Last time I wrote about the difference between what we
learned in school “back in the day”, and what seems to be happening in our
country today. I’ve thought some more
about it, and have come to the conclusion that when I referred to being
educated “back in the Dark Ages before modern history began”, I wasn’t
kidding. I was blessed to have gone to
school in a system that could be called “classical”. Yes. I
think I had a fairly “classical education”.
I was taught with the same methods that Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, John
Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and John and Abigail Adams would have recognized.
It’s called “the trivium” and it has three parts: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, with each
stage, except grammar, being dependent upon those before it.
Grammar begins with “the facts”. It doesn’t call for opinion, interpretation,
or speculation. “Just the facts, ma’am”,
as Joe Friday says in “Dragnet”. It
calls for the student to memorize and repeat bits of information.
“Two plus two equals four”, says the student. “Two plus three equals five. Two plus four equals six.” At no point does the teacher ask how “Two”
feels about being plussed with so many other numbers, nor does she ask the
student to speculate as to what “Two” might be feeling about being associated
with different integers. It can’t be
easy being “plussed” that much, and “Two” may very well feel embarrassed about
it, but the grammar stage is not the time to discuss it. “Two plus five equals seven” and that’s all
there is to it.
Grammar schools, or as we called them, “elementary” schools,
are where this initial learning takes place.
It is a time to gather basic information, absorbing it without
evaluation. It is elementary, to deal with
the simplest elements of something. It
is to “begin at the beginning”, which we know from the esteemed philosopher, Maria
von Trapp, is “a very good place to start. A B C, Do Re Mi”.
Logic comes next.
This is the point where critical
thinking begins. Is it right or
wrong? Is it cause or effect? What does it mean? This is where we begin to form our own
opinions based on a critical evaluation of the evidence. The scientific method becomes a useful tool
in determining fact from theory. Question
and answer becomes the focus as we begin to draw useful information from raw
data.
Hint: This can also
be a dangerous time as the student begins to question. “I wonder what would happen if I put an Alka-Seltzer
in the aquarium?” can have fatal consequences for the creatures who occupy that
aquarium. (In case you’re wondering, no,
it wasn’t me, nor do I know who it was.
All I know is that it happened in the Biology class right before mine.)
Finally, we arrive at rhetoric. I get to have an opinion and try to persuade
you that I am correct. You get to do likewise. Essays and essay questions become important. As we develop in this stage we realize that
our persuasive efforts are most often, but not always confined to the spoken or
written word. Art and music can also be
vehicles for persuasive arguments. Acceptance
and rejection become paramount. Opinion
is internalized to the point that how the student thinks about the subject now
causes him or her to alter behavior. We
become the product of our own analysis.
That is the order of how we were taught. Elementary school (Grammar), Junior High
(Logic), then High School (Rhetoric).
Life, and learning about life, was a progression. First a foundation was laid. Then the framework was put up. Finally, the interior was designed to suit
the individual tenant.
But Classical education is more than just these three
pieces. It also embodies a belief that
all knowledge is interrelated.
Chemistry, for example, isn’t just studying chemical reactions, it needs
some knowledge of the history of scientific thought to make complete
sense. After all, we learned a lot about
what materials react with other materials because certain alchemists were
looking for ways to turn lead into gold.
And before that, guys were figuring out that mixing copper and tin made
a nice bronze, or that iron with lots of carbon made darn good steel. And that study leads the student into
history. History is the core around
which classicism revolves. Military
history, political history, economic history, and in Western civilization,
religious history—the story of the Christian church and the impact of its
thought on Chemistry, and Astronomy, and Biology, and Physics, and so on and so
on. All knowledge is related in a
classical education, so any serious education system has to include history,
science, art, music, and literature.
Ours had all of that beginning in elementary school where
all five of these subjects were required, and continued to be required as we
advanced. “Electives” didn’t exist until the last year of Junior High, and
weren’t predominant until High School.
I fear that our deviation from this model—learn the facts,
analyze the facts, express your opinion about the facts—is what has led us to
today. We ask first graders how they
feel about learning before we teach them how to learn. We throw logic out into the cold, because
“the narrative” is far more hot. We
voice our opinion regardless of whether or not we know anything about the
subject. And we think history started
the day we were born, and ends the day we die.
