Classical Education as a spectrum...

[Kfamily]

ETA: Sorry, I thought I had put this on the K-8 board...sorry

 

If you could imagine the many various approaches to a classical education, with the right side having the more pure and original approach to classical and the left side only using some aspects/ideas from classical, where would you place the following:

 

Charlotte Mason?

WTM?

LCC?

 

I'm working on my overall philosophy (something I seem to work on a lot :lol:) and have suddenly realized that I may actually lean more towards one approach than I had originally thought. I have books from all 3 of the above approaches and have learned so much from all of them.

 

I'd also love to talk about what someone halfway between two places on the spectrum should label themselves. Am I eclectic?:001_smile:

 

Does anyone else feel like they cannot find just one approach to which they can identify themself? I've learned so many different approaches (teaching in public schools, Montessori Method, CM, Classical and many of its variations, Ignatian, etc. and like something from all (except the first one) and a lot from others. What do I call such a blended philosophy? :lol:

Edited October 28, 2012 by Kfamily

[Candid]

To me I'd put classical on one side and unschooling on the other. If you like, totally rigid unbending, teacher chooses on one side and totally free learner chooses on the other.

 

The Well Trained Mind comes pretty close to the classical side, Charlotte Mason farther out but still on the classical side of the half way point. Both of these are/were mostly chosen by the teacher over the student. Charlotte Mason allowed more input for younger students. (I judge pure CM by a series of talks I heard Susan Macauley give in the early 90s on her further studies into the method. One interesting thing she detailed was that many CM schools would feed older students into more purely classical schools as the children approached high school aged.)

 

I don't recognize LCC as an abbreviation, so I can't comment.

 

The power of home schooling is you can keep a pretty high standard classical level, but still allow for input on your learners because you don't have a large class size that keeps you from tailoring to each student.

[Corraleno]

If you could imagine the many various approaches to a classical education, with the right side having the more pure and original approach to classical and the left side only using some aspects/ideas from classical, where would you place the following...

Well, IMO there's no such thing as "pure, original classical education," unless you're talking about the way Greek kids learned 2500 years ago — and AFAIK, no one recommends schooling that way. We actually do study Attic Greek, rely heavily on Socratic questioning, and frequently school sitting outdoors under a tree — but I doubt that many people here would consider my homeschool more "purely classical" than WTM. ;) The model for what most people call "classical" is really more of a Medieval/European/Christian education, but saying that you're giving your kids a "medieval education" doesn't sound quite as impressive. :lol:

 

 

Does anyone else feel like they cannot find just one approach to which they can identify themself? I've learned so many different approaches (teaching in public schools, Montessori Method, CM, Classical and many of its variations, Ignatian, etc. and like something from all (except the first one) and a lot from others.

I don't think anyone applies any "philosophy" 100% of the time to 100% of their kids. Each child is different, with different strengths/weaknesses/interests/learning styles/etc., and different parents have different teaching styles as well. It would be a very rare family indeed that could meet all of the needs of all their children, across the board, with a single approach.

 

What do I call such a blended philosophy? :lol:

Kfamily's Homeschool. :001_smile:

 

Jackie

[Kfamily]

To me I'd put classical on one side and unschooling on the other. If you like, totally rigid unbending, teacher chooses on one side and totally free learner chooses on the other.

 

The Well Trained Mind comes pretty close to the classical side, Charlotte Mason farther out but still on the classical side of the half way point. Both of these are/were mostly chosen by the teacher over the student. Charlotte Mason allowed more input for younger students. (I judge pure CM by a series of talks I heard Susan Macauley give in the early 90s on her further studies into the method. One interesting thing she detailed was that many CM schools would feed older students into more purely classical schools as the children approached high school aged.)

 

I don't recognize LCC as an abbreviation, so I can't comment.

 

The power of home schooling is you can keep a pretty high standard classical level, but still allow for input on your learners because you don't have a large class size that keeps you from tailoring to each student.

 

That is interesting about CM schools feeding older students into classical schools....I didn't know that...

 

LCC is for the Latin Centered Curriculum (known as Plaid Dad on this board).

 

Yes, I agree with your last sentence. It sums it up nicely.

[Kfamily]

Well, IMO there's no such thing as "pure, original classical education," unless you're talking about the way Greek kids learned 2500 years ago — and AFAIK, no one recommends schooling that way. We actually do study Attic Greek, rely heavily on Socratic questioning, and frequently school sitting outdoors under a tree — but I doubt that many people here would consider my homeschool more "purely classical" than WTM. ;) The model for what most people call "classical" is really more of a Medieval/European/Christian education, but saying that you're giving your kids a "medieval education" doesn't sound quite as impressive. :lol:

Jackie

 

Yes, I agree...I knew when I chose those words for describing the far right side (pure classical education) that my wording was probably going to be a little off...:lol:

No, a "medieval education" doesn't sound very impressive.:001_smile:

 

"Kfamily's Homeschool" :D I like it.

[regentrude]

Does anyone else feel like they cannot find just one approach to which they can identify themself?

 

Absolutely. I have not yet come across any schooling philosophy that I would have wanted to adopt 100%. I pick the bits that I like and disregard the rest. I do not feel the need to give my "philosophy" a label or name - it is simply the (rather eclectic) way we home educate. So far, it seems to work well for my kids.

[Nscribe]

What works well in one content area is not necessarily the best fit in another. I tend to think of the whole thing in terms of the differences between "how", "what" and "why". How we approach a specific area may not neatly fit any philosophy, but overall I have a big picture of what we want to learn and why we want to learn it.

[Kareni]

I have not yet come across any schooling philosophy that I would have wanted to adopt 100%. I pick the bits that I like and disregard the rest.

 

This has been our model, too. And I suspect that the bits that work can differ from child to child within the same family.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[regentrude]

This has been our model, too. And I suspect that the bits that work can differ from child to child within the same family.

 

Yes, that is definitely true for my two kids: different personalities, different learning styles, different interests require different approach.