Understanding the Definition of Classical Learning

Classical learning, particularly within the context of classical Christian education, represents a distinct approach to education that emphasizes virtue, wisdom, and the cultivation of a well-rounded individual. This article will explore the definition of classical learning, its historical roots, core principles, and its relevance in contemporary education.

The Essence of Classical Christian Education

At its core, classical Christian education aims to cultivate virtue and wisdom in students so that they will live for the glory of God, flourishing as human beings and loving both God and neighbor. This definition, adopted by organizations like the Society for Classical Learning (SCL), encapsulates the holistic nature of this educational philosophy.

Classical Christian education is the cultivation of virtue and wisdom by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty according to God’s Revelation using the classical liberal arts.

Historical Roots and the Trivium

The roots of classical education can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, where education was designed to prepare free citizens for active participation in civic life. These ancient models emphasized the development of intellectual and moral character. Dorothy Sayers, a British author, significantly contributed to the modern understanding of classical education with her essay “The Lost Tools of Learning.” In this essay, Sayers advocates for a return to the seven liberal arts of ancient education. She also connects these arts to the stages of children’s development, creating a framework for how classical education can be implemented effectively.

The Trivium: A Framework for Learning

The trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, forms the backbone of classical education.

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Grammar: This stage focuses on memorization and absorption of facts, laying the foundation for knowledge in various subjects such as math, geography, English, Bible, and Latin. When young children find it easy and fun to memorize and enjoy choral recitations and chants, they are given opportunities to memorize all types of facts in math, geography, English, Bible and Latin. These facts are the “grammar” or building blocks inherent in every subject.
Logic: As students mature, they begin to question and analyze information. This stage emphasizes critical thinking and the ability to construct sound arguments. Once they become teenagers, students tend to question the world, and they like to propose and discuss difficult problems that have no easy solution. These students are ripe for instruction and training in formal logic.
Rhetoric: In the final stage, students learn to express themselves eloquently and persuasively. They develop strong communication skills and the ability to articulate their ideas effectively. If all goes well, in their later high school years students begin to show signs of creativity. The students, anxious to achieve independence and longing to express themselves, are taught to communicate eloquently and persuasively through instruction in rhetoric.

Dorothy Sayers proposed this marriage of the three stages of the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) to the three stages of children development (roughly elementary, junior high, and high school). Through careful and thoughtful planning with a specific focus on curriculum and instruction, classical educators “cut with the grain” and help students develop skills that, once mastered, equip the children to learn for themselves.

The Trivium provides language, logic, and leadership mastery in three parts or phases- grammar (typically emphasized in k-6), Logic (typically in 7-9) and Rhetoric (typically in 10-12).

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Core Components of Classical Christian Education

Classical Christian education is distinguished by several key elements:

Cultivation of Virtue: Central to classical education is the development of moral character. Education is primarily about what we are trained to love, not just what we are taught to know.
Nourishing the Soul: Classical Christian education nourishes the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty according to God’s Revelation using the classical liberal arts.
Classical Liberal Arts: The classical liberal arts are used as the primary tools for learning.
Integration of Faith: Classical Christian education integrates faith and learning.
Emphasis on Great Books: The curriculum often revolves around the study of great books, theology, philosophy, and history. Our curriculum is built around a humanities core, based in great books, theology, philosophy, and history.
Socratic Discussion: Socratic discussion, common placing (journaling great ideas & support), and a variety of engaging methods based in classical tradition create a very different classroom experience.
Logocentrism: The commitment to a logos that makes ultimate sense of the cosmos and makes knowledge possible is expressed in the much-maligned word, “Logocentrism.” According to a logocentric view of the universe, organized knowledge can be discovered, arranged, and even taught. As everything is ordered by a logos, so each particular thing has its own logos, or nature - in Latin, “species.” The power to see truth is the ability to see the nature of particular things and to see each of them in their relations to each other.

The Quadrivium: Mathematics and the Natural World

Beyond the trivium lies the quadrivium, which encompasses arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. These mathematical arts were seen by the ancients as essential for understanding the reality of the world and our relation to it. Jain and Clarke have made an eloquent case for the quadrivium, describing the powers of the four mathematical arts. The ancients believed, “That arithmetic led the soul from wonder to wisdom.” Euclidian geometry “provides the paradigm of certain and airtight reasoning.” Astronomy, the centerpiece of ancient science and the key to profound mysteries, gave birth to modern science. Music, surprisingly to the modern, was a driver of the scientific revolution. Classical educators see the arts of the quadrivium as essential tools that enable us to perceive the reality of the world around us and our relation to it. They also discipline and open the mind. It is important to remember, however, that the trivium and quadrivium are not discrete subjects. They are modes of learning. Nor are they ends in themselves. They are tools for learning. The thing learned is knowledge, for which the Latin word is scientia, or science.

The Importance of Classical Languages

Classical educators defend Latin and Greek in a number of ways. They are convinced that language studies discipline the mind. Furthermore, Greek and Latin authors recorded an astounding range and depth of political thought from a wider perspective over a longer period of time covering a wider geography than is embodied in any other language. In literature, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton become isolated from their sources when the student encounters a language barrier between himself and Virgil, Ovid, or Homer. The Great Conversation that is the beating heart of Western civilization took place in Latin and Greek and their offspring. A Western community lacking a roster of citizens versed in Latin and Greek must lose its heritage. It will communicate, vote, work, and think in a manner increasingly isolated from the sources of its own identity.

The Role of the Educator

Classical educators take responsibility for Western civilization. The West is unique in its view of mankind as the Image of a transcendent God and in its acceptance of the view that both truth and the world can be known. Western civilization is the property of all who live in America. Our national roots have grown deep in the customs, traditions, discoveries, and conversations that make up American, British, European, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew history. Truth alone, the tradition tells us, can sustain the political ideals of liberty and human rights. If the truth cannot be known and does not govern human societies, then there is nothing to restrain the rulers. If rights are not derived from truth, then they are granted by the ever-changing state. The classical educator understands that Western civilization is as full of vice as it is of virtue. He does not “privilege” or even idealize Western civilization; he assumes responsibility for it. He demands a conversation that challenges his culture and himself with the standards of the true, the good, and the beautiful. He insists that survival and power are not their own justifications. He appreciates that the Western tradition contains elements of restless idealism, non-conformity, and self- examination. These have always threatened the status quo while also discovering new springs of cultural nourishment. While the classical educator recognizes the West’s recent achievements, especially in technology, he fears that, having lost its moorings in knowable truth, the West has become deaf to challenges from within its own tradition. Nevertheless, while he may agree with those who contend that the West is in decline, his sense of responsibility prohibits despair. Instead, he diagnoses the decline as the loss of confidence in the true, the good, and the beautiful, and offers a cure in the renewed quest for that truth, goodness, and beauty. Western civilization, the classical educator believes, offers its children a rich heritage on which they can feed their own souls and those of their neighbors.

Classical vs. Generic Education

Classical (generic) education is an awkward lexical byproduct of classical Christian education (CCE). We have to start there to find the meaning we’re searching for. Our search is helped by the fact that today’s classical Christian educators have organized themselves in various ways-through publications and associations-thereby constituting a universe of discourse that supplies mineral content to the meaning of CCE. These prominent formulations yield the following composite definition of classical Christian education: an education that draws upon educational authorities from the past as it cultivates liberating intellectual habits in order to impart Christian virtue and piety. Working from this definition of classical Christian education, how might we make our way to classical (generic) education? Here we run into a challenge, for if we fail to specify an education’s traditional source, means, and ends, then the term becomes meaningless. From which tradition is our authoritative source? Which means do we deploy? For which ends are we aiming? Any education that does not address these questions-one that lacks rooting in a tradition and that sidesteps ultimate issues-does not rightly carry the adjective classical. That said, we also recognize that there are different cultural traditions that promote competing visions of humanity and its ultimate purpose. Consequently, we might properly recognize various classical educations (plural). Just as we have classical Christian education, there can be classical Islamic education, classical Marxist education, and classical nationalist education, to name a few possibilities. However, there can be no such thing as classical (generic) education.

Adapting Classical Education for the Modern World

Can classical education be adapted to the needs and culture of the twenty-first century? Yes, it can. It is neither of one time nor one culture, but is grounded in human nature and in the nature of learning.

The Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS)

The Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS): Classical Christian Education (CCE) is education as it was practiced prior to the progressive movement early in the 20th century, which focused on job training. Instead, CCE sharpens students’ reasoning, language, and rhetorical skills with a Christian vision for all truth and knowledge. Classical education was created by the Greeks to train citizens to self-govern and live in freedom. Later, it was Christianized to become “Classical Christian.” In the medieval era, “scholastics” refined the form into what inspires classical Christian education today. Rather than emphasizing “subjects,” it emphasizes seven “liberal arts,” which liberate the mind to be less subject to controlling influences.

Challenges and Mission Drift

Nearly every school begins with a robust, compelling mission statement and a palpable energy driving them in a unified direction. Tragically, over the years-one small drift at a time-the founding missions of many schools become fuzzy at best, or worse, unrecognizable. How does this happen? Our schools drift in the same way individual people do; it is not one massive decision that changes everything, but one small concession after another. The chief cause of mission drift is the over-programming of our schools. What is most important can be summarized by the definition of classical Christian education put forth by the Society for Classical Learning. We aim to “cultivate virtue and wisdom in students so that they will live for the glory of God, flourishing as human beings and loving both God and neighbor.

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