Anne

Ah, your children are just babies — you have plenty of time for the academics. I suggest spending the next several months just reading aloud to your kids while you rest up from your pregnancy. Read to them books you enjoy. Concentrate just on the reading aloud and obedience. Take up the academics next fall perhaps. That will be soon enough.

No, ACE would not be a good choice.

Laurie

God Bless You All

Daryn


My grandfather was from Norway — so I’m 1/4 Norwegian! I hope you will
 find our book useful. Laurie

Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn is about reclaiming classical education for Christ. And Teaching the Trivium is not just about classical education — it gives foundational reasons for why homeschooling should be your first choice.

If you are looking for how to apply classical education to your homeschool, then this is the book. Teaching the Trivium is practical, thorough, and from a decidedly Christian perspective.

Some of its distinctives include:

–an emphasis on reading aloud to your children
–studying logic from ages ten through high school, rather than using it as a one or two year supplement
–ancient literature from a Christian perspective (is it really necessary to read Homer?)
–choices in language study, with an emphasis on Biblical Greek
–why informal math or grammar before age ten may be a better choice
–how to give your children the tools they need to teach themselves
–how to homeschool in a classical style without buckling under the burden
–a workable plan for every subject and for every age which avoids homeschool burnout (there is only so much time in the day)
–how to continue using other approaches to homeschooling within the framework of classical education
–homeschooling is not alternative education (homeschooling was here first)
–the family is at the heart of God’s plan for restoring Christian culture

Read our article Ten Things to Do Before Age Ten — it will give you a taste of what is in Teaching the Trivium.

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The question I would ask is this — do I want to read Homer, Dante, Chaucer, and Beowulf at all and require my children to read them? The principles I have in the back of my mind as we choose and study literature are these:

1. I want to do what is pleasing to God. “Be not conformed to this world…” and “Keep yourself unspotted from the world…”

2. There is only so much time in the day.

3. Just because something is “old” doesn’t mean it is good.

Canterbury Tales is full of gross, profane babble. I don’t believe it is fit for the eyes of a child, even in its abridged form. I’m sure there probably are sections that would be of some value, but I’ve got better use for my time than pulling on the chore boots and wading through the muck for a few pieces of corn.

Many years ago I had the children read Beowulf, in its unabridged form, and then had them write a paper on it. Hans’ paper was entitled “Beer-wulf: A Story of How God Used a Monster to Rid the Land of the Beer Halls.” Do you have a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in your house? I suggest putting it on a very high shelf.

There is no neutrality. If a piece of literature cannot be used to build Christian culture in my children, then it will be used to build something culturally anti-Christian in my children. Wasting time is anti-Christian. I can hear someone say, “Well, the Bible if full of stuff that describes the wicked sins of men.” Yes, true, but the Bible also tells you what to think about all that wickedness. There are sections of the Bible that we don’t read to young children. The Hebrews wouldn’t allow a young child to read the Song of Solomon.

Have you ever read any of the works by John Bunyan? These are wonderful pieces of literature you will want your children to read over and over. And how about Robinson Crusoe? The Waverly Novels? Or the histories of Josephus or Herodotus, or Xenophon’s Anabasis?

There is good literature and there is bad literature. Just because something is old and is required reading to get into college doesn’t mean it’s good. I would suggest that your family list the principles which you rely upon for choosing literature to read, and then stick to those principles. Don’t be swayed by peer pressure — classical homeschooling peer pressure. If someone shares with you the long list of classics their children are reading, don’t start to doubt and fret, but look back at your list of principles and stick to them. Should we, as homeschooling families, adopt the values and standards of others in order to fit in and prove to them that we aren’t in some way inferior. Are we looking for their approval? Is getting our kid accepted at Harvard our ultimate goal? Why do we desire our child to read at age five? Is it so that our own parents and adult peers will be impressed and give us their approval?

We talk about the trivium approach as to how to teach — building knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. We have suggestions as to what to teach and when to teach it.

We do not anoint any particular curriculum choices as “classical” and therefore somehow better. Something might be “classical” from one standpoint, but not particularly good or useful to some or many people.

Everybody has their own budget, their own learning style, their own circumstances, etc. One of the advantages of homeschooling is that it is not a factory approach where one size fits all. Each situation is unique.

First 1) know your choices; then 2) understand how they compare and integrate with each other and the student and other resources available, including time; then 3) choose wisely. Sounds like a trivium approach to curriculum choices.

Curriculum options are always changing. New options are often different, sometimes better. Keeping up with them all is a big task. Standard curriculum guides (such as this and this), blogs which review books (such as this and this), and Amazon are good starting points. We can’t do all that they do, and we’re not going to try.

A large 100 page Sampler Edition of the Home Educator’s Tutor can be downloaded here.

I’ve heard people discuss this topic, but could never quite understand what people meant by gaps. Do they mean that they are worried because their children didn’t study rocks in the 3rd grade like most public and private school children do, or that they didn’t study the planets in 4th grade? We’re talking here about children not learning the facts in a certain area of study by a certain age level. I think lots of people worry about this. One person I once talked to was quite concerned because her ten year old child knew nothing about the Depression of the ’30’s, and another mother felt like a failure because her son couldn’t recite all the states and capitals by age twelve. These types of worries could drive parents crazy, especially if they stop and think about all the minute facts their child probably doesn’t know, and the even greater number of facts he learned but immediately forgot.

Now, I have a confession to make. We never studied rocks. Never. In fact, we never studied earth science at all. But that’s OK, because I plan on studying the subject with my grandchildren when I have more time. I’m actually looking forward to it.

Classical education is not like the education we parents got in the public school, where we memorized a bunch of facts, took a test, and then went on to the next subject. Classical education is about training minds and developing proper appetites. It’s developing the imagination and creativity. It’s having time to play and explore in the old fashioned way. It’s encouraging a love for learning. It’s building a firm foundation in the child’s mind with memorization and narration. And it’s about learning to obey and serve our heavenly Father. It’s a way of life.

But perhaps the gaps you are worried about are the skill type gaps and foundational knowledge that are important to learn in the early years — things such as basic formal English (and other language) grammar — knowledge which could be started at age ten; the basics of formal mathematics which also could begin at age ten (and informal math at earlier ages); and intensive phonics instruction which should begin as soon as the child is ready. These all are foundational stones to the building you are constructing, and any gaps here would need to be repaired.

The Protestant denominations trace their origins back to Martin Luther, the Christian reformer. His reforms touched on many things, not the least of which was education. Here, cast into the form of an interview, and using his own characteristically forceful and animated words, we gather Luther’s views on the importance of classical education and his thoughts on how it should be reformed.

Questioner: Dr. Luther, we are familiar with the liberal arts, particularly the basic trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. What place do you see for these things in education?

Luther: “Many educated men are needed in the … liberal arts. … Where are the preachers, jurists, and physicians to come from, if grammar and other rhetorical arts are not taught? For such teaching is the spring from which they all must flow.” (3)

Q.: You mentioned grammar. Just how important do you consider the study of the classical languages to be?

L.: “These languages [Latin, Greek, and Hebrew] and these [liberal] arts are agreeable and useful alike, sources both of honor and profit, throwing light upon the Scriptures, and imparting sound wisdom to rulers….” (2)
“No man understood the reason why [in the 16th century] God caused the [classical] languages again to put on bloom and vigor, until now, at last, we see that it was for the sake of the gospel…. Now, since the gospel is so dear to us, let us hold fast to the languages.” (2)

Q.: So do I understand you correctly, that you think the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew is important to the preservation of the gospel?

L.: “We may not be able to retain the gospel without the knowledge of the languages in which it was written. For they are the scabbard in which this sword of the spirit is sheathed…. Indeed, should we overlook all this, and (which God forbid!) let go our hold on the languages, then we would not only lose the gospel, but would finally fall away to that degree, that we should be able neither to speak nor to write either German or Latin. In this, let us take a lesson and a warning by the sad example of the universities…, where they have not only let the gospel slip away from their grasp, but have also either lost or corrupted both Latin and German so that the creatures have become but little better than brute beasts, knowing, neither how to read nor write, and, more than this, have well-nigh lost even their native intellect too. … Hence, we may conclude that, where the languages do not abide, there, in the end, the gospel must perish.” (2)

Q.: How does knowing the languages protect the gospel?

L.: “To do battle against heretics and errorists, this can never come about, except with the help of the languages.” (2)
“The languages are of the first necessity to a pure Christianity….” (2)
“In order to follow Paul’s precept, in First Corinthians 14:29, to the effect that we must judge of every doctrine of Christianity, we must, of necessity, first learn the languages … else we shall have nothing to guide us.” (2)

Q.: What do you see as the role of a classical education?

L.: “To provide able and competent men to govern us. And in this the heathen might justly put us to shame and confusion of face, for they, the Greeks and Romans especially, gave diligent heed to the teaching and training of boys and girls, to fit them for all the various stations of temporal trust and authority….” (2)

Q.: So, are you saying that the type of education you are advocating will build leadership on all levels of society?

L.: “But surely we know, or ought to know, how necessary, how proper and how pleasing in the sight of God it is, for a prince, a lord, a magistrate, or any one in authority, to excel in learning and in wisdom, so that he may discharge the duties of his office in a Christian manner. … Men to pilot state and people safely and to good issues; women to train up well and to confirm in good courses both children and servants.” (2)

Q.: What would you include in this curriculum?

L.: “Above all, in schools of all kinds the chief and most common lesson should be the Scriptures….” (1)
“Instruct them in the languages, arts, and histories, they would thus become familiar with the great deeds and the famous sayings of all times; would see how it fared with such a city, kingdom, province, man, or woman, and would bring before their eyes, as it were in a mirror, the whole world from the beginning, with all its character and life, its plans and achievements, its successes and failures: by all this they would shape their sentiments, and to all this conform the course of their life in the fear of God.” (2)
“From the same histories, too, they would gain wit and wisdom, and learn what to pursue and what to avoid in life, and so, by and by, be able to counsel or to govern others.” (2)
“I would teach them not only the language and history, but singing likewise; and with music I would combine a full course of mathematics. … I read so few of the poets and historians when I was young…. In their place I was compelled to flounder in all manner of vain philosophies and scholastic trash, … with much cost and care, and vast detriment besides, so that I have had enough to do ever since in undoing the harm they did me.” (2)

Q.: What are your thoughts about books?

L.: “It is not the number of books that makes the learned man, nor much reading, but good books often read, however few, makes a man learned in the Scriptures and pious.” (1)
“Bear in mind the importance of sparing neither trouble nor expense, to the end that good libraries may be founded…. For if the gospel, together with all the [liberal] arts and sciences, are to be perpetuated, they must be enclosed and bound up in books and writings.” (2)
“A jackdaw never hatches a dove; neither will a fool make a wise man. Such is the reward of our ingratitude in not using diligence in the establishment of libraries, and in leaving good books to perish, while we have cherished and preserved useless ones. But, my advice is, that you do not carry home all sorts of books, without distinction, thinking of numbers only. I would have a choice exercised in this matter…. Nay, I would banish all such muck and mire, and provide me a library that should contain sterling books, books commended to me by learned men.” (2)
“In the first place, the Holy Scriptures should be there, both in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German…. Next, I would have those books which are useful in learning the languages … to learn grammar and style. Next, there should be books pertaining to the liberal arts; and likewise treatises on all the other arts, and on the sciences. And lastly, books on jurisprudence and medicine; though here, too, a cautious choice is to be exercised. But, foremost of all, should be chronicles and histories …, for these are of singular usefulness, to instruct us in the course of the world, and in the art of government; and, in these, too, we may see the manifestation of God’s wonderful works.” (2)
“There is danger that it may finally come to this, … that, through the agency of the devil, good books, which have been restored to us by the art of printing, shall be submerged under a flood of dissolute and pernicious works, in which there is neither sense nor reason; a flood that shall pour in again, as aforetime, and fill every nook and corner of the land. For the devil is surely plotting to bring back the former state of things, … so we shall again be ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth.” (2)
“[We should not bring] Aristotle back again, together with other pernicious books, which serve only to lead us ever further away from the Bible….” (2)

Q.: You mention Aristotle. Tell us more about Aristotle.

L.: “Now, my advice would be that the books of Aristotle, the Physics, the Metaphysics, Of the Soul, Ethics, which have hitherto been considered the best, be altogether abolished, with all others that profess to treat of nature, though nothing can be learned from them, either of natural or of spiritual things. …Much time has been wasted and many noble souls vexed with much useless labor, study, and expense. … as if we had not the Holy Scriptures to teach us fully of all things of which Aristotle had not the slightest perception. Yet this dead heathen has conquered, and has hindered and almost suppressed the books of the living God…. Then there is [Aristotle’s] Ethics, which is accounted one of the best, though no book is more directly contrary to God’s will and the Christian virtues. Oh that such books could be kept out of the reach of all Christians! Let no one object that I say too much, or speak without knowledge. My friend, I know of what I speak. I know Aristotle as well as you or men like you. … I would, however, gladly consent that Aristotle’s books of Logic, Rhetoric, and Poetry … might be usefully studied in a condensed form, to train young people in speaking and preaching….” (1)

Q.: What do you think of the universities?

L.: “The universities also require a good, sound reformation. …. What are the universities, as at present ordered, but … “schools of ‘Greek fashion’ and ‘heathenish manners,” full of dissolute living, where very little is taught of the Holy Scriptures of the Christian faith, and the blind heathen teacher, Aristotle, rules even further than Christ?” (1)

Q.: What do you think of diploma mills?

L.: “The universities … where their only concern is numbers and where everybody wants a doctor’s degree. … I advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not the rule. Every institution where God’s word is not studied unceasingly must become corrupt; and so we see what manner of men there are now in the universities. … I greatly fear the universities are nothing but great gates of hell, unless they diligently study the Holy Scriptures and teach them to the young people. (1)

Q.: Thank you, Dr. Luther, for sharing with us your exceptional views on education.

Harvey Bluedorn

Sources:
1. An Address To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate (1520)
2. A Letter To the Councilmen of all Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools (1524)
3. A Sermon on Keeping Children in School (1530)

Sincerely,
Melinda

I have looked through one of the Tapestry of Grace volumes and it seems like it would be very useful to homeschooling parents. A review is included in our book Ancient History from Primary Sources. I didn’t get a chance to see Volume One (ancient history) so, perhaps I might not agree with all the literature choices, but you could easily leave out or substitute any particular piece.

As far as studying history in a 4-year cycle, I don’t think we as homeschooling families need to be bound by those artificial constraints. History is not like math or Latin or grammar where we must follow a particular sequence of steps to learn the subject properly. In addition, studying history chronologically is not a requirement for using the classical approach. In fact, I think it would be much better to NOT study history chronologically in the grammar or logic stages — interest directed history study (using a prepared curriculum, if desired) seems a much better plan for young children. Teaching children to LOVE history is one of the goals in the grammar and logic stages, and perhaps an artificially structured study of history might not help us reach that goal. I suggest leaving the chronological study of history for rhetoric level students. Or even later.