Classical education movement

Last updated

Classical Education Renewal
Classical Education.png
DescriptionRevived interest among groups of independent, charter, and home schools in a liberal and liberal arts education centered on a canon of classic works
Varieties and Influences Classical Christian education, Association of Classical and Christian Schools, St. John's College, Mortimer J. Adler

The classical education movement or renewal advocates for a return to a traditional education based on the liberal arts (including the natural sciences), the canons of classical literature, the fine arts, and the history of civilization. [1] It focuses on human formation and paideia with an early emphasis on music, gymnastics, recitation, imitation, and grammar. [2] Multiple organizations support classical education in charter schools, in independent faith-based schools, and in home education. This movement has inspired several graduate programs [3] [4] [5] [6] and colleges as well as a new peer-reviewed journal, Principia: A Journal of Classical Education. [7]

Contents

Recent history

The term classical education has been used in Western cultures for several centuries, with each era modifying the definition and adding its own selection of topics. By the end of the 18th century, in addition to the trivium and quadrivium of the Middle Ages, the definition of a classical education embraced study of literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, art, and languages. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the term classical education has been used to refer to a broad-based study of the liberal arts and sciences, in contrast to a practical or pre-professional program. [1] In a May 12, 2023 opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal , Cornel West and Jeremy Tate (founder of the Classic Learning Test) praised the boost given to the classical-education movement by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. [8] On her May 4, 2023 episode of First Person, The New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviewed Jeremy Tate. [9] Emma Green, writing for The New Yorker in April 2023, reports that what governor Ron DeSantis considers to be "a model for education nationwide" is an educational philosophy developed by Hillsdale College "as part of a larger movement to restore 'classical education'—a liberal-arts curriculum designed to cultivate wisdom and teach children to pursue the ancient ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness." [10] Also in April 2023, Angel Adams Parham (sociology professor and senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia) and Anika Prather (director of high-quality curriculum and instruction at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy) wrote an article in The Washington Post entitled "As Black educators, we endorse classical studies" and argued that "rooted in the fullness of this history, classical education invites us and our students to learn from this rich crossroads and to enter into a millennia-long conversation about what it means to be human, the essence of freedom, how to live well and what constitutes a good society". [11] This movement has also been mentioned in stories by Louis Markos in Christianity Today (2019) [12] and Stanley Fish in The New York Times (2010) [13] as well as by others in the Carolina Journal. [14]

Several new organizations and publishers have emerged in support of the growing classical education movement, including Veritas Press, Classical Academic Press (cofounded by Christopher Perrin), Memoria Press, Canon Press, the Circe Institute, Association of Classical Christian Schools, Society for Classical Learning, the Institute for Classical Education, the Classic Learning Test, and the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. [15]

A number of informal groups and professional organizations have led the classical education movement in the past century. Within the secular classical movement, Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins set forth the "Great Books" of Western civilization as the center stage for a classical education curriculum in the 1930s. Some public schools (primarily charters) have structured their curricula and pedagogy around the trivium and integrate the teaching of values (sometimes called "character education") into the mainstream classroom.

Theory of classical education

The classical education movement has borrowed terms used in educational history to name three phases of education.

Primary education – the trivium

An explanation of the trivium paradigm according to Sayers. The Trivium- Classical Education.png
An explanation of the trivium paradigm according to Sayers.

Primary education is divided into three stages using terms introduced by Dorothy Sayers in her essay The Lost Tools of Learning: "poll-parrot", "pert", and "poetic". According to Sayers, these phases are roughly coordinated with human development and would ideally be coordinated with each individual student's development. [16]

Sayers connects her three stages with the three liberal language arts ( trivium): grammar, logic, and rhetoric, respectively. [16] While grammar, logic, and rhetoric are taught as subjects in classical schools, many schools also use these three arts as a paradigm for child development. [2]

Logic and rhetoric were often taught in part by the Socratic method, in which the teacher raises questions and the class discusses them. By controlling the pace, the teacher can keep the class very lively, yet disciplined.

Grammar

Grammar consists of language skills such as reading and the mechanics of writing. An important goal of grammar is to acquire as many words and manage as many concepts as possible so as to be able to express and understand clearly concepts of varying degrees of complexity. Classical education traditionally included study of Latin and Greek to reinforce understanding of the workings of languages and allow students to read the classics of western civilization untranslated.

Logic

Logic is the process of correct reasoning. The traditional text for teaching logic was Aristotle's Logic. In the modern renaissance of classical education, this logic stage (or dialectic stage) refers to the junior high or middle school aged student, who developmentally is beginning to question ideas and authority, and truly enjoys a debate or an argument. Training in logic, both formal and informal, enables students to critically examine arguments and to analyze their own. The goal of the logic stage is to train the student's mind not only to grasp information, but to find the analytical connections between seemingly different facts/ideas, to find out why something is true, or why something else is false.

Rhetoric

Rhetorical debate and composition are taught to somewhat older (often high-school-aged) students, who by this point in their education have the concepts and logic to criticize their own work and persuade others. According to Aristotle, "Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic", concerned with finding "all the available means of persuasion". Students learn to articulate answers to important questions in their own words, to try to persuade others with these facts, and to defend ideas against rebuttal. The student learns to reason correctly in the Logic stage so that they can now apply those skills to Rhetoric. Traditionally, students would read and emulate classical poets in learning how to present their arguments well.

Secondary education – the quadrivium

Secondary education, classically the quadrivium or "four ways", consists of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Sometimes architecture is taught alongside these, often from the works of Vitruvius. History is taught to provide a context and show political and military development. The classic texts were from ancient authors such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Cicero, and Tacitus. Biographies were often assigned as well, with the classic example being Plutarch's Lives. Biographies help show how persons behave in their context, and the wide ranges of professions and options that exist. As more modern texts became available, these were often added to the curriculum.

In modern terms, these fields might be called history, natural science, accounting and business, fine arts (at least two, one to amuse companions, and another to decorate one's domicile), military strategy and tactics, engineering, agronomy, and architecture.

These are taught in a matrix of history, reviewing the natural development of each field for each phase of the trivium. That is, in a perfect classical education, the historical study is reviewed three times: first to learn the grammar (the concepts, terms and skills in the order developed), next time the logic (how these elements could be assembled), and finally the rhetoric, how to produce good, humanly useful and beautiful objects that satisfy the grammar and logic of the field. History is the unifying conceptual framework, because history is the study of everything that has occurred before the present.

Classical educators consider the Socratic method to be the best technique for teaching critical thinking. In-class discussion and critiques are essential in order for students to recognize and internalize critical thinking techniques. This method is widely used to teach both philosophy and law. It is currently rare in other contexts. Essentially, the teacher referees the students' discussions, asks leading questions, and may refer to facts, but never gives a conclusion until at least one student reaches that conclusion. The learning is most effective when the students compete strongly, even viciously in the argument, but always according to well-accepted rules of correct reasoning. That is, fallacies should not be allowed by the teacher.

By completing a project in each major field of human effort, the student can develop a personal preference for further education and professional training.

Tertiary education – the apprenticeship

Historically, tertiary education was usually an apprenticeship to a person with the desired profession. Most often, the understudy was called a "secretary" and had the duty of carrying on all the normal business of the "master." Philosophy and theology were both widely taught as tertiary subjects in universities, however.

The early biographies of nobles show what is possibly the ultimate form of classical education: a tutor. One early, much-emulated classic example of this tutor system is that of Alexander the Great, who was tutored by Aristotle.

Criticism

Lisa VanDamme alleges that the artificial division of children's learning stages into grammar, logic and rhetoric actively retards children's development of critical thinking skills. [17] Additionally, the haphazard way children are introduced to the sciences fails to build conceptual understanding of them. [17]

Prevalence

Around 300 classical Christian schools are members of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. There are also hundreds of public charter classical schools including networks such as the Barney Charter School Initiative [18] and Great Hearts Academies. Nyansa Classical Community also provides after-school programs. [19] Almost 200 classical Catholic schools are part of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. [20] The U.S. has many classical homeschooling communities, with over 1000 communities that are part of Classical Conversations, [21] and over 100 that are part of the Scholé Communities network. [22] [23] The movement has inspired several graduate programs [3] [4] [5] [6]

Interpretations of classical education

Classical education in schools

A number of classical schools have been established within the public/secular sector.[ citation needed ] These schools, primarily founded as charter schools, also structure their curricula and pedagogy around the trivium and integrate the teaching of values (sometimes called "character education") into the mainstream classroom with or without involving any particular religious perspectives.[ citation needed ]The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, by Susan Wise Bauer, [24] is a modern reference on classical education. It provides a history of classical education, an overview of the methodology and philosophy of classical education, and annotated lists of books divided by grade and topic that list the best books for classical education in each category.

Another important book summarizing the history and philosophy of classical education is the Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain. [25] Written by two veteran teachers from a classical school in Orlando, Florida, the book describes the ways in which the classical curriculum of the liberal arts developed and was deployed throughout the centuries. The authors present an overview of the classical liberals using the paradigm of piety, gymnastic, music, the seven liberal arts, philosophy, and theology using the acrostic PGMAPT.

Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins, both of the University of Chicago set forth in the 1930s to restore the "Great Books" of Western civilization to center stage in the curriculum. Adler and Hutchins sought to expand on the standard "classics" by including more modern works and trying to tie them together in the context of what they described as the "Great Ideas", in their book Great Books of the Western World . [26] They were wildly popular during the 1950s, and discussion groups of aficionados were found all over the US. However, their popularity waned during the 1960s, and such groups are relatively hard to find today. Extensions to the original set are still being published, encompassing selections from both current and older works which extend the "great ideas" into the present age.

Classical Christian education

These schools tend to rely upon one or more of the visions of classical education represented by Dorothy Sayers' essay "The Lost Tools of Learning", [16] Mortimer Adler's Paideia Proposal, Alfred North Whitehead's The Aims of Education, or Susan Wise Bauer's The Well Trained Mind. [24] Classical Christian schools vary in their approach to the sectarian integration of Christian thinking. Some schools ask parents to sign a statement of faith before attending, some do not require this of parents but are clear in their sectarian teaching, others are consciously ecumenical.

Classical languages

A more traditional view of classical education arises from the ideology of the Renaissance, advocating an education grounded in the languages and literatures of Greece and Rome. The lengthy, rigorous training period required to learn Greek and Latin has been abandoned by most American schools in favor of more contemporary subjects.

The revival of "classical education" has resulted in Latin (and less often Greek) being taught at classical schools. The Association of Classical and Christian Schools requires Latin for accreditation. A new group of schools, the Classical Latin School Association, requires Latin to be taught as a core subject.

See also

Related Research Articles

Educational perennialism is a normative educational philosophy. Perennialists believe that the priority of education should be to teach principles that have persisted for centuries, not facts. Since people are human, one should teach first about humans, rather than machines or techniques, and about liberal, rather than vocational, topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberal arts education</span> Traditional academic course in Western higher education

Liberal arts education is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. Liberal arts takes the term art in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadrivium</span> Liberal arts of astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry

From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the quadrivium was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts, and formed the basis of a liberal arts education in Western society until gradually displaced as a curricular structure by the studia humanitatis and its later offshoots, beginning with Petrarch in the 14th century. The seven classical arts were considered "thinking skills" and were distinguished from practical arts, such as medicine and architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trivium</span> The first three liberal arts of classical Greek and Medieval scholastic education

The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin school</span> School type in Europe from the 14th to 19th centuries

The Latin school was the grammar school of 14th- to 19th-century Europe, though the latter term was much more common in England. Other terms used include Lateinschule in Germany, or later Gymnasium. Latin schools were also established in Colonial America.

Of Education is a treatise by John Milton published in 1644, first appearing anonymously as a single eight-page quarto sheet. Presented as a letter, written in response to a request from the Puritan educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, it represents Milton's most comprehensive statement on educational reform, and gives voice to his views "concerning the best and noblest way of education". As outlined in the tractate, education carried for Milton a dual objective: one public, to “fit a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war” (55); and the other private, to “repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to be like Him, as we may the nearest by possessing our soul of true virtue” (52).

Zaytuna College is a private liberal arts college in Berkeley, California. It is the first accredited Muslim undergraduate college in the United States. It was built on the foundation of an educational institute, founded in 1996 by Hamza Yusuf and Hesham Alalusi. After graduating its pilot batch of full-time students, Zaytuna Institute formally changed its name to Zaytuna College in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regents School of Austin</span> Private school in Austin, Texas, United States

Regents School of Austin is a private, classical, non-denominational Christian school located in Austin, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas More College of Liberal Arts</span> Liberal arts college in New Hampshire

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Merrimack, New Hampshire. It emphasizes classical education in the Catholic intellectual tradition and is named after Saint Thomas More. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. It is endorsed by The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.

Classical Christian education is an approach to learning rooted in the long story of Christian engagement with the classical tradition as exemplified first by figures such as the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine and Jerome as well as the fullness of Christian monastic traditions. Its current revival in American K-12 schools started with three schools founded in 1980 to 1981: Cair Paravel-Latin School, Trinity School at Greenlawn, and Logos School. Various classical Christian schools emphasize and articulate different things in their approaches, but most include biblical teachings and incorporate a teaching model from the classical education renewal known as the Trivium, consisting of three parts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

SisterMiriam Joseph Rauh, C.S.C., PhD (1898–1982) was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. She received her doctorate from Columbia University and was Professor of English at Saint Mary's College from 1931 to 1960. She is the author of several books including The Trivium (1937), a text she developed as part of the core curriculum of Saint Mary's College. In her preface to the 1947 edition, she writes, "This book owes its inception .. to professor Mortimer J. Adler of the University of Chicago, whose inspiration and instruction gave it initial impulse." She also acknowledges debt to Aristotle, John Milton, and Jacques Maritain. It discusses the medieval liberal arts education based upon grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Caldwell Academy is a private, Independent Classical Christian school located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Caldwell provides a TK–12 education from a Classical Christian perspective.

Trinity Classical School is a private, classical Christian school offering college-preparatory, Christian education for grades pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade in Houston, Texas. The school is one of approximately 25 University-style schools in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Geneva School</span> Private school in Casselberry, Florida, United States

The Geneva School is a private, classical, coeducational Christian day school, founded in 1993. The Geneva School is located on a 40-acre campus in Casselberry, FL. Geneva is accredited by the Florida Council of Independent Schools. The total enrollment for 2022-2023 is about 660 students, K4–12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School of Chartres</span>

During the High Middle Ages, the Chartres Cathedral established the cathedral School of Chartres, an important center of French scholarship located in Chartres. It developed and reached its apex during the transitional period of the 11th and 12th centuries, at the start of the Latin translation movement. This period was also right before the spread of medieval universities, which eventually superseded cathedral schools and monastic schools as the most important institutions of higher learning in the Latin West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominion Christian School</span> Private, classical christian school in Oakton, Virginia, United States

Dominion Christian School is a private, classical Christian school. It is an accredited member of the Southern Association of Independent Schools. It is also a member of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS). Dominion Christian has campuses in Oakton, Reston, and Potomac Falls, Virginia.

New Covenant Christian School (NCCS) is a private, classical Christian school in Abingdon, Maryland. It is composed of the Grammar School (K-6) and the Upper School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trivium School</span> Private independent catholic school in Lancaster, Massachusetts, United States

Trivium School is an independent Catholic college-preparatory school for boys and girls in grades seven through twelve. It is located in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilberforce School</span> Christian school in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States

The Wilberforce School is a private, classical Christian school in Princeton, New Jersey, serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Founded in 2005, the school is named in honor of abolitionist William Wilberforce. The Head of School is Howe Whitman and the Academic Dean is Karen Ristuccia.

Classical Academic Press publishes books and K–12 curriculum with the motto, “Classical Subjects Creatively Taught.” The press started in 2001 as a privately-owned publishing company with multiple partners, including CEO and cofounder Christopher Perrin, to develop and publish classical curricula and media. The press is recognized as a leading provider of independent and public charter schools as well as homeschools influenced by the renewal of classical education and classical Christian education.

References

  1. 1 2 Unger, Harlow G., ed. (2007), "Classical education", Encyclopedia of American Education, New York: Facts on File, 1: 239, ISBN   978-0-8160-6887-6, OCLC   470617943
  2. 1 2 Clark, Kevin; Ravi, Jain (2013). The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education (3rd ed.). Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press. ISBN   978-1-60051-225-4.
  3. 1 2 "The Templeton Honors College Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)". Eastern University. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 "CLASSICAL EDUCATION GRADUATE PROGRAM". University of Dallas Classical Education Graduate Program. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Graduate School of Classical Education". Hillsdale College. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  6. 1 2 "GRADUATE LEADERSHIP: Classical Cohort". Gordon College. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  7. ↑ "Principia: A Journal of Classical Education". Principia: A Journal of Classical Education. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  8. ↑ "DeSantis's Revolutionary Defense of the Classics". The Wall Street Journal.
  9. ↑ "Why Conservatives Can't Stop Talking About Aristotle". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "The Christian Liberal-Arts School at the Heart of the Culture Wars". The New Yorker . 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023. When DeSantis and other Republican politicians try to articulate what they're for—what exactly they want education to look like—one name comes up repeatedly: Hillsdale College. ...In the past decade, Hillsdale has exported its educational philosophy to K-12 schools across the United States, as part of a larger movement to restore "classical education"—a liberal-arts curriculum designed to cultivate wisdom and teach children to pursue the ancient ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness.
  11. ↑ "As Black educators, we endorse classical studies". The Washington Post . 5 April 2023. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  12. ↑ "The Rise of the Bible-Teaching, Plato-Loving, Homeschool Elitists". Christianity Today. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  13. ↑ "A Classical Education: Back to the Future". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  14. ↑ "The enduring value of classical education". Carolina Journal. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  15. ↑ "Timeline of the Renewal in Classical Education". ClassicalU.com. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  16. 1 2 3 Sayers, Dorothy (1947). The Lost Tools of Learning (PDF).
  17. 1 2 VanDamme, Lisa (20 May 2007). "The False Promise of Classical Education". The Objective Standard. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  18. ↑ "Barney Charter School Initiative". Hillsdale College. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  19. ↑ "Community". Nyansa Classical Community. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  20. ↑ "Our Story". The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  21. ↑ "About Classical Conversations". Classical Conversations. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  22. ↑ "Find a Scholé Community". ClassicalU.com. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  23. ↑ "Scholé Communities started in 2014 to renew classical and restful education in homeschooling communities". Scholé Communities. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  24. 1 2 Wise, Bauer, Susan (2016). The well-educated mind : a guide to the classical education you never had : updated and expanded. ISBN   978-0-393-08096-4. OCLC   914296408.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ Clark., Kevin (9 December 2013). The Liberal Arts Tradition : A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education. ISBN   978-1-60051-225-4.
  26. ↑ Adler, Mortimer Jerome (2000). How to think about the great ideas : from the great books of Western civilization. Max Weismann. Chicago, Ill.: Open Court. ISBN   978-0-8126-9693-6. OCLC   680284007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.