Norms and Nobility ideas in the SN classical homeschool

[prairiewindmomma]

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[cherylswope]

Great question!! My heart soared just reading your post (without albuterol or caffeine!).

 

Especially this:

 

My revelation: In all of my trying to kid1 to learn to write a sentence that starts with a capital letter and ends in punctuation and expresses a coherant thought, I'm focusing on mechanics and not nurturing his soul.

 

 

Andrew Kern recently said he reads his tattered Norms and Nobility every year, so I dusted off my copy and began re-reading this summer. Yes, even the Preface is a call to examining the heart and beauty of the education we provide. This is exactly why Simply Classical was written -- to explore the "why" as much as the "how" for the nurture and education of our special-needs children.

 

 

No time for a full answer. Just wanted to say thank you for asking the question. (If there were a "love this" I would have clicked it!)

 

Looking forward to seeing responses.

 

Cheryl

[Ethel Mertz]

Crikey! That book is over $40 on Amazon and has a long wish list count on PaperBackSwap. Next stop - Interlibrary Loan.

[Student Mommie]

I have not read the book, but just answering based on your post.  

 

From what I have read on these forums so far, one of the most important concepts I have picked up is to limit the time spent on remediation.  This is HARD when early intervention is so important for so many SN kids, where you know if you just squeeze in one more XYZ then your kid will be saved tons of heartache later on.... It is HARD with many SN kids, when they can take five-twenty times as long to learn something, so it seems like they need to be doing ten times as much work just to keep up to grade level.... So when you limit the time, literally with a stopwatch, then you can be very efficient during remediation time, then relax the rest of the day and feed that love of learning in your children.  

 

Sometimes I wonder... do parents of older SN kids regret doing so much remediation early on?  Or do they more often wish they did more?  I guess nobody ever knows if they just have a "later bloomer" or if a particular remediation is a waste of time.  My own child SUDDENLY had his visual memory "wake up" a couple months ago so he was finally able to memorize sight words whereas before it was impossible for him.  Had we done direct work on visual memory, I probably would have attributed the wake up to our work.  Who knows?  Still, in some cases it seems there is enough research to know that your kid needs hard core remediation and won't just develop later.  For example, my son has very very poor RAN/RAS scores, and it seems like that is a strong indicator for a need for intensive remediation...

[prairiewindmomma]

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[geodob]

Learning as something to endure.

As opposed to Learning as something to enjoy?

 

But the consequences of Enjoying Learning, need to be considered?

Which could have a life long impact?

 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

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[prairiewindmomma]

An idea from today's reading I am chewing on:

 

P. 18 "Classical education....stands instead for a spirit of inquiry and a form of instruction concerned with the development of style through language and of conscience through myth. The key word here is inquiry.... The inquiry dictates the form of instruction and establishes the moral framework for thought and action." He states that to "inculcate inquiry" a formal curriculum providing form and structure should be provided (I see a reading list coming somewhere...) but that

 

P. 19 "whatever lesson or book, topic or investigation enables the student to perceive, articulate, and comprehend reason at work best suits the classical curriculum."

 

Another idea: p. 20,

"the purpose of education is not the assimilation of facts or the retention of information, but the habituation of the mind and body to will and act in accordance with what one knows." As I understand the next few pages, I believe David Hicks is arguing that the purpose of a classical education is to teach virtue. As no one would willingly choose evil over good, having the ability to achieve happiness through a life well-lived requires one to be able to distinguish evil v. Good choices through rational inquiry. So.....we teach virtue and help the student develop thinking skills.

 

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I am still formulating my response to these ideas, but I thought I would throw them out there for discussion if someone wanted some N+N specifics to chat about...

[Heathermomster]

nm.. 

 

[cherylswope]

So.....we teach virtue and help the student develop thinking skills.

 

 

 

Yes! And in his next pages, Ch. 2, "The Word is Truth," and especially Ch. 3, "Teaching the Father of the Man," the author offers an understanding of how newer educational movements attempted to create a false dichotomy between head and heart. Part of the opposition to a liberal arts or classical education often lies first in misdefining it, as if wisdom and virtue cannot be a simultaneous desire for your children! Be encouraged. You're seeking both. Even the seeking has benefits. 

 

 

You might enjoy other books of similar writing quality and persuasiveness, if you have not yet read them: Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons, The Great Tradition: classic readings on what it means to be an educated human being, and The Liberal Arts Tradition (new from Classical Academic Press). 

 

 

One reviewer calls N&N "powerful and humbling." All of the above books fall in that category.

 

 

I hope you share more of your thoughts, as you read. I appreciated this:

 

"...being more purposeful in the materials we are using. They need to enrich the soul. I need to nurture imagination. I need to help bring back wonder and excitement.... I need to make room for discussion about big ideas, and motives, and feeling. I need to move towards more interest and question based learning."

 

 

Thanks-

Cheryl

 

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

[prairiewindmomma]

Well, I finished N&N tonight. I think my best inspiration came from reading the preface.  By the end of the book, I felt that though Hicks recommends that all receive a classical education in order to preserve society from complete collapse he really had never met someone with less than excellent intellect, eagerness, and perseverance. (In fact, visions of children being left on the rocks to die of exposure a la ancient Greece came to mind.)

 

I like technology.

I like science.

I like gently stretching a student rather than requiring the hardest work of them upfront.

I believe that practical education has a place alongside teaching morality and ideals.

I believe that receiving a classical education does not guarantee that an individual will automatically know and demand their inherent rights.

I believe that not every student is best served by a strict humane letters education.

 

I gleaned a few wonderful things out of the book, but I also threw out a bunch of dross. YMMV, but if money is tight, I can't recommend spending $42 on this. Wait on the interlibrary loan!

[cherylswope]

Well, I finished N&N tonight. I think my best inspiration came from reading the preface. 

 

Yes! This made me smile. Did you notice that he wrote the current preface ten years after writing the book? Mr. Hicks recognizes some shortcomings with his own book written ten years earlier. I remember reading this Preface the first time. I wished he had written an updated version to correct the errors! How much more so now, 25 years after the original. He acknowledges that he was “young and inexperienced,†especially with an overzealous emphasis on the ancients for wisdom and virtue, rather than on Christ and His Word, as found more openly now in efforts to restore and implement classical Christian education.

 

Yet even as a young teacher, his insights abound, especially when he contrasts modern pedagogy with the very “classical†goals you state here:

 

I need to be doing *less* in the sense that I am being more purposeful in the materials we are using. They need to enrich the soul. I need to nurture imagination.

 

In fairness to N&N, we do need to remember the historical context.

N&N appeared very early in the recovery of classical education. The book should neither define nor end the discussion.

 

He even allows for adaptation, echoing the current WTM “Scribing†thread!

“The compromise to the student's level of development should be made by altering the teaching method....†(p. 128)

 

He does attempt to avoid the errors of the ancients:

Pagan humanism suffered from a natural tendency toward elitism....The demands for the Ideal Type were such that they enforced a social, economic, … and intellectual elitism – and thereby withheld from an overwhelming majority of persons the opportunity to realize a rich and full humanity. (N&N, p. 91)

 

You note his emphasis on the humane letters, which again reflects the early re-emergence of classical education, and you write,

I like technology.

I like science.

 

Yes. Early in the recovery, we witnessed a strong emphasis on the trivium – the language arts. Given the foundational nature of the trivium, along with the cultural abandonment of classical teaching methods and even classical content such as good literature, this was understandable and necessary. These efforts remain necessary today.

 

As resources emerged to assist with the trivium, we began to see a need to recover and implement the quadrivium – the mathematical arts (including technology). Together these comprise the liberal arts. Many today think of “liberal arts†as only the humanities, but a truly classical education sought to develop wonder, imagination, and the individual himself through both the language arts and the mathematical arts without neglect of practical skills. All of this is even more evident in a classical Christian educational context, with wonder and imagination cultivated in all areas as a gift from God. Classical education also includes the liberal sciences (natural, moral, and theological). Some college departments retain the term “liberal arts and sciences.†The natural sciences begin with simple nature walks, the wonder of insects, classification of creatures, and nature journals. Scholars such as Laura Berquist and Dr. Gene Edward Veith have always included the liberal sciences when discussing what we now call a “classical education.†The rest of us are just catching up.

 

All of this is to say, prairiewindmomma, that your questions remain THE questions! This is why your post encouraged me so much. For those of us with fragile children, as you clearly have experienced, I believe these questions become even more important.

 

Martin Cothran writes, “If a child cannot accommodate the amount or depth of knowledge of most children, it is not less, but more important that what he learns be of the highest quality.â€

 

Even in the midst of daily remediation, therapies, practical skills, hygiene, medical appointments, we can enjoy read-alouds, nature, poetry, music, art, and ideas in the home. We can seek truth, goodness, and beauty. Many of us can even pursue the liberal arts and sciences to the extent possible for our children.

 

We have the freedom to seek and integrate the very elements you expressed so well (despite pneumonia!).

 

If time permits and if you are interested, you might consider any of these books listed below. All are efforts to answer the questions you raise. Even though none of these books (except Simply Classical) was written for the homeschooling mom of special-needs children, we do not need to reject the authors' insights.

 

We can benefit from these attempts to answer good questions, even with special-needs children.

 

A surprising number of these authors wish to support us in our efforts. Many never thought of it! They NEVER knew there was such a large group of parents with high-functioning (or even lower-functioning) special-needs children who appreciate many of the humanizing, liberating, and edifying thoughts contained in their works. Many say they never realized these same thoughts could be applied beautifully at foundational levels. They never knew that so many children with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, benefit from the study of Latin in schools and homeschools.

 

We can benefit from reading the authors' writings, if only because “Education at every level reflects our primary assumptions about the nature of man, and for this reason, no education is innocent of an attitude toward man and his purposes.†(N&N, p.3 – from the preface! :))

 

 

Clearly this list will not serve anyone who has already determined not to attempt to bring elements of classical education to special-needs child. However, I will post the list here for you, given your questions and the stated purpose of this WTM board, “For parents who are customizing classical education for students with special needs.â€

 

You might consider reading any of these books alongside your current favorite book on special-needs children. Simply Classical attempts to bring the two worlds (classical education and special education) together.

 

We hope other resources will one day emerge for this purpose, just as most of these followed Norms & Nobility.

 

 

Classical Education

Gene Edward Veith and Andrew Kern, Capital Research Center, 2001.

Two leaders in the recovery of classical education combine to bring an accessible explanation of the history and implementation of a liberal arts and sciences tradition. This paperback offers an easy-to-understand, insightful treatment.

 

Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum

Laura Berquist, Ignatius Press, 1998.

Classically educated, Laura Berquist emphasizes the true, good, and beautiful in teaching. Having taught all of her children classically with remarkable success at home, Laura provides guidelines with curricular selections and encourages parents to research materials for their own purposes. She provides an admirable path to follow or adapt.

 

Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education

Ravi Jain and Kevin Clark, Classical Academic Press, 2013.

Broadening our understanding of liberal arts beyond the “trivium,†the authors offer bookends for the liberal arts in precursors (gymnastics, wonder, music) and culmination (natural, moral, and theological sciences). This book helps lift the classical education movement to the next level of appreciation and implementation.

 

On Christian Doctrine

St. Augustine (many editions available).

Saint Augustine instructs in the supremacy of Holy Scriptures to give the liberal arts proper placement in a student's life.

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

Cheryl Swope, Memoria Press, 2013.

This book, written specifically to help bring a classical Christian education to children with special learning needs, has been called “one of the most compelling cases for classical education in print.†Whether you have a special-needs child or not, you will find an encouraging story, lists of strategies, many simple resources for implementation, and an understandable examination of classical education vs. progressive education, read this book. Then share with anyone who wishes to bring the riches of a classical education to a special-needs child.

 

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home

by Susan Wise Bauer, W. W. Norton, revised 2009.

When the first edition of this book appeared in 1999, Susan Wise Bauer and her homeschooling mother Jessie Wise revitalized rigorous academics within homeschooling. With frequent updated editions, this comprehensive book remains a favorite among homeschoolers who wish to give their children a systematic, language-rich, balanced education.

 

Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning

Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans, Crossway Books, 2006.

Advocating a 12-K approach to developing a classical curriculum, the authors remind readers to seek first the desired end before undertaking the beginning. A very readable book, this makes a nice introduction to classical education and offers important cautions when examining the implementation of a classical education.

 

Especially for Lutherans:

God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life

Gene Edward Veith, Crossway (redesign) 2011.

Receive reassurance that God Himself is at work through your God-given vocation as teacher, parent, husband, wife, or student. Find a comforting, accessible explanation of the Lutheran doctrine of vocation: God's loving and merciful service to others through us, in spite of our weaknesses.

 

A Handbook for Classical Lutheran Education: The Best of The Consortium for Classical and Lutheran Education's Journals

Steven A. Hein, Cheryl Swope, Paul J. Cain, Tom Strickland; CCLE Press, 2013.

In this unique collection of journal articles from pastors, teachers, university professors, and homeschoolers, the Handbook offers thought-provoking topics such as Luther on education, the influence of the Gospel on our understanding of classical teaching, and an education for the baptized in Christ.

 

Lutheran Education: From Wittenberg to the Future

Thomas Korcok, Concordia Publishing House, 2011.

Dr. Korcok gives classical Lutheran education well-documented evidence that Lutherans historically embrace the liberal arts and sciences as the education for the baptized in Christ.

 

Especially for Roman Catholics:

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott, 2009.

Beauty in the Word: Redefining the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott and Anthony Esolen, 2012.

 

 

As we read any of these, we can remember that if we appreciate the intent, we need not give up on the insights or the vision.
 

 

For simple resources to bring science, wonder, poetry, music, and more to your homeschool without adding extra burdens to the schedule, consider these:

 

Children's poetry set to beautiful music

Little science books on nature and machines

An article about beautiful read-alouds: Literature for Life

 

 

A side note -

My father-in-law, a retired physician, unexpectedly offered to take my children for their weekly bloodwork today and then out to lunch, so I finally had time to answer fully! I do apologize for the length of this post, especially for anyone not interested in pursuits such as the above. I was not sure when another opportunity would arise.

 

Blessings in your continued quest. I hope your pneumonia has healed. (Three-time sufferer here.) Sometimes such health issues do offer good reading opportunities!

 

Thanks-

Cheryl

 

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child
 

[prairiewindmomma]

Thanks for such a thoughtful reply! I'll try to chime in again when I get a chance...