The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education

I just finished this book.  It was a life-changer for me.  As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have been searching for the right classical education fit for our family.  Every author has his/her own perspective on what this means, and there are a plethora of classes being offered at homeschool workshops to water-down the material even further for us so we don't have to actually do the work ourselves.  The question that begs answering for me is: how do we expect our children to immerse themselves in a classical educational model of we cannot study and learn what that model should look like for ourselves?  Do we want to mentor our children to have this education or do we want to follow the bandwagon down a less comon path, but still a path?  When presented with the opportunity to attend another workshop recently telling me what classical education is and how I ought to be doing it (at a price tag of mucho dinero), I decided that a true academic would find out the information for herself.  That would make the information a part of me, and immerse myself in the process of education.  I will not revisit that stack of books I read, but I will give a brief synopsis of what I learned. 

The Core

Classical education is not a new idea.  As a matter of fact, it is as old as humankind.  This model was used in Ancient Greece to educate the great thinkers and had a revival again during the Renaissance.  However, the world has never known such a high level of literacy as we had in the North American continent and in the United States of America from 1600-1950.  What changed in 1950?  That is another essay including moral degeneracy, political correctness, and apathy and ignorance, but for the purpose of this discussion, we stopped educating following the classical model.  We began to 'dumb-down' educational expectations.  We continue to do so at a steady decline.

So, why should this book be read and be better than the previous paths I mentioned of other leaders taking you down their road?  Because this book does a great job of summarizing what constitutes a 'classical education' while emphasizing the foundational stage, grammar.  The three componants of the trivium are grammar, logic, and rhetoric, but without a firm foundation in grammar it is virtually impossible to progress to the other levels.  Bortins gives us an understanding of what that means, but does not tell you how to do it, other than some advice from a person wiser and further along the path.  As a matter of fact, the constant debate in my own head as I read was, "Okay, but what specifically did you memorize?  Tell me the list of historical data you had your family learn," followed by "I am learning this so it will be mine.  I am glad she is not spoon-feeding me.  I need to figure out what our family will learn, why, when, and how."  She does give lots of great advice based on experience, but she does not do the work for you. 

It seems to be a popular mistake to skip straight to the rhetoric stage, or at least the logic stage without creating the grammatical foundation.  I asked myself why.  I believe it is because grammar is hard.  It is work.  We forget that anything worth having is worth working for and that in the attempt to help everyone 'feel good' and be 'successful' we have continually required less and less of ourselves and our youth.  Result:  an ignorant populace that values recreation above all else.  In her "Lost Tools of Learning" speech, Dorothy Sayers commented, "Is it not the great defect of our education today that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils "subjects," we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think?  They learn everything, except the art of learning."  While popular homeschool educational theories attempt to correct this deficit, there is key componant that is missing in the formula.  Bortins explains, "Some parents may disapprove of the idea of training children to obey, as if they were dogs instead of sentient beings with minds of their own.  It may be hard to believe, but inculcating obedience and expecting rigorous effort from our boys has actually helped my children to be free of me.  As teenagers they don't need to obey me any longer because they can confidently make choices and succeed without me policing them....I wanted our home to be delightful.  I wanted to have great experiences with our children.  I began to recognize...that the worst thing I could do for my children was abandon my children to themselves."  This is a principle that our Father in Heaven has given us through his laws and commandments.  Satan's great lie is that the rules bind us and restrict our freedom.  The truth is that the rules, the constraints, the systems free us for greater opportunities and ultimately eternal progression. 

I walk away with this book excited about the possibilities.  I can't wait to work hard and to bring my children on the journey with me.  I can't wait to build a foundation, with them, that enables us to truly understand and enjoy the conversations of the world through all time, to be a part of true education, and for all of us to more completely reach our full potential.

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