The Latin-Centered Curriculum

Maybe it's my Scottish blood, but every time I watch Braveheart and William Wallace (Mel Gibson) gives his stirring pre-battle speech, I choke up:

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least for a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

We, as homeschoolers, can respond to this cry just as readily as those Highlanders did. I'm not talking about defending our legal right to educate our children - as important as that is. No, I'm talking about standing up to another tyrant: King Curriculum.

In the few weeks since The Latin-Centered Curriculum was published, I've answered dozens of questions from parents eager to adopt this approach in their homes. Naturally I'm thrilled that so many are as excited as I am by the possibilities of classical education. But I want them to do more than adopt the LCC. I want them to adapt it. I want them to stand up to King Curriculum.

Yes, I believe that the program I laid out in the book works. I believe that if you follow it, your children will be prepared for life after homeschool, whether that life includes work, college, military service, homemaking, or all of the above. But I also believe in the wisdom of parents who know their own children and their own circumstances. I believe you can use your mother wit (or paternal perspective, as the case may be) and craft a curriculum that works for your family. And that may not look exactly like the schedules or scope-and-sequence charts you find in The Latin-Centered Curriculum.

Maybe you are just bringing your fifth grader home from public school this year. Maybe you have seven children under the age of twelve. Maybe one of your children has a learning disability. Maybe you have a disability. Maybe you hold down a job in addition to homeschooling. Maybe you're afterschooling. Maybe your youngest is a science nut. Maybe your oldest is a budding Olympic athlete. In any of these cases, and a thousand more like them, you will need to adapt this program to your needs - just as you would with any other homeschool curriculum.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Even I am adapting the program to my daughter's needs. In fact, my daughter, who is beginning kindergarten on July 5th, will only be following the program exactly as written in two subjects: Copywork and Classical Studies. If even the author has to adapt his own curriculum, no one else need feel nervous about doing the same.

So please do not worry that your child is "behind" if he's beginning Latin in seventh grade or if she doesn't read Homer until high school. Be brave and take heart: Start from where you are, pick up what you can through free reading or during the summer, and move on.

Freedom!

Drew Campbell is the author of The Latin-Centered Curriculum.