Are there classical stages of child development?

When a theory is backed up by some kind of authority, has some success in practice, and makes a certain amount of intuitive sense to many, it is very hard to overcome with any kind of argument; even if it is a simple matter of history.  Such is the case with the definition of classical education as the “stages of the trivium” propounded by Douglas Wilson based on a talk given by Dorothy Sayers in the 1940’s.  How a speculative account of stages of child development with no support from ancient authorities became “classical” is a fascinating phenomenon.

I decided to illustrate this by constructing my own “classical” stages of development based upon the four classical modes of knowledge.  Perhaps in fifty years someone will launch a school based on my model.  Probably not, since I haven’t written any mystery novels or translated Dante.  Oh well, stranger things have happened.

    

Four Classical Modes	Example of Knowledge	Ages	Stages of the Modes
of Knowledge
POETIC	Trusting another's love, experience	2-10	Delight in sense experience; observation and interaction with nature and the world of real objects; authority based learning; love of stories, songs, and poetry; imaginative play
SCIENTIFIC	Absolute certitude: the whole is greater than the part; motion presupposes agency	8-12	Black and white thinking, beginning of abstract thinking, questions about principles, certainty
RHETORICAL	Persuaded by evidence, but without conclusive proof, as when we vote for a political candidate	10-14	Debate, discussion, and argument.  Questioning and searching for meaning, engagement with the world of ideas; analysis
DIALECTICAL	Concluding one of two opposing arguments beyond a reasonable doubt, as a laboratory test to certify a drug for human use	12-16	Modern scientific reasoning, applied mathematics, Socratic method
Source of modes and examples: John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture and James Taylor, Poetic Knowledge

Please note that memorization does not play a part in my stages of development.  This is intentional, because in a classical understanding of education, one does not “know” unless one has the knowledge within the memory.  Each stage has its appropriate objects of memorization that are cemented in the mind through use.  The Poetic stage would include the memory of poems, scripture, stories, math facts, names of places and animals, etc.  The Scientific stage would include memory of axioms and geometric proofs.  The Rhetorical stage would include memory of great speeches, etc.. 

Any comments or improvement to my stages would be welcomed, just remember that I am only half serious. The problem with a scheme like Sayers's is that it can harden into a method that excludes things.  So my Poetic stage might be wholly missing from a classical school that uses Sayers's "grammar stage".

The Socratic Method

Specialization is for insects

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

— Robert Heinlein

Socratic Teaching - Finding the whole world inside of a word

[John Crossett] taught by a method as close to Socratic dialectic as the English language allowed, and he therefore spent a great deal of class time in defining a very few words.  In reading the Illiad, for example he would seek to work out with his students the meaning of "anger" or the meaning of "hero."  Often, after a couple of weeks, when a teacher in another section of the course would have finished teaching Homer altogether, Crossett's class would still be investigating a single, lonely word.  But what an investigation!  By his constant questioning he would open up the word and the student would find the whole world inside.  In seeking a definition, a student would examine the nature of language, the nature of man, and his own individual nature.  He would come to see that words have meanings only if there is a constant and abiding truth, and that human reason is capable of discovering unshakable answers.  Crossett rejected the constraints of the syllabus; he did not care whether his class was one week or more behind someone else's...He believed that good teaching always has a moral purpose and that that purpose is achieved when a student learns something true.  No method could compare with dialectic for forcing a student's mind to grasp and keep a true idea.  (from John Crossett: A Memoir in Hamartia: the concept of error in the western tradition: essays in honor of John M. Crossett)

A Modern Deficiency

"The modern world is conscious of many of its own deficiencies; it does not appear to be at all troubled about its lack of saints, although that is the deficiency that matters most of all and cannot be compensated for by anything else."  Lord Northbourne in Looking Back on Progress

The Fourth Cardinal Virtue: Temperance

Temperance, the fourth and final Cardinal Virtue, deals with the inner-life of man--the battle that occurs in the human mind, will, and heart.  All of us are subject to certain passions: anger, greed, gluttony, depression, lust, etc.   When we are drunk with these passions, they subdue, enslave, and conquer us.  The person with temperance is the one who has gained by God's grace enough self-mastery to overcome these passions. 

Examples from scripture refer to temperance primarily as self-control and sober-mindedness: 

·         Like a city breached, without walls, is one who lacks self-control.[i]

·         Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one.[ii]

·         For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.[iii]

·         For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.[iv]

·         Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.[v]

If we lack sober-mindedness and self-control, we will experience the world through our passions, with dangerous consequences for ourselves and for our relationships with God and our neighbor.  We will also be subject to the entertainment and advertising industries, both of which make a careful study of manipulating human desires.  Having temperance means that our desires have been purified and we can enjoy God's good creation as we were truly designed to do.

 

---

[i] Proverbs 25:28

[ii] I Corinthians 9:25

[iii] 2 Timothy 1:7

[iv] Titus 2:11-12

[v] I Peter 5:8-9

The Third Cardinal Virtue: Fortitude

When it proves difficult or even dangerous to do the good and act with justice, we call upon the cardinal virtue of fortitude.  Fortitude concerns the cluster of virtues having to do with the will: courage, patience, steadfastness, perseverance.  It is not simply the lack of fear, but a carefully considered action for good in the face of difficulty.  The Greek statesman Pericles explained it thus: "For this is our manner: to take the greatest risks where we have thought matters through most carefully.  Among others, however, only ignorance produces bravery, while reflection causes trembling."^[i] 

 

The Scriptures are replete with calls to and examples of fortitude.  King David advises Solomon to "be strong and of good courage, and act. Do not be afraid or dismayed; for the LORD God, my God, is with you."^[ii]  Jesus advises his disciples in the face of persecution that" anyone who endures to the end will be saved."^[iii] James advises us to "be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient... Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."^[iv] 

 

The ultimate Christian model of fortitude is the martyr, the one who gives his life for God and imitates Christ himself.  As we contemplate this third cardinal virtue, let us consider that in the world we will have tribulation; but we can be of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world.^[v]

---

[i] A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart by Josef Pieper

[ii] I Chronicles 28:20

[iii] Matthew 24:13

[iv] James 5:7-12

[v] John 16:33

The Second Cardinal Virtue: Justice

Where prudence, the first cardinal virtue, is knowing the good, the second cardinal virtue, justice, is the art of doing the good.  Justice is the virtue that concerns how we live with our fellow man.  It has been classically defined as giving to each person his due.  Justice concerns the cluster of virtues concerned with relationships including piety, gratitude, friendship, gentleness, hospitality, liberality, and equity.  All of us tend to favor ourselves at the expense of others, but the just man or woman gives to each their due and treats them as he would be treated.    As one's power and influence grow, so does the opportunity for the abuse and misuse of one's position.  Therefore, the virtue of justice is crucial to those in increasing positions of authority.  Not only because they set an example for the rest of us, but also because, without justice, power can be self-serving, arbitrary and oppressive.  Further, if those who are responsible to uphold justice in society do not, terrible injustice can result.[i]   In the Christian conception of virtue, justice must be tempered with mercy.  It may also call on us to harm ourselves in order to help others.  "The just man, the more he realizes that he is the recipient of gifts and that he has an obligation to God and to man, will alone be ready to fulfill what he does not owe.  He will decide to give something to the other that no one can force him to give."[ii]   Christ then is the ultimate form of the just man, who came to serve and die for man, and will come again to judge the world with equity.    What then does God require of us:  "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"[iii] [i] A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart by Josef Pieper [ii] Ibid. [iii] Micah 6:8

The First Cardinal Virtue: Prudence

Prudence is the first of the four cardinal virtues.  To have prudence is to know the Good and to live according to the Truth^[i].  Prudence is another name for wisdom.  It includes making wise judgments and decisions and is not to be confused with intelligence, for even the simple can be wise^[ii].  It is the first of the cardinal virtues because without knowing the Good we cannot act with virtue.  "All just and courageous action, all good action at all, is just and courageous and good, because it corresponds to the divinely created truth in real things."^[iii]  Therefore, it is always prudent to be just and true.

 

The Old Testament scriptures have much to say about prudence, from the wisdom literature and the Law of Moses given to make us wise, to the lives of the patriarchs, kings, and prophets given for our instruction.  In the New Testament we have the revelation of the Wisdom of God Himself who was made flesh and walked among us, Christ the Lord.  Christ and the apostles were also teachers of wisdom through their lives, sermons, letters, and parables.  From them we learn that the truly wise are those who imitate God Himself.  Even the creation is a great feast of wisdom for those with eyes to see:  Consider the ant^[iv], the deer^[v], the lilies of the field^[vi], and the mustard seed^[vii] and be wise.  As a great Christian teacher of the fourth century said, "Recognize everywhere the wisdom of God; never cease to wonder."^[viii]

 

Ultimately, all wisdom is from God and is a gift of His goodness.  "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith..."^[ix]      

---

[i] John 3:21

[ii] Psalm 19:7

[iii] The Christian Idea of Man by Josef Pieper

[iv] Proverb 6:6

[v] Psalm 42

[vi] Matthew 6:28

[vii] Luke 13:19

[viii] The Hexaemeron by Basil the Great

[ix] James 1:5-6

The Cardinal and Theological Virtues

The best of the ancient Greeks and Romans held that the ideal man would possess certain virtues or perfections.  In order for one to be considered good, one had to embody the ideals of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.  These four were known as the cardinal virtues.  The word "cardinal" means hinge, and these virtues were the hinge or doorway to all of the other virtues. 

 

With the coming of Christ, the early Christians took up the use of this language of virtue, but shaped it in accordance with the Truth that had been revealed in Christ.  Taking the language of the Apostle Paul, these Christians crowned the cardinal virtues with three more virtues; those of faith, hope, and love.  These three additional virtues became known as the theological virtues. 

 

Throughout ancient and medieval times, the seven virtues, along with humility, formed the ideal of the Christian man. In fact, many of the great Christian educators of the past believed that the true goal of education was the attainment of wisdom and virtue.  Over the course of the next few weeks we'll explore each of these virtues in turn so that we might be drawn to imitate the only truly good and virtuous man - The Lord Jesus Christ.

The first in a series of articles done for Coram Deo Academy.

The Battle of the Books

Which writers have the greater share of wisdom - the moderns or the ancients? In the late 17th century a literary tempest raged in France and England over the question. Near the end of the controversy, Jonathon Swift wrote a short satire of the affair titled A Full and True Account of the Battle Fought Last Friday, Between the Ancient and the Modern Books in St. James's Library. A fun romp for lovers of ancient literature. Read it here.

The Tyranny of Testing

"Multiple choice tests penalize the deep student, dampen creativity, foster intellectual dishonesty, and undermine the very foundations of education"

"It is not the presence of defective questions that makes multiple-choice tests bad. Such questions merely make them worse. Even if all the questions were impeccable, the deep student would see more in a question than his more superficial competitors would ever dream was in it, and would expend more time and mental energy than they in answering it. That is the way his mind works. That is, indeed, his special merit. But the multiple-choice tests are concerned solely with the candidates choice of answer, and not with the reasons for his choice. Thus they ignore that elusive yet crucial thing we call quality."

The Education of Children

In the education of children, love is first to be instilled, and out of love obedience is to be educed.  Then impulse and power should be given to the intellect, and the ends of a moral being be exhibited. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

On Translations

"Translations at their best still are like tapestry seen from the wrong side" - Gustav Emil Mueller in Plato: The Founder of Philosophy as Dialectic

John Behr on Education and the Early Church

These lectures are pure gold for those who wish to understand the relationship of the early church and learning.

Quotes

“The question is not, how much does the youth know?  But rather how much does he care?” --Charlotte Mason

"Sow an act,reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny" --Thackeray.

Charlotte Mason Philosophy on Video

These 21 videos do a great job of setting forth Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy.

Our Experiment in Writing Instruction

Here is the very simple approach to writing we have developed for our eleven year old son along with the latest sample of his writing.

Assumptions: 

1) Writing is a skill that is developed through practice.

2) One crucial component of practice is imitation.  

3) Much reading of well written books along with oral narrations provide the foundation of writing.

4) Learning to write should not be a burden or produce anxiety in the child.

Application:

Do each item below once per week (we do one per day):

1) Copy work: copy a well written sentence in beautiful cursive

2) Dictation: write a well written sentence as dictated from Mom

3) Imitate a well written sentence (we are using this excellent sentence imitation book)

4) Imitate a well written sentence (we are using this excellent sentence imitation book)

5) Write a narration from one of the week’s readings

Here is the most recent assignment and the unedited first draft:

The assignment was to "Narrate the battle of Grendel and Beowulf (try to capture the mood)."

When night came, King Rothgar and his men went to their sleeping quarters, while Beowulf and his men waited for Grendel.  Soon all the men were asleep exept for Beowulf.  Then at the stroke of midnight Grendel came stalking into the hall, he tore one man to pieces and ate him then reached out for another to take back to his home in the marshes.  But the man he reached for was Beowulf and as the evil hand came toward him he jumped out of the bed and grabbed it.  Beowulf was as strong as ten men and at once Grendel knew he would not live another day.  But still he struggled and pulled so hard that his arm came off in Beowulf’s hand giving Grendel a mortal wound.  Then Rothgar rewarded Beowulf richly and he hung the arm of Grendel above the door to the hall.

How to destroy the desire for knowledge

(a) Too many oral lessons, which offer knowledge in a diluted form, and do not leave the child free to deal with it.
(b) Lectures, for which the teacher collects, arranges, and illustrates matter from various sources; these often offer knowledge in too condensed and ready prepared a form.
(c) Text-books compressed and recompressed from the big book of the big man.
(d) The use of emulation and ambition as incentives to learning in place of the adequate desire for, and delight in, knowledge.
(Charlotte Mason, Vol 3 pg 214)

J. Henri Fabre, Books, and the Spirit of Inquiry

J. Henri Fabre, the French entomologist, tells of the beginning of his love of insects as a nineteen year old teacher:

The magnificent Bee herself, with her dark-violet wings and black-velvet raiment, her rustic edifices on the sun-blistered pebbles amid the thyme, her honey, providing a diversion from the severities of the compass and the square, all made a great impression on my mind; and I wanted to know more than I had learnt from the schoolboys, which was just how to rob the cells of their honey with a straw. As it happened, my bookseller had a gorgeous work on insects for sale. It was called "Histoire naturelle des animaux articules", and boasted a multitude of most attractive illustrations; but the price of it, the price of it! No matter: was not my splendid income supposed to cover everything, food for the mind as well as food for the body? Anything extra that I gave to the one I could save upon the other; a method of balancing painfully familiar to those who look to science for their livelihood. The purchase was effected. That day my professional emoluments were severely strained: I devoted a month's salary to the acquisition of the book. I had to resort to miracles of economy for some time to come before making up the enormous deficit.

The book was devoured; there is no other word for it. In it, I learnt the name of my black Bee; I read for the first time various details of the habits of insects; I found, surrounded in my eyes with a sort of halo, the revered names of Reaumur, Huber, and Leon Dufour ; and, while I turned over the pages for the hundredth time, a voice within me seemed to whisper:

'You also shall be of their company!'

To educate without fostering a love of learning is not enough

"Practically all schools are doing wonders. The schoolmaster is abroad in the land and we are educating 'our masters' with immense zeal and self-devotion. What we have reason to deplore is that after some eight or twelve years' brilliant teaching in school, the cinema show and the football field, polo or golf, satisfy the needs of our former pupils to whatever class they belong. We are filled with compassion when we detect the lifeless hand or leg, the artificial nose or jaw, that many a man has brought home as a consequence of the War. But many of our young men and women go about more seriously maimed than these. They are devoid of intellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for them, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting, their 'job' and the social amenities they can secure are all that their life has for them. The maimed existence in which a man goes on from day to day without either nourishing or using his intellect, is causing anxiety to those interested in education, who know that after religion it is our chief concern, it is, indeed, the necessary handmaid of religion." from Towards A Philosophy of Education, Volume 6 of the Charlotte Mason Series 

The Power and Simplicity of Narration

When I was teaching high school I used to marvel at many of my otherwise intelligent students inability tell me what they had read in their assigned books or articles from the previous night.  Most were simply incapable of putting it into words.  The majority would howl in protest at my suggestion that they hadn't read the selection.  I'm convinced that most of them had read the words, but they lacked the skill of narration.

Now that I have been involved with homeschooling for a few years and using Charlotte Mason's practice of narration, I am starting to see how brilliant this simple technique can be.  Basically, students read and then re-tell what they have read.  Pretty simple, though there are some do's and don'ts, especially for the parent/teacher.  After the narration, further discussion can take place, especially to note what was noble or good in the reading.  But basically it is a simple re-telling.  What does that accomplish?  Here are a few things:

1. Attention - The reader/listener must be fully engaged to be able to re-tell.  He must pay attention.  This is one of the most important starting points of any kind of discipline and learning.  Narrating many readings over a number of years will develop the faculty of paying attention as well as the other faculties below.
2. Memory - The reader/listener must remember.  
3. Organization - It is remarkable to see the high level of organization required to retell a story after hearing it one time.  Names, places, the story sequence, the important events must all be organized in the mind rapidly prior to speaking or writing.
4. Communication - Narration forms the basis of speaking and writing well.   

Though simple, narration isn't easy, but the benefits are manifold.  Compare this method to the more typical study guide approach - usually a selection is read and then several questions are to be answered about the reading.  What typically happens?  Attention is not strictly necessary, as students can look back at the work to "find the answer", assuming of course that they have even read the text in the first place.  I find it more common for students to read the study guide first and then go on a quest for the answers.  The faculty of memory isn't required.  Further , the mind is typically not required to organize the material.  Finally, the skills of speaking and writing are not developed.

For more detail on the practice of narration see:

• The Charlotte Mason Educational Review, Winter 2007-2008 Vol 2 Issue2  (there is a great primer on narration beginning on page 14)
• Charlotte Mason Answers Your Questions about Narration.
• Advice on Narration from various moms at Ambleside Online.

 

Another Quote on the Power of Stories

Even the anti-C.S. Lewis, Phillip Pullman gets it:

All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create.  They teach the morality we live by.  They teach it much more effectively than moral perceptions and instructions . . .We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence.  (source: John Granger's The Deathly Hallows Lectures, pg. 46)

Perpetual Childhood vs. Maturity

Reading old books has a way of revealing the peculiar features of our own age.  One of those great contrasts is between ideas about childhood and maturity.  Mark Anderson in his book Pure describes our current state as American Adolescence.  In his aphoristic style he writes, "The First Commandment of contemporary America: Thou Shalt Not Mature.  Hence blue jeans, video games, popular music, and pot." and "The many products of popular culture rated M, for "mature," should of course be rated I."  It seems that adolescence is ever prolonged even well past the college years.

This morning I was reading Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son Philip and was struck by the contrast with today.  Lord Chesterfield had written his son over sixty letters educating him in virtue, history, mythology, geography, Latin, poetry, and more.  The I came to his seventieth letter written in 1741.  It is addressed to "Philip Stanhope, Yet a Little Boy, But To-Morrow Going Out of Childhood."  Here is how the letter begins:

This is the last letter I shall write to you as to a little boy; for tomorrow, if I am not mistaken, you will attain your ninth year; so that for the future, I will treat you as a YOUTH.  You must now commence a different course of life, a different course of studies.  No more levity; childish toys and playthings must be thrown aside, and your mind directed to serious objects.  What was not unbecoming of a child, would be disgraceful to a youth.  Wherefore, endeavor with all your might to show a suitable change; and, by learning good manners, politeness, and other accomplishments ...

Intelligence Defined

"Men are often called intelligent wrongly.  Intelligent men are not those who are erudite in the sayings and books of the wise men of old, but those who have an intelligent soul and can discriminate between good and evil.  They avoid what is sinful and harms the soul; and with deep gratitude to God they resolutely adhere by dint of practice to what is good and benefits the soul.  These men alone should truly be called intelligent."  (from On the Character of Men, in the Philokalia, Vol 1)

Do Not Be Anxious and Transforming the Culture...

Quote from Andrew Kern at Circe (see the full post here): 

Promised practical benefits or utility are usually the solution to anxiety. I understand that parents are anxious about education. For the most part, we didn’t receive one growing up in spite of the years we spent in school, so we know the scam of schooling intuitively and we also know that in an ever-growing domain of life you have to perpetuate that scam to get a job. This makes us anxious.

But we are still told to be anxious for nothing and that only one thing is needful. Everything changes when we believe that. We are called to faith, not fear. We are called to be “more than conquerors” not timid. Educators speak of transforming our culture, but then we let the culture tell us how to teach. You can’t transform something by conforming to it. Here is one place where it is better to die than to surrender, even as a school.

The Loss of the Language of Virtue

The Circe Institute has defined of classical education as, "the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty."  My own reading of the history of classical and Christian education has convinced me that this is truly reflective of the tradition.  As the Apostle Peter says, "make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge" and the Apostle Paul, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence [virtue], if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."   Not only that, but the language of the virtues is ubiquitous in the great works of Christian faith in the history of the church.  Theologians, ascetics, and other writers on the Christian life all dwell on how to become virtuous and put away vice. A short list of names would include; Augustine, John Cassian, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, John of Damascus, John Climacus, Aquinas.  Those are just scratching the surface.

The virtues can be classified and arranged in many ways, but perhaps the most well known is the classification of the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, love).  All too briefly, prudence is practical wisdom; it surveys the past for consequences of actions and makes predictions about the possible outcomes of decisions in the future.  Both in order to act wisely in the present.  Justice is giving to each man his due (this is how we treat others and give honor to whom honor is due).  Fortitude is patience and courage in the way of virtue (virtuous action requires perseverance and bravery).  Temperance is another word for self-control.

Unfortunately, this language has been completely lost in the culture at large and has virtually disappeared from the church as well.  It has largely been replaced by the language of "rights".  Though I don't have time to explore this fully, comparing the two approaches is quite revealing.  Notice that the virtues are all about personal responsibility.  They are the things that I should "do" and "be".  "Rights" are all about what society or others owe me.  Rights can be taken away and lost whereas virtue is independent of society and the actions of others.  For more, see one of my favorite books on virtue and the darkness of the Enlightenment, Andreas Kinneging's The Geography of Good and Evil.    
 

The Necessity of Leisure

"Leisure is a form of that stillness that is necessary preparation for accepting reality; only a person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear.  Such stillness as this is not mere soundlessness or a dead muteness; it means, rather, that the soul's power, as real, of responding to the real - a co-respondence, eternally established in nature - has not yet descended into words.  Leisure is the disposition of receptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion - in the real."  (Leisure The Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper, page 31)

You may be covering material, memorizing, testing, computing, but unless you have leisure - "a disposition of receptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion" - you don't have true learning.

The Dark Ages and the Rise of Islam

What caused the end of the classical world?  Was it a decline from within, barbarian tribes from without, or as many Enlightenment thinkers proposed, the influence of Christians?  Emmet Scott argues that the classical world in the West continued right up to the beginning of the seventh century; with architectural achievements, high literacy rates, and Roman and classical modes of living.  Then abruptly at the beginning of the seventh century and continuing for the next three hundred years; building stopped, fertile ground around the Mediterranean was abandoned, people moved to hill top villages and castles, and the availability of papyrus was no more.  What accounts for this abrupt "dark age" in the history of the West?

In his fascinating book Mohammed & Charlemagne Revisited, Scott argues that the cause of this abrupt decline was Mohammed and the rise of Islam.  The perpetual and total war instituted by Islamic theology, including the Muslim pirates and slavers in the Mediterranean, brought classical civilization to a halt and inaugurated the Medieval world.   Scott marshals evidence from archaeology and other historic disciplines to update and give strength to the thesis of Henri Pirenne in his book also titled Mohammed & Charlemagne.  Filled with historical insight, almost every page has something to teach and his conclusion, which I won't reveal, will keep you thinking for a while.  Highly recommended.

A Cherubic Sword of Flame

"But You are stronger than the world, O Lord my God, and You will lend Your servant a cherubic sword of flame, with which I shall repel the onslaught of the world on my life."  St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Prayers by the Lake, prayer LXXVIII

The Importance of Stories for Children

“Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words.  Hence there is no way to give us understanding of any society, including our own, except through the stock of stories which constitute its dramatic resources.  Mythology, in its original sense, is at the heart of things.  Vico was right and so was Joyce.  And so too is that moral tradition from heroic society to its medieval heirs according to which the telling of stories has a key part in educating us into the virtues.”  Alistair MacIntyre, After Virtue

Genuine Education

    The product of a genuine education is an ordinate soul.  The ordinate soul is properly ordered to the hierarchy of being and value: it loves the lovable, desires the good, and admires the beautiful.
    Order is produced in the soul through the inculcation of habits that bind our pleasures to that which is good and our pains to that which is bad.
    A soul thus habituated is virtuous. (Mark Anderson, Pure)

Who is so stupidly curious....

For do teachers profess that it is their thoughts which are perceived and grasped by the students, and not the sciences themselves which they convey through thinking? For who is so stupidly curious as to send his son to school that he may learn what the teacher thinks?...Those who are pupils consider within themselves whether what has been explained has been said truly; looking of course to that interior truth, according to the measure of which each of us is able. Thus they learn, and when the interior truth makes known to them that true things have been said, they applaud... (St. Augustine, On the Teacher)

The Aim of Classical Education

The formation of a mature person who loves inquiry that reaches into earthly as well as transcendent realms of knowledge, who makes the connection between this knowledge and his responsibility in the life of virtue, and who struggles against long odds to fulfill in himself the high exigencies of the Ideal Type.  (David V. Hicks, Norms & Nobility)

The Art of Arts

To educate man is the art of arts, for he is the most complex and mysterious of all creatures.  (St. Gregory the Theologian)

The Pleasure of Reading

Reading in truth makes us more human; our pleasure in it is the best measure of any book’s worth because that pleasure’s depth signifies how profoundly we left ourselves and entered into the story and how much of the allegorical and sublime meaning we captured while our disbelief was suspended. (John Granger)

Hiawatha and Anthologies

Most poetry collections only include a portion of Hiawatha’s Childhood, just one chapter in the 22 chapter poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  We have a children’s picture book of that part, but I have never really “gotten into the story” much.  It’s about an Indian baby who learns the names of the animals from his grandmother and calls the birds, “Hiawatha’s chickens” and the animals, “Hiawatha’s brothers”.  It’s nice enough, but not really one I wanted to read over and over.  But after reading Longfellow’s other poems and especially the longer Evangeline, I decided to find and read the entire poem to the children during our after lunch poetry time.  I was quite surprised to find that, at our rate of 20-30 minutes per day for poetry, the poem will take us just over three weeks to finish.  But so far the time and effort have been well worth it.  The poem tells the story of Hiawatha, an Ojibwan Hercules.  Read the entire poem here.

Longfellow begins:

Should you ask me,
whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest
With the dew and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberations
As of thunder in the mountains?


I should answer, I should tell you,
"From the forests and the prairies,
From the great lakes of the Northland,
From the land of the Ojibways,
From the land of the Dacotahs,
From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,
Feeds among the reeds and rushes.
I repeat them as I heard them
From the lips of Nawadaha,
The musician, the sweet singer."

He tells how Hiawatha is raised by his grandmother, Nokomis, a star that fell from heaven, to know the animals, birds, and ways of the forest.

Chapter five tells of Hiawatha’s Fasting:
"Not for greater skill in hunting,
Not for greater craft in fishing,
Not for triumphs in the battle,
And renown among the warriors,
But for profit of the people,
For advantage of the nations.”

And of how his prayers are answered by one who gives his life for the people, through a death and resurrection.

We just finished the first half. Hiawatha has wooed and won his beautiful wife, Minnehaha, Laughing Water:"Thus it was they journeyed homeward;
Thus it was that Hiawatha
To the lodge of old Nokomis
Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,
Brought the sunshine of his people,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Handsomest of all the women
In the land of the Dacotahs,
In the land of handsome women.”

Just another example of how “anthologies” often do just the opposite of what they intend.  The short excerpt makes us feel like we “know” a work and often inoculates us from the desire to read the entirety, thereby missing the beauty of the whole.

Guest post by my wife.

Longfellow's Hiawatha and Men and Women

Guest post from my Wife:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, seems to have an understanding of the relationship between man and wife, that is severely lacking in our day, despite, or maybe because of, all our obsession with making things “equal between the sexes”.
He begins Chapter 10 of his Epic Poem, Hiawatha, by saying:

"As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is woman;
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows;
Useless each without the other!"

At the end of the chapter, he again sums up the interplay of interdependence of man and woman in the advice given to Hiawatha and Minnehaha, Laughing Water, by the sun and the moon:

From the sky the sun benignant
Looked upon them through the branches,
Saying to them, "O my children,
Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,
Life is checkered shade and sunshine,
Rule by love, O Hiawatha!"


From the sky the moon looked at them,
Filled the lodge with mystic splendors,
Whispered to them, "O my children,
Day is restless, night is quiet,
Man imperious, woman feeble;
Half is mine, although I follow;
Rule by patience, Laughing Water!"


Though we moderns might wince at the word, “feeble”, yet look who is ruling: both, “Rule by love, O Hiawatha . . . Rule by patience, Laughing Water!” A beautiful echo of the words of St. Paul in Ephesians:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Every adjustment that minimizes a difference, a vulnerability, in one sex, a differential strength in the other, diminishes the possibility of complementing each other, and leads to a duller vision of human life in which is denied the fullness of humanity that each might have had.” (quoted from Preserve Them, O Lord)

St. Gregory the Theologian said, “In our living together, we are one another’s hands, ears, and feet. Marriage redoubles our strength, rejoices our friends, causes grief to our enemies. A common concern makes trials bearable.”

Oh, that we moderns, with all our “wisdom,” might regain but a small measure of the wisdom of the ancients.

Michael Faraday the great experimentor

Michael Faraday went to work as a janitor in order to be near the scientist Sir Humphry Davy.  From that humble beginning, he would experiment his way to being one of the greatest scientists of his age.  Due to his faith in Christ, he sought no gain from his discoveries and even turned down an appointment as the President of the Royal Society and an offer of a knighthood thinking it not right to accept worldly honors.  He even turned down a government request to develop poison gasses for use in the Crimean War.

An excellent lecturer, Faraday gave a series of talks for boys and girls that became the wonderful book:  The Chemical History of a Candle.  In the lectures, Faraday uses a candle as a bridge to discuss chemicals and their reactions, gasses, the atmosphere, gravity, and so much more.  He said "there is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not  come into play and is touched upon in these phenomena.  There is no better, there is no more natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle."

The lectures demonstrate his great skills at experimentation and scientific reasoning that are very easy to grasp.  A true model of the scientific endeavor and a worthy classic to be studied by students of science.

        

Of Stories and Essays

”Bree said, ’And now, Tarkheena, tell us your story. And don’t hurry it – I’m feeling comfortable now.’

”Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you’re taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.”

– C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

The True Order of Knowledge

"It is better to be a simpleton and to approach God with love than to be a know-it-all and, at the same time, be an enemy of God." These are the words of the priest-martyr, St. Iraneaus of Lyon. The truth of these words have been confirmed at all times and is also confirmed in our time. One thing must be added to this, namely, that the lovers of God are not simpletons because they know God well enough that they are able to love Him. Of all human knowledge, this knowledge is more important and greater. To this must be added that the enemies of God cannot be more knowledgeable, even though they consider themselves as such, because their knowledge is unavoidably chaotic, for it does not have a source and does not have order. For the source and order of all knowledge is God. Some of the saints, such as Paul the Simple, did not know how to read or write yet with the strength of their spirit and divine love surpassed the entire world. Whosoever approaches God with love, that person is not capable of crime. Knowledge without love toward God is motivated by the spirit of criminality and war. St. Euthymius the Great taught: "Have love; for what salt is to food, love is to every virtue." Every virtue is tasteless and cold if it is not seasoned and warmed by divine love.

(source:  The Prologue from Ohrid, April 2)

A Sinful Monk Who Died Joyfully

This monk was lazy, careless, and lacking in his prayer life; but throughout all of his life, he did not judge anyone. While dying, he was happy. When the brethren asked him how is it that with so many sins, you die happy? He replied, "I now see angels who are showing me a letter with my numerous sins. I said to them, Our Lord said: `stop judging and you will not be judged' (St. Luke 6:37). I have never judged anyone, and I hope in the mercy of God that He will not judge me." And the angels tore up the paper. Upon hearing this, the monks were astonished and learned from it. (from the Prologue of Ochrid)

Greek and Latin in the 18th Century

From Letter XLIX of Lord Chesterfield's Juvenile letters:

"Pray mind your Greek particularly; for to know Greek very well is to be really learned : there is no great credit in knowing Latin, for everybody knows it; and it is only a shame not to know it."

A Classical Education through Email?

About a year ago I began to email my son the juvenilia of Lord Chesterfield (a letter per week).  Lord Chesterfield wrote hundreds of letters to his son in the middle of the 18th century.  His early letters were an attempt to give his son a classical education while they were apart.  Chesterfield's juvenilia includes basic instruction in history, myth, geography, chronology, poetry, oratory, and virtue.  It reminds me of Famous Men of Rome or Fifty Famous Stories Retold, but with a personal touch.  Most are appropriate for children around the age of ten (I have only had to censor one letter in the first forty seven)        


The letters can be found in the back of volume II of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son (page 341ff)  . I downloaded a free pdf of the book and then took snapshots of the individual letters and sent them to my son through email.  It's kind of like getting a letter from the 18th century.  I've included a couple of examples at the beginning and end of this post (click on them to make them more readable).  It's a painless and fun way to approach some basic classical knowledge.

A Princess of Mars - 1917 versus 2012

Original Artwork - 1917

 Dejah Thoris - 2012

My 11 year old son enjoyed reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Tales, so I took him to see the new movie of the first book in the series, John Carter of Mars.  We both enjoyed the movie and weren't too put off by the plot changes made in order to make it to the big screen.  More interesting to me than the plot changes, however, was the way that the characters were changed to make them suitable to a modern audience. 

John Carter, the protagonist of the books, is portrayed in the movie as an adventurous, though none-too-bright, disgruntled and angry civil war veteran, who is mostly out for himself until he falls for the Princess of Mars.  In the book he is a southern gentleman, who though a man of war, is filled with virtue and compassion, he even teaches the green men of Mars to treat their beasts of burden with kindness.

The contrast between the 1917 princess and the 2012 version is even more striking and is captured in the two poses found in the images above.  The modern princess is a warrior in her own right in contrast to the Dejah from 1917.  The following quote from the book also illustrates how "far" she has come:  "I am happy here. I do not know why it is that I should always be happy and contented when you, John Carter, a stranger, are with me; yet at such times it seems that I am safe and that, with you, I shall soon return to my father's court and feel his strong arms about me and my mother's tears and kisses on my cheek."  Alas, not the stuff of the modern princess.

An 11 year old boy's favorites

One year ago I asked my 10 year old son to give me a list of his favorite books, and it proved to be a quite popular post.  So, I asked him to give me another list this year and here it is:

1. The Hobbit
2. Here There Be Dragons (series)
3. Harry Potter (series)
4. 100 Cupboards (series)
5. The Precious Pearl
6. The Boy's King Arthur
7. Swallows and Amazons (series)
8. Redwall (series)
9. Martian Tales Trilogy

Lines from The Princess Bride that Double as Comments on Freshman Composition Papers

by Jennifer Simonson

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

“At a time like this that’s all you can think to say?”

“Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

“I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.”

“I would not say such things if I were you!”

“I do not suppose you could speed things up?”

“Skip to the end!”

“That is the sound of ultimate suffering.”

“Inconceivable!”

The Word of a Gentleman and the Way of a Lady

Several years ago Evan Wilson put together some talks to college men to teach them how to be gentlemen.  They were so popular that the ladies demanded their own talks and these were added.  With both style and humor, Wilson has given us 15 "rules" for gentlemen and 15 "rules" for the ladies.  I ordered my book from him a couple of years ago and have enjoyed it immensely.  I plan to discuss these at the dinner table as my children get older.  Now I see that it is available on Amazon, so I thought I'd pass on a link to this helpful resource.

Dr. Johnson's Best

Early in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, he mentions that Dr. Johnson was once overheard saying that the best thing he ever wrote was The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit, found in his Cell.  It was only a google away, so I sat down and read this marvelous allegory about the Path to Happiness on the Mountain of Existence.  Go read it, it could easily work as an Ambleside Online Selection.  

Memory and the Church Fathers

While reading the Conferences of John Cassian I began to marvel at the encyclopedic scriptural memory of the desert monastics that were interviewed by Cassian and his friend Germanus.  How did they do it?  Not only did they remember large portions of scripture, but their memory functioned like a topical bible or concordance that could pull references from all parts of scripture.  I had to know.

The Book of Memory: A Study of Medieval Culture by Mary Carruthers offered the answers.  Carruthers extensive research explains the place and use of memory in medieval culture and most interestingly explores the different arts and techniques that were employed.  For instance, many Christians would memorize the entire Psalter, which  usually took two to three years.  Hugh of St. Victor wrote a short treatise to explain his personal method, which included the following steps:

1. Visualizing a grid with 150 locations, one for each Psalm.
2. Behind each number the first few words of each Psalm would be memorized, so that one had the complete reference system for all 150 psalms.
3. Then the individual Psalms themselves would be memorized.

Other techniques for memorizing lists or the contents of the gospels would use visualization and mental pictures to help with the recollection and organizing of data.  The goal of this memorization wasn't simply to know a lot of information, but to be an aid in contemplation and invention.

I wanted to use some of these methods with my children and discovered a book that uses some of these medieval techniques for a modern audience:  Memorize the Faith (And Anything Else) by Kevin Vost.  We started memorizing the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount last week and we have had great success.  It took us about 15 minutes to memorize them and we can now recall them forward or backward or starting at any point.  I highly recommend this book!