The Classical Scholar

My three road maps for mastery of reading, thinking, and speaking skills are meant to provide a framework for assessing mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium.  The following checklist represents my personal homeschool curriculum goals for helping my children master writing and speaking skills.  Use this road map to assess your child’s communication abilities as you plan your own personalized strategic plan for the semester.  This road map will really help when it comes to creating your homeschool curriculum!

I believe there are five primary communication abilities, both oral and written, that every literate homeschool child needs to master: (1) how to maintain a conversation, (2) how to write a paragraph, (3) how to take notes, (4) how to write advanced compositions, and (5) how to give a speech.

Under each “how to,” I have listed some basic homeschool curriculum ideas, but the list is certainly not all-inclusive. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to customize the content and methods to your own child’s needs. Here is my complete Home School Curriculum Road Map to Mastery of Speaking Skills:

How to Maintain a Conversation

• Look at people when conversing
• Shake hands firmly and repeat their name
• Listen intently
• Answer the telephone and take a message
• Draft personal, business, and email correspondence
• Follow manners, etiquette, and protocol in social situations

How to Write a Paragraph

• Write a topic sentence
• Support the topic in remaining sentences
• Vary sentence structure
• Add stylistic elements
• Incorporate transitions
• Clinch the title from the final sentence
• Imitate classic authors by substituting words
• Practice using thesaurus

How to Take Notes

• Outline main points of text and lecture
• Annotate in book margins
• Construct an abstract or summary from notes
• Narrate understanding
• Reduce notes to main ideas

How to Write Advanced Compositions

• Develop a hook to gain attention
• Draft introductions and conclusions
• Vary paragraph style
• Learn basic three point essay
• Develop a thesis statement
• Research and gather evidence to support thesis
• Cite authorities via footnotes
• Create bibliography
• Present and defend oral dissertation
• Proofread and edit every composition

How to Give a Speech

• Memorize, recall, and recite stories, scripts, and speeches
• Punctuate points with eye contact and body language
• Gain platform experience (expository, persuasive)
• Gain interpretive experience (dramatic, humorous, duo)
• Gain limited prep experience (impromptu, apologetics, extemporaneous)
• Acquire team policy debate experience
• Analyze famous historical speeches for form and style

Please feel free to tailor my speaking skills road map to the needs of your own homeschool child. Add or subtract according to your personal homeschool curriculum objectives.  Teach out of a position of rest instead of anxiety by keeping your communication goals simple.  Remember your vision for raising excellent communicators!

Inspiring Homeschool Invention

I get so excited when I come across a national contest that homeschool kids can enter, and this competition inspires invention which fits right in with teaching the three skills of the classical trivium in your Christian homeschool:  language, thought, and speech.  Two winners will be selected, one from the k-8 group and one high school student, to receive a huge prize package each.  If you are creative and diligent in recording the work performed, you can incorporate the entire process from start to finish as part of your homeschool curriculum for the high school transcript.  For example, Meredith and Connor are both writing essays for the homeschool speech ISI George Washington essay contest, so I will be including that as part of their composition credit.  This particular contest involves video production and the use of software, so you could incorporate this project in any number of courses for homeschool high school credit:  composition (writing the script), information technology (using the video software and video camcorder), or even art (graphics and photos).  Here are the competition highlights:

The Advertising Council, Sony Creative Software and Discovery Education have announced the “Inspiring Invention” public service advertising (PSA) development contest to engage a new generation of children in innovation. The contest is part of the Ad Council’s “Inspiring Invention” campaign, sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation (NIHFF). The contest is open to school groups at the elementary, middle and high school levels nationwide. In addition to prizes including Sony video and audio production software and hardware, the winning entries will be distributed to media outlets throughout the country in spring of 2009.

Entrants to the Inspiring Invention PSA Contest will submit their video in either the elementary and middle school or high school categories by March 15, 2009. Contestants are encouraged, but not required, to download a demo of Sony Creative Software’s leading video editing application, Vegas Pro 8 software or Vegas Movie Studio software. Initial entries will be submitted to Sony Creative Software on DVD accompanied by a backgrounder on the production and theme. If selected as a semi-finalist, participants will then furnish broadcast-ready components for final judging.

One grand prize winner will be chosen from each of the two categories and awarded a prize package valued at more than $22,000, featuring Sony Creative Software’s professional video and audio production applications, Vegas™ Pro 8, Sound Forge™ 9, Cinescore™ and ACID™ Pro 7 software, as well as Sony Creative Software content including loop libraries, sound effects and Cinescore themes, in addition to having the PSA aired on national television. See full contest rules and regulations including a printable pdf with lots of details for your budding homeschooler videographer.

I am a firm believer in competition even if the homeschool child has little realistic hope of placing in the top finalists.  Why is that?  Well, when you give a homeschool child or teen an attainable goal with a hard deadline, they usually step up to the plate and give their best effort.  They also learn so much in the process about being organized and systematically tackling a task.  Why not incorporate this video contest into your homeschool curriculum after the holidays?  You’ve got plenty of time before the March 15, 2009 deadline, and it will look great on the high school transcript whether your homeschool teen wins or not!

“I believe, or at least I hope, that there is public virtue enough left among us, to deny ourselves everything but the bare necessaries of life, to accomplish our end.”
—George Washington

Here’s a great homeschooling opportunity for your rising classical scholar to validate his mastery of speaking skills (classical trivium skill number three). The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and the Circe Institute are co-sponsoring a national essay contest for high school homeschool students. A $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to the first place winner. Registration forms are due on November 28, 2008, and essays are due on January 23, 2009. Here are the details:

“George Washington and the Formation of the American Character”

George Washington’s leadership and legacy remain an important part of American identity. ISI is committed to keeping the vital lessons of the American Founding alive for the rising generation through this prestigious essay contest.

Focus and Format of the Essay

Charles deGaulle once scoffed at the suggestion that he was indispensible to the effort to rebuild France and Western Europe in the wake of WWII, responding that “the cemeteries are full of indispensible men.” It is tempting to believe, however, that at the time of the American founding, George Washington may well have been the exception to de Gaulle’s rule. He conspicuously stands out from among the other central figures of the founding era and earns Lighthorse Harry Lee’s encomium as having been “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen….”

The task of defining American identity is an ongoing, and seemingly endless, project—and one that each generation must take up anew. Answers to the question of what constitutes the distinctly American character range far and wide, taking on a different cast when examined through the respective disciplinary lenses of history, political science, economics, or the arts.

Careful study of the nation’s founding architects reveals a remarkably diverse and complex set of animating convictions that only compound the challenge of defining the American character. Like his renowned contemporaries, Washington’s personal narrative was hardly monochromatic. It may well be that his enduring contribution to the American personality is the imprint of both his personal and public identity upon the nation he loved and served.

Home school students participating in this essay contest are asked to consider at least two central elements of Washington’s public or private life that found expression in American identity. Essayists are encouraged to consider how those characteristics have been weakened or strengthened over the past two centuries and what this suggests about the American character.

Essays are to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words long. Printed entries should be double-spaced and printed on one side of the page only. All submissions must be postmarked or e-mailed by January 23, 2009. Essays will be judged on the basis of scholarship, imagination, and quality of writing.

Deadlines

Registration - November 28, 2008

Essay - January 23, 2009

Scholarship Awards

1st place - $1,000
2nd place -  $500
3rd Place -  $250
4th through 10th place - a set of ISI books on “Order and Liberty at the Founding”

Bonus Gift # 1

Every homeschool entrant receives a complimentary one year subscription to the Intercollegiate Review, ISI’s flagship publication which provide critical essays, reviews, and commentary on a wide variety of topics related to politics, economics, and culture. This journal retails for $13 a year.

Bonus Gift # 2

Patriot Sage, a 369 page paperback retails for $30, and every homeschooler who enters gets a free copy!  In this lavishly illustrated book, the life and legacy of America’s Founding Father is commemorated by bringing noteworthy scholars and authors together for a timely and topical consideration of Washington’s enduring importance.

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Consult http://www.isi.org/programs/essay/index.html for complete information.

Download Registration form at:

http://www.isi.org/programs/essay/gw0809/content/george_washington_essay_contest2008-09.pdf.

Questions? Contact essaycontest@isi.org.

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt educational organization whose purpose is to further in successive generations of college youth a better understanding of the values and institutions that sustain a free and humane society.

Founded in 1953, ISI works “to educate for liberty” — to identify the best and the brightest college students and to nurture in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty. To accomplish this goal, ISI seeks to enhance the rising generation’s knowledge of our nation’s founding principles — limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, market economy, and moral norms.

Wouldn’t it be GREAT if a home school student won this year?

Forward this post to a friend today!

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ISI Student Guides are a favorite of mine because they are small (usually less than 100 pages), concise overviews of various subjects like American History and Philosophy. Intended as a preparatory tool for the college student, these little surveys summarize the main points of the discipline and save mom lots of research time! You can find these handy little guides at Amazon.com.  Here are two favorites we use in our home school:

Literature:

U.S. History:

Mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium is not achieved on a single day in homeschooling history. You will never be able to look back and pinpoint the day when your homeschool child “graduated”  from the trivium.  Some time during the teen years, you will realize that she has become extremely proficient in the use of language, thought, and speech. There could be some areas of the trivium that she still needs to work on, but by and large, she is ready for more. For what has the classical trivium prepared her?

The Roman Quadrivium

If this were ancient Rome, your rising scholar would progress to the remaining four liberal arts of the the quadrivium taught by a private tutor: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music theory. The pragmatic Romans took the Greek idea of paideia and decided that every free man should learn seven “arts” in order to be fully educated. Nearly three millennia later, we know that learning the four mathematically-oriented disciplines of the quadrivium is no longer sufficient. Unlike the timeless skills of the trivium, the Roman quadrivium is obsolete.

A staggering amount of discoveries have been made since then in math, science, and technology that preclude any man from being a true expert. The inherited body of knowledge accumulates at a frenzied pace as the record of human history continues. In short, the choices for learning in the 21st Century are limitless. Yet, there still remains a core set of fundamental truths with which every educated homeschool high school student should grapple.  The Roman quadrivium is not enough.

The Greek Paideia

You may recall that the Greek paideia is the foundation of a true classical education. According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, paideia is the:

Training of the physical and mental facilities in such a way as to produce a broad enlightened mature outlook harmoniously combined with maximum cultural development

Learning was the path to a higher nature through the exploration of abstract concepts such as truth, goodness, and beauty with the expectation that such examination would lead to noble character, gracious behavior, enlightened minds, and enriched society. Exploration of ideas between pupil and teacher usually occurred through a two-way dialogue made famous by the philosopher, Socrates.  However, the early Greek culture from which classical education arose was pagan, and as Emperor Charlemagne realized hundreds of years later, classical education would never accomplish its true objectives unless informed by relationship with the Living God. Man is limited in his knowledge. He needs inspiration. The Greek paideia is not enough.

The Christian Paideia

Most contemporary Christians cannot read Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, unless they have been to seminary, so you might be surprised to discover that the Apostle Paul uses the word paideia at least seven times in the New Testament in his letters to the Hebrews, the Ephesians, and to his disciple Timothy. Upon reflection, this isn’t really surprising because as I discussed in the posts on rhetoric, there is quite a bit of textual evidence that Paul received a classical education with a concentration in Jewish theology.

I believe we can take the Greek idea of paideia (the search for knowledge) and look at Paul’s use of the word paideia (discipline or instruction in righteousness) to understand the next homeschooling journey for our high school age kids. Paul knew that the Greeks had a good idea, but their educational philosophy lacked one critical component:  the inspiration of the indwelling Spirit of God.  True education is a transformational process of growing in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

In the early section of the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul spends a lot of time developing the thought that God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. God reveals His knowledge to those who love Him so that they can worship and serve Him in spirit and truth. Unlike the unrealized dreams of the ancient Greeks, our search for knowledge is exquisitely fulfilling as the Lord of Glory reveals little bits of truth in our daily walk with His abiding Spirit. Faithful followers use what they have learned in service to others. Enlightenment for the sake of worship and service is our final objective. In this way, we reclaim our classical inheritance and join the long line of ancestors who realized the wealth of a true classical education.

Jesus gives us the perfect example of what the this looks like in the Gospels.  He lives with his disciples (by the way, disciple is a derivative of the word discipline which is the English translation of paideia) and in the course of every day life, he conducts an ongoing dialogue about ideas:

• ideas about God
• ideas about man
• ideas about man’s relationship to God
• ideas about man’s relationship to man
• ideas about life
• ideas about death

In short, Jesus instructs his disciples by asking them questions about the fundamental realities of life.  Sometimes he provides immediate answers, but more often than not, he allows them to wrestle with the questions through life experiences, parables, and more dialogue.  Like Socrates before him, Jesus knew the value of dialogue or conversation in learning.  He has always been after relationship with us, and in that relationship, we learn more and more.

So what do the post-trivium years look like in authentic classical homeschooling?  They look like the socratic model that Jesus followed with his disciples.  As parents, we supervise the dialogue that our teens are having with the classics and with other authorities like university professors.  We narrate.  We write.  We disagree.  We agree.  We listen.  We discuss the big ideas on a daily basis.  We allow the dialogue to drive the instruction, so sometimes we end up going off on tangents, but that’s okay because we are wrestling with knowledge.  Despite the apparent sanctity of the public school formula, knowledge cannot be perfectly squeezed into discrete subjects.  Every home school minute is an opportunity for learning as parent and high school age teen engage in an ongoing dialogue about the fundamental realities of life.

father and daughter photo © Mikhail Lavrenov - Fotolia.com

Over the past few posts, we’ve been looking at four unusual home schooling qualities that we hope to foster in our children, especially those older kids who have substantially mastered the three skills of the classical trivium and are ready to advance towards supervised independent study of subjects. What four home schooling 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 know 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 home schooling 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 home schooling concept of interpretation to your high school 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 home school 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 high school 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 homeschooled 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  home school 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 they are finally finished homeschooling, they are ready to respond to the world’s biggest questions with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

How do you evaluate your homeschool child’s progress towards mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium?  Consider the race car analogy.

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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 “road maps to mastery” as a gauge and adjust the homeschool schedule and curriculum 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 mastery road maps as a guide to help you develop your next semester curriculum 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 school, 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 home school 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. Home school 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 of the trivium 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 (speech).

Additionally, you may find that your home school 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 three major skills: reading, thinking, and speaking. In some families, mastery of these three skills takes six years; in others, it takes eight years. Even if you spent the first  eight years guiding your child toward full command, that still leaves four years for your teenager to dive deep into the Socratic Paideia where dialogue drives instruction  during the high school years of home school.  In the process, he will compile a very impressive transcript. Don’t worry about how long it takes; teach your child language, thought, and speech until he is able to teach others and become a master of the three skills of the classical trivium just like Indy Car racers.  With your customized homeschool curriculum, you have the luxury of doing everything well!

Throughout your career as a homeschooling teacher, you need to assess your child’s mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium (language, thought, and speech) so that you can make necessary adjustments to your customized homeschool curriculum.  Weaker areas need more time while skills that have been substantially mastered are checked off the to-do list.  Let’s look at the race car analogy again.

The Vehicle

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 authentic classical homeschooling  from the public school paradigm or just beginning the homeschooling journey, 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 develop a short-term home school  curriculum. Personally, I like to reevaluate progress about every 10 to 12 weeks, and I always end up adjusting the course as a result to better meet my goals.

The Skills

In my experience, there are six specific language abilities that every literate home school scholar needs to master:  (1) how to read, (2) how to spell, (3) how to write, (4) how to punctuate and capitalize, (5) how to use proper grammar, and (6) how to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary. Use my Road Map to Mastery of Reading Skills to add or subtract content from your personalized homeschool curriculum.

Seven primary thinking abilities require mastery by the literate home school child including (1) how to arrange data according to systems, (2) how to solve problems, (3) how to structure and analyze arguments, (4) how to use the scientific method, (5) how to analyze literature, (6) how to research a topic, and (7) how to listen.    My Road Map to Mastery of Thinking Skills will help you decide on appropriate content for  the thinking portion of your personalized homeschool curriculum.

Finally, I believe there are five communication skills, both oral and written, hat every literate homeschooled child needs to master before moving on to the Socratic Paideia of the high school years:  (1) how to maintain a conversation, (2) how to write a paragraph, (3) how to take notes, (4) how to write advanced compositions, and (5) how to give a speech.  Adjust your custom homeschool curriculum by using my Road Map to Mastery of Speaking Skills.

Teaching Variety

Each homeschooling family will teach content 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.  Your personalized homeschool curriculum will uniquely meet the needs of each child unlike the canned curriculums that you find with homeschool vendors.

Before releasing your homeschoolers to experience the thrills of the socratic paideia in which dialogue drives instruction during the high school years, you need to determine whether mastery of the three skills of the  classical trivium has been attained.

How do you measure mastery?

The Race

I live in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the “world’s greatest racing spectacle,” the Indianapolis 500. Every May, nearly 300,000 people gather to watch this exciting 200 lap, 500 mile race. Adrenaline rushes as the cars fly around the track, traveling the length of a football field in one second, at speeds exceeding 220 mph. As drivers compete for placement in the turns, they endure G-force of four times the weight of gravity which is comparable to the G-force of the space shuttle take offs. The sleek fiberglass shell of the Indy car hides a powerful engine that can run at 675 horsepower which is 4 times the speed of an average car. Experienced pit crews perform mechanical magic as they refuel and replace worn tires in an astounding 20 seconds or less. Aggressive, careless, or tired drivers occasionally lose control of their cars, and the yellow caution flags come out when fiery crashes bring the manic race to a screeching halt. Unlike horse races which are over in a few minutes, the Indy car race is a marathon often exceeding three hours!

Imagine for a minute that classical home schooling is an Indy car race. As in the Indy 500, other factors enter into the equation for a successful homeschooling race such as unforeseen circumstances (weather), finances (sponsors), and the community (spectators), but for this post, we’ll focus on the three factors which most impact mastery: your homeschooler (the driver), the content (the car), and you, the parent (assuming the roles of both pit crew and clean up crew). But before we tackle the driver, the car, and the crew, let’s define the end of the race.

The Finish Line

Every Indy Car driver dreams of winning the Indy 500. Completing the race is the ultimate goal. In homeschooling, we’re not concerned about finishing before our peers, but we want to finish the race in God’s perfect timing for our particular homeschooler. The first race that we need to finish is  “Teach the Skills of the Trivium,” so that we can then move on to finish the second race during the high school years, “Socratic Paideia in which Dialogue Drives Instruction.” Both steps culminate in mastery.

According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, the primary definition of the verb “master” is

“to conquer, to bring under control, to overcome, to subdue, to own, to rule, or to solve.”

Powerful images of domination and achievement arise, and, in the purest sense, to master something is to dominate. However, I prefer the second definition in Webster’s which is “to become skilled or proficient in the use of.” To complete the thought left dangling by the above preposition, your task as the homeschooler’s parent is to teach until your child is:

• skilled or proficient in the use of the English language

• skilled or proficient in the use of critical thinking abilities

• skilled or proficient in the use of oral and written communication

Once the trivium race is finished, your job is then to supervise the continued acquisition of  knowledge and  skills in areas of interest so that your homeschooler is on his way to mastery in areas of personal interest.

You know your child has reached mastery when he or she has consummate possession of the skill. Theoretically, full command of language, thought, and communication signals the end of the first race and the beginning of the second race. Practically, your son or daughter needs to have such command of the English language that the vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and literary style of the classics is not overwhelming. The ability to comprehend and wrestle with the meaning of the text is also necessary. Finally, the child who is ready to move on to the socratic paideia of high school has the skill to write extensively about the themes of the classics.

The Driver

Some glamorous Indy Car celebrities grow up in renowned racing families, but no matter how famous Daddy was, junior doesn’t just inherit the raw DNA ability to drive. All champions have to learn the basic rules of driving just like every other licensed driver. Once the basics are mastered, then they can then move on to more sophisticated concepts. Your homeschooler is no different. He starts as a novice, moves on to apprentice, and eventually becomes a master in his craft.

The Crew

The highly-skilled mechanics who work on Indy Car crews are some of the best in the world. They receive regular training as technology advances. They know their cars and drivers so well that they can anticipate problems and solutions before they crop up. Quick to respond, they are proactive, monitoring the status of the vehicle with wireless radio and detailed gauge readings. To give your child an authentic classical education, you need to be current on all that you are teaching. Plan time to refresh your memory if you are a little rusty (Mom’s continuing education) or do a little advance reading before you need to teach a concept. You’ll be more confident and serve your homeschooler’s needs better if you are prepared. If you find yourself unprepared, that’s okay, too. Declare a reading week and catch up! Your classical homeschooler will love the break!

It might take you a while to fully divest yourself of the vestiges of the public school paradigm, but in the meantime, you can begin to focus on the essential core of authentic classical Christian homeschooling: the trivium. Trivium is a Latin word for the first three skills outlined by the ancient Greeks and adopted by the ancient Romans in the Seven Liberal Arts. Officially, the three fundamental skills of the trivium are called grammar, logic, and rhetoric, but I prefer to simply call them language, thought, and speech.  Your primary goal during the early elementary and middle school years is to teach these three skills to mastery.

The three skills of the classical trivium are not taught consecutively over time; rather, they are taught concurrently, and some areas of study like math involve more than one skill (the unique language of math is learned while critical thinking skills are being developed.)  Here’s another example of the concurrent nature of the true trivium:  the child is learning how to write a paragraph (skill 3 - speech) while analyzing a piece of literature (skill 2 - thinking) while perfecting her cursive handwriting (skill 1 - language).

When should you start teaching these three skills?

Realistically, involved parents unknowingly teach all three skills from an early age as a matter of daily life in the family. The new parent who enthusiastically gathers the small toddler into her lap for a snuggle and a good board book is already teaching language. The playful parent who regularly works puzzles and plays games with the child is teaching critical thinking skills, and the parent who consistently includes the children in adult conversations teaches effective speech.

For purposes of official homeschooling, most parents find that their kids are eager to join their neighbors and siblings in formal education around the age of six years. Some kids are ready earlier, and some need a little more time.  Historically, a classical education was begun much later (from the ages of 11 to 14) than today’s public kindergarten which often recruits the five year old.

How long will it take to teach these three skills?

That depends on each child, too. In our family, our kids had mastered language and thinking skills before they mastered oral and written communication skills, so I would say that when your preteen or teen is regularly writing analytical essays, he or she is ready to move on to the acquisition of knowledge as you mentor the socratic paideia for homeschool high school credit. Once you teach your children to master the three skills of reading, thinking, and speaking the student can explore any number of disciplines that excite his or her passions.

* * * * *

If you are already familiar with the term trivium…

Recently, I attended our annual statewide home school convention, and I was appalled by the number of products available in the homeschool market that teach a false understanding of the classical trivium! Have you ever played a child’s game called “telephone?” In this simple game, one person starts a rumor, whispers it in his neighbor’s ear, then the neighbor passes it on to the next and so forth until the message is finally repeated to the original “caller.” Without fail, the message comes back garbled and often bears no resemblance to the original rumor. A similar misstatement of the truth is occurring right now in the classical home schooling community, and it is costing you and your children!

So many well-meaning parents, eager for guidance, embrace and execute a method that they think is classical because the “experts” say that it is, but it isn’t. I know because I was one of these parents. After much frustration, I began to research the history of classical education and was astounded to learn that what is being touted as classical education more closely resembles the American public school paradigm than the historical, authentic classical model.

There was never a grammar “stage” nor a logic “stage” nor a rhetoric “stage” in the ancient, medieval, or colonial classical education. This urban myth or legend was started by Dorothy Sayers in the 1940s, and homeschooling author after author just accepts her premise of the stages as truth without checking the facts. Even Ms. Sayers admitted in her thesis paper that her premise was not based on factual evidence but rather the experiences of her youth. I’m sure that if she were still alive, she would be appalled to learn that her unsupported premise was being perpetuated as gospel truth! To understand more about Sayer’s stages, see “Shaky Speculation: The Lost Tools of Learning.”

True classical education is much simpler and less restrictive than the current educational pedagogy being disseminated in the homeschooling market. The parent in an authentic classical Christian homeschool is not locked into a rigid 12 year public school paradigm because learning cannot be squeezed into discrete compartments like months or years.

Not long ago, I witnessed the trial of a first-time juvenile offender. (By the way, he was NOT a  homeschooler.)  Furious with his mom for refusing to drive him to his girlfriend’s house, this fifteen year old young man demolished the back window of her truck. His frustrated parents pressed charges, and he soon found himself in front of a judge and a jury on the witness stand. Regrettably, this in itself is not unusual in our culture; however what I found most astonishing and disturbing was the manner in which this young man communicated with his interlocutors: grunts!

Single word grunts issued from his scowling lips. He was extremely disrespectful towards the judge and showed no indication of repentance or remorse. The judge had to ask the young man to respond in complete sentences! But the real shocker came when the jury was dismissed to deliberate: both parents began an eloquent conversation with the court officials. Clearly, his parents were well-educated and effective communicators. How did this young man end up with such a deficiency in communication skills? Do we run the same risk as these parents? Is it possible that our homeschoolers, when faced with unexpected situations, will find themselves answering in one word replies? Do we take effective communication skills for granted?

Christians are called to more than grunts! We seek to glorify God in every word and deed. Colossians 3:17 succinctly summarizes our responsibility as Christians:

And whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

What does it mean for a Christian homeschooler to speak every word in the name of Jesus? Let’s look at the term “word” in Scripture. The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Word of the Father, and the Old Testament prophets regularly delivered the “Word” of Yahweh to the King. The Creator reaches out to the creature and communicates, through spoken words like those delivered to the prophets, through invisible encounters as in the apostle Paul’s conversion story, through the written word of the canon of Scripture, and finally through the incarnation of Jesus. The Word of the Lord is of utmost importance because it is through that Word that the Living God reveals who He is for the sake of a full relationship with us. Communication is vital to our relationship with Him and with others, so we homeschoolers, as little “Christ-bearers,” recognize that our words, whether written or spoken, are also meant for relationship with others, and as such, they have the power to change lives. We speak in Jesus’ name as He would speak…in truth, in love, and with a mind toward advancing His Kingdom.

As Christian parents of homeschoolers, we have a deed to do: train our children in effective communication skills. They may have a true desire to speak every word in Jesus’ name, but if they don’t have the tools, their efforts may not reach full potential. All that we have done in teaching the classical trivium comes to fruition in mastering skill three, speech. In order to effectively influence others, our children must marshal the language, seek out the best arguments, and organize ideas with compelling style and captivating delivery. Equipped with the necessary skills, our eloquent homeschoolers will respond to difficult questions with thoughtful, persuasive words that, unlike base grunts, have the power to change the world!