In “How Do You Measure Mastery?”, the first post of this series on preparing to transition to the supervised study of subjects, I compared classical homeschooling to Indy car racing and defined the finish line, the driver, and the crew. Today, we’ll talk about the car, and I’ll share my personal “must-know” checklists for teaching language, critical thinking, and communication skills .

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The Car

An Indy Car driver does not learn to drive in an expensive race car. He probably drove his Daddy’s tractor, dirt bike, or old beat up Chevy around the farm before he was invited to drive a million dollar vehicle. Simple concepts precede complex concepts.

We use different vehicles for different purposes. Indy Cars are made to travel on a wide oval track, Formula One cars travel on tight European city streets, and good ‘ole boy stock cars are made for intentional frequent crashes! Mountain bikes have fat tires for scaling rocky uphill terrain. Racing cycles are lightweight with thin tires for speed and manueverability on pavement. Gargantuan cruise ships carry loads of vacationers while shrimp boats are perfect for fishing and hauling seafood. So, too, there are different purposes and rules for using language, thinking critically, and communicating effectively. Whether you are transitioning to a classical model or just beginning, you need to decide what basic rules of operation you want to teach your child for each particular skill.

What content will you teach your children?

Now if you were expecting me to lay out a full “scope and sequence” for teaching the trivium, I’m sorry to disappoint you. When I go to home school curriculum fairs and see the words “scope and sequence,” my eyes glaze over, and my brain goes numb. In my opinion, scope and sequence is a phrase invented by professional educators to intimidate home school parents into thinking they need experts to tell them what’s best for their children!

Besides, anyone who tells you what to teach by grade level is advocating a public school model, not a classical model. Remember you just need to focus on the big picture: teach three skills! You don’t need a 12 year plan, and in fact, you need frequent pit stops to reevaluate progress, so I suggest you make short-term plans. Personally, I like to reevaluate progress about every 12 weeks, and I always end up adjusting the course as a result to better meet my goals. Here are my short lists of “must-know” content for the three skills.

Diane’s “Must-Know” Checklist for Language Skills:

• How to read (alphabet, phonetic method)

• How to spell (spelling rules)

• How to write (handwriting – print, cursive, and later typing)

• How to punctuate and capitalize

• How to use proper grammar (all 8 parts of speech)

• How to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary

Diane’s “Must-Know” Checklist for Critical Thinking Skills:

• How to classify, describe, compare, and contrast

• How to identify and complete sequences

• How to identify and interpret analogies

• How to solve problems (math equation and word problems, puzzles)

• How to structure logical arguments (syllogism, fallacies)

• How to think inductively (particular to general) and deductively (general to particular)

• How to perform an experiment using the scientific method (including prediction)

• How to analyze literature

• How to research a topic

Diane’s “Must-Know” Checklist for Communication Skills:

• How to have conversations (face to face, telephone, letters)

• How to write a proper sentence and vary the structure (compound, complex, phrasing)
  

• How to write a correct paragraph, transitions, introduction, and conclusion

• How to add stylistic elements (dress ups, openers, decorations, triples)
  

• How to take notes (key word outline, stick & branch, annotation)

• How to write essays, reports, abstracts, research papers, and speeches

• How to footnote, write bibliographies, and edit

• How to develop a thesis statement and prove it with evidence

• How to give a speech (all 10 NCFCA categories)

• How to listen well and interpret meaning

Each family will teach content in differently. Let’s take an example. Learning how to research and develop arguments are two components of critical thinking. These skills can be taught in various ways. For instance, my husband, David, is an attorney who often finds himself before a federal judge. Learning how to research and debate a national or international resolution meets my husband’s criteria for teaching research skills, developing an argument, listening well, and giving a speech. Consequently, participation in our local debate club is mandatory for the Lockman kids! Whereas, your husband may be an engineer who believes research is best learned in a lab setting and communicated in a research paper. Tailor the content and methods to best meet your family’s abilities and preferences.

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In the final post of this series on mastery, I’ll share my 12 week pit stop plan for evaluating progress in acquiring the three skills of language, critical thinking, and communication.

For your convenience, I’ve prepared my “must-know” checklists for you in pdf format, so click on this link and print out your copy today!

Tags: classical homeschooling, classical model, communication, critical thinking, critical thinking skills, curriculum, home school, home school curriculum fair, homeschooling, how to read, how to spell, scope and sequence, speech and debate, teaching language, trivium

In Three Simple But Significant Steps To A Classical Education, I outlined 3 steps for transitioning to an authentic classical Christian home education. The content that follows is the initial post in an extensive series that explores the components of Step 3, Supervise the Study of Subjects. As each post is published, I’ll add the live link to the master list under the header tab called “Step 3″ so that you can access the entire series. I hope you enjoy this content and gain a fuller understanding of the argument that I am making for adopting a true classical model.

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As the sparkling lights of the symphony hall were dimmed, a hush fell over the crowd. All chattering ceased as the distinguished maestro confidently walked across the stage and silently addressed the musicians with his baton. After many years of diligent practice, the concertmaster was perfectly equipped to escort his audience on a musical journey that would quicken hearts and challenge minds.

Over the years, the maestro had mastered the language of music theory: melody, harmony, and rhythm. The longer he studied music, the more he understood the deeper mysteries of his art. Instruments, movements, and themes became his playground for critical analysis and experimentation. Finally, he learned how to interpret the unique meaning of the music and convey the composer’s intent by coaching the performers in their craft. His mastery of language, thought, and communication within his area of expertise would bless his community tonight during the concert and for many years to come as he continued to influence his culture with his passion for bringing music to life.

The maestro demonstrates four unusual qualities that we want to foster in our rising classical scholars:

• He masters the material.

• He disciplines himself.

• He interprets meaning.

• He influences his culture.

Why call these qualities unusual? Because most of today’s preteens and teenagers are captives of an educational system that breeds opposing characteristics and behaviors. Authentic classical Christian home schooling requires a profound shift in thinking about education. Think about your own public school experience.

Mastery is difficult if you only skim the surface. You went to school for 12 years. You had one textbook for each class. Every textbook had 36 chapters - one chapter for each week of the school year. You read one chapter a week. You were segregated by age into a grade. You studied the same textbook as your peers. That textbook was approved by a committee of certified educators who decided what information every child in your grade needed to know about that particular subject. If you couldn’t keep up with the instruction, you felt like an inadequate failure. If you understood the concepts, you were bored with the repetitive drills. The time restrictions of the calendar dictated the material taught, and there was no leeway for slowing down or accelerating learning.

No time for mastery.

Self-discipline is not necessary if someone tells you what to do. You were assigned a home room, and you had your own desk. You were given a timed schedule. Tardy arrivals and absences were noted on your record. You went where you were told including the bathroom and lunchroom at specific times. You read the chapters, you took the tests, you wrote the essays, and you memorized the material, but for some reason, you can’t remember much of what you learned! You were a good student who did what you were told. Good behavior was dictated not by the heart’s desire, but by the law. As soon as the teacher left the room, chaos broke loose.

No room for learning how to make informed decisions or teach yourself.

Interpretation is impossible when someone else tells you what to think. That committee of certified educators made the important decisions for you about what facts were important in literature, grammar, science, math, social studies, health, home economics, and all the other electives. Surveys, also known as secondary sources, formed the backbone of your education. The highlights of human knowledge were offered. Some might say your education was a mile wide and an inch deep. Education experts decided that you were unable to handle the heavier “classics” (other than a token play by Shakespere or novel by Dickens). Anyway, we all know that the classics are too difficult for teenagers, right? You were required to parrot back the facts that you’d memorized on multiple choice and true-false exams.

No chance for independent thinking or interpretation of meaning.

Influence is negative when your highest goal is self. Public schools no longer teach history; they teach social studies. At the center of all social studies is the individual. Next comes his family then his community then his world. In public school, motivation for action is centered around the individual and his or her vocation. You worked hard to get good grades to get a good job. In our family, we refer to this dilemma as “me is me to me.” If educators dream of shaping kids who will influence their community, these dreams are limited to the creation of “good” citizens although good is defined in a Greek sense and not necessarily a Biblical sense. References to the God of human history are non existent, and as such, young people fail to understand their purpose. Since one of the responses of faith is sacrificial service to others, a major motivation for blessing the community cannot be discussed in public schools. Service to others requires a redirection of focus from the self to the community.

No incentive to influence or share what you have learned with others.

Thankfully, you have chosen a different path for your children! You have the luxury of time to help your rising classical scholars master the three skills of the trivium. You have the luxury of gradually training them to be independent, self-directed thinkers who are responsible for their own learning. You have the luxury of determining your own content so that your kids can learn to grapple with the great ideas of Western Civilization as they read and discuss the classics, selected surveys, and biographies. Finally, you have the extreme privilege of being able to lead your children into an eternal relationship with the Living God, teach them how to use Scripture as the spectacles through which to view the world, and show them how to serve others in a way that influences and blesses. Adopt a counter-cultural stand, and experience the joy of classical Christian homeschooling today!

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Over the next four posts, I’ll explore these qualities (mastery, self-discipline, interpretation, and influence) in detail. Before you can release your kids to the study of subjects, you need to make sure they have mastered the skills of the trivium. But how do we know when they have substantially mastered language, thought, and communication? When is it time to move on to Step 3, Supervise the Study of Subjects? In my next post, we need to answer two questions about Step 2, Teach the Skills of the Trivium: (1) what is to be learned, and (2) how will it be evaluated?

Tags: christian home education, classical Christian home education, classical Christian home schooling, Classical Education, classical model, classical scholar, homeschooler, homeschooling, public school, supervise the study of subjects, trivium

This post is the 2nd in a series on the flawed premise of the classical home education renewal movement. The first post was called “Why The Well-Trained Mind Will Drive You Crazy!“

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First, here’s a little history lesson. The classical model of ancient Greece and Rome was resurrected during Emperor Charlemagne’s reign in the Middle Ages and given a Christian twist. This classical Christian model which included the trivium, the quadrivium, and many more subjects was faithfully followed in Europe and North America for several centuries thereafter until around the middle of the 1800s when the Common School Movement began in the United States in response to a huge immigrant influx. A secular public educational model and lack of classically-trained teachers effectively removed the classical Christian method from schools. For the next 100 years, classical education was practically nonexistent with the exception of some prestigious private academies which catered to the elite classes.

During the 1940s, British author Dorothy Sayers, presented an essay at Oxford University called The Lost Tools of Learning in which she compared the sorry state of modern education with the historically preferable state of classical education. She proposed that we had lost the tools necessary for learning how to think. In the early 1990s, respected pastor and private school educator, Douglas Wilson read Sayers’ essay and then wrote his own book, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, in response. Next, Harvey Bluedorn wrote Teaching the Trivium, and a few years after that the mother-daughter team of Wise and Bauer wrote The Well-Trained Mind. By the end of the 1990s, a classical Christian education renewal movement had begun in the United States. Sayers’ essay was the flame that ignited the fire.

Early in the essay, Sayers accurately recounts the composition of the medieval classical education: first, the trivium which included the “tools” of learning: grammar (language acquisition) logic (critical thinking), and rhetoric (written and oral composition) which young men tackled before moving on to the quadrivium (the specific “subjects” of arithmetic, astronomy, music, and geometry.) In her anguish over the modern state of nations where men and women don’t know how to think, Sayers speculates that there may be a connection between the medieval trivium and the stages of child development. She posits:

what if the psychology of the child progresses through the 3 stages of the trivium?

Sayers names the 3 stages of child development poll-parrot, pert, and poetic; she then concludes that the 3 stages of the trivium are “singularly appropriate” to the 3 stages of child development. Based upon her own personal experience as a child, preteen, and teen, this hypothesis does seem to make sense, but in real life, it has never been clinically proven, and in fact, in my own experience as a mom who has tried to follow this model, I have found that the 2 pieces do not correlate. In fact, Sayers absolves herself from blame by saying, “My views about child psychology are, I admit, neither orthodox nor enlightened.”

My objection relates to the current classical renewal movement’s (1) misinterpretation of Sayer’s personal opinion on child development as gospel truth, (2) misapplication of Sayers’ hypothesis to a 12 year schedule, and (3) deviation from the historic classical education model by tackling subjects as soon as the child can read. In practice, we have taken a public school model (12 years of subjects) and dressed it up by incorporating classic literature, ancient languages, formal logic, and oratory as follows: 4 years (grades 1-4) in the “grammar” phase doing subjects, 4 years (grades 5-8) in the “logic” phase doing subjects, and 4 years (grades 9-12) in the “rhetoric phase doing subjects. No wonder moms and dads who try to adopt a classical education model fail! If you look closely, this is a public school paradigm with “classical” subjects tacked on!

Medieval scholars did NOT impose a 12 year trivium on their apprentices. They taught their students the basics first (the trivium: first grammar, then logic, then rhetoric), and when the student had the tools for critical thinking, speaking, and writing, he or she was instructed in subjects. In our current culture, we rush to formally educate; you might be surprised to discover that medieval and colonial students began the trivium at a much older age (14 years old) and quickly progressed through the trivium so that they could dive into the meatier subjects of the quadrivium. In later years, additional subjects were added to the curriculum including law, medicine, and theology.

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In my next post, I’ll discuss options for classically educating your home school children. I’d love to read your own experience with any of the books mentioned, so please leave your comments below.

Tags: classical christian education, Classical Education, classical model, dorothy sayers, douglas wilson, harvey bluedorn, quadrivium, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Teaching the Trivium, The Lost Tools of Learning, The Well-Trained Mind

As with any renaissance, the new generation tinkers with the old ideas, and in the case of classical Christian home schooling, the new generation is adjusting for contemporary needs. In fact, the renewal movement is still so young that some of the authors advocating the classical model are issuing revised editions as they tweak the model in response to reader suggestions. In our family’s own extensive tinkering, we have settled on seven fundamental characteristics of classical Christian homeschooling. We believe each element is consistent with the historical model. Here is our list of essentials:

1. Scripture is at the center of all learning and illuminates meaning.
2. Both Dad and Mom are active participants.
3. The integrated study of classical literature and western world history leads to understanding of culture and values.
4. Critical thinking skills are built through Socratic Dialogue and subjects like latin, logic, debate, math, and science.
5. Written and oral rhetoric teaches effective organizational and communication skills.
6. Rigorous content and flexible schedules prepare for undergraduate studies.
7. Leadership skills are developed by regular practice through service to community and family.

I’ll examine each of the essential elements like the centrality of Scripture in future posts. When you combine all the elements over time, you’ll soon discover that you are living in a time of extreme importance…you might even catch your breath sometimes when it dawns on you that you are raising your own classical Christian scholars who are being equipped spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally to lead their generation all because your family decided to join the renewal movement and embrace a classical Christian home education!

Tags: christian home education, Christian home schooling, classical Christian home schooling, classical Christian homeschooling, classical literature, classical model, classical scholar, homeschooling, latin, Logic, renewal movement, Rhetoric, western world history