Posts Tagged socratic paideia
Develop Your Curriculum with Road Maps to Mastery
Posted by Diane in Personalized Homeschool Curriculum on June 30th, 2008
Throughout your career as a homeschooling teacher, you need to assess your child’s mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium (language, thought, and speech) so that you can make necessary adjustments to your customized homeschool curriculum. Weaker areas need more time while skills that have been substantially mastered are checked off the to-do list. Let’s look at the race car analogy again. The Vehicle An Indy Car driver does not learn to drive in an expensive race car. He probably drove his Daddy’s tractor, dirt bike, or old beat up Chevy around the farm before he was invited to drive a million dollar vehicle. Simple concepts precede complex concepts.
We use different vehicles for different purposes. Indy Cars are made to travel on a wide oval track, Formula One cars travel on tight European city streets, and good ‘ole boy stock cars are made for intentional frequent crashes! Mountain bikes have fat tires for scaling rocky uphill terrain. Racing cycles are lightweight with thin tires for speed and manueverability on pavement. Gargantuan cruise ships carry loads of vacationers while shrimp boats are perfect for fishing and hauling seafood. So, too, there are different purposes and rules for using language, thinking critically, and communicating effectively. Whether you are transitioning to authentic classical homeschooling from the public school paradigm or just beginning the homeschooling journey, you need to decide what basic rules of operation you want to teach your child for each particular skill.
What content will you teach your children?
Now if you were expecting me to lay out a full “scope and sequence” for teaching the trivium, I’m sorry to disappoint you. When I go to home school curriculum fairs and see the words “scope and sequence,” my eyes glaze over, and my brain goes numb. In my opinion, scope and sequence is a phrase invented by professional educators to intimidate home school parents into thinking they need experts to tell them what’s best for their children!
Besides, anyone who tells you what to teach by grade level is advocating a public school model, not a classical model. Remember you just need to focus on the big picture: teach three skills! You don’t need a 12 year plan, and in fact, you need frequent pit stops to reevaluate progress, so I suggest you develop a short-term home school curriculum. Personally, I like to reevaluate progress about every 10 to 12 weeks, and I always end up adjusting the course as a result to better meet my goals.
The Skills
In my experience, there are six specific language abilities that every literate home school scholar needs to master: (1) how to read, (2) how to spell, (3) how to write, (4) how to punctuate and capitalize, (5) how to use proper grammar, and (6) how to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary. Use my Road Map to Mastery of Reading Skills to add or subtract content from your personalized homeschool curriculum.
Seven primary thinking abilities require mastery by the literate home school child including (1) how to arrange data according to systems, (2) how to solve problems, (3) how to structure and analyze arguments, (4) how to use the scientific method, (5) how to analyze literature, (6) how to research a topic, and (7) how to listen. My Road Map to Mastery of Thinking Skills will help you decide on appropriate content for the thinking portion of your personalized homeschool curriculum. Finally, I believe there are five communication skills, both oral and written, hat every literate homeschooled child needs to master before moving on to the Socratic Paideia of the high school years: (1) how to maintain a conversation, (2) how to write a paragraph, (3) how to take notes, (4) how to write advanced compositions, and (5) how to give a speech. Adjust your custom homeschool curriculum by using my Road Map to Mastery of Speaking Skills.
Teaching Variety
Each homeschooling family will teach content differently. Let’s take an example. Learning how to research and develop arguments are two components of critical thinking. These skills can be taught in various ways. For instance, my husband, David, is an attorney who often finds himself before a federal judge. Learning how to research and debate a national or international resolution meets my husband’s criteria for teaching research skills, developing an argument, listening well, and giving a speech. Consequently, participation in our local debate club is mandatory for the Lockman kids! Whereas, your husband may be an engineer who believes research is best learned in a lab setting and communicated in a research paper. Tailor the content and methods to best meet your family’s abilities and preferences. Your personalized homeschool curriculum will uniquely meet the needs of each child unlike the canned curriculums that you find with homeschool vendors.
How Do You Measure Mastery?
Posted by Diane in Personalized Homeschool Curriculum on June 27th, 2008
Before releasing your homeschoolers to experience the thrills of the socratic paideia in which dialogue drives instruction during the high school years, you need to determine whether mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium has been attained.
How do you measure mastery?
The Race
I live in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the “world’s greatest racing spectacle,” the Indianapolis 500. Every May, nearly 300,000 people gather to watch this exciting 200 lap, 500 mile race. Adrenaline rushes as the cars fly around the track, traveling the length of a football field in one second, at speeds exceeding 220 mph. As drivers compete for placement in the turns, they endure G-force of four times the weight of gravity which is comparable to the G-force of the space shuttle take offs. The sleek fiberglass shell of the Indy car hides a powerful engine that can run at 675 horsepower which is 4 times the speed of an average car. Experienced pit crews perform mechanical magic as they refuel and replace worn tires in an astounding 20 seconds or less. Aggressive, careless, or tired drivers occasionally lose control of their cars, and the yellow caution flags come out when fiery crashes bring the manic race to a screeching halt. Unlike horse races which are over in a few minutes, the Indy car race is a marathon often exceeding three hours!
Imagine for a minute that classical home schooling is an Indy car race. As in the Indy 500, other factors enter into the equation for a successful homeschooling race such as unforeseen circumstances (weather), finances (sponsors), and the community (spectators), but for this post, we’ll focus on the three factors which most impact mastery: your homeschooler (the driver), the content (the car), and you, the parent (assuming the roles of both pit crew and clean up crew). But before we tackle the driver, the car, and the crew, let’s define the end of the race.
The Finish Line
Every Indy Car driver dreams of winning the Indy 500. Completing the race is the ultimate goal. In homeschooling, we’re not concerned about finishing before our peers, but we want to finish the race in God’s perfect timing for our particular homeschooler. The first race that we need to finish is “Teach the Skills of the Trivium,” so that we can then move on to finish the second race during the high school years, “Socratic Paideia in which Dialogue Drives Instruction.” Both steps culminate in mastery.
According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, the primary definition of the verb “master” is
“to conquer, to bring under control, to overcome, to subdue, to own, to rule, or to solve.”
Powerful images of domination and achievement arise, and, in the purest sense, to master something is to dominate. However, I prefer the second definition in Webster’s which is “to become skilled or proficient in the use of.” To complete the thought left dangling by the above preposition, your task as the homeschooler’s parent is to teach until your child is:
- skilled or proficient in the use of the English language
- skilled or proficient in the use of critical thinking abilities
- skilled or proficient in the use of oral and written communication
Once the trivium race is finished, your job is then to supervise the continued acquisition of knowledge and skills in areas of interest so that your homeschooler is on his way to mastery in areas of personal interest.
You know your child has reached mastery when he or she has consummate possession of the skill. Theoretically, full command of language, thought, and communication signals the end of the first race and the beginning of the second race. Practically, your son or daughter needs to have such command of the English language that the vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and literary style of the classics is not overwhelming. The ability to comprehend and wrestle with the meaning of the text is also necessary. Finally, the child who is ready to move on to the socratic paideia of high school has the skill to write extensively about the themes of the classics.
The Driver
Some glamorous Indy Car celebrities grow up in renowned racing families, but no matter how famous Daddy was, junior doesn’t just inherit the raw DNA ability to drive. All champions have to learn the basic rules of driving just like every other licensed driver. Once the basics are mastered, then they can then move on to more sophisticated concepts. Your homeschooler is no different. He starts as a novice, moves on to apprentice, and eventually becomes a master in his craft.
The Crew
The highly-skilled mechanics who work on Indy Car crews are some of the best in the world. They receive regular training as technology advances. They know their cars and drivers so well that they can anticipate problems and solutions before they crop up. Quick to respond, they are proactive, monitoring the status of the vehicle with wireless radio and detailed gauge readings. To give your child an authentic classical education, you need to be current on all that you are teaching. Plan time to refresh your memory if you are a little rusty (Mom’s continuing education) or do a little advance reading before you need to teach a concept. You’ll be more confident and serve your homeschooler’s needs better if you are prepared. If you find yourself unprepared, that’s okay, too. Declare a reading week and catch up! Your classical homeschooler will love the break!
Authentic Classical Homeschooling Primer
Posted by Diane in Personalized Homeschool Curriculum on March 11th, 2008
Why should parents consider the authentic classical homeschooling option? Here is a quick primer on the very best home education Western Civilization has to offer.
The Long Track Record Predicts Success
Western Civilization was built on this model in that leaders were classically educated. Classical education dates back to Greece, and Rome. Medieval Europeans, especially leaders of the Christian Church, were classically educated as were the founders of the American Republic. During the 19th century, the U. S. immigration population soared, and the common school movement was born which effectively obliterated classical education in the United States by the beginning of the 20th century. With the exception of a minute group of homeschoolers, our nation’s leaders are now being trained on the public school conveyor-belt which teaches children what to think and not how to think. This education tradition successfully raised leaders for nearly three millenia.
The Skills are Simple to Teach
The classical homeschooling renewal movement is still in its infancy, and many variations in practice exist like the classical variations of Charlotte Mason, Susan Wise Bauer, and Oliver Van DeMille. In the excitement to embrace classical homeschooling, many parents jump right in without really thinking about what distinguishes classical education from other viable homeschooling methods. For example, some would tell you that classical languages like Latin are a critical component of a classical education (more on my opinion of this in a later post!), but the content of classical homeschooling is not nearly as important as the methods by which the content is taught. The three skills of the classical trivium provide structure for organizing content while socratic dialogue and inductive reasoning provide the tools by which to understand the content. Teaching three skills (language, thought, and speech) is relatively simple, and mentoring teens during high school prepares them for leadership.
The Curriculum is Entirely Customized
Authentic classical Christian homeschooling is not as difficult as many people believe it to be. In fact, when you know your main objectives, classical homeschooling can be extremely freeing and relaxing while still rigorously challenging both parents and children. Teach three skills to substantial mastery during the early years (language, thought, and speech) and let socratic dialogue drive the instruction during the homeschool high school years as the parent mentors the teen in the acquisition of knowledge. Once the three skills are mastered (the trivium), the parent can tailor the homeschool curriculum to meet the specific interests and abilities of the high school student (the socratic paideia). How you get to mastery of the three skills and acquisition of knowledge by specific discipline is entirely up to you. Complete customization of the homeschool curriculum is possible.
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So considering the long history of successfully raising leaders, the simplicity of the teaching, and the potential to completely customize the homeschool curriculum, what homeschool parent would pass on the incredible privilege of authentic classical homeschooling? For more details, consult Trivium Mastery: the Intersection of Three Roads and Socratic Paideia: Dialogue Drives Instruction.
Oliver Van DeMille And Leadership Home Education
Posted by Diane in Various Essays for Homeschool Parents on February 14th, 2008
The home education philosophy of Oliver Van DeMille is fascinating and provides the impetus for George Wythe College (of which he is President and founder) and his book, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century, which espouses one variation on classical home education called “leadership education.”
Prior to the completion of his undergraduate degree, DeMille acutely felt the gap between his expectations and the reality of his textbook education. He greatly desired a deep and broad education which would prepare him to positively impact society. DeMille had read with admiration about the mentor/protégé relationship between George Wythe (signer of the Declaration of Independence) and Thomas Jefferson. He decided to take responsibility for this ‘conveyor-belt’ deficit; he asked an elder scholar to mentor him just as Wythe mentored Jefferson. It was during this unusual course of study that DeMille’s concept of leadership education was born. Later, he incorporated leadership education in his own home.
According to DeMille, teachers do not educate…they inspire students to educate themselves. Teachers teach; students educate. He argues that education occurs when students get excited about learning. Great teaching leads to excited students. His home education philosophy applies in both the collegiate environment and in a classical home school.
Using the leadership approach, the two great teachers are mentors and the classics. “Mentors meet face-to-face with the student, inspiring through the transfer of knowledge, the force of personality, and individual attention. Classics were created by other great teachers to be experienced in books, art, music, and other media.” The combination of great mentors and great classics will result in an educated statesman who will apply the depth and breadth of knowledge in practical ways that help others. This approach to home education in high school in consistent with the Socratic Paideia years in which dialogue between homeschool parent and homeschool teen drives instruction.
Beyond the educational philosophy, DeMille offers concrete steps for facilitating a leadership education in the classical home school. Regarding mentors, he offers six fundamental keys: use the classics, personalize the study program, read/write/discuss, apply lessons to life, only accept quality work (“great work” or “do it again”), and set the example by doing all of the above for yourself!
He provides a comprehensive list of age-appropriate books to read although they are not all widely accepted as classic literature. He contends that future leaders should study the classics because they:
- teach human nature
- bring face-to-face with greatness
- reveal unconquered frontiers
- force thinking
- connect cultural stories
- teach that personal and national canons give life purpose
Finally, DeMille answers frequently asked questions as to how to implement this leadership home education method and gives specific direction as to subject areas.
Much of the direction of the course of study is set by the student as he matures and determines his passions. The concept of depth and breadth require rigorous study on the part of both parents and students; however, the result is likely to be a family of lifelong learners who significantly impact their community.
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To learn more about the “pillars” of DeMIlle’s leadership education, read the history of George Wythe College.
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Does “leadership education” sound like a home education philosophy that you might want to explore? Learn more about it by joining one of the following free Yahoo Discussion Groups. [The descriptions of each group come directly from Yahoo.]
IEW-TJE (382 members)
“Started by a group of Christian women who use The Institute for Excellence in Writing materials, this group discusses the ideas and implementation of “A Thomas Jefferson Education” by Oliver DeMille and “Teaching the Classics” by Adam Andrews in the Christian homeschool. This group does not necessarily reflect the views of IEW.”
MentoringOurOwn (997 members)
“This group is for those of us who are making the transition from the conveyor belt education paradigm and into the world of mentoring our own children. As we apply the principles we are learning, we can share our experiences and new-found understanding with each other, through our articles. Topics appropriate for this site might include, but not be limited to: Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd), Leadership Education (LEd), American Hebraic Classical Leadership Education, 5 Pillars Certification, 5 Pillars of Statesmanship, Liber, Divine Providence, Georgics, Public Virtue, Central Canon/Classic, Gospel Scholar, The Lord’s Library, Family Work, Family Rhythms, Core, Love of Learning, Scholar, Depth, and Mission Phases of life and learning.”
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Have you read about the unschooling home education option of John Holt, “living books” home education philosophy of Charlotte Mason, or the systematic classical home education model of the mother-daughter team of Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer yet? Discover that they all encourage love of learning even though different paths are suggested to achieve such a love. How are you doing at verbalizing your own home educational philosophy? Answer ten questions in my post, “What Is Your Home Education Philosophy?”, to determine your family’s philosophy of home education.
