the pattern of classical education

[temporaryreality]

From the second portion of the prologue of The Well-Trained Mind, we are given a basic idea of what a (traditional) classical education provides and the way it's organized, as viewed by someone who was educated in this manner and who subsequently became an educator herself. I note here that the book's co-author, Susan Wise Bauer, has written another book that is probably a better fit for what I'm undertaking here: The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had.* Regardless, the book I do have is providing some groundwork for ways I can approach (re)investigating several subjects

The trivium is composed of three portions. The first, called grammar, has to do with learning the fundamental "building blocks" of various systems. It includes facts, rules (of math and language), vocabulary, classifications, and descriptions. I'm unsure why poetry is in this category, but perhaps it's because grammar includes information that is frequently memorized. Poetry, particularly for children, can function as a kind of condensed, memorized, conveyor of meaning that only gets sussed out later, so this makes some sense. The second part of the trivium is logic. In this context, logic is typically more abstract than grammar, and is applied to all academic topics. It allows for the organization of information. The third "leg" of the trivium is rhetoric, the skill of using the facts and information one has learned, organized logically, to express conclusions.

Ultimately, this framework is applied to (or used to access) topics systematically, with a focus that is language-based, and that follows the above-mentioned three-part pattern to interrelate all knowledge. It takes "history as its organizing outline, beginning with the ancients and progressing forward to the moderns in history, science, literature, art, and music." (p.15) With such an "organizing outline," each historical era is linked (when it's reasonable to do so) to history (whether human or geological), mythology, religions, literature, fairy tales, philosophy, astronomy, science (biology, astronomy, classification, anatomy/physiology, earth sciences), and math.

Here's how The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM) conceptualizes this system in relation to studying science (p. 16):

The Study of Science in the Framework of History

Name of Period	Years Covered	Scientific Subjects
Ancients	5,000 B.C. - 400 A.D	Biology, Classification, Anatomy/Physio (Human Body)
Medieval - early Renaissance	400 - 1600	Earth Science, Astronomy
Late Renaissance - early modern	1600 - 1850	Chemistry (incl. alchemy?)
Modern	1850 - present	Physics, Computer Science

As I hinted at with my reference to geological ages, I'm intending to expand my timeline. Right now it looks like this:

Cosmologies Cosmogonies (origin/creation stories)
Geological eras (the forming of the earth and its metamorphoses that eventually allowed for life to "occur")
Evolution of life
Prehistory and early Neolithic
Recorded human history:

Ancients
Medieval
Renaissance
Modernity

This may be refined or changed as I go along, but that's what I have for now.
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*I don't happen to have that book so for now I'll just continue with The Well-Trained Mind, but I think I'd like to at least take a look at it to see if it can help me in this endeavor. I'll post what I find if my library has a copy.

Comments

[methylethyl]

Ditto! One of the main reasons we chose to homeschool was so the kids could have a LOT of time outside in the fresh air and sunshine. In the early years, at least, we can get through all the necessary schoolwork in 2-3 hours, if there's no dawdling. And we only put in four days a week. Kiddo is not lagging behind in anything. Ask me again when they're high-school age and perhaps it'll be different. ;) But I remember being in school, and resenting the way so much of the time was filled with box-checking, waiting, busywork... and then it all followed you home and monopolized your time outside school in the form of homework!