Latin at the Core
I homeschooled my children for three years, using modern, popular methods of classical education, before I realized something rather important: I could not explain to anyone exactly what classical education is. I could not give a concise definition of our chosen educational philosophy. This bothered me because although I believed in the plan of classical education I was following, I was also constantly tweaking it to fit our family. The plan, as originally laid out, was too much work. We wanted a rigorous education, yes, but not one that left us working at our desks all day. Some of the recommended curricula were a bust with my children. We could not manage, nor did I feel that we needed, all the recommended subjects. I found myself whittling down the recommendations, consolidating, discarding, but always worried. If I dropped this subject, was I missing some vital point of this method of education? Was curriculum "A" classical? Or not? What did it mean to do spelling classically? I needed to grasp the core, the defining principles of classical education, before I could make it work for our family.
Oddly enough, every classical homeschooler I talked with had a different definition. Some said it was language-based. Some said it was history-based. All said it was rigorous, and utilized the stages of learning we know as the Trivium. Many said Latin was important, but others said it was nice but by no means definitive.
I needed definitive.
My search for a concrete definition of "classical education" led me to read Tracy Lee Simmons' Climbing Parnassus. When I finished the book I found I was not only able to define classical education, I was able to define it in two different ways. The type of education I had been trying to give my children is more properly called neoclassical education. It is education which is rigorous, language/history based, and uses the educational stages of the Trivium (grammar stage, logic stage, rhetoric stage) as its organizing principle. The modern interest in classical education was largely spearheaded by Dorothy Sayers' essay "The Lost Tools of Learning." In this essay, Ms. Sayers gives us a blueprint for taking the elder concept of the Trivium and using it to fit a more modern form of education. By defining the Trivium as a process - first you learn the grammar of a subject, then you make logical connections within the subject, then you express original thoughts on the subject - classical education could be freed from the confines of its historical content. Latin, for instance, is still desirable and beneficial; but by using the educational process of the Trivium, you can get the effects of studying Latin but focus on more modern subjects. You can also apply a logical, rigorous system of education to more modern subjects.
This idea caught on like wildfire, and if you search the internet for "Trivium" you will find description after description of the psychological/educational process of learning. When you hear that a school, or a homeschool, provides a classical education, they are most likely pursuing a rigorous education with the process of the Trivium as their organizing principle. By using the Trivium as process, one school's educational content can look very different from the next school's content. As long as the process is followed, Latin is desirable and still useful, but not necessary.
But this is not what classical education used to be. The Trivium has been a part of "classical education" for hundreds and hundreds of years. Originally the Trivium simply meant grammar, dialectic and rhetoric - the three areas of study that were foundational to higher learning. Grammar meant Latin grammar, as the primary focus of any decent education was to enable the child to speak, read and write Latin. Once the Trivium was mastered, a student could go on to the Quadrivium: Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy. The Trivium was not a conscious process: you simply had to learn grammar first in order to become proficient in Latin. And you were not educated unless you knew Latin. First that, then everything else. And so the second way I learned of defining a classical education is much simpler: classical education is education that focuses on classical languages, literature, history and arts, and uses the educational subjects of the Trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric) as its organizing principle.
True classical education is nothing without Latin. Latin is the foundation upon which all other education is built: Latin grammar, the logic of Latin syntax and translation, the rhetorical skills necessary to express oneself not just competently, but well in Latin, and by extension in English. In this kind of education grammar, logic and rhetoric are what you learn. You learn how language works, you put the pieces together and you use it well. You learn Latin. You learn Greek. You read Latin and Greek, and in reading Latin and Greek you read the philosophy, history, values, and aesthetics that are the foundation of our Western culture. These studies inform the mind and, more importantly, they form the mind. They train the child to think logically, critically, clearly.
At first glance, this older form of education seems to lack relevance. How is a modern student going to manage in the modern world if most of his studies are spent on learning Latin, Greek, the Trivium as content, and classical history and literature? The answer is that when you train the mind using formative methods, when you've trained the child to think logically, precisely, and critically, modern studies are not problematic. The true beauty of focusing on the subjects of the Trivium is simplicity. By paring down the formal academics to that which is most useful and essential, we have time to read, to study science, to practice music, and to play.
I've always been attracted to the education of bygone times. It did the job, and did the job well, for many hundreds of years. That's got to mean something. After reading Climbing Parnassus I have become convinced that modern, neoclassical education, while rigorous and excellent, is not my idea of what classical education should be. Classical education is the study of the classics: language, literature, arts, philosophy, aesthetics and history. I agree with the statement that you can't just add Latin to a curriculum and call it classical education. However, I am drawing my line in the sand: if you're not teaching Latin, you're not doing classical education. And the definitive answer to "What is classical education?" is "Latin at
the core."
Stephanie Medcalf is a homeschooling mother to four boys. To read more about their adventures, visit her blog, One-Sixteenth.