A Look At Classical Education

By Jennifer Miller

We read headlines almost daily which cite the woes of our educational system in America, and the statistics aren't pretty: According to the "The Nation's Report Card," in the year 2000 only 32 percent of fourth grade students were reading at a proficient level. ABC News reported that only 23 percent of eighth graders tested proficient in math. A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee issued a report in 1998 stating that American 12th graders came in 19th out of 21 countries in mathematics, placed last in advanced mathematics and did just as poorly in physics in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.

What has gone wrong? We have blamed the breakdown of families, the removal of prayer from schools, television and video games, illegal drugs, governmental red tape and the strangle hold of teachers' unions. Certainly all of these issues have contributed to the unhealthy direction that our educational system has taken-many of us may look back with a certain amount of nostalgia to the innocent days of our schooling, and we may feel that the system began to derail in the sixties.

In the last 20 years, some dissatisfied parents and educators have made a compelling case for going further back and digging deeper to find the root of the problem. They argue that the system coasted for many years on the educational foundation of an earlier time. Some argue that our current educational system, based on the philosophy of our great American experiment in democracy, is inherently flawed because of the system's basic beliefs in the goodness and equality of humans. They would take us back to the educational roots of our western culture, an approach that has become known as "classical education."

What is classical education? Differing philosophies within the movement abound, but some shared components include an early exposure to the classic writings in order to take part in what is termed "The Great Conversation" (the progression of ideas through history, as expressed through literature), the study of history chronologically, the avoidance of textbooks in favor of "real" books and the study of Latin. Christian classical educators also place great emphasis on developing an appropriate Christian "worldview" through which everything is examined.

Classical education, as defined by the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), is based on the ancient Greek mode of education, which was the foundation of the educational system of the Middle Ages. At its core is the acquisition of the tools of learning as guided by the natural developmental stages of children. The "trivium," as the system is called, moves through three stages, which roughly correspond to the elementary years, junior high years and high school years. British writer Dorothy Sayers articulated the need for educational reform and proposed the classical education model in her 1947 article "The Lost Tools of Learning." Others, such as Douglas Wilson, have followed her proposed model, pioneering in the field of education to create working models of the classical education philosophy.

A brief summary of the classical education model

The grammar stage (referred to as the poll-parrot stage by Dorothy Sayers) generally corresponds to the elementary school years when children naturally love to chant, memorize and recite. In this stage they are given vast amounts of information to memorize-presidents, mountain ranges, multiplication tables and Scripture.

The dialectic stage (also called the logic or pert stage) capitalizes on the middle-school-aged child's natural tendency to question and argue. In this stage formal logic is introduced and the student begins examining the relationships between all of the facts acquired up to this point. He begins asking "how" and "why" and develops a greater understanding of the connections between facts. The goal is to equip the child with thinking and language skills.

The rhetoric (or poetic) stage is entered when the student is about fifteen. In this phase the student hones his verbal and written skills and learns to express himself effectively and persuasively.

As mentioned, one key component of classical education is the teaching of Latin, usually beginning in about the third grade. Proponents cite many reasons for this. According to Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, authors of The Well Trained Mind, studying Latin trains the mind to think in an orderly way because it is the most systematic language around. Latin improves English skills: both the English grammatical structure and about 50 percent of the English vocabulary are based on Latin. Studying Latin also prepares the child for the study of other foreign languages: French, Spanish and Italian are all related to Latin.

Paul Kelly, a former classical Christian schoolteacher in the Boston area, is the founder of "Thought Life," an educational organization offering classes in Latin, Greek, logic and philosophy. He agrees with other classical educators about the importance of teaching Latin. "Because it's not a spoken language, everything has to be worked out on paper. It forces students to work out the grammatical concepts and develops their reasoning and logical skills."

In 1991, roughly ten years after classical education pioneer Douglas Wilson founded Logos School in Moscow, Idaho, as a result of reading Dorothy Sayer's article, he wrote a book titled Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. The book created such a high level of interest from others who wanted to start Christian schools with a classical approach that he founded the Association of Classical and Christian Schools. Now, some ten years later, the organization is about 100 schools strong, including many home schools. The primary purpose of the organization is to "promote, establish and equip schools committed to a classical approach to education in the light of a Christian worldview grounded in the Old and New Testament Scriptures." The organization seeks to provide accountability for member schools to "ensure that our cultural heritage is not lost again." (from the ACCS website)

Karen Wells, a home school teacher from Ohio who has been using the classical approach for two years, views her teaching role as that of laying a foundation, then adding layers over time. She does not use textbooks for most subjects, teaches history chronologically and emphasizes the trivium as the basis for every subject. "In classical education, subjects were not segregated like they are today. We have really dissected subjects."

Any philosophy or movement has its detractors. Critics feel that the approach is xenophobic or ethnocentric, placing too much emphasis on the superiority of western culture. In ACCS's mission statement, they respond, "We recognize that Christ was born in the reign of Caesar Augustus, and that Christianity took root and grew to maturity in the West. For this reason, we believe that we must teach certain subjects so that they are understood and appreciated. This includes ancient history, languages, and culture, studied in the light of biblical Christianity and its impact on western culture. We recognize our cultural heritage as a gift from God, but in seeking to restore that heritage we by no means are intending to idolize it. Therefore, we ground all that we seek to do upon the revelation of God."

Another valid criticism is the rigor and discipline required. Shouldn't school be more fun? Teacher Paul Kelly experienced first hand the problems of unmotivated students trying to tackle the rigors of Greek and Latin. "The classes take a lot of work to make interesting," he admits. Regarding classical education's emphasis on the "Great Books" in order to take part in the "Great Conversation," Sonlight Curriculum, a supplier of home school materials, quotes one mom as saying, "The Great Books will be a drudgery to anyone not yet taken captive by the Great Questions, the Big Ideas. If you are not yet given to pondering the meaning of life it is doubtful you are ready to read the ponderings of others." Classical educators would argue that a good teacher will pass on the love of learning to his students. "A good teacher is one who loves God, loves her students, loves her subject matter and communicates all three loves effectively to her students," writes Douglas Wilson in his book The Case for Classical Education. The Great Books question? Susan Wise Bauer suggests in her book The Well-Trained Mind that young children begin with picture books of classics: "A first grader listens to you read the story of the Iliad from [a picture-book version]. Four years later the fifth grader reads?a middle grade adaptation?four more years go by, and the ninth grader-faced with Homer's Iliad itself-plunges right in, undaunted. She already knows the story. What's to be scared of?" Douglas Wilson states in his book, The Padeia of God, "The entertainment model of education wants the students to enjoy themselves; the older classical model wants students to be disciplined so that they come to enjoy their work."

Even if we are convinced that some arguments in favor of the classical approach have merit, most of us probably won't begin studying Latin or tackling Homer with our children tomorrow. But we can learn some things to equip us to be better parents and educators (after all, parents are educators by definition). As a parent, I want to effectively:

• equip my children to be clear, logical thinkers, to be able to express their Christian worldview and beliefs in an effective and winning way.
• develop in them a love for books so that they will be life-long learners
• equip them with the tools to learn on their own, instead of just filling them with facts.
• develop in them an appreciation for their western heritage, while at the same time recognizing that God is Lord of the whole world and loves all people and cultures.
• pay attention to my children's natural developmental stages in order to maximize their learning potential.

Dorothy Sayers, whose article was the inspiration behind much of the classical education movement, wrote in 1947,

For we let our young men and women go out unarmed in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to works in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects?we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a piecemeal job of it.

Many are working diligently at recovering those lost tools. The effects on our culture could be significant as scores of young people take their places in society as critical thinkers who are compelling and articulate ambassadors for Christ.

Jennifer Miller lives in Rosedale, Ohio, and attends Shiloh Mennonite Church. She and her husband, Ken (an RBC faculty member), homeschool their four children. Jennifer holds a B.A. in behavioral science from Cedarville University.

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