My Socks Don't Fit

Embracing a classical education - The Washington Post

“Classical theory divides childhood development into three stages known as the trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric. During the “grammar” years (kindergarten through fourth grade), children soak up knowledge. They memorize, absorb facts, learn the rules of phonics and spelling, recite poetry, and study plants, animals, basic math and other topics. Moral lessons are included.
In the “logic” stage (roughly grades five through eight), children learn to analyze, question, discern and evaluate. Students learn to think through arguments, pay attention to cause and effect and begin to see how facts fit together. This is where the study of algebra and how to propose and support a thesis comes in.

The “rhetoric” stage (grades nine through 12) concentrates on acquiring wisdom and applying knowledge. Students learn to express themselves persuasively.”

this appeals to me. i feel pretty strongly that much of my time in school was misspent, so i’ve been thinking about my kids’ education for a while, but mostly along the lines of charter schools. we live in a great school district, so i’m not entirely against sending them to the public schools.

this classical education though, appeals to me because it puts education within meaningful contexts: truth, goodness, and beauty. frankly, i don’t trust public schools (though i might trust teachers) to approach education on these levels, simply because i’m not aware of their basis for such concepts.

(via getreligion)