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!

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!

Over the last few weeks, I have elaborated in a three-part series, Teach the Skills of the Trivium, my own classical home education philosophy which concentrates on teaching language, critical thinking, and communication skills before supervising the in-depth study of subjects. If you happened to miss one of the twenty-three essays, you can find a complete list under the tab, The Trivium, which is located in the header section of each web page.

For those of you who have asked me for a paperback copy of these essays, I am currently in the process of preparing the manuscript for publication and distribution with Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble online bookstores. Once the manuscript is submitted, it will be about 90 days before release. You can reserve your copy now for $15 and save almost 12% off the suggested retail price of $16.95.

As a special bonus, the paperback edition will include 12 case studies which are simply interviews with children ranging in age from 5 to 16 years and my recommendations for incorporating or improving the classical trivium in that child’s academic studies. I’ve already interviewed a few children, but perhaps you would like to submit one of your children for consideration. (only one child per family, please). If you are interested in this opportunity to receive my personal coaching and participate in my book, please send me an email, and I’ll send you an inquiry form to fill out so that I can make my decision. Thanks!

For those of you with older children who have substantially mastered the classical trivium, I plan on publishing that upcoming series (Supervise the Study of Subjects) later this fall in book form, too, along with real-life case studies of 13 to 18 year olds.

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Although I’ve got SO MUCH more to share about the classical trivium, it’s time to tackle the third step of Three Simple but Significant Steps to a Classical Education, “Supervise the Study of Subjects,” which is the subject of my next series.

Communicating effectively is not limited to classical discourse like formal speeches or written compositions. Narration is a communication skill that is used in casual conversation more than the other two combined! Think about the countless times during a day that you ask your child questions…

• How did you sleep last night?
• What did you dream about?
• What are your plans for study today?
• What was the book about?
• What would you like for dinner?
• How did you spend your free time this afternoon?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What did you learn from your reading?

Moms and Dads are great at asking questions! But the risk with asking open-ended questions is that you’ll get vague responses like “okay” (how did you sleep) “I can’t remember” (what was the book about), and “I don’t know” (what did you learn today). What you want to do as a classical home educator is draw out your child’s understanding so that he or she is giving you more than one-word grunts. You know that words have the power to change the world, and you want to raise world-changers who are eloquent and persuasive! Train them in giving concise, direct answers so that when they find themselves out in the community and someone asks a question, they are prepared.

So how do you coax your reluctant child to give thoughtful responses to your questions? Socratic Dialogue is one method that we use in our home school to great effect. In this post, I’ll show you how I do it using a real-life example from Meredith’s high school biology course.

Remember that Courtroom Drama?

Unless you are a practicing attorney, you probably haven’t had a lot of experience in using Socratic Dialogue. In fact, attorneys (and some home schoolers) are the only living Westerners who still use this classical tool. Attorneys receive training in Socratic method in law school where they learn to ask leading questions of a witness.

If you have ever been to a legal deposition or watched a courtroom drama, you know that a good prosecutor asks leading questions. In preparation for the trial, the attorney “deposes” the witness. In a deposition, the attorney asks the witness pertinent questions under oath, and a court transcript is created which both the defending and prosecuting teams receive. In deposing the witness, the attorney is trying to arrive at the facts of the case. These facts are the basis for the trial, and a skillful attorney will use these facts in asking leading questions of the witness so that the witness gives him the answers that he wants. Facts are the starting point for your Socratic Dialogue preparation, too.

What are the FACTS?

Just like the attorney, you need to know the facts before you can ask useful leading questions. Unless you are already an expert on the subject matter, you need to read the material along with your child. Now I am not saying that you have to read every single word that the child reads; if you have more than one child, the task of keeping up with all of the weekly reading assignments plus all of your other family responsibilities would be overwhelming! Be selective. You might choose one subtopic from your teenage daughter’s science reading, one chapter from your preteen son’s history reading, and one picture story book to read with your youngest child. (By the way, the Socratic method works well with both fiction or nonfiction.)

In this example, I listened to a Teaching Company Biology lecture with Meredith on DNA called “The Double Helix.” We put on the 30 minute DVD, and we both took “stick and branch” notes (see image to the left - thank you, Andrew Pudewa) as the lecture progressed. We paused the DVD if there were any concepts we didn’t understand. After we watched the entire lesson and outlined the concepts, we both wrote a brief abstract or summary of the notes in paragraph form. This step ensured that we organized our thoughts and clarified any obscurities in the sticks and branches. We follow this same procedure for each lecture.

After Meredith writes her summary, she either reads it to me or lets me read it. Often there is no need for further clarification because I can see from her oral or written narration that she understands the concepts. She has effectively communicated her understanding. However, perhaps there is a concept that I think is particularly important or one that she hasn’t quite captured in her notes. That concept would serve as the subject of my leading questions. (See the blue arrows and the highlighted areas of my notes.)

This gets a little technical, but bear with me. For this example, let’s say that I want to make sure that Meredith understands how nitrogenous bases (A, T, C, G) pair up as they attach to the sugars on the two DNA strands. The sugars on DNA strand #1 have nitrogenous bases (NB) which attach to the NB on DNA strand #2. Imagine that the DNA strands are the side rails on a staircase, and the NB connections are the stair treads. (See the highlighted area in my stick and branch drawing.) Now the tricky thing is NBs are either pyrimidines or purines which means that one is larger than the other one. So the larger NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the smaller NB on DNA strand #2 (C + G), then the smaller NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the larger NB on DNA strand #2 (A + T), and so forth all the way down the double helix or the imaginary stair tread would be lopsided, and the double helix would not be a double helix!

Plan the Leading Questions

Now that I know where I want to end up, I can plan the questions. The easiest way to tackle this task is to break the entire concept up into short answer questions like this:

1. What are the 2 nucleic acids on each DNA strand? (sugars and phosphates)
2. What are the 2 types of nitrogenous bases? (purines and pyrimidines)
3. How are the purines different from the pyrimidines? (size - purines are smaller)
4. What are the 2 purines? (adenine: A and guanine: G)
5. What are the 2 pyrimidines? (cytosine: C and thymine: T)
6. Which of the 2 nucleic acids, sugar or phosphate, attaches to the nitrogenous base? (sugar)
7. Can a sugar attach to any of the 4 nitrogenous bases? (yes)
8. If a sugar has a purine nitrogenous base, what must the connecting nitrogenous base be? (pyrimidine)
9. What would happen if a purine attached to a purine on the DNA strand? (the “stair tread” of the double helix would be lopsided, so that it didn’t look like a double helix anymore)

If you have carefully structured your line of questions, your child should end up right where you expected and chances are good that she will understand the steps of the concept better now that she has had to think through them logically. Additionally, as the child answers the questions, you can detect any misunderstandings and discuss them right away. Yes, it would be much easier to just tell them the answers, but then she wouldn’t own her understanding, would she? Socratic Dialogue is an effective communication tool because the child learns to break the concept or idea up into components, organize the thoughts, and relate them to the parent. The conversation usually expands beyond the initial questions as a full-fledged discussion emerges, and your rising classical scholar practices the art of rhetoric through narration and Socratic Dialogue.

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Do you have any questions for me on Socratic Dialogue? Please use the comment box below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Tags: classical discourse, classical home educators, communicating effectively, communication skill, critical thinking, high school, home school, homeschoolers, narration, questions, Rhetoric, socratic dialogue, Socratic method, speeches, think logically, written compositions

Before I begin the third series on teaching the classical trivium in your homeschool (Skill Set # 3: “Communicating Well“), I’d like to invite you to take a 30 minute break from the daily routine and give yourself some adult education. If you have been with me for a while, you’ll recognize this parent tutorial, “The 7 Laws of Teaching: How You Can Teach Your Children at the Deepest Levels.” As you reflect on your own need for enrichment, consider first the three main skills sets of the classical trivium by asking yourself how you are doing at teaching language, teaching critical thinking, and teaching communication. Don’t worry about being an expert in the various subjects like microbiology or latin yet. You may never master certain subjects, but do your best to master the big 3 of the trivium. When you do, your children will be equipped to learn any subject! Click on this link or the image below to begin your own continuing education:

Formal Logic…most of us never learned the rules in school and shudder at the very thought of teaching it! But if you are going to raise a classical scholar in your homeschool, you really need to become familiar with the concepts and terms. In fact, you may find after completing a few lessons that you actually enjoy this methodical way of constructing and evaluating arguments. In this last post in the series on step 2 of the classical trivium, “Thinking Critically,” I’ll briefly introduce you to the study of logic in laymen’s terms.

HISTORY

The western version of classical logic originated in Classical Greece with Aristotle. He called his argument the “syllogism.” Each statement followed a particular order containing a subject and a predicate. There are many vocabulary words, but three important ones to remember when teaching logic are: argument, reason, and conclusion.

METHOD

Reasoning shapes our thinking into intelligent patterns. When someone asks us for our reason for believing something, our minds have to go beyond the information given in order to decide, explain, predict, or persuade. Our reasons support our conclusion. So, a simple definition of logic is:

the system for using reasons and conclusions to construct and evaluate arguments

Whenever we give reasons to support our conclusions, we are presenting an argument. Officially, such reasons are called “premises.” Here’s the structure:

Reason 1 (first statement to justify the conclusion - evidence)

Reason 2 (second statement to justify the conclusion - evidence)

Conclusion (statement that explains, asserts, or predicts based on the evidence or reasons)

Here’s a real-life example of a formal argument:

Murder is against the law.

Destroying frozen human embryos is murder.

Therefore, destroying frozen human embryos should be against the law.

Traditional logic teaches methods for evaluating criteria like validity, truth, and soundness. Anthony Weston provides a brief overview of logic in his Rulebook for Arguments if you want an executive or top-level summary of the subject. In our own home, we’ve used two logic curricula: Canon Press and Memoria Press. My recommendation would be to purchase Memoria Press’ Traditional Logic, books 1 and 2, for a full year of high school credit. Most homeschoolers are ready to tackle this methodical workbook sometime between the 7th and 8th year.

Critical thinking will skyrocket once your kids begin to understand traditional logic. In lesson 5 of the second semester of the Memoria Press text, they learn how to apply all the methods for constructing and evaluating arguments to real-life. They can then take any newspaper article, identify the arguments including premises and conclusions, and evaluate with specific tools whether the argument is sound or not. This is a critical thinking skill that is rare in our culture and certainly unusual among teenagers; you owe it to your kids to give them these tools so that they are ready to take what they’ve determined and communicate their position effectively.

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To recap the posts on step 2 of the classical homeschool trivium, “Thinking Critically,” are:

Three Ways to Prepare your Child for Logical Thinking

Top 10 Traits of a Critical Thinker

What Does your Child Need to Become a Critical Thinker?

Know Why You Believe What You Believe

Can a Critical Thinker be Creative, Too?

Why Writing is a Catalyst to Intellectual Development

‘Shiver Me Timbers!’ Do I Have to Teach Logic?

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If you have enjoyed this post or any of the other posts in this series, and you have a favorite social bookmarking site like Stumbleupon, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, or Technorati, would you mind taking a minute to click on the bookmarking icon below and plugging our website as a favorite? We’d really appreciate any good recommendations that you could pass on to your friends.

Pulitzer prize-winning American author, Annie Dillard, is quoted as saying,

“I don’t know what I think until I see myself write.”

Writing down your thought processes is a necessary step to a fuller understanding of the problem, issue, or idea. Simply listening to a news program, a sermon, or a lecture is not enough. Let’s consider a common scenario.

While you’re watching a news program with your husband, the telephone rings, and he leaves to go answer the call. When he returns, he asks you what he missed. You might be able to immediately reconstruct the basics of the story, but would you be able to accurately recount the details a week later? Now let’s assume that the next evening, you decided to take notes during the broadcast. I’ll bet if you compared your recap from both nights, you would clearly see the benefit of writing down your thoughts.

Why is writing a catalyst to intellectual development in your homeschool? The process of writing:

• stimulates the mind

• improves memory

• shapes critical thinking

• enlarges understanding

• provides a permanent record

Writing Stimulates the Mind

You’ve probably heard that you’ll retain information more effectively if you give it to your brain by more than one method. When your child reads a book, she is gathering information and storing it using visual cues. When your daughter then narrates what she learned in the book, she is organizing and storing that information a second time using auditory cues. Finally, when she writes while she is reading or even after she has read a passage, she is storing that info using both touch and sight. This child has now engaged the same information three different ways, and she is very likely to have a better understanding than she would have if all she had done was read the chapter.

Writing Improves Memory

Not only does processing information using multiple methods improve understanding, but it also improves memory. Since the late ’60s, leading memory authorities have documented the fact that organizing information (into categories) makes the info more memorable thus more likely to be retained in long-term memory. Additionally, writing down your thought processes or ideas usually results in a mental picture of the outline, sketch, or notes so that when you need to recall the information, you can readily remember your written notes by calling up your internal “teleprompter.”

Writing Shapes Critical Thinking

In order to write some thought down on paper or to type the thought on the computer keyboard, we need to first organize the information. We are forced to reduce all the incoming data to determine the main problem and identify the solution. (See “Can a Critical Thinker also be Creative, Too?” for more detail on the questions that a critical thinker should ask.) Does your child have trouble with math word problems? My kids used to really struggle with them until I showed them how to circle the important facts in the problem then translate the words into a mathematical equation or formula. As they dissected the word problem, they were able to focus on what the problem was asking and come up with the correct solution.

Writing Enlarges Understanding

When we exclusively confine our learning to reading or hearing someone else’s interpretation, we miss out on greater understanding. When we choose to write down the facts and come to our own conclusions, we inevitably stumble upon concepts that we thought we understood but later realized that we did not really grasp the problem. So, we’ve got to dig a little deeper to clarify our own understanding. Meredith and I watch a DVD on biology, and as we each draw our own “stick and branch” outlines of the lecture, we often pause the DVD to discuss concepts that we don’t understand.

Writing Provides a Permanent Record

As homeschoolers, we need to keep certain records in order to comply with the state. You also might want to keep a written record of your kids’ work in case they decide to homeschool their kids and need to refer back to their own home school work! At the end of the academic year, I ask the kids to pull their favorite examples from each area of study so that I can incorporate those writing samples in their portfolio or scrapbook.

I keep reading journals (3 ring binders or spiral notebooks) for all of my own studies. It is especially rewarding to go back through my “Quiet Time” Scripture journals from over the years and see how I am growing in my understanding and relationship with Jesus. I also keep my history, literature, and science notebooks in case I ever want to go back and consult them. They are really a “history” of who I was at that place and time because they reflect those thoughts and questions that I found most important.

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Here’s a quick exercise for you and the kids. Select an article out of the newspaper. Have the oldest child read it and narrate the main points to the rest of the family. Appoint one family member to take notes of what the narrator said. Then have the oldest child read the article again, but this time have him or her write down thoughts before narrating. Have the secretary take notes again. Compare the two accounts of the article. Which account reflected a greater understanding of the topic?

Absolutely yes!  Step two of the classical trivium, “Thinking Critically,” involves giving your children tools to solve problems. Observation, language, and evidence are all components of critical thinking but so is creative thinking. How is creative thinking related to critical thinking?

To be a creative thinker is to have a sense of discovery…to imagine…to invent…to be curious. Critical thinkers need to foster creative thinking so that they can develop viable alternatives and solutions for the problem. Solving problems involves the following 5 steps:

1. Identify the real problem.

• Ask lots of questions.
• Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
• What is causing the problem?
• Eliminate the distracting side issues.

2. Generate a list of alternatives.

• Consult experts.
• Brainstorm.
• Set the timer and “jam” random thoughts.
• Imagine new ways of doing it
• Postpone judgment until later.

3. Evaluate the pros and cons of your possible solutions.

• What do the experts recommend?
• What do the written references say?
• What are the facts?
• Have you had a personal experience with the problem?

4. Decide on the best solution.

• What pros and cons can you merge?
• What alternative solutions can you eliminate?
• What is the most workable solution?

5. Monitor the results of your plan.

• How well is your solution working?
• Did anything unexpected happen?
• Are there any adverse effects?

To think creatively about a problem, your child has to develop a deep understanding of the central concept and issues. In order to foster an environment where creative thinking is encouraged, provide the following conditions in your home school:

Time

Allow lots of uninterrupted time with no distractions so that your child can really think about the issue. Give less work so that he or she can go deep. Eliminate distractions (I know this is difficult). Give him or her time to concentrate so that those creative juices flow. He needs time to absorb all the facts of the situation and imagine solutions.

Place

You’ve probably heard this before, but we really do need a quiet place to engage in deep thinking. My kids work all over the house, both inside and outside, but when they need to really concentrate, they go to their “quiet places.” Meredith goes to her room and closes the door, and Connor disappears in the study. There’s also some value in going to the same quiet place each time they want to do some serious thinking because every time they reenter that place, the memory of prior “ah hah” moments will trigger a similar eureka moment this time.

So where does creative thinking factor into these 5 problem-solving steps? People who think creatively come up with alternatives and solutions that are not the norm. Creative thinkers illuminate the crux of the problem. Creative thinkers innovate when it comes to alternatives. Creative thinkers imagine a better solution. Once a little creativity has been applied to the problem, a critical analysis of the problem, alternatives, and solution can be performed. The more creative thinking your child does, the more ideas he’ll produce. The more creative ideas your child produces, the more skilled he’ll become. The more skilled he becomes, the more satisfying his sense of accomplishment will be. The more satisfying his accomplishments, the more he will love learning!

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Are you beginning to see how mastering the 1st (learning the language) and 2nd (thinking critically) skill sets of the classical trivium can release your homeschooling students from the subject-driven bonds of the public school paradigm? Focus on teaching these two skill sets and don’t worry about teaching subjects yet. Next up: “Why Writing is a Catalyst to Intellectual Development.”

“I don’t know.” Perhaps you thought you understood a concept then when pushed to summarize the concept in a clear, concise statement, you found yourself uttering the feeble words “I don’t know.” Or maybe you asked your son to explain what he just read, and he weakly stammered “I don’t know.” If you can’t explain why you know something, then you don’t really know it!

The English word “critical” derives from the Greek word “kritikos” which means to question, to make sense of, or to analyze. Critical thinkers know why they believe what they believe because they have asked lots of questions, analyzed lots of data, and have made sense of the evidence. According to Merriam Webster, a belief is “a conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based upon examination of evidence.” In evaluating beliefs, we need to consider four different kinds of evidence:

• Expert Authorities

• Written References

• Hard Facts

• Personal Experience

Expert Authorities

An authority is one who is an expert in a field and has usually devoted the majority of his working career to gaining a deep understanding of his area of expertise. Biblical scholars specialize in interpreting particular books of the Bible. Supreme Court justices specialize in Federal Constitutional Law. Anthropologists specialize in indigenous cultures. Who are the authorities for your core beliefs? Are they particularly knowledgeable in the area of the belief? Are they reliable? Have they ever given inaccurate information? Do other authorities disagree with their positions?

Written References

Original source documents like books, newspapers, online publications are written by authors who could be authorities or work for authorities. What texts do you rely upon to support your beliefs? Is the content of these texts based upon factual evidence? What are the credentials of the authors? How much personal experience does the author have with the topic? Does the author have a relationship with someone who is an authority on the topic? Are there other authors who disagree with the position that your texts endorse? Is there evidence to support the opinion of these texts?

Hard Facts

Facts are pieces of information presented as having objective reality; that is, facts can be objectively quantified or substantiated and are not subject to the interpretations of the user. When considering the facts behind your beliefs, inquire of the source of the facts. Were experiments performed to statistically quantify the facts? Was evidence obtained to substantiate the conclusions? Can this evidence be interpreted differently? Does the factual evidence support the conclusion?

Personal Experience

Many times our beliefs are based upon personal experiences. In evaluating these experiences, ask yourself the following questions. What were the circumstances of the experience? Were distortions or mistakes in perception possible? Have other people had similar or conflicting experiences? Are there other explanations for the experience?

You don’t have to examine each of these four types of evidence for every belief or position that you consider, but critical thinking skills will be improved if you practice asking these questions regularly. Think of a core belief that you hold about life then go through this exercise step by step. Some possible beliefs that you could examine are what you believe about marriage, parenting, or homeschooling. Here are the steps:

1. Describe the belief.

2. Explain the reasons why you feel so strongly about the belief.

3. Identify evidence for your position.

4. Describe an opposing point of view.

5. Identify evidence for the opposing viewpoint.

6. Evaluate the evidence for both pros and cons using the four categories above:

a. Who are the authorities?

b. What are the written references?

c. What are the facts?

d. What are your personal experiences?

Was that difficult to do? Now you’re ready to try this exercise with your child. Select an easy belief to start with then move on to more difficult beliefs. For instance, in my household, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream is favored above all other brands, so I might guide the kids through the following analysis:

1. Handels Ice Cream is better than Ritters Custard.
2. Flavor, variety, texture, and price all support our position.
3. We know this from personal experience and newspaper articles showing consumer preferences.
4. Ritters Custard is better than Handels.
5. Some people prefer the lighter, creamier texture of custard as evidenced by all the cars parked in front of the building.
6. Finally, authorities, references, facts, and personal experiences would be considered for both Handels and Ritters.

You can use these tools to evaluate all kinds of beliefs from moral positions (like “I believe lying is wrong”) to scientific theories (like “I do not believe global warming is a threat to the earth”) to difficult worldview issues (like “I believe in the Trinity”). Start with the easier concepts from their math lessons (like “I believe nine times eight is seventy-two” or “I believe a right triangle has one 90 degree angle”) or from their history reading (like “I do not believe the American Civil War was caused by slavery” or “I believe that Benedict Arnold was a traitor”).

You might want to set aside a few minutes every morning to practice this exercise just like you would practice an impromptu speech. Give the kids a topic (abstract ideas like love and power or concrete ideas like evolution and property ownership), and set the timer for 10 minutes. Give them a notecard and have them complete the 6 steps above. When the timer goes off, have them narrate their thoughts from the notecard. I promise you that this exercise will really stimulate their thinking; it really reveals how much they do or do not know about their belief! Train your kids in how to evaluate their beliefs so that they can confidently give a precise, thoughtful answer next time when you ask them why they believe what they believe.