Classical Education

What makes classical education so effective?

The word “classical” refers to the structure and form of the education as well as the content of the studies. Modern education focuses on teaching subjects. Classical educators focus on teaching students the tools of learning in preparation for further study of subjects after high school.

Classical education is based on what has is called the Trivium (Latin for “three roads”), and organizes learning around the maturing capacity of the child’s mind. No matter how your child learns, he or she goes through three phases:

Grammar Stage
Corresponding roughly with the elementary school years, the grammar stage is the first phase of the Trivium. The curricular emphasis during the grammar school years is on learning basic facts and figures during the time when children love to memorize (and when they are best at doing so).
Logic Stage
The subsequent emphasis during the middle school years on logic and analysis trains students to think critically and deeply about subjects, both academic and otherwise. This emphasis corresponds with the middle-school student’s bent toward exploration, questioning, and a desire for deeper understanding.
Rhetoric Stage
Finally, the emphasis during the high school years shifts toward honing rhetorical skills, including writing. This shift prepares students to write college-level theses, utilizing their grasp of proper grammar as well their ability to think logically and critically.

There is no greater task for education than to teach students how to learn. The influence of progressive teaching methods and the oversimplification of textbooks make it difficult for students to acquire the mental discipline that traditional instruction methods once cultivated. The classical method develops independent learning skills on the foundation of language, logic, and tangible fact. The classical difference is clear when students are taken beyond conventionally taught subjects and asked to apply their knowledge through logic and clear expression.

In 1947, Dorothy Sayers, a pioneer in the return to classical education, observed, although we often succeed in teaching our pupils subjects, we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think. Beyond subject matter, classical education develops those skills that are essential in higher education and throughout life independent scholarship, critical thinking, logical analysis, and a love for learning.

For the sole end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain. (Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning)