What is Classical Education?
Classical education is a three part system of training the mind.
These three stages are called the Trivium, which is Latin for "where three roads meet". The ancients called them Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. The Bible calls it Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom.
For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. —Proverbs 2:6
The first stage is called the Grammar stage. Here, a child must first memorize information as a way of building to his knowledge, just as learning grammar is the building block to learning language. The young child enjoys learning facts and rules: spelling, phonics, grammar, math addition, multiplication table, history facts, etc.
The second stage is called the Logic stage. Here, the child begins to understand cause and effect. His capacity for abstract thought and logic begins to grow. He begins to learn the Logic of reading, including a criticism of texts; the Logic of Writing, such as paragraph construction; and the Logic of History, why a war was carried out instead of just memorizing the what, when, where of the war. The logic of science is to learn the scientific method: observe, make a hypothesis, experiment, conclude.
When a child moves from the grammar stage to the dialectic stage, they begin making connections and asking lots of "Why?" questions. This happens usually around the fourth or fifth grade, although it can happen much earlier or
The third stage is called the rhetoric stage. It is the Socratic level. Here, the child learns to be self-thinking, self-learning. In the previous two stages, he was given the facts, then taught to catgorize the facts. Now, he must begin to internalize those facts so he can express his own opinion and thoughts.
What is the goal of classical education?
The goal of classical education is for the student to surpass the teacher. He learns to teach himself. This is the ultimate goal of all teaching.
Thus, the Trivium is not so much a kind of learning, as it is a way of teaching the child how to learn.
Thus, the student is equipped to join the "Great Conversation" - the ongoing conversation of great minds down through the ages.
“The beauty of the classical curriculum,” writes classical schoolmaster David Hicks, “is that it dwells on one problem, one author, or one epoch long enough to allow even the youngest student a chance to exercise his mind in a scholarly way: to make connections and to trace developments, lines of reasoning, patterns of action, recurring symbolisms, plots, and motifs.”
We need more than academics to make a complete education. We need to balance academics with the three goals pursued in a classical Hebrew education. These are: 1) teaching children the Word of God, 2) preparing them for marriage, and 3) training young men for a practical trade and young women for managing their household.
Some very good readings on Classical Education
The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers
The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers
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