What is Classical Education?

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What is Classical Education?

When we talk about classical education, we're referring to The Trivium.

The Trivium is a tried and true method of education that equips students to think well, speak well, and love well.

"And they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

—Isaiah 61:3

The Classical Model

The Trivium taught the primary tools of learning. The Quadrivium applied the Trivium to the complete range of advanced subjects.

For twenty centuries, these methods, integrated with a biblical world view of salvation in Jesus Christ, have educated and guided Christians from all traditions.

Twenty years of first-hand experience at The Oaks confirms that classical education is as up-to-date as ever.

Teaching to the Grain

Dorothy Sayers, the noted 20th century Christian intellectual and British novelist, wrote a booklet titled The Lost Tools of Learning. This sparked a renaissance of classical education. She broke fresh ground by mapping the trivium to the three stages of a child's mental and emotional growth.

Following her lead, we "teach to the grain". We use age-appropriate materials to engage students at the intersection of their present spiritual, intellectual and emotional maturity.

What is the Trivium?

A Latin word which refers to the convergence of three roads at one point. Historically, the trivium has consisted of grammar, logic and rhetoric.

These can be thought of as separate subjects. All three are taught at The Oaks. However, we view them as three ways or tools that students can use to learn any subject.

Grammar guides us concerning the facts and rules of a subject; logic helps us make sense of a subject's core principles and weigh their truth or falsity; rhetoric teaches us how to frame and express our arguments in the most winning way possible.

The Grammar Stage

Memory, rhyme and recitation do not tire, but invigorate, younger children. The grammar stage helps them build a vast array of knowledge upon which all their later learning will feed.

A set of objectives for Bible, spelling, grammar, reading, penmanship, history, mathematics, science, art and physical education offer reachable goals. Behavioral objectives direct the child's growth in character.

Grammar students also benefit from weekly teaching by our secondary Latin, science, music and art staff.

Daily Bible study covers, gradually, the entire Old and New Testament. Beginning students memorize and recite portions from Proverbs. Older grammar students memorize an entire chapter.

The Logic Stage

Logic stage students insist on debating (competitively and for fun) whether something is or is-not logical. We help them master the distinguo of classical logic across this God-ordained developmental phase.

We teach them to recognize and separate true argumentation from false. We require them to offer factual evidence and sound reasons for their bold claims about reality.

Training in written composition based on the pro-gymnasmata of the Christian educational tradition becomes their bridge to the expressiveness of the rhetoric stage. Browse the Pro-Gymnasmata curricular summary used by students.

These years also introduce students to algebra, geometry, basic and earth science, American literature, English grammar and world history.

The Rhetoric Stage

Who today does not regret the frequent descent of political and cultural rhetoric into mere propaganda? For two millennia, rhetorical training was a prerequisite for graduation from the trivium. So it is again at The Oaks.

We train students to place the rhetorical stage arts of invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery into the service of biblical truth across a wide range of secondary studies.

These include American and British literature, modern history, trigonometry, calculus, chemistry, physics, as well as multiple Bible courses.

Junior and senior-age students select, research, prepare, write, memorize and, finally, present an oral presentation of a thesis project. These form the capstone of their rhetorical studies and, indeed, of the entire trivium.

We live in a culture that dismisses the relevance of well-defended appeals to the authority of scripture and the historic teachings of the faith. At The Oaks, biblical doctrine matters, though we teach students to separate essential from secondary teaching.

Essential doctrines must be upheld, without compromise. Our teachers confess their common Christian understanding, gladly, in accord with our statement of faith.

Secondary doctrines cover orthodox teachings about which sincere Christians may differ. We encourage free class debate within the boundaries of mutual humility and charity.

Our secondary students devote a year to doctrinal study, a year to methods of biblical interpretation, and a final year to practicing the defense of the faith (Apologetics). These equip them to own their Christian confession beyond The Oaks.