Boys! Have you ever wondered why sometimes your son doesn’t seem to hear you or why he doesn’t describe nouns like your daughter? LeeAnn Smith, mother of two boys and author of the blog “3 for school,” recently attended a virtual home school conference hosted by Heart of the Matter. Not surprisingly, one of her favorite speakers was Andrew Pudewa whose talk was titled “Teaching Boys Who Would Rather Be Building Forts.” LeeAnn has graciously given me permission to reprint her thoughts on the differences between boys and girls. Enjoy!

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Did you know that boys and girls are wired differently? Literally neurologically differently. Read Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax.

Here are some practical differences including reasons boys and girls don’t do well in the same classroom. Now I finally know why I chose to homeschool my boys and am more ambivalent about my daughter. In words not just feelings.

For example, boys don’t hear quiet sounds. They don’t ignore me. They just don’t hear me. Pudewa suggested that if both boys and girls are in a classroom, the teacher should seat the boys on one side and the girls on the other and then stand in front of the boys so they can hear. He said many boys don’t do well in school because they cannot hear the teacher. I thought of the wiggly boys in Primary trying to hear quiet women’s voices. He also suggested that if our sons cannot sit still to do math, have them stand up to do it. See further down for more reasons.

Boys optimum learning temperature is 68 - 69 degrees. Girls is 74-75 degrees. Note to self: keep heat low this winter and have dear daughter and me bundle up.

Boys eyes have more m-cells which are connected to rods. They tend to track speed and motion. Girls have more p-cells connected to cones which track color and texture. Do you know a boy that draws with black and attempts to draw action? I do! Boys draw verbs in black; girls draw nouns in full color.

That sums up boys in language arts: they recognize verbs. Girls see nouns and descriptors. So when a boy writes a story with info left out, I can’t instruct him on adjectives and adverbs. He suggested something like, “Great story. Let’s add some action.”

How they handle emotions like being upset: Boys stomp around and make lots of noise. They need to stand up if they are upset because they think better on their feet, moving around. So don’t make them sit down to talk about it. They can’t if you want them to work through it. If a girl is upset, you have to go find her first. He suggested that you can usually find her on the couch with a blanket pulled over her head. Her bedroom in our case. No need to search for a boy unless he took off on his bike.

Related info: Boys react to pain with an increase of blood flow to the cortex. He suggested letting them hurt each other or they will hurt themselves. He recommended explaining to them that girls do not do well with pain so they need to take it out on each other, not on girls! I realized that in our society of today with so many women in positions of responsibility, we don’t allow our boys the freedom to do this. How many times have I told my boys to stop wrestling before they get hurt? Shame on me! I’ll clear valuables next time (what few I have left.) They have never been badly hurt. (Fight or flight very clear here!)

Related to this info, he told us that boys have to learn interesting, relevant, and applicable information. They see no reason for anything else. Pudewa said the most important motivator was to teach things that were intrinsically relevant. Those things are naturally interesting. He commented that knives and swords are universally interesting to boys. “They will invent them if the never see them.” How many moms can attest to that? Keep swords and guns out of the house, and a boy will invent them out of a stick!

If we try to teach our boys something that is not that intrinsically relevant but must be learned, he noted that creative teachers will invent games. But he noted that they must have positive and negative results, otherwise the boys might decide it’s not worthwhile and decide to opt out. For example, a teacher might give him a penny for every right answer, but he must pay the teacher $1.00 if he does not play. The rewards must be physical, not mental or emotional. Girls need those, not boys.

No wonder the few all-boys schools in this country have exceptional records. We need more!

Oh yeah, Pudewa suggested martial arts training for teaching boys discipline and focus. Boys have inherently short attention spans, and it helps them develop longer ones. It helps all the way around! I know boys whose parents enrolled them in tae-kwon-do to help them with dyslexia, and it does. He also suggested reading the book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.

As I listened to the speaker, I realized anew that those people who have spent the last who-knows-how-long trying to change boys have failed. They have only weakened and shamed boys. When we consciously understand and value boys again, we will change our world.

LeeAnn Smith
3forschool.blogspot.com

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Thank you, LeeAnn! This sure makes me think twice about the methods that I use to teach my son and my daughter. Maybe I’ll write a practical post on how to teach boys after I finish the series on step 3, “Supervising the Subjects.”

If you haven’t listened to my interview with Andrew Pudewa, hear what he has to say about how his homeschooling philosophy has changed over the years. He moved to Idaho to enroll his kids in Douglas Wilson’s classical school (based on the 12 year public school paradigm that I want you to toss!) and has gradually moved more towards the leadership model of Oliver DeMille. I know you’ll enjoy it! Next up, I’ll continue my series on “Supervising the Subjects” with a post on raising our teens to influence the culture.

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

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

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

The Message is More than Information

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

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

Ambiguities Get in the Way

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

Time Gets in the Way

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

Get Behind the Text

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

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

Get in the Text

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

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

Get in Front of the Text

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

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

All Three Methods are Viable

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

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

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

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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Successful home school communicators consider the audience who will read or hear the composition before they begin researching the topic. Think about how a speech on euthanasia might be received by each of these audiences:

• a few medical doctors who work at the local hospice
• a Sunday School class of 11 and 12 year girls
• a funeral home director and his staff
• a group of state or federal legislators
• a gathering of elderly nursing home residents
• a convention of pharmaceutical reps

Obviously, each of these collective audiences would have a different perspective and perhaps a biased self-interest in advocating or outlawing euthanasia. No two audiences are ever the same. (My speech students who compete in different regions of the country know this hard fact!) Excellent public speakers do their best to assess the audience in advance and tailor the message accordingly. If poor or unenlightened choices are made during the content phase, the message may be doomed no matter how brilliant the delivery. Failure to communicate ultimately rests with the speaker because the audience is always right.

Whether addressing a parent, a small group of friends, a few thousand newsletter subscribers, or an auditorium full of paid attendees, the public speaker and writer is particularly challenged by this compound question:

Who is my audience, and how will I reach them?

Understanding the audience - who they are, how they think and feel, and what they need - is essential to effective communication. This concept applies to all ages and levels of expertise: from the little boy who desperately wants another cookie to the grandparent who needs a ride to the pharmacy to the teenage debater who hopes to persuade the judge to vote affirmative. Possible attitudes toward your appeal include:

supportive (they agree with you)

apathetic (they don’t care)

doubtful (they’re not sure or have serious reservations)

hostile (they are actively opposed)

knowledgeable (they already know a great deal)

unlearned (they know nothing about it)

indifferent (the thought never occurred to them)

Knowing some key facts about the audience favorably impacts the message. The speech or essay can then be crafted in such a way that the ideas have personal meaning and relevance to your unique audience. People pay attention to ideas that compliment their own hopes, needs, and goals.

Savvy public speakers and writers adjust the theme (invention), structure (arrangement), style, vocabulary, length, and delivery to each audience. If addressing a large, heterogeneous audience, more explicit syntax and background information is needed. If addressing a specialized niche (for instance, baseball players), specialized language (like earned run averages) can be used to illuminate. What do the members of the audience have in common? Do you expect them to be good listeners? Can you estimate collective age, social status, ethnicity, education, and cultural background? Consult others who have spoken before similar audiences in the past, or check out any written records (bylaws, public minutes) that are available about the group. Will the surroundings such as lighting, acoustics, and distance impact their ability to favorably respond to you?

Communication is an exchange of information. The word exchange implies giving and taking. The orator or writer gives three things: (1) a debatable idea, (2) the evidentiary proof, and (3) a call to action. The audience receives this offering and responds with verbal, nonverbal, and sometimes written feedback. Nothing is more deflating and discouraging to a homeschool public speaker or writer than a tepid, unresponsive audience. To improve immediate feedback, consider adding novelty, humor, contrast, movement, suspense, and intensity to command attention. Above all, tailor the message to the audience. Certainly, the audience has the right to disagree as in the case of the mom who refuses the 2nd cookie, but if the audience doesn’t understand the idea, plea, argument, or information, somehow the author has failed to communicate. Although it’s hard work, effective communication rests primarily with the creator of the message because the audience is always right!

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This post concludes my three-part series on Teach the Skills of the Trivium. 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 of each web page. 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.”

Tags: arrangement, audience, call to action, composition, debatable idea, Debate, delivery, effective communication, home school, homeschool, invention, proof, public speaker, Speech, style, Writing

The five principles of classical rhetoric provide a template for writing speeches and essays. In canon one, INVENTION, the orator or writer determines the debatable idea, discovers the logical arguments, and develops the thesis for his speech or essay. Canon two, ARRANGEMENT, divides the speech or essay into an introduction, a statement of facts, an outline, the proof, the refutation, and a conclusion. STYLE, canon three, involves determining purpose (instruction, persuasion, or entertainment) and selecting words for greatest effect. With canon four, MEMORY, the orator practices memory techniques, particularly placement of ideas within a room, so that he can enhance his ability to recall the elements of the speech. DELIVERY, canon five, is like STYLE in that it determines how something is said. The Greek word for delivery, hypokrisis, translates in English as “acting,” so it’s not surprising that canon five focuses on vocal training and the use of gestures. Writers must make up for the lack of physical delivery in brilliant style.

Effective Use of Voice

You’ve probably heard the legend of the Athenian orator, Demosthenes, who, in order to overcome a severe stutter, purportedly ran along the Greek seashore reciting poetry with pebbles in his mouth. His efforts paid off in the long run as he became an eloquent public speaker. These days the only people who seriously study vocal techniques are singers, actors, and some elite politicians. Singers and actors know that the proper use of the diaphragm results in more oxygen which leads to more volume and pitch control. Likewise, an open larynx and dropped jaw allow the sound to resonate creating a clearer tone as the notes vibrate against the bones of the head. The deliberate rhetor articulates vowels, consonants, and diphthongs for accurate, crisp pronunciation.

An experienced orator often plays with vocal techniques before settling on the final spoken piece. When still preparing the presentation, he experiments with the following elements:

• pitch (the musical tone on a standard scale like the note “middle C”)
• volume (the loudness or softness of sounds)
• pause (the temporary suspension of sound)
• emphasis (the stress placed on certain sounds, words, or phrases)
• rhythm (the ordered alternation between strong and weak elements of sound)
• pace (the speed at which the words are spoken)
• tone (the mood or intensity of the spoken words)

Consider that a speech is somewhat like a personalized work of art. Each orator will bring unique vocal attributes to the very same text. Use your voice to decorate the content.

Effective Use of Gestures

Now it’s time to involve the entire body as an instrument of communication. Plan your physical movement from your head down to your toes. Will you nod your head up and down at key points? Perhaps you will tilt it in a certain manner. Generally, your arms should relax comfortably at your side with fists unclenched unless you are using your arms and hands for specific illustrations. Don’t point your fingers unless you want to threaten your audience. Decisions need to be made about your legs as well. Will you walk to certain points during the speech to accentuate specific points in the content? Will you adopt a stable stance of good posture for most of the speech? How will you manage your eyes and face? Eye contact is critical, but don’t flit from person to person. Engage certain members of the audience with a direct gaze. Consider the overall theme or message that you want to communicate and make sure that your physical delivery is consistent with that message. A ceremonial speech might use a greater variety of casual gestures where a deliberative speech might use less gestures of a more formal nature.

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One of the best ways to investigate vocal and physical delivery options is to observe other excellent public speakers! Pay attention to the techniques used by political candidates, actors, and soloists, and imitate their best ideas in your next speech. Above all, practice makes perfect, as the old saying goes!

To recap, the five canons of classical rhetoric are:

Invention

Arrangement

Style

Memory

Delivery

The oldest surviving Latin text on communicating effectively, Rhetorica ad Herennium (possibly written by the ancient Roman orator Cicero), outlines five canons or principles by which all rhetoric is judged. These five canons form a template for critiquing speeches and written compositions as well as a pattern for educating your home school children in rhetoric. Adopted from classical Greek rhetors (orators) like Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle, this definitive guide to rhetoric was studied by the most famous orator in ancient Rome, Quintilian, as well as leading Christian medieval and Renaissance orators like Saint Augustine, Desiderius Erasmus, and Sir Francis Bacon. Although our family has not read Cicero’s original text, we use a contemporary text, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, by Edward Corbett which extensively explains and illustrates this tradition that has been practiced in Western culture for over two thousand years. Over the next 5 posts, I’ll reveal the template or pattern of classical rhetoric. Canon one, INVENTION, is the subject of this post.

Determine the Topic

Discovering the main idea of the speech or essay is the first step of invention. What do you want to talk about in your speech or essay? Aristotle organized the potential topics of speeches into two categories: common and special. Common topics included definition of terms, division of the material into parts, comparison of similarities and contrast of differences, and testimonies of authorities. Common topics could be applied to any idea. Special topics were related to the three classical discourses and included justice, honor, and worthiness.

Sometimes we brainstorm for topics, but usually we simply select one of the more interesting subtopics of our homeschool academic reading (history, literature, philosophy, Scripture, science, etc). For example, Connor is reading about the battle of Gettysburg in the novel, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. When I gave him the book to read, I told him that I wanted a 10 paragraph paper from him on one debatable point. As he’s read the compelling narrative, he’s been struck by the honorable character of three officers: Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain. Now if you were heavily influenced by the stories your great grandmother told, you may not find all three men honorable because two of the men he’s chosen to write about were Confederate officers and one a Union officer. However, Connor is going to argue that their characters transcended their national loyalties. That’s a debatable point or idea; it’s not a simple declaration of objective fact, but rather, there is subjectivity in the idea which is supported by evidence.

Discover the Arguments

During invention, ask lots of questions and discover arguments to support your point of view or case. In this exercise, try to find the core conflict of the debate. What is the real issue? Ancient orators asked four types questions:

1. Is it true?

Questions of fact deal with truth which can be supported by actual objective evidence. In the example above, there are many facts to be examined such as Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet were both Confederate Generals while Joshua Chamberlain was a Union General.

2. What is it?

Questions of definition make a call about the nature of the idea. In our example, Connor would define character, the Confederacy, and the United States among other terms.

3. Is it important?

Questions of quality ask why the idea is important. Value judgments enter into these questions as each author will have differing opinions as to the importance or meaning of the idea.

4. Is this the right audience?

Questions of jurisdiction ask whether the venue for the speech or paper is the best for this issue or idea. An ancient orator would not present a deliberative speech to a judge just as the same orator would not present a forensic speech to a city council member.

The ultimate purpose of questions is to find arguments and evidence that support your point of view or case.

Develop the Thesis Statement

Once you’ve determined the topic of your speech or essay and developed the questions that support the topic, it’s time to develop a thesis statement. The word thesis often gives my writing students the quakes, probably because a good thesis statement is generally more difficult to create than a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a declarative statement which states a general fact usually followed by supporting facts. A thesis statement is a debatable point or claim. To be debatable, there must be differing opinions or conflicting facts which call into question the validity of the statement. Thus, the orator or author must prove his idea or claim with hard evidence. To distinguish between a topic sentence and thesis statement, I’ll provide an easy example from Connor’s essay:

• Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character. (a topic sentence)

• Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character because they allowed their decent, chivalric upbringing to transcend their nationalistic loyalties. (a thesis statement)

What’s the difference? The second sentence takes a position on each man’s upbringing that must be proven with evidence whereas the first sentence is a statement of fact which does not claim to know why they were men of character. There could be many unique reasons for why each man has character which makes the idea debatable. The debatable component of the idea is what makes invention so much fun and challenging. We think to uncover the truth which is the essential purpose of canon one of classical rhetoric, invention. Once you’ve invented your debatable idea, you can move on to canon two, arrangement, which is the subject of my next post.

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Do you have a child who struggles with writing thesis statements? Use the following acronym to help trigger debatable points: “www.asia.” Although Andrew Pudewa teaches this as a stylistic dress up, I think you could use it for another purpose:  developing a thesis.  “www.asia” stands for:

when

while

where

as

since

if

although

If you tacked any of these words onto the end of a regular topic sentence then add a supporting phrase, you might have a thesis statement that needs proof. Try it next time!

Tags: 5 canons of rhetoric, Andrew Pudewa, Cicero, classical discourse, classical rhetoric, communicating effectively, deliberative speech, forensic speech, home school, homeschool, inventio, invention, Rhetoric, Rhetoric ad Herennium, speeches, thesis statement, topic sentence, topics for essays, topics for speeches, written compositions

We interrupt the series on “Communicating Effectively,” to bring you an important bulletin about a bit of false information that has NOT been communicated effectively.  What does this have to do with you?  You may have fallen prey to this mistaken philosophy.

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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! Continue reading about the myth that is being passed along…

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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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?