Why is the book for kids called "Trained"?

[Homeschooling Again]

I'm confused and can't find the answer (admittedly I only made a quick attempt). Why is the book for classically teaching our kids called The Well-Trained Mind while the one for getting a classical education through a reading course called The Well-Educated Mind? In all of my reading about classical education (again, admittedly not much), they talk about the goal being education rather than training.

 

Just curious if anyone knows.

[JudoMom]

Like an athlete has to train their body for competition, a student has to train their mind to think. Thinking is the cornerstone of a true education.

[2_girls_mommy]

But don't we have to train our minds to know how to be educated?? That is how I think of it. We have to exercise them daily much like a runner trains daily for a marathon.

[2_girls_mommy]

Judo mom and I were posting at the same time. Glad to know I wasn't off the mark in my thinking!

[Peela]

I guess its to do with the fact that the process of teaching/facilitating a classical education for kids is a training. You train them to think. To imitate first, to learn, think and to reason. It is training- training for life. It is a gift.

It seems straightforward to me- you cannot teach the kid everything but you can train them in how to learn so that they keep educating themselves their whole lives.

The Well Educated Mind seems to me- and its a long time since I read the book- a beautiful attempt to help up parents to become well educated in a broad, classical sense, by reading humanity's classic works. Different overall focus although much of WEM is covered in later parts of TWTM.

Also, the WEM was written well after the WTM.

They are not really different things -I suppose I like the concept of training- we train them to use the toilet, to say please and thankyou- one way or another school trains them - the child's mind is open and very trainable, and is very influenced by its environment, its parents, its educators. TWTM is a (great) attempts at using that malleability for the best purpose possible.

I probably haven't answered you well- the question never occurred to me.

[TXMomof4]

It seems straightforward to me- you cannot teach the kid everything but you can train them in how to learn so that they keep educating themselves their whole lives.

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This.

[Allearia]

It does have a negative connotation if you are thinking of the usage "train a dog". But it is more in the sense of an athlete training. Specific exercises and practice sustained over a period of time. Building muscles and training them for endurance and to perform in that sport. Classical education is building the brain and teaching it to think in certain ways and to have endurance for learning/studying and sustained critical thinking, writing, clear speaking, logic, etc. So block the "obedience training/dog" image out of your head and put in the elite athlete and it works much better.

[Rosy]

I think of it like training a vine--rather than letting it grow wild and out of control, you're shaping and trimming it to cause it to be strong and healthy.

[TheAutumnOak]

I agree with the responses given so far...

[Cindy in C-ville]

I think of it like training a vine--rather than letting it grow wild and out of control, you're shaping and trimming it to cause it to be strong and healthy.

 

Like this! :)

[Colleen in NS]

Why is the book for classically teaching our kids called The Well-Trained Mind while the one for getting a classical education through a reading course called The Well-Educated Mind? In all of my reading about classical education (again, admittedly not much), they talk about the goal being education rather than training.

 

 

The ultimate goal *is* education, but to acquire that education, the mind needs to be trained first, in skills such as: English grammar, spelling, reading, writing, math, logic, rhetoric, and so forth. And learning how to apply these skills to what you read, so that you can educate yourself.

[ktgrok]

I'm confused and can't find the answer (admittedly I only made a quick attempt). Why is the book for classically teaching our kids called The Well-Trained Mind while the one for getting a classical education through a reading course called The Well-Educated Mind? In all of my reading about classical education (again, admittedly not much), they talk about the goal being education rather than training.

 

Just curious if anyone knows.

 

TWTM is about HOW to learn, how to train the brain to think. TWEM is about content.