Defining classical education

We are often asked what curriculum we use. As you can see below, we don't subscribe to any one brand of curriculum, we prefer to pick and choose. Our overall philosophy of homeschooling, however, is that of a classical education. This is the post where I describe what that means.

First, I was introduced to the concept of a classical education by the book The Well-Trained Mind, the book, which incidently, became the absolute definitive textbook of our homeschooling endeavors. If there is only one homeschooling book you buy ever, buy this one. Jesse Wise began homeschooling her children back in the seventies, and had to totally make it up as she went along. She eventually concluded that the best way to teach her children was to go back to the one-room schoolhouse methods, which are very different from the methods employed in public schools today.

A classical education develops as the child develops. The first stage is called the grammar stage. These are the elementary years. Young children, as any mom knows, are incredibly capable of absorbing extraordinary amounts of information. During the grammar stage a teacher crams her students' tiny little heads with as much information as possible; facts, poetry, lists, stories, geography, languages, art, science, music, math facts, history, Bible verses...anything you can fit into your day. Like unschoolers, we also encourage children to learn about their interests independently. But unlike unschoolers, we also structure our day with a schedule and place an emphasis on math, grammar, spelling and history.

Unlike the modern classroom, we encourage memorization and utilize the dreaded 'drill and kill' method, which has gotten a nasty reputation in the past thirty years. Memory work is recorded (by me) on cassette tapes. Every morning the kids spend about twenty minutes listening to their 'memory work.' This year Charlie's tapes will include the times tables, French and Latin vocabulary, the scientific method, and the poetry of his choice. The whole process reminds me of the part in in Superman where baby Superman is traveling through space as he listens to Marlon Brando give him facts about the planet earth.


The second stage of a classical education is the logic stage. These are the junior high years. Here's what wikipedia says about the logic stage:

In the modern renaissance of classical education, this logic stage (or dialectic stage) refers to the junior high or middle school aged student, who developementally is beginning to question ideas and authority, and truly enjoys a debate or an argument. Training in logic, both formal and informal, enables students to critically examine arguments and to analyze their own.

So if the grammar stage is about training kids on how to learn for themselves, the logic stage is about testing their ability to learn and to form their own opinions about what they've learned. I started speech and debate in junior high. And that's where I learned how to write, how to organize my thoughts, how to research, how to defend my positions, and eventually how to teach myself anything I wanted to learn. I see the junior high years as a training ground for adulthood; they'll still be doing math and history and grammar, but they'll be writing and beginning the process of taking on self-directed projects.

The final stage of a classical education is the rhetoric stage.

Rhetoric debate and composition (which is the written form of rhetoric) are taught to somewhat older (often high school aged) students, who by this point in their education have the concepts and logic to criticize their own work and persuade others. According to Aristotle "Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic." It is concerned with finding "all the available means of persuasion." The student has learned to reason correctly in the Logic stage so that they can now apply those skills to Rhetoric. Students would read and emulate classical poets such as Ovid and others in learning how to present their arguments well.

So at this point they are, hopefully, confident learners, able to self-educate and now able to persuade others. How important is it to be able to debate? It's not so much about winning arguments as it is about confidence, holding conversations with others and not looking like an idiot. How many times do you hear teenagers talk and there's nothing there? How many adults
do you know who can't form an independent thought or write a simple letter to an editor without sounding like an idiot? How many of you went to college without really how to write? I'll tell you what I want to avoid:






I'm going to hell for posting a video of a little girl making a fool of herself, but God help me, I will not raise little idiots.

Preschool, Schmeeschool. It's allllll good.

Coolbeans Mom wants to know how I'm going to homeschool preschool. That's a great question, and the answer is that I have no idea. But I do have some advice:

Make learning to read your number one priority and you'll succeed.

Reading? In pre-K? Yes. Here's how:


1. Teach the letters first. The ABC song but also like this: A, aaaa, apple, B, bbb, ball, etc. Create a chart that has the capital letter, the lower cased letter and a picture for each letter. Then chant the chart once a day with your child. Be sure to point to each letter as you say it.

2. Now on to phonics. This book is uh-may-zing. It will teach you the tricks and rules that aren't as plain as the nose on your darling's face. Like schwa. And that ould spells "ood." Crazy stuff that makes no sense will be taught in a systematic and logical way. We did a page a day when Juliet was in kindergarten, and we're still working on it. But she's also moved on to a formal spelling program and is writing sentences.




My only warning is that the book features this creepy, half-drugged looking cartoon worm that's always spouting encouraging advice. There's no reason for the worm to be there. It's actually very disturbing.


And that's it. You might want to get some BOB books (link below) and other readers so they can practice. And, of course, you'll want to introduce your preschoolers to the numbers and colors and shapes. The usual junk.


All of the above should take less than 20 minutes a day. For realz, yo, preschool shouldn't be hard. Get some coloring books, some scissors, read up on some easy crafts, don't let them watch too much tv, and you're good to go. Preschool should be less about stressing out over doing the right thing, more about preparing your child to love the process of learning.