Thoughts about Classical Conversations and Classical Education

I have to speak at an information meeting tonight for our Classical Conversations group, so I am writing about why I believe Classical Education in general, and why Classical Conversations specifically, have been so important to our family. Classical Conversations exists to support parents in teaching their own children, in developmentally appropriate ways, to know God and to make him known.

Because I have brain damaged children, I have made a hobby of researching brains, how people learn, and how to teach children who are not neuro-typical. The classical model of education most closely parallels the information I have researched about teaching brain injured children. The classical model of education breaks learning down into three stages, known as the "Trivium."

The first stage of learning is the grammar stage. This is when young children are adept at gathering information and memorizing. They memorize their native language easily during this time. When teaching Kristina to read, I took advantage of her vast ability to learn a language, and I used flash cards to teach her hundreds of written words. She memorized these words, a few at a time, for a minute or two each day. This small amount of time invested each day, has given her a large reading vocabulary.

I have found through Classical Conversations, that all of my children are capable of memorizing copious amounts of information. I have read criticism of classical education in which people ask, "What is the point of memorizing all of those facts?" That is a really good question. In college, when I was training to be a teacher, I was taught that memorizing facts was archaic. Today's kids wouldn't have to memorize anything because they could look everything up on a computer much more efficiently.

I was reading a book last night called, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains," which was recommended to me by one of my Challenge 2 students (thank you Isaac). On page 124, there is a very interesting description of the importance of long term memory and its connection to intelligence. "It was once assumed that long-term memory served merely as a big warehouse of facts, impressions, and events, that it 'played little part in complex cognitive processes such as thinking and problem-solving.' But brain scientists have come to realize that long-term memory is actually the seat of understanding. It stores not just facts but complex concepts, or 'schemas.' By organizing scattered bits of information into patterns of knowledge, schemas give depth and richness to our thinking. ' Our intellectual prowess is derived largely from the schemas we have acquired over long periods of time, 'says Sweller. 'We are able to understand concepts in our areas of expertise because we have schemas associated with those concepts.'"

I did not have Garrett memorize much of anything when he was younger, because I didn't think in was important. He is now 14, and he has a difficult time memorizing anything. We did not work that part of his brain when he was younger. He started Classical Conversations last year in Challenge B, and quickly discovered that he was going to have to memorize Latin vocabulary, declensions, and conjugations in order to understand his Latin lessons. Latin is the tool we are using to teach Garrett how to memorize. And his ability to memorize is improving as we develop this vital skill.

Now, some readers will be stuck back where I said I taught Kristina to read using flash cards because they have researched the whole phonics/sight words debate, and they realize the importance of teaching phonics. This argument brings me to the next stage of learning, the dialectic stage. This is the stage in which all those bits of knowledge come together and start to form ideas. How does this relate to phonics vs. sight words? Kristina has now been reading sight words for two years, without having the cognitive ability to decipher phonics; however, she now has such an extensive vocabulary of sight words, that her mind is starting to develop the ability to form patterns and make connections between the phonetic sounds and the words on the page. Without spending a whole lot of time on learning phonics, she is now able to begin phonetically deciphering unknown words and to spell phonetically. Concerning the mental process of decoding words, her brain is just beginning to move from reading in the grammer stage, to reading in the dialectic stage.

The dialectic stage is the stage in which children make many connections between things they have learned in the past, and have the ability to connect new information to what they have already acquired. Obviously there is overlap between the ages and stages, but children in fifth or sixth grade usually have a tremendous leap in understanding, which leads into the need to question everything, and argue about those things. This makes the middle school years so enjoyable. :-) It is also the time when, biologically, the frontal lobe of the brain is developing very rapidly.

Classical Conversations supports the brain development of the children as they move from the grammar stage into the dialectic stage. My daughter, Connelly, is currently in Challenge A (approximately 7th grade). She has been challenged to think through why she believes what she believes about God and her faith. She is then going to have to be able to articulate those beliefs in an apologetics paper by the end of the year. She is also required to research, and is learning how to analyze the data she discovers, and then write it down so that other people can understand what she has found out.

The subjects in each Challenge level are taught by one tutor, who shows how the six strands (Grammar, Exposition and Composition, Debate, Rhetoric, Research, and Logic) relate to each other, and to God. Each Challenge level has a theme, which also helps tie everything together. The theme of Challenge A is "It's Your Education." Students read books such as "Carry on Mr. Bowditch" which illustrate the principal that education ultimately rests on the person who desires to become educated. Challenge B helps students learn to manage their selves, their course work, and their time. Challenge 1 has the theme of freedom as students delve deeply into American history, economics, and government. The theme for Challenge 2 is "choices" and the assigned reading selections make for some lively class discussions about choices (which I get to participate in, since I am tutoring Challenge 2-it's so fun to hear their ideas!). Challenge 3 is about "consequences," and Challenge 4 highlights "leadership."

As students progress from the dialectic stage in middle school to the rhetoric level of high school, they are much more equipped to handle the skills of expressing what they have learned clearly, forcefully, originally, and elegantly. They become equipped with the tools and skills required to learn any subject, as they go on to pursue learning after high school.

Here is a quote from the Classical Conversations website, which explains the goal of the Challenge program:

"The time will come when students do need to specialize in their studies to learn a trade or follow a career path. In Challenge, we prepare them for that time by equipping them with the learning tools they need to master any subject. But more than anything, we want our students to know how all subjects glorify the Lord and are tied to Him and each other. The purpose of education is to know God and to make him known to all the nations. Our programs and tutors give students the chance to see how God uses his whole universe to reveal himself and his will. This partnership with parents and students to develop an educated and integrated biblical worldview makes Classical Conversations unique among other educational services."

So, what makes Classical Conversations unique? It supports, equips, and trains homeschooling parents to lead their own children as these precious children grow and learn. It teaches skills for learning at the developmental stages when children are ready to acquire those aptitudes. Above all, it teaches children to know God and to make him known.