Liberal Arts: The Trivium

This post contains an affiliate link to the book we are discussing.

Oh, how I am excited to be discussing The Liberal Arts Tradition with you!  Why am I so excited?  It is because in the past six months I feel like my eyes are being opened to a greater understanding of classical education, but I know that I still have so much more to learn.  This book is going to help me (and you, hopefully!) gain some of that knowledge.

I hope all my American readers had a nice Thanksgiving!  I took a couple of week off from doing much blogging, but I am ready to get back into discussing this next chapter with you!

Hopefully we will get to a couple chapters before taking another small break for Christmas.  So let's get started talking about the seven liberal arts!

The Trivium

If you asked any classical homeschooler to define classical education, you would undoubtedly get an answer that revolves around the trivium.  Up until about a year ago, that is all I thought it was too!  While it is not the entirety of classical education, it is certainly one very important component.  In case you are not already familiar with the trivium, let me share with you the definition found on page 35 of The Liberal Arts Tradition:

"Latin for the three ways, the Trivium is the threefold curriculum of the language arts: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  In their most basic sense, grammar has to do with understanding language, dialectic with dialogic reasoning, and rhetoric with the artful composition of texts, written and spoken."

Grammar

Typically we think of grammar as being a time where young elementary students soak up all the basic information they can about a wide variety of subjects.  This is because of the essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, that Dorothy Sayers wrote in the 1940s.  She likened the idea of grammar to the natural way that students learn when they are young, and gave birth to the idea of the grammar stage.

Did you know that a grammar stage is not something that was a part of the original classical tradition?

"Historically, then, the "grammar" of grammar was not merely an abstract concept meaning "to learn the rudiments of all the subjects."  Rather, it meant learning Latin...This fact has been overlooked by many in the Christian classical renewal, but it is very important to keep in mind."

 Interesting!  So, I think it is good to keep in mind that while memory work is good and necessary, being able to read original works is really what we are after.

Dialectic

This subject of the trivium is often called Logic because it has to do with the art of reasoning.  The book points out, though, that it is more than logic.  From the root of the word dialectic, we can tell that the subject also involved dialogue.

Our children need to learn to ask good questions, sort and reason through information, and process it all into good answers.  On page 41 the book states that dialectic skill is necessary for further studies, but must be 'perfected' first:

The art of dialectic, therefore, will ultimately be an invaluable resource for study of the sciences and philosophies, but it must first be perfected by rhetoric.

Rhetoric

This chapter spends a good amount of space discussing rhetoric.  Rhetoric is always interesting to me because I'm just not there yet!  It is like some illusive end goal that seems so far away.

Essentially Rhetoric is the art of eloquence.  We want our students to learn to be well spoken and persuasive.  Of course in the Christian tradition we want them to do this for the glory of God and not for the sake of their own ego.

---

How are you doing at implementing the three liberal arts of the trivium in your homeschool?  

Does your chosen curriculum reflect the goals of these arts?  

Are you a part of a classical school, co-op, or other formal gathering?  How do their goals line up with this facet of classical education?  

---

Thanks for reading along this week!  What did you think of this chapter?  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Home Education on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next time we will look at the trivium in The Liberal Arts Tradition.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you grab a copy so you can join in on our discussions soon!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about The Liberal Arts Tradition on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).

The Liberal Arts - The Nexus Between Imitation and Knowledge

This post contains an affiliate link to the book we are discussing.

Oh, how I am excited to be discussing The Liberal Arts Tradition with you!  Why am I so excited?  It is because in the past six months I feel like my eyes are being opened to a greater understanding of classical education, but I know that I still have so much more to learn.  This book is going to help me (and you, hopefully!) gain some of that knowledge.

The Arts vs The Sciences

When most people think of classical education, they think of the trivium.  A few weeks ago, we discovered how the trivium is just a small part of classical education.  Remember?  The trivium, along with the quadrivium make up the seven liberal arts, and the liberal arts is only one of six aspects of classical education (discussed in this book, anyways).

The next two chapters will go into detail about the trivium and quadrivium, but first the book explains what makes something an art.

"{Thomas Aquinas} stands at the beginning of the medieval tradition which taught the liberal arts as preparatory for the studies of philosophy and theology.  Aquinas described them as the tools by which knowledge is fashioned."  pg 30-31

I think that is a wonderful way of looking at the liberal arts.  So, essentially, as we teach our students we are giving them tools.  That is a freeing thought =)  If we don't get our children to remember every detail that we put in front of them, it is ok!   We are preparing them for further study.

So what exactly is an art?  This chapter distinguishes art from science by explaining that an art produces something, while a science is strictly the knowledge of something.  These definitions are obviously different than our modern categories of art and science.  It takes a little time to let your brain settle on these wider definitions.

Before we can produce something, though, we must imitate the greats.

"One of the ancient maxims in education was 'imitation precedes art.'  An art could only be attained from an extensive foundation in action and imitation forming cultivated habits."  pg. 31

I think our current model of classical education does a great job emphasizing this.  We do copywork to learn to imitate great writing, we study great artists and imitate their styles of painting, we read great literature and copy their styles in order to produce great works of our own.

Once we have imitated extensively, we can combine that practice with the knowledge we have obtained through science and produce art.  Art is imitation joined with reason.

Why the Liberal Arts?

So what is the point?  Why are the liberal arts so important?  The liberal arts are the vehicles by which we produce reason.  We could have great amounts of knowledge stored up in our heads, but if we cannot get that out for others to benefit from, it is of no use.  We learn to express our selves through poetry and persuasion, and to justify knowledge through experimentation and logic.

Going back to what we said earlier, that an art is something that produces something, you might ask what exactly the liberal arts are producing.  On page 32 it says,

"It is the liberal arts alone whose good produced in knowledge...the liberal arts would have been the seven ways in which knowledge was justified."

This book continues to give us lots of food for thought!  I have certainly never thought about classical education in this way before.  It is making me rethink some of the ways that I am teaching, though I don't have any great answers yet =)

---

Have you made any changes in the structure of your homeschool because of The Liberal Arts Tradition?

---

Thanks for reading along this week!  What did you think of this chapter?  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Home Education on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next time we will look at the trivium in The Liberal Arts Tradition.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you grab a copy so you can join in on our discussions soon!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about The Liberal Arts Tradition on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).

Gymnastic & Music - The Basis of All Education

This post contains an affiliate link to the book we are discussing.

Oh, how I am excited to be discussing The Liberal Arts Tradition with you!  Why am I so excited?  It is because in the past six months I feel like my eyes are being opened to a greater understanding of classical education, but I know that I still have so much more to learn.  This book is going to help me (and you, hopefully!) gain some of that knowledge.

Gymnastic & Music

My big takeaway from this chapter is that the early years of a classical education should probably look different than we are accustomed to seeing.  We owe much thanks to Dorothy Sayers for her book The Lost Tools of Learning, but did you know that true classical education was not broken down into grammar, logic, and rhetoric as stages based on age?  I'm not trying to say that we should throw out that idea (because there is much merit to it) but it is interesting to learn more and try to put all the pieces together.

Classical education seeks rather to build upon a robust poetic and moral education before it moves to analysis critique.

That quote was from page 19.  It seems to echo the idea that we are accustomed to about not forcing analysis in the early years, saving it for the dialectic and rhetoric stages.  It does seems to have a different thought about the grammar stage years, though.  Or maybe it is just a matter of making sure that we are handling and prioritizing what we do in the early years the right way.

The Grammar Stage & Delight

I think the average classical education homeschooler thinks of the grammar stage as a time for memorization, fact learning, and copying.  That, in itself, is not wrong, but I think that many people are probably going about it in a wrong way.   Maybe it is because of how we have been told classical education should look in the grammar stage.  Perhaps we have been misguided?  Or maybe, not!  I'd love to hear how you have approached the grammar stage or what your ideas of how it looks are.

What I took from this chapter is that maybe the things we are doing are right, but we need to make sure that we are doing them in a way that produces wonder & delight.

In classical antiquity a major portion of the education of children consisted of physical training, singing, memorizing poetry, acting/imitating, drawing, sculpting, learning of the deeds of the great men of the past, reading great literary works, and experiencing and observing the natural world.  (page 20)

This sounds a lot like Charlotte Mason to me =)  I know that Charlotte Mason is thought of as a classical educator, but some of her methods have often seemed contrary to what I thought of as classical education.  I am seeing now that I have had a misguided view of what early classical education should look like.

Here is Dr. Perrin talking about Wonder and Curiosity.  I love his lectures!




Yes, memorize all the wonderful things that we have been learning about.  Yes, read aloud to our children.  Yes, study history and science.  But, do all those things in a way that produces wonder & delight.

"Before studying scientific astronomy one must admire and delight in the splendor or the heavens."   - Dennis Quinn 

When I first heard Dr. Perrin talk about scholé, my mind opened up to a new understanding that sometimes I need to do things that nourish my soul, not just things with tangible benefit.  I am hearing the same type of message in this chapter.  We (and our children) are not just 'mind,' but we are 'body' and 'soul' as well.  If we train our children's minds only, and neglect the cultivating of their bodies and souls, we are not providing them with a full curriculum.

This chapter contains so much more great information, but these were the things that caused me to pause and really think.  So my encouragement to you is to make sure that the training of your children's souls and bodies is not an after thought in your homeschool.  And also, let us encourage one another with ways to teach our youngsters that produces a wonder for the subjects they are studying.  Please share your ideas in the comments!

I am going to leave you with one last quote from page 29.  I won't leave any commentary on it, but would love to flesh it out in the comments if you'd like to!

"Although musical education considers some of the same 'subjects' as the liberal arts, it does so from the perspective of forming the heart, the sense of wonder, and the affections.  It contains in seed form the liberal arts and the philosophies,  What is sown by music and gymnastic training will be cultivated later in the liberal arts portion of the curriculum devoted especially to the Trivium and Quadrivium.'

---

Thanks for reading along this week!  What did you think of this chapter?  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Home Education on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next week we will look at the Liberal Arts in The Liberal Arts Tradition.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you grab a copy so you can join in on our discussions soon!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about The Liberal Arts Tradition on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).

Piety - An Education in Love

This post contains an affiliate link to the book we are discussing.

Oh, how I am excited to be discussing The Liberal Arts Tradition with you!  Why am I so excited?  It is because in the past six months I feel like my eyes are being opened to a greater understanding of classical education, but I know that I still have so much more to learn.  This book is going to help me (and you, hopefully!) gain some of that knowledge.

Piety

Piety.  Have you heard that word recently?  I surely haven't!  That is probably because our culture does not value it any longer.   From page 10 -

Piety signifies the duty, love, and respect owed to God, parents, and communal authorities past and present.

Our culture thrives on the modern, the individual, and a rebellion from all things traditional.  No wonder we don't hear the word piety any more, let alone raise it as a virtue to be attained.

This chapter set the wheels in my brain turning.  I have recently been thinking about how children act (mine included) outside their homes, how they interact with others, and (from those I assume) how they act with their families inside their homes.  In general, behavior seems to be poor these days.  There is a lack of respect, lack of love, and great air of selfishness.

It all started making sense to me as I was reading this chapter.  We (in general) no longer teach piety first and foremost to our children.  If we are not actively teaching piety, we are passively teaching individualism, which results in rebellion, disrespect, and the like.

It all comes down to properly ordering our loves (ordo amoris).  Our love for God and his Word should come foremost, then love for family, church, country, etc.  Piety identifies who we are .  If we are Christians, then we should be easily identified by the things that we respect, our actions, and the traditions that we hold to.

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I knew all of this, but I don't think I had really thought of it in this way before.  I hold dearly to the Bible, but I admit to being prideful by not heeding the advice of those who have come before me.  I tend to think my own way is best (I'm not talking about forming my own opinion on things the Bible is clear about, but rather the idea of not following the "well-worn paths" of those who have come before me).

I see issues related to this in my own children and I take complete responsibility.  Now is when that changes.  From page 17 -

Without the students internalizing a fundamental respect for God, their teachers, parents, and elders, the entire process of education likewise fails...Before learning can begin there must be an education in love.

Wow.  I would like to say that I knew this already, and I probably did "on paper," but I am seeing this issue in a whole new light lately and now I have the right word for it...piety.  Reading this chapter was very timely for me.

---

Do you prioritize teaching piety?

How do you practically lead your children toward virtue?

---

Thanks for reading along this week!  What did you think of this chapter?  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Home Education on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next week we will look at the subjects of Gymnastic and Music in The Liberal Arts Tradition.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you grab a copy so you can join in on our discussions soon!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about The Liberal Arts Tradition on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).

The Liberal Arts Tradition - An Introduction

This post contains an affiliate link to the book we are discussing.

Oh, how I am excited to be starting the discussion of The Liberal Arts Tradition!  Why am I so excited?  It is because in the past six months I feel like my eyes are being opened to a greater understanding of classical education, but I know that I still have so much more to learn.  This book is going to help me (and you, hopefully!) gain some of that knowledge.

What is Classical Education?

If you were to ask me a year or two about what classical education is, I would have started talking about the trivium.  Most people I have talked to equate the trivium with classical education.  I am learning that the trivium is only a small (none the less vital) part of what classical education is.  Here is a diagram I made to show you what I mean:

Now, am I saying that the above diagram is complete?  No.   Am I missing other aspects of classical education?  Probably.  Am I  an all-knowing expert on this issue?  Absolutely not!  What I hope this diagram does is help you to see that the Trivium is just a small part of classical education.  It is an important part, but it is not enough.  That is something that I am just learning.  Won't you learn along with me?

This book seeks to present "a vision of the liberal arts as a central part of a larger and more robust paradigm of Christian classical education." (pg. 2)

The Six Curricular Categories of Classical Education

The first chapter is an introduction to the book and explains a little about each of these other spheres of classical education.  This was all new to me, so let me briefly explain them:

• Piety - The proper love and fear of God and man.

• Theology - The science of Scripture.

• Gymnastic - Training the body and mind to have the virtue of an athlete.

• Music - An education in wonder.

• The Liberal Arts -  The seven skills encompassed in the Trivium and Quadrivium.

• Philosophy -  The love of wisdom and the unity of knowledge in natural, moral, and divine reality.

Some of these words are defined differently than we are used to in our modern vernacular.  We are creating new categories of thinking, friends!   I am excited to learn more about each of these things.  Starting next Friday we will take one of these aspects of classical education per week and dive deeper into it.

This week I want to leave you with a passage that Dr. Perrin wrote in the "Note from the Publisher."  I think it is a beautiful description of how classical education is being rediscovered.

In the reading of dozens of books on classical education, I often experience the exercise in a kind of dream state.  I find myself catching glimpses of things that I know are a part of a great whole, as if I once knew that whole but can't quite remember it.  When another book restores some great part of that whole, I put that part into place with a flash of recognition---as it fits into place I recognize that I once knew it.

---

Have you gotten The Liberal Arts Tradition Yet?

 

What are your thoughts on this bigger picture of classical education? 

---

Thanks for reading along this week!  What did you think of this chapter?  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Home Education on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next week we will look at the subject of Piety in The Liberal Arts Tradition.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you grab a copy so you can join in on our discussions soon!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about The Liberal Arts Tradition on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).

WIN a Book that will Enrich Your Mind and Soul - Scholé Everyday

Thank you Classical Academic Press for sponsoring this giveaway!

This post wraps up our month of Scholé Everyday!   If you missed the first post which explains what's going on, take a minute to read it.  Remember, these are just going to be short posts with an idea to encourage you in the way of restful learning.

Do you remember at the beginning of the month when I encouraged you to join the great conversation?   Well, did you?  Did you pick a book from your shelf, the library, or amazon? (If so, what did you pick!?)

If you haven't picked a book yet, that's ok!  Today I have some great news.  Next month we will be starting back up with the Classical Mamas Read book club, so you can just read along!  I promise that this book will be inspiring to you.  It will open your eyes to a greater understanding of classical education and put you right into the great conversation!  So what is it?

The Liberal Arts Tradition

The Liberal Arts Tradition is published by Classical Academic Press and authored by Kevin Clark and Ravi Scott Jain.  The best news is that you can enter to win one of three copies at the end of this post!

This book is perfect for anyone who already has a basic understanding of what classical education is and wants to learn more.  The back of the book says it well:

"This book introduces readers to a paradigm for understanding classical education that transcends the familiar three-stage pattern of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.  Instead, this book describes the liberal arts as a central part of a larger and more robust paradigm of classical education..."

So what do you think?  Will you join me in reading The Liberal Arts Tradition?  The book club will start on October 17th, which gives you a few weeks to get the book...if you don't win the giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who joined me in this month of Scholé!  I hope you will continue learning from a state of rest, and reading this book along with me is a great step to help that happen!

Enter using the Raffelbopter below, and let's get to reading!  I can wait to learn along with you and to encourage one another in our classical education journey.

a Rafflecopter giveaway