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

The three skills of the classical trivium are not taught consecutively over time; rather, they are taught concurrently, and some areas of study like math involve more than one skill (the unique language of math is learned while critical thinking skills are being developed.)

Here’s another example of the concurrent nature of the true trivium:  the child is learning how to write a paragraph (skill 3 – speech) while analyzing a piece of literature (skill 2 – thinking) while perfecting her cursive handwriting (skill 1 – language).

When should you start teaching these three skills?

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

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

How long will it take to teach these three skills?

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

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If you are already familiar with the term trivium…

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

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

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

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