What is a classical education and what makes it different from other educations?

[hsmom]

Can anyone sum this up for me? I am confused on this whole classical education. Why is it any different than any other?:confused:

[Capt_Uhura]

Go to Peacehillpress.com and click on audio products. SWB's The Joy of Classical Education is only 99cents. That will get you started.

[Penelope]

I think the main difference can be seen by high school, where the students are reading and discussing the Great Books, autobiographies, biographies, and original sources for history, then writing persuasively about them. This would be opposed to traditional education which is highly dependent on textbooks.

 

The other difference I see is the focus on basic skills and logic. Grammar and Latin are important components.

 

Different authors have their own unique interpretations of classical.

 

I have to say I'm a little surprised at the question given you have over 2,000 posts here. :) I guess there are a lot of other things people talk about here, besides education.

[angela in ohio]

There have been some wonderful discussions about this on here before. Hopefully someone who's good with keeping links will post some. If not, you can search the K-8 board for classical education perhaps and look for thread titles.

 

Classical education as you see it in many products/curriculum/books these days doesn't look much different than other forms of education. I think that's because it has become a "buzz word" and a selling point. People slap it on anything and throw it around. I have friends doing all A Beka, but they add Latin or read SOTW, so they say they are classical educators. :D

 

The books Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning and Classical Education and the Homeschool, along with WTM and the Memoria Press and Veritas Press catalogs/sites are probably some of the best sources for learning about classical education.

 

My personal sum of classical education is that it is focused on the accumulated knowledge of western culture and intended to teach the skills of learning, including grammar, logic, and rhetoric. I think classical languages are fairly key, but chronological history is not. I think classic literature is vital, but science and mathematics should not be neglected.

[hsmom]

I know. I just really have not looked into the whole classical education as much as most have. I talk about education a lot, just different ways of doing it.

 

See I am not really wanting to teach the whole Latin part of everything. So, I have stayed away from classical because of this. Also I was just wonder if that is really a major part of it.

[SonshineLearner]

Giving kids tools to learn, and teaching according to their natural development seems to be central in Classical Education. Languages help them with thinking skills, and logic is important, which language helps with. Latin Centered Curriculum is a great book to read, to kinda get a grip on a classical education.... (theory of how to do it) It will also help you think through WHY you might want to teach languages. Your 14 year old is NOT too old to start... so... just think about it :)

[8filltheheart]

Can anyone sum this up for me? I am confused on this whole classical education. Why is it any different than any other?:confused:

 

This is a response I have written before:

 

Educating the whole child: the spiritual, mental, and physical. As a Christian, our goal is not to be focused just on knowledge but on providing the tools for living the life they are called to lead, to achieve “the ultimate end for which they were created.†It is through interior mental freedom that the spiritual life begins its fulfillment.

 

The reason we embrace classical education is b/c of the focus on forming logical thinking and analyzing rhetorical arguments. Our view of education is to provide the proper foundation that allows for independent thought vs. succumbing to mesmerizing rhetoric, the ability to form judgments based on truth vs. relativism (to do so requires the mental skills to distinguish between the 2 and to discern the validity of the arguments) and thereby providing the skills to live their lives accordingly.

 

How is that different than regular education? Most education focuses on regurgitation of facts (or knowledge-based education......fill in the blank with names/dates, etc) My goal is not knowledge-based education. In today's world, "knowledge" is nothing more than a quick google search for an answer to a question.

 

The real goal of our homeschool is the ability to analyze and evaluate.

[Jami]

There have been some wonderful discussions about this on here before. Hopefully someone who's good with keeping links will post some. If not, you can search the K-8 board for classical education perhaps and look for thread titles.

 

Classical education as you see it in many products/curriculum/books these days doesn't look much different than other forms of education. I think that's because it has become a "buzz word" and a selling point. People slap it on anything and throw it around. I have friends doing all A Beka, but they add Latin or read SOTW, so they say they are classical educators. :D

 

The books Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning and Classical Education and the Homeschool, along with WTM and the Memoria Press and Veritas Press catalogs/sites are probably some of the best sources for learning about classical education.

 

My personal sum of classical education is that it is focused on the accumulated knowledge of western culture and intended to teach the skills of learning, including grammar, logic, and rhetoric. I think classical languages are fairly key, but chronological history is not. I think classic literature is vital, but science and mathematics should not be neglected.

 

I would agree with all this and add that the end is not vocational training, or even training the mind, but training the soul for wisdom and virtue. That's why the classic literature of the "great conversation" is a key part. Along with having the mind trained with the tools of learning, so that the child can discern what is good, true and beautiful and express those things.

[3littlekeets]

This link on WTM gives a nice "pragmatic" overview on the joys of classical education.

[Crimson Wife]

See I am not really wanting to teach the whole Latin part of everything. So, I have stayed away from classical because of this. Also I was just wonder if that is really a major part of it.

 

Historically, a classical education did include learning at least one of the classical languages (Latin, Greek, and/or Hebrew). The goal was to be able to read the classics in the original tongue.

 

If teaching a classical language is not something that appeals to you, you can adapt TWTM to include just studying word roots. There's a lot more to neo-classical education than learning Latin and/or Greek.

 

The key part for me is studying the Great Books so that my kids can participate in what Mortimer J. Adler calls "the Great Conversation". I do plan on having them study Latin but in middle school rather than starting in elementary.

[wapiti]

I think I prefer the definition of classical ed described in the Latin-Centered Curriculum, but alas I can only decide for me and no one else ;).

 

I believe there are old threads discussing this question at great length.

[ladydusk]

I would agree with all this and add that the end is not vocational training, or even training the mind, but training the soul for wisdom and virtue. That's why the classic literature of the "great conversation" is a key part. Along with having the mind trained with the tools of learning, so that the child can discern what is good, true and beautiful and express those things.

 

:iagree: with Jami and Angela. I like Andrew Kern's (admittedly Christian) definition:

 

• EDUCATION is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty. It must be distinguished from training for a career, which is of eternal value but is not the same thing as education.

 

——–

 

 

• CLASSICAL EDUCATION is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty by means of the seven liberal arts and the four sciences.

 

Lots of good articles at the CiRCE Institute.

[KatieH]

I think I prefer the definition of classical ed described in the Latin-Centered Curriculum, but alas I can only decide for me and no one else ;).

 

I believe there are old threads discussing this question at great length.

 

Me, too :001_smile:

[redsquirrel]

Go to Peacehillpress.com and click on audio products. SWB's The Joy of Classical Education is only 99cents. That will get you started.

 

That.

 

And if Latin is all that is holding you back, we'll hide you from the latin police, ok?