husband are especially qualified or eager to teach them, then by all means, continue teaching those subjects! My husband, David, is an American Civil War buff, so there is no better mentor in that area of U. S. history for our kids. I love to write, so I take responsibility for supervising their increasing competence in composing speeches and essays. However, we employ the expertise of outside personal trainers in some areas: Meredith takes voice and piano lessons from a university professor, and we use video, audio, and live instruction from other experts as necessary. I regularly download the mp3 lessons from The Teaching Company, and I’ve spent too much money taking the kids to debate camps and Andrew Pudewa workshops!

Most of all, I’m delighted that both kids are able to let the text teach them! The tools that we have given them (like annotation and abstracts) enable them to have a “conversation” with the author of the text that really helps them to get to the bottom of the author’s intent and take ownership of what they discover. Later in this series, I’ll outline the scholar’s tools.

Four Mental Attitudes

Self-discipline is often about pushing yourself to accomplish tasks or adopt behaviors even though you’d really rather be doing something else. Every time that I had to do those push ups, I inwardly dreaded them but willed myself to move forward. Obstacles to progress, temptations to slothfulness, and hardships along the way will inevitably arise. You need to train your kids in rejecting immediate satisfaction for the greater good. Here are four lessons that David and I learned in the gym.

1. Identify your goal.

Before you can make progress, you need to first establish the baseline from which you are starting. Ask yourself, “where am I in terms of…?” Accurate assessments, no matter how embarrassing or painful, will help you realistically set achievable goals. Decide what steps you need to take to get there. Which steps are easy, and which steps are challenging? Be realistic.

2. Take the plunge.

As the Nike ads say, “just do it.” Once you have decided on a course of action, it’s time to move forward. Train yourself in tackling the project sooner rather than later. Don’t procrastinate. Attack the steps identified in reaching your goal systematically and strategically. It helps to break the goal up into to baby steps, plus you’ll get more endorphin rushes when you check off more to-dos!

3. Work hard.

Achieving your goals is hard work, but you need to work hard to achieve them. The challenges will be great, but so will the reward. Learn to use your time efficiently so that you are productive and effective. The pain may seem unbearable, but you will get through it.

4. Keep moving.

Don’t give up. There is such a joy to pushing through the pain even if you think you cannot take another step. The sense of achievement is worth the difficulties that preceded the goal. Move on even if you don’t feel like it. Keep your eyes on that vision that you established earlier and imagine what can be. Persist. Persevere. It’s worth it in the long run!

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The maestro who can bring a musical score to life or the Indy Car driver who can observe the signs of an engine problem have both learned how to interpret meaning. Insightful interpretation comes after a full knowledge and understanding of the topic is mastered. In my next two posts, we’ll look at the challenges of interpretation and three methods for interpreting meaning from face-to-face interactions to textual clues.

One of the characteristics of an Indy Car driver and a musical maestro, both masters of their respective skill, is self-discipline. Were they undisciplined in pursuing knowledge and practice of their craft, they would never have risen to the heights of master. We want our rising classical scholars to exhibit self-discipline especially when they are ready to tackle the weightier ideas of life. But successful young adults don’t just wake up one day with a cheery smile and say, “I’m going to be self-disciplined today!” No, long before your home school child is ready to transition to the supervision of subjects, you have something to teach them besides language, critical thinking, and communication skills. In addition to content, you will gradually teach them good habits which will prepare them for Step 3, Supervised Study of Subjects.

Look at the word “self-discipline,” it’s easy to see that “self” refers to the individual, but the really interesting thing about the etymology or origin of the word “discipline” is that it comes from the latin noun disciplina (instruction) and the latin verb discere (to learn). A very familiar word to Christian parents also derives from these latin roots: disciple. So, in the simplest sense discipline is really instruction given to a disciple! As a parent, you are not just discipling your children to follow Jesus, but you are also discipling them to govern themselves.

Progressive Responsibility

When the kids were young, there was no homeschool schedule (at least one they knew of). I made all the decisions about the content, but over time, I gradually disciplined the children to take more responsibility for their work. In the beginning, I did not tell them what we were going to do that day. Schedules were flexible and depended quite a bit on how long I could hold their attention. As they got older, I began to give them a daily schedule with tasks that they were to complete. They enjoyed crossing out the task as it was finished, and it gave them a sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep plugging along until the entire day was done!

When I felt they were ready to handle more responsibility, I developed a weekly schedule of assignments by day which I expected them to tackle. Inevitably, some tasks were not accomplished and were postponed to the next day, but overall, it was a good way to show them the whole week at a glance and teach them longer term planning.

Later, I began to give them a weekly schedule, but this time, I did not tell them when they had to get the work done. In other words, I told them they were mature enough to budget their own time and could choose to do all their math lessons on Tuesday if they wanted or spread them over the week.

Finally, the summer before Meredith’s freshman year, we spent several hours in a visionary session where we went to the websites of a couple of colleges that she’s interested in, and we looked at the minimum admission requirements for her possible major and minor. We then chatted about what she had to accomplish to meet these minimums, and sketched out a very loose, four year strategic plan to get there. Then she decided, with our blessing and counsel, which subjects she wanted to study in detail for the next two semesters. So, she was now responsible for a semester plan which was totally her own responsibility. In effect, David and I had discipled her over the years to supervised independent study.

Appropriate Consequences

In a perfect world, the disciple would do exactly what he or she was supposed to do, but we know from the Gospels, that even Jesus’ disciples veered off course. Peter denied knowing him in the courtyard, and Judas arranged his arrest. Over the years, you’ve been teaching your child certain patterns of behavior, but every now and then, as the disciplinarian (another derivative of disciplina, “instruction”), you have to enforce order. David and I have found that it’s much easier to establish the consequences before the infraction is committed.

For instance, when the kids were younger, I didn’t punish them for missing one of my task deadlines. I am often overly ambitious, and I chalked the delays up to my optimism in setting the schedule. But now that I know what they are capable of doing, and now that they are older and more mature, they do receive consequences for failure to meet expectations. Connor, my almost-fourteen year old, is still operating with a weekly schedule, so if he doesn’t complete one of the tasks on the schedule, he has to keep working until he gets it done. This might mean extra hours in the afternoon or on the weekend. Meredith, my fifteen year old, didn’t finish her Algebra 1 this semester because of our overwhelming debate workload, so she’s working this summer (on her own timetable) to complete the Algebra 1lessons.

Consequences can be negative or positive. Sometimes the kids have cranked to get something done, and I’ll give them the rest of the week off as a reward for hard work. Incentives are not manipulative or coercive; they are more like unexpected rewards for good behavior or stellar performance. I think of them like a bonus for long hours or excellent work that your boss might give you at year-end.

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Self-discipline is not just about assuming personal responsibility for a work schedule and experiencing consequences for missing or making deadlines. Discipline over learning, the role of the supervisor, and four helpful hints for your disciples are the subjects of my next post.

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In post one of this series on mastering the three skills of the classical trivium, “How Do You Measure Mastery?”, I compared classical homeschooling to Indy car racing and defined the finish line, the driver, and the crew. In “Diane’s Must-Know Mastery Checklists,” I compared the content to the Indy car and shared my personal “must-know” checklists for teaching language, critical thinking, and communication skills. In this final post on mastery, we’ll look at pit stops and how to evaluate your child’s progress towards mastery.

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The Pit Stop

Indy Cars enter the pit for one reason: maintenance. Periodically throughout the race, the driver pulls into the pit for fuel, tire changes, and for other engine or body work. The experienced pit crew member assesses the situation and prescribes a solution. Personally, in the “Lockman Racing League,” we like regular pits! I probably reassess the kids’ progress about every 12-18 weeks. I use my “must-know” checklists as a gauge and adjust the schedule and content accordingly. Weaker areas get more time. Sometimes I’ll even table all other work and do a quick intensive to make sure they are getting the concept. We’ve been known to stop everything and do a “grammar camp” or nothing but algebra until I was satisfied that they “got it.” Feel free to use my content “must-know” checklists as a guide to help you develop your next 12 week strategic plan.

The Score

Indy Car drivers accumulate points over the racing season as they compete in multiple races around the country. You need criteria for judging mastery, too.

How will you evaluate the learning?

In our home, we have one performance philosophy: do it well or do it over. We don’t accept mediocrity. Once Connor was performing poorly on his math lessons averaging about a 60-70%. My husband took control of the situation and started grading his work. Instead of circling the errors, he simply told Connor how many he missed and told him he had to find them. Basically, he had to do every problem again to find the errors. Although it was a painful lesson that took a couple of weeks of endurance, Connor learned to take his time, check his work, and master the material.

Although I do use letter grades for recording high school level work for the transcript, I prefer to evaluate mastery using a scale that I found in John Milton Gregory’s The Seven Laws of Teaching. Basically, you pick a skill and answer the following question. For instance, how much do you know about analogies? punctuation? bibliographies?

• I know nothing about…

• I am somewhat familiar with…

• I can generally describe the steps to…

• I can illustrate and explain how to…

• I am beginning to understand the deeper truths of…

• I am changing my behavior because of…

When they reach the changing behavior status, you know that they have mastered the material. Additionally, I really like to have them teach others the concept. You cannot teach what you do not know, and there is nothing like having to prepare a lesson that clarifies your misunderstandings or weaknesses. By the way, the word “master” is defined as “one who has such extensive knowledge and comprehensive skill that he is able to teach others his specialty.

The Training

Alas, mastery is hard work for both parent and child. Parents who may not remember (or maybe never learned) the “rules” of the race need refueling to restore long-forgotten knowledge. Thankfully, a rusty parent can come up to speed rather quickly with a little review. The child, however, begins each of the three skills of the trivium as a novice, and consequently, his or her journey towards mastery will take years of learning and practice before language, thought, and communication skills are finally conquered. To continue with the race analogy, the parent runs a sprint while the child runs a marathon!

Mastery of the three skills is not consecutive; the skills are usually built concurrently over time. In other words, your child doesn’t master language then master critical thinking then master writing then master public speaking. In fact, your child can work on mastering all three skills at the same time. Consider the child who is learning about multiplication. As he learns the vocabulary like factor and product (language), he makes ordered stacks with the colored tile manipulatives (critical thinking) and sings the multiplication songs to his little brother (communication).

Additionally, you may find that your child has substantially mastered one skill (like the spelling component of language) but is still working on another skill set (the grammar component of language). Instead of drilling the spelling rules, devote that time to diagramming sentences.

The good news is this: if you have dropped the 12 year public school paradigm, then you are free to spend as many years as it takes teaching only 3 major skills: language, thought, and communication. In some families, mastery of these three skills takes 6 years; in others, it takes 8 years. Even if you spent the first 8 years guiding your child toward full command, that still leaves 4 years for your teenager to dive deep into the study of subjects and, in the process, compile a very impressive transcript. Don’t worry about how long it takes; teach them language, thinking, and communication until they are able to teach others and become masters of their skills just like Indy Car racers!

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In Adopt a Radical Position…Be Counter-Cultural, I discussed four qualities that need to be nurtured in classical Christian home school kids: (1) mastery, (2) self-reliance, (3) interpretation, and (4) influence. Now that we’ve covered mastery, it’s time to examine the rising scholar’s level of self-reliance, independence, and responsibility, all of which are the subjects of my next post.

Have you watched my free parent tutorial yet on The 7 Laws of Teaching? In this free ~30 minute flash presentation, you’ll learn more about mastery for you, the parent! You can take your own assessment and see what areas of language, critical thinking, and communication you need to work on to teach your kids. Let me know if you enjoy it, and please leave any suggestions for improvement by taking the online survey. Thanks!