Reviewing content to increase understanding is a critical component of a classical education. So, before we start the next homeschooling series on the classical trivium, “Thinking Critically,” here’s a short primer on classical education.

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Western Civilization was built on the classical education model, and the majority of history’s leaders were trained under this method. Classical education dates back to Ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome. Medieval Europeans, especially leaders of the Christian Church, were classically educated as were the founders of the American Republic. During the 19^th century, the U. S. immigration population soared, and the common school movement was born which effectively obliterated classical education in the United States by the beginning of the 20^th century. With the exception of a minute group of Christian home schoolers, our nation’s leaders are now being trained on the public school conveyor-belt which teaches children what to think and not how to think. (See “The World is Waiting” for a detailed chronology of the history of classical education.)

The classical home education renewal movement is still in its infancy, and many variations in practice exist like the classical model of Charlotte Mason, Susan Wise Bauer, and Oliver Van DeMille. In their excitement to embrace a classical home education, many parents jump right in without really thinking about what distinguishes classical education from other viable homeschooling methods. For example, some would tell you that classical languages like Latin are a critical component of a classical education (more on my opinion of this in a later post!), but the content of the classical education is not nearly as important as the methods by which the content is taught. The trivium and quadrivium provide structure for organizing content while Socratic dialogue and inductive reasoning provide the tools by which to understand the content.

A classical Christian home education is not as difficult as many people believe it to be. In fact, when you know your main objectives, classical homeschooling can be extremely freeing and relaxing while still rigorously challenging both parents and children. There are Three Simple but Significant Steps to a Classical Education:

1. Discard the public school paradigm

2. Teach the Skills of the Trivium

a. Learning the Language

b. Thinking Critically

c. Communicating Effectively

3. Supervise the Study of Subjects

Unlike some proponents of classical homeschooling, I do not view the trivium as distinct phases in the child’s life; rather, I see the trivium as three necessary skill sets that should be substantially mastered before moving on to the deeper study of subjects. Think of these three skills as a continuum of increasing competence. The more the child works on the skill, the better the child becomes at the skill. All three skills begin developing at birth but are not mastered for many years. In fact, you are probably still working on these skills just as I am! There does come a day, however, when you know your child is ready to go deeper into subjects, and it is at that point that you can tailor the study of subjects to the individual tastes and interests of the child.

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“Thinking Critically,” step two of “Teach the Skills of the Trivium,” is the topic of the next series.

Originally written in 1999 by the mother-daughter team, Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (revised in 2004) applies the “Lost Tools of Learning” educational theory of Dorothy Sayers to systematically train the child over a twelve year period. The authors are wildly popular within the classical homeschooling community, and rightly so since they satisfied the desires of the many parents who were not classically educated by providing them with a detailed road map, by grade, for the rigorous content of a classical education.

Learning is organized around 3 main stages in a child’s mental development which hypothetically correlate to the 3 stages of the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The grammar stage comprises the early elementary years when the child is absorbing facts and experiences like a sponge. Both oral and written narration is key to this stage. During the logic stage, the maturing youth begins to critically analyze information while the rhetoric stage involves the refinement of personal communication skills through public speaking and writing.

History is the foundational building block in this philosophical method and is segregated into 4 major periods: ancient, medieval, renaissance or revolutions, and modern. The family who follows this method all 12 years will rotate through each period of history 3 times.

Science and literature are coordinated with the period of history being studied. For example, when the student studies ancient history, he also studies life science which is what the people of that age would have known. Astronomy is studied with medieval history, chemistry is studied with revolutions, and physics is tackled with modern history.

Classical literature like Homer’s Iliad is read three times. During the grammar stage, the parent reads an abridged picture book version; during the logic stage, the student reads an abridged version. Finally, the student reads the original classic during the rhetoric stage. This pattern lends coherence; as the student matures, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom widens and deepens. Latin, formal logic, art, and music are also covered in this approach.

According to the authors, there are three major characteristics of this philosophy. Primarily, the “well-trained mind” classical education is language-focused; the conversion of words (symbols) into mental concepts requires different skills from those required for image-focused methods. Secondarily, skills are built over time in that knowledge is gained (grammar stage), logical tools are acquired to analyze such knowledge (logic stage) , and reasonable personal conclusions are expressed (rhetoric stage.) Finally, to the classical student, all knowledge is interrelated as evidenced by the coordination of disciplines like history, science, and literature.

Not only do the authors provide a thorough analysis of the philosophy of classical education but they also provide extensive practical application in resource lists and schedule by stage. Although rigorous and demanding on both parents and students, the challenge is beneficial. One caution, however, for the parent who is just beginning the classical education journey: don’t try to do everything that is recommended in The Well-Trained Mind; instead, use it as a reference tool and tailor the suggestions to your own family situation.

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Are you a fan of Susan Wise Bauer’s four volume, Story of the World, history for children? If so, you might want to download a few excerpts of her newest (released March 2007) adult history, The History of the Ancient World, at Susan Wise Bauer’s Blog.

(Plus, I KNOW you would love her blog! This woman is AMAZING!! She and her husband planted a church with her parents, she home schools four kids, and she writes book after book. She is a 1st generation home schooler, so imagine what your own 1st generation “well-trained mind” kids will do when they grow up!)

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If you are interested in sharing ideas with other homeschool parents who relish the home education philosophy of “the well-trained mind,” consider joining one of the following free Yahoo Discussion Groups. [The following descriptions are provided by each Yahoo group.]

WellTrainedMindDscn (2835 members)

“The participants on this list discuss the book “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” (TWTM or WTM) by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. Although we have a moderator, we do not have any “experts” — we’re all trying to figure out how to apply these principles in our own home, according to our own experiences. This group is open to all homeschoolers who are interested in learning more about classical education methods. Therefore, although religion may be mentioned, it is not to become a point of contention. The focus of the discussion is to remain on-topic, with short friendly side comments allowed. We will discuss one main topic per week, along with whatever items members want to bring to the group (questions, successes, comments).”

WellTrainedMindFamilies (556 members)

“The families on this list discuss the book “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. This group is open to all homeschooling families who are interested in learning more about classical education methods. This list is here to discuss how to implement TWTM into everyday life and all that goes along with it…from legal issues, to book suggestions, to discipline problems, to sleeping issues, to how to teach how to share. We believe homeschooling is 24/7, so for us, basically life is one big school.”

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Read more about the home schooling philosophies of John Holt, Charlotte Mason, and Oliver DeMille, and discover that they all encourage love of learning even though different paths are suggested to achieve such a love. Do you need some help verbalizing your own home educational philosophy? My post, “What Is Your Home Education Philosophy?,” offers 10 questions to get you started.

The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM), by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, was THE very first book that captured my attention when we began to consider giving our kids an education at home. I was smitten with the concept of classical home schooling right away! I loved the vision and conversational style that Jessie and Susan offered, but 8 years after trying to fully implement their suggestions, I am convinced that the “trivium” as they teach it is impossible to achieve.

Overly ambitious, TWTM feels a lot like traditional school with harder subjects. Twelve years of math…twelve years of science…twelve years of grammar…argh! Add the “classical” subjects that I never had as a student (logic, latin, and rhetoric), and all of a sudden, “classical” home schooling felt like a huge task. At first, I tried to do everything they recommended, but over the years, I began to eliminate as many of their ideas as I embraced because they didn’t work for our kids, or they were just too tedious. I spent way too much money in the first few years purchasing various curricula that enslaved us (Abeka Grammar, Canon Press Logic II), and I felt such a burden because I was trying to follow TWTM and always fell short! I have talked to so many moms who were excited about classical homeschooling only to give up in frustration. Today, I use The Well-Trained Mind as a resource and not as a blueprint; read more about their educational philosophy.

Perhaps you are one of those parents who was initially excited about the concept of classical education, but somewhere along the way you lost your drive. Maybe you felt discouraged or wondered how you would get it all done! If so, you’ll want to read this entire series. Through no fault of your own you have been operating under a false understanding of a classical Christian education which positioned you and your children for failure. Now please don’t think I am suggesting that the leaders of the renewal movement are intentionally conspiring to deceive; that is NOT what I am saying. I am merely suggesting that the current classical education renewal movement is operating under a faulty premise because the historical trivium was never meant to be taught the way we do it today. In the next post, I’ll give a little background on the current classical education renewal movement so we’re all on the same page.

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Tags: classical education renewal movement, Classical Home Schooling, Jessie Wise, latin, Logic, Rhetoric, Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Trained Mind, trivium

When I pulled the kids out of public school in order to teach them at home, I decided (with David’s blessing) to postpone the traditional grade accumulation process until they began to tackle high school content. The primary purpose of report cards is to notify the absent parent of the student’s progress, and I was no longer detached from their education; so, I decided to avoid the extra work until it was absolutely necessary. I was fully in tune with their progress in every area of learning, so there was no need for busy work. Every homeschooling mom will agree with me that we have plenty of work to keep us busy day and night!

Fortunately, my state department of education does not require grade reporting; however, if your state requires report cards, you’ll have to comply. Check with the HSLDA or click on the map to discover the legal reporting requirements for your state.

Most employers, colleges, and universities require an official transcript outlining the high school curriculum and grades, so I began to keep track of grades once each child began high school courses. I recommend starting some high school level work during the 7th or 8th year of homeschooling if you think your teen is ready. For instance, in our home, the kids started high school Debate and Latin before the 9th year, so I started accumulating official grades during the middle school years. In the example below, you’ll notice that there is no grade for Algebra 1 because Connor hasn’t started this yet.

How you decide to gather grade info is really your personal choice. You can pay for software like Edu-Track, or you can shares forms with other parents on email loops like the Yahoo Group, Homeschool Form Share. My personal favorite tool for accumulating grades is a Microsoft Excel form called Grade Tracker that you can download for free. Here’s a screenshot of my customized summary for Connor:

There are two great reasons to use Grade Tracker: it’s free, and the excel spreadsheet automatically calculates the cumulative GPA! If you’d like to go behind the scenes, I’ve prepared a quick video tutorial to explain how I use Grade Tracker.

Our philosophy of learning has always been “master the material, or do it again” which means that we strive for excellence. Sometimes rework cannot be avoided, and sometimes we just don’t “get it,” but generally, we don’t move on to new material until we have mastered the old material. Fortunately we have the luxury as homeschoolers to set our own pace, and we can stop and work on a particular weak area of knowledge until we master it. We’ve had to do this several times with math which is a good reason to start the kids early on high school level work if you can.

Some courses like Literature or Art History are fairly subjective in nature; David and I generally grade these courses through Socratic Dialogue, narration, or written essays. Objective courses like Latin 1, Laboratory Biology, and Introductory Logic include written examinations which can be graded more precisely.

I try to keep up with the grind of recording high school grades on a weekly basis although I have to admit this task is one of my least favorite chores of homeschooling! Usually by Friday afternoon, I am ready to start entering information about the course content and the related grade into the spreadsheet. Over the years, I have kept all of the kids’ work; at the end of the year, I pull out all the best examples and create a portfolio (really more like a scrapbook) and put the rest in a labeled box which I store in the attic. In some respect the annual portfolio serves as proof of each child’s homeschooling “grade” or progress that year until they get to high school when I then begin to keep official grades.

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Are you keeping grades yet? Please take a minute to share your methods in the comments section below.

Have you ever started your homeschooling day with a plan only to find yourself chasing a rabbit? I recently heard a well-respected authority say that all knowledge was related, and after following a link for learning a foreign language this morning, I landed on a blog which featured this beautiful video about Bosnia Herzegovina. I’m sure the author of the blog only intended to promote her beautiful country, but I ended up pondering other ideas related to Christianity and classical education. Today I’ll show you how to take seemingly unrelated trivia and incorporate it into your classical education. Enjoy the video then continue reading…

Trivia

Bosnia Herzegovina is located in southern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula directly east of Italy. Previously part of Yugoslavia, Bosnia Herzegovina is home to Sarajevo, host city of the 1984 Winter Olympics. During the struggle for independence in 1992-1995, the people of this country experienced war in their homeland. According to Operation World, 1.3 million citizens fled their homes, and after the war only about 1/4 of them returned to the country to build new homes and start again.

Although the war officially ended in 1995, NATO maintained a stabilization force there until December 2005. The video clip portrays a countryside of beauty and tranquility, and the people appear to be at peace, but there are ongoing ethnic and religious tensions. During the 500 year Turkish occupation, many Bosnians became Muslim (38-50% of the population), and during the ’90’s, the Croats created an alliance with the Bosnians against the Christian Serbians (35% in a 50/50 split: Catholic/Orthodox.)

You may recall seeing news reports during the ’90s about ethnic cleansing, looting, destruction, and death under Serbian Milosovic’s reign of terror. Such horror has “left deep scars and abiding hatred between communities that once lived together, spoke the same language, and even intermarried.” (Operation World p.116) The Bosnian language is based on the Latin alphabet although the Cyrillic alphabet is used occasionally.

Observation

So how can you apply seemingly unrelated facts or news events to your classical home school? One of the hallmarks of a classical education is inductive reasoning which involves 3 steps: (1) observe, (2) interpret, and (3) apply. In this particular situation, I have observed (step 1) something in my world (the enticing video) which caused me to want to learn more. My first reaction was a desire to visit Bosnia Herzegovina; then I wanted to learn more about the people of the country so I did a little more research.

Interpretation

Next, I quickly catalogued my new knowledge so that I could interpret (step 2) what I had learned. What did I learn? I discovered that Bosnia Herzegovina has recently experienced war; in fact, my peers there were fleeing their homes and losing loved ones while I was adding to my family and creating a safe home for my newborns! I learned that there are more Muslims than Christians in the country, and that Protestant Christians are nearly nonexistent. I learned that these people have a long history…they were around when the Turks dominated the world during the Crusades. What is the meaning of this information that I have gathered.

Application

Finally, I apply (step 3) what I have learned to our own home school situation. Application will be unique for each family, but here are five ideas I might use in my family.

1. Currently, my teenage son is studying the American Civil War, so I could relate the Bosnian Reconstruction to the American Reconstruction period of the 1860s-70s as homes were rebuilt and ethnic divisions were examined with a view towards healing.

2. I could take a thematic approach to application by talking about grief and forgiveness. We’re studying I Kings at table in the mornings, so I could relate the Bosnian situation to family divisions in ancient Israel during David and Solomon’s reigns.

3. We could discuss what it would be like here in America if conditions allowed a foreign religion to evangelize mass numbers of citizens like the Muslim conversions that occurred during the Ottoman occupation of the Middle Ages.

4. Right now, the kids are immersed in this year’s policy debate resolution on illegal immigration, so we could talk about the refugee situation in Bosnia and how it relates to immigrants like the Somalians or Liberians seeking asylum in the U.S.

5. Or I could go back to that original rabbit trail and relate the Bosnian language to the Latin language!

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So, keep your eyes, ears, and heart open when you follow rabbit trails and come across seemingly unimportant information…the possibilities for meaningful discussion in your classical home school are endless!

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

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

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