When my four siblings and I were pictured in the Dayton Daily News in 1987 as one of the first families in the area to embark upon the adventure of home education, I had no idea that the choices my parents had made would have such a major impact on my life.
Looking back on what just seemed “normal” to me at the time, I can say that learning at home opened up a whole new world or creative adventures and friendships with my brothers and sisters that have lasted my lifetime.
When I entered 6th grade at Troy Christian, and then on to Tipp City High school…I was prepared both academically and emotionally to tackle those tricky years.My junior and senior year of high school I attended Sinclair Community College through the PSEO program, and then went onto earn my BS at Middle Tennessee State University, earning straight A’s throughout my entire journey.
I had some wonderful experiences in every level of my education, and I always just figured I would probably do the same kind of thing with my kids when they reach the school-aged years.However, as my oldest son reached the age for Kindergarten…I felt completely overwhelmed when looking into all the curriculum and choices before me regarding his education.
Unlike when my parents ventured into the unknown territory of educating at home…now there is an overwhelming amount of resources available to those who choose to teach their kids at home.I found myself stressing out about what math program to use…which history curriculum is best, etc.The more I researched and looked into everything available to me, the more I questioned if I could really do this, and the more I realized that even though I experienced the whole spectrum of education options and was able to spit back the info on the tests to get A’s…I didn’t retain a lot of the information I learned.
I feel ignorant when things happen in other countries and I have to Google it to find out where it is.Why do I have to think so hard to do a simple addition or multiplication problem in my head?If my life depended on it, I couldn’t tell you most significant dates in my own country’s history, let alone the world.When I read old documents like the Declaration of Independence, I struggle to understand the meaning, as if it is a foreign language!I’m a fast learner.I generally consider myself smart…but I feel incredibly stupid sometimes.
I wanted more for my kids.Something is failing in many forms of our current education system, and it has nothing to do with whether a child is homeschooled, privately schooled, or publicly schooled.As a culture, we seem to be getting dumber…and that just shouldn’t happen.
So, when I came across this thing called “Classical” education….something resonated in me.“Classical” refers to time-tested, something that has worked for hundreds of years….something based on the basics of humanity and human development….not just the “flavor of the month”.Why we ever came away from this style of education, I can’t figure out, but it is no wonder that the Classical Education movement is growing so quickly among homeschoolers and private institutions.
In a nutshell….here is the basics of what Classical Education is.It is based on how we learn in different stages.It is broken down into 3 stages, often referred to as the “Trivium”:The Grammar Stage, The Dialectic Stage, and the Rheteric Stage.If you are thinking of it in terms of our technical age, the 3 stages correlate with Input, Processing, and Output.Whole books are written on this concept and putting it into practice, so I’m not going to attempt to expand a whole lot on this, but this is an easy concept to see without looking to deep.
Anyone who has kids between the ages of 0-12 understand that they are little sponges.They have the ability to memorize and retain a TON of information and they are constantly learning and taking in new facts.This is the knowledge stage, the input stage, the “Grammar” stage.(grammar referring to facts, data, etc).This is the age where it makes sense to pack them full of useful information.Not necessarily information they understand or is useful to them at the time, but just taking advantage of the fact that they can memorize and retain quickly at this age.This is when you can learn all the history dates, times tables, world geography, etc, and it just becomes part of who you are and what you know.
As they enter the middle school years, that is when they are no longer satisfied with just the “who, what, when, and where,”, they want to know the “how and why”.And they don’t just want to be told, they want to discover it for themselves.In fact, if you tell them the answers, they will not take your word for it anymore!This is the Dialectic Stage, or the processing, or understanding stage….whatever you choose to call it.
“What appears to be a tendency in students to argue, or even to talk back, is really a desire to systematize their thoughts and to achieve understanding of the facts they have accumulated in the grammar years.Instead of squelching the desire to argue, the classical model complements their natural tendencies by teaching them formal logic and debate so that students learn to reason and argue clearly, respectfully, and persuasively.” (Jennifer Courtney, Classical Conversations catalog)
Can an elementary child learn the how’s and why’s?Of course they can to some degree.But taking too much time to try to use reason and logic with a younger child is not a good use of their strengths and the time devoted to their education. They will be much more capable of this when they are older, and much less capable of memorization and retention.
The last stage of a Classical education is the Rheteric stage (the Output…the Wisdom).It’s this stage that you find missing the most in our educational system…even through college.This is where a student truly masters a subject.They not only know have a firm grasp on the facts and an understanding of their applications, but they can now use this information to impact society.This is the poetic and creative stage, the eloquent, inspirational and persuasive stage where you are applying the skills you have learned to make something meaningful or to say something insightful.You have potential to reach this stage in your later high school years, but we rarely see this kind of mastery of knowledge even after 4 years of college.
Like I said, whole books have been written on the classical model of education and implementation, etc, so I will not even attempt to do that, but in order to explain my reasons for deciding to keep my kids at home…I needed to explain the basics of it.
Before, my main reasons for homeschooling were to be able to spend more time with my kids in their formidable years, free their time up a bit to be able to pursue their interests, and help create that childhood bond that I experienced with my siblings.Those are still part of the reason I am continuing on in this journey, but now that I have come across the classical model of education, I am finding that another reason I am committing to homeschool (maybe even through high school! Ahhhh!), is because I believe it will provide them with a better education.
I believe they will be more equipped to tackle any subject, to learn any new skill they may need in their future. I believe that as they enter junior high age, they will have this huge base of knowledge from which to start to really understand and navigate our world.And I am believing that as they grow into that last stage of learning, they will have the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom to be able to positively effect and impact our world and our culture.
With all of these wonderful reasons I have for wanting to educate my kids at home…I am not the great adventurer my parents were.I don’t want to, and have no intention of doing this alone.I want a community!I need support!And I found this all in the group called Classical Conversations, who I have been a part of this past year in Springfield.After my experience there, I know I want this for the Tipp City area.
Classical Conversations provides the programs and community that is needed to support an excellent classical education at home.
