Education stems from a lot more than what happens in the classroom, however with all that being said there is still a good lot of learning that can occur, but often doesn’t, in the classroom. Education was once a hell of a thing, something that could really separate the mind from the common masses and help it achieve its potential.
While I’m down on a lot of modern “education” don’t think that’s because I think education as a whole is foolish, it’s anything but. I think true education is essential for all who want to develop to the best of their abilities, make the great impact on the world possible, and live their best life possible. And I don’t think this happens without proper education.
Like a good training camp and coach can get the most of a fighter’s natural ability so does a proper education get the most out of individual’s mind. It sharpens, strengthens, and changes it through its rigors. I should also not that while I think man needs an education physically, mentally, and spiritually for full development, we’ll be focusing mostly on mentally here.
The Classical Education
Like a great many things they did things better in the medieval period than they do in the modern world, despite great advances in technology. One of those things was education or at the very least the idea of education. Students were reared in “The Trivium” of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which is more far reaching then you first think. Now let me state unequivocally that I am NOT an expert on this matter or on classical education as a whole. Just trying to share the basics with you.
With that said each stage correlates to development in a pupil. In very broad terms the grammar or “fact collecting” stage, not the grammar you’re thinking, correlates roughly to elementary school. the logic or “thinking” portion correlates roughly to middle school, and the rhetoric or “argument/defending” section correlates roughly to high school if you’re using the United States schooling system.
If you want to learn more about this, here is a free 20 page booklet describing it. Essentially this education seeks to teach a pupil how to acquire facts, how to make sense of those facts, how to come to conclusions to that sense through logic, and how to then defend those conclusions that one has come to. Subjects aren’t the key rather the process of learning is. A classical education teaches you how to think and how to learn as opposed to memorization of random “facts”.
A Classical Education For You
But you don’t have to go to school to get the most out of this. There are many tools of classical education that you can apply to your own life and learning and benefit from. The first thing I’d recommend is understanding the basics of classical education and what it’s goals are. For adults I think one of the best things they can do to get the benefits of a classical education is reading, writing, and/or debate. The reading correlates with the gathering of information or grammar stage, though it also sharpens thinking and expands the mind among other things.
The writing things out correlates roughly to the logic state or finding connections between all of these disparate facts, consider this the first draft or outline stage. And then the final stage rhetoric or argument is getting all these things in working order to convince others of something whether through the written or spoken word. This is one of the reasons I encourage men to write a blog in a journal. It helps iron out their thoughts and teach them how to put those thoughts together for argument.
Am I saying this is the same as a classical education? No, a true classical education is going to be much more rigorous but at the same time it moved you in the right direction and gives you a great many benefits of a classical education. It’ll sharpen your mind while also expanding it, make you more precise with your thinking, and help you to be persuasive which is a skill we all need each and every day of our lives. Essentially every time we interact with another human being, even if it’s only our own mind.
More About Classical Education
If you wondering about classical education for your children or just interested in yourself I want to direct you to a free resource that has put together a classical education curriculum and reading list. I’d recommend you go through it as a lot of the books on the list are either going out of print or being banned. Here’s the link.
Check them out while you still can.
Check it out and learn from it. If you want to homeschool it’s also a great resource. And it’s free and you can share it with others. Give it a look and see what you can learn.
