A Classical Conversation

In our culture today, we are starved for beauty. It is hard to find it in our art, our architecture, our literature, our music, and sometimes even in our worship. And yet, our souls and the souls of our children hunger for it.

As classical, Christian home educators, we want to guide our children toward a recognition of truth, goodness, and beauty so that they will learn to love objects that are worthy of their affection. My goal with my children this year is to pursue this trio through poetry, music, and art appreciation.

Every summer, my husband and I sit down to discuss our educational goals for our children for that year. We are going on our family retreat in just two weeks (yes, we are running a little late this year). At our meeting, we will discuss our goals for each child in the following areas: spiritual goals, responsibility goals, and academic goals. We discuss how to address heart issues such as selfishness, complaining, and quarreling. We will decide which chores each child will tackle this year and who will train them in the new task. Finally, we will set learning goals for each academic subject.

One of the benefits of using the classical model of education is that it is the most efficient way to educate. That is because we are following the nature of a child: the model that follows God’s design. Read through Proverbs and you will see these three words over and over: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Knowledge and understanding are foundational, the Proverbs proclaim, for wisdom which is the goal of education. Modern education models often skip to the final stage and emphasize creative output at age 6, and then deal only with grammar level knowledge in many subjects at age 17. (That was my personal experience anyway.) That will lead to frustrated young children and bored teenagers because their brains are not wired to do those things at those stages. If you understand and follow the model, learning will be joyful.

Generation X and the Millennial Generation, as a whole, have a reputation for being unsteady and erratic. If we can see past the pre-HD quality and crooked graphics, there is certainly a lot we can learn from 1972 Olympic 800-Meter Gold Medalist, Dave Wottle.

Here is a link for the race that many Baby Boomers consider to be a top American Olympic achievement. After watching, you might agree.

I sometimes think that preschoolers make the best philosophers. In order to study philosophy, you must possess three attributes: a ton of curiosity, openness to considering new or different answers, and a relentless ability to ask questions. Mortimer Adler writes about these tiny philosophers:

Children ask magnificent questions. ‘Why are people?’ ‘What makes the cat tick?’ ‘What’s the world’s first name?’ ‘Did God have a reason for creating the earth?’ Out of the mouths of babes comes, if not wisdom, at least the search for it. Philosophy, according to Aristotle, begins in wonder. It certainly begins in childhood, even if for most of us it stops there, too.                (270)

I have recently had a front-row seat to this philosophizing. For the last few months, my three-year-old daughter has peppered us with questions about the same issue. Here is a condensed record of the conversation:

Death necessitates catharsis. Daughters know this (and so do sons). We would do well to observe them—and learn from them—from time to time. We can learn from others, after all, even the little children. It is no coincidence that Jesus pointed to the little children as examples of the faith we are to have, examples to imitate.

Learning from Our Daughters

What can daughters (and sons) teach us about death, though? They are so young and inexperienced with death. Many of us have already had experiences with death—more than we care to have had. Some of us have lost parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, neighbors, or grandparents. We have lived through the dying, the death, the funeral, and the packing of their stuff. We have experienced the roller coaster of emotions that all those things entail. We know death, our daughters, not so much—and we are thankful for that.

Yet, somehow, they know more than we know.

When visitors enter the tasting room of the small Yadkin Valley winery where I have worked for the past three years, it is my goal to make their experience both pleasant and memorable. Whenever possible, I engage them in conversation. We chat about the weather, their travel plans, and the explosive growth of the wine industry in North Carolina over the past ten years.

Sometimes the conversation turns to me. Who am I? How did I find myself in this position? Am I trained as a sommelier? “Well, no,” I tell them. “By education, I am a writer and a scholar of English literature.” They nod politely but appear confused, so I point to the descriptions of the wines they are tasting—subtle cigar box—and crack a joke: “The former English majors of the world have to do something, right?” We share a laugh.

Then I become serious for a moment. One of the things I love about working at a winery, I tell them, is the perfect marriage of art and science represented there.

 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9 (KJV)

This summer many of you were renewed at a Classical Conversations’ Parent Practicum. Some of you may still be weary, and many of you may just be worried about getting through this school year and letting the next school year take care of itself. Doubts often linger even for the most dedicated homeschool parents who seem to have it all together. Let me urge you to be like the little engine that could and keep going! As they say, it is often darkest before the dawn, so you need some tools to fall back on when the going gets tough.

Part 1: The Simplest Circuit

In our present digital age, kids are in love with anything involving electricity. They are amazed by their magical merriment devices and the idea of knowing even a little bit of the secret sorcery behind them can keep kids engaged for hours. Today’s post will help you demonstrate a simple circuit, the basics of electricity, and how circuits are represented with schematics. A parts list is available at the end of the article (Do not worry—you only need four parts!).

Matt Bianco and I were making an ANI chart the other day, on reasons to read the classics. This was in response to some quandaries people have raised about Leigh’s use of the Sanskrit word, mandala, in her new academic endeavor, the Mandala Fellowship. This link will allow you to read an article about why CC would use such a “pagan” word, and what the mathematical pattern of the mandala means for a Christian.

As far as reading secular and pagan classics (something which we at Classical Conversations are often asked to defend), the most intriguing reason we came up with was that the benefit of reading is primarily formative, not informative. In other words, reading is not primarily a vehicle for putting ideas into your head; it actually forms you as a person even more than it informs you with facts.

“For those early writers, a trained memory wasn’t just about gaining easy access to information; it was about strengthening one’s personal ethics and becoming a more complete person. A trained memory was the key to cultivating “judgment, citizenship, and piety.””  Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

We help our younger children memorize math facts, Latin charts, and a timeline. We are training our brains to retain. But the fourth canon of rhetoric opens up for us more than grammar pegs, as I discovered when I decided to memorize a good chunk of an essay about Napoleon. I discovered the Method of Loci.

My wife and I just finished the mid-continental homeschool conference circuit. You would be amazed at how many times I was told that the campus experience was vastly overrated. As with anything you hear repeatedly among peers, it gives you pause.

I reflected on the notion, "Was the campus experience another of those things to which I was clutching too tightly, like my CDs in an mp3 world?" Like many Generation X-types, I have grown accustomed to learning that I hold on to things too long. I will admit I was starting to consider that the campus experience, as great as it had been for an old guy like me, might just be another relic best donated to the museum. The events leading up to the Fourth of July changed everything:

In 2010, our son, Sloan, was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, an Autism spectrum disorder. Asperger syndrome is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.[1] He was also diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder; this is a neurological disorder that exists when sensory signals do not get processed into appropriate responses.[2] Our pediatric neurologist called it a “traffic jam” in the brain. At the time of his diagnosis, Sloan was attending public school and it was not going well. His class was large, averaging twenty-six students. Physical education and lunch time were extremely difficult for Sloan. Loud noises, music, and large groups of people were big issues for him. He was having a really tough time making friends.

My husband was stationed in Korea the year before Sloan’s diagnosis and we had started to research and pray about homeschooling. We were introduced to Classical Conversations by one of my best friends, Laura. I will be honest, our first year of homeschooling we did not participate in CC. Looking back, I wish we had! I still was not sure if CC would work for both of our children. I started asking more questions. We prayed about it and by our second year we still were not sure. It is funny how God works things out for you. We attended church with the director of our Classical Conversations community. We had talked several times and she shared that our family was on her heart. After our last conversation, not only were my kids enrolled but I took a leap outside of my comfort zone and became a tutor.

History is the story of leaders.  Civilization remembers events revolving around leadership.   Any list of great leaders includes the malevolent as well as the benevolent, such as, Mohandas Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Adolf Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, Jesus, Martin Luther, Bono, Joseph Smith, Jim Jones, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, Jr., Julius Caesar, Saint Francis of Assisi, Walt Disney.

Some of these led governments, some led movements.  Their personal qualities and methods are very diverse, but in all cases, they led ordinary people.   So consider the question from the other side of leadership:  What makes people follow?  Leaders through the ages have found what works.  They have found that there are two external means of motivating people to follow:  scare them or mesmerize them.  Both work remarkably well.  Often leaders will use a combination of the two.

Fear-Based Leadership

“[A]s I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship...”

(Paul speaking to the Athenians)

“Wandering about in a twilight where all cats are grey is not seeking truth.”

(Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society)

Will our children grow up to be thinking adults who understand their beliefs, know where those beliefs came from, and know how those beliefs fair in comparison to competing beliefs? Let us begin to answer these questions by first looking at the world in which our children will grow up.

Our present age

Raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is one of the most important tasks in which parents will engage. Making the decision on how best to do that might be one of the most difficult decisions a parent will make. This, of course, can be seen in the wide range of choices that are made: homeschooling, private schooling, public schooling, or Christian schooling. Then, within these choices are more choices that must be made: which curriculum, which texts, and which style (classical, unschooling, conventional).

For the last several decades, there has been a rising interest in classical education. Private schools and homeschool families have invested much time and energy trying to understand classical, Christian education as the model that was used for centuries to educate the faithful. As interest in classical education has blossomed, “classical” has become a buzzword in educational circles. The increased interest has also caused many to question what it truly is. In particular, some homeschool leaders have questioned whether it is possible to give children an education that is both classical and Christian. One recent example is David Quine’s homeschool workshop, The Pitfalls of Classical Education, at the Arlington Homeschool Book Fair.

The reason so many academics miss the real history of America is that they assume that ideas don’t matter and that there is no such thing as virtue.

--Introduction to A Patriot’s History of the United States[1]

This quote contains two parts that we must consider when reading Larry Schweikart’s story of American history. First, his book is based on the claim that ideas matter (this ties in nicely with the Challenge III philosophy text The Consequences of Ideas). Secondly, he assumes that there is or at least was such a thing as virtue, particularly civic virtue.

In the Challenge program, our children learn primarily through dialectic. They learn to precisely define terms, to recognize patterns in history and literature, and to compare and contrast ideas. One of the things they learn very quickly is that ideas matter. Discussion of the big ideas which have influenced history leads to dynamic discussion and debate.  Many of these rich conversations occur in the American history course.

This summer at Classical Conversations Practicums, I enjoyed turning my attention, again, to the Trivium, the three stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. We often talk about how one learns in each of the stages but I have noticed that there are distinct teaching tools we use in each stage. As a parent and teacher, I want to be aware of how I am teaching so that I can bring out the best in my children in each stage of learning.

In the grammar stage, the student needs to memorize the vocabulary of the subject. There are many tools to help students memorize: singing, chanting, drawing, hand motions, body movements—anything that makes the information memorable and pleasant to repeat. Repetition over time will secure the information into long term memory. The parent/teacher role in this stage is to drill and demonstrate. The other tools to have in your toolbox are grammar level questions which enable the student to recite the information they have learned. These questions would be: Who? What? When? and Where? Grammar level teaching should pour into the student lots of rich information, so questions at this level should just ask the student to tell you what they know.

Just as there is a fight for the soul of the Church, there is a fight for the souls of our Christian colleges and universities. Some of the most damaging fire is coming from within our own ranks. Getting shot is bad either way but I think most of us prefer to dodge bullets that are fired in front of us.

The fight I will be addressing is insidious, but it is not the intent of this article to question whether or not the dissenters are really Christian. That gets too close to a territory best occupied by God. Instead, I will dedicate the remainder of this article to what the fighting is about and who is at war.

Once Classical Conversations seminars wrap up, I have a chance to tackle whatever I think is a weakness in our academics. It is usually s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g. Latin, logic, history, and Memory Master testing all seem to demand my attention during Classical, so spelling does not quite receive the energy and attention it deserves. A list of unrelated words lacks any scope for the imagination, as I am sure Anne of Green Gables would agree, but words need to be spelled correctly so I do my research and try to inspire my children to love words and to value precision and correctness. This is a hard sell once they learn to type and discover spell check, but I am persistent—if nothing else—and I am tackling the subject with the best classical methods I can devise.