Explaining WTM/Classical Education to a child/family

[Bang!Zoom!]

So now I'm getting questions about, "What's in that book you are carrying around?"

 

Um. "Oh, it's an educational theory called Classical Education."

 

"What's Classical Education?"

 

"Well, it's a really long story..."

 

lol

 

So, did you or have you ever tried to explain it? Do you kids understand what it means at all?

[PeacefulChaos]

Well, my kids haven't asked, but other family members/friends/acquaintances/school teachers (last year) have. Depending on their level of actual interest (you know how it can be, they ask without really knowing what it is they are asking) I try to explain a little.

That said, I did a HORRIBLE job of explaining it - to my son's 1st grade teacher, of all people!!! I stumbled over all sorts of words and just completely sounded like an idiot. We left and DH was like, well, you really convinced her... lol :)

[2_girls_mommy]

Well, my kids don't know any different. They see me on the website, and they see the book, and they know we homeschool because I want them to have a better education. So when I am explaining a new concept or what we will be doing, I always tell my ODD that is what the book says to do. If it is in the book, she knows that is what we will be doing because we want a better education. :)

 

My mother is a PS teacher. She knows we follow a classical model, and she is intrigued. She thinks it is pretty cool. She especially likes the phonics and the SOTW, (the 4 yr Social Studies project as she calls it!) She likes the phonics because even though she was taught to teach whole language in college, as a special ed, remedial reading teacher, she uses phonics for her students. She is glad to see her district is going back to phonics for everyone this year.

[MeaganS]

Well, my kids haven't asked, but other family members/friends/acquaintances/school teachers (last year) have. Depending on their level of actual interest (you know how it can be, they ask without really knowing what it is they are asking) I try to explain a little.

That said, I did a HORRIBLE job of explaining it - to my son's 1st grade teacher, of all people!!! I stumbled over all sorts of words and just completely sounded like an idiot. We left and DH was like, well, you really convinced her... lol :)

 

This is me totally, minus the teacher. But when I've tried to talk to family about it, I make it sound like I don't know what I'm talking about or that it is stupid, when I've actually given it hours and hours of thought and it is brilliant!

[Kirch]

In a long, in-depth discussion, I'm fine. A nutshell description is harder, although I'm getting better at it (after multiple less-than-eloquent tries!). The more I do it and internalize how it actually works, the easier it is to boil it down to the essentials. I usually explain it something like this:

 

A classical education divides a child's education into 3 stages: Grammar (early elem.), which focuses on building strong skills in reading, math, grammar, and spelling as well as filling a child's mind with lots of information (mostly in history and science) as a foundation for future learning; Logic (late elem./middle), which focuses on analyzing (asking "why" and "how"), building logical thinking skills, and organizing one's ideas so they can be clearly expressed; and Rhetoric, which focuses on learning to express one's ideas clearly and persuasively, both orally and in writing. The backbone/organizing element (at least in a WTM classical education) is history, which is taught chronologically, with the other humanities-type subjects (and possibly science) tied in to what is being studied in history. This facilitates a deeper understanding of how the world was/is, why it was/is that way, and enables students to make cross-discipline connections and more clearly see causes and effects. A classical education is very literature/language-centered (lots of reading and writing), and the rhetoric stage focuses on reading and interacting with the great works of western literature. And of course, a classical education includes studying Latin.

 

It's still a pretty big nutshell, but I don't really get to trot it out that often! :D And when I do, they generally ask about Latin, which completely derails the attempt to keep it to a nutshell! I also have difficulty not going into more details about a few things (like copywork/narration/dictation) that are fairly essential to the method. Most people who have been interested enough to ask are interested in the details, though, so it usually goes into a longer conversation.

[Karen in CO]

"That's the Well Trained Mind."

"It teaches me how to teach kind of the way people were taught in ancient times before public education. It emphasizes a strong education with lots of good literature and thinking."

 

My short answers are similar to that.