Classical, Trivium, Quadrivium, or Just College Prep

What’s the Difference Between Classical and classical?

By Amy Barr at The Lukeion Project

At TheLukeion Project we say we offer “Classical education expertly taught live online.” Our course topics typically relate to subjects stemming from the Classical world of ancient Greece and Rome or related fields. This includes Classical languages, literature, history, rhetoric, logic, and subjects that were dear to the hearts of people like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. For good measure we toss in Classical archaeology and some classical literature (thanks, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and others). You’ll notice I employed a capital letter C with Classical. This was, at least until recently, the standard way of designating what we meant by the word. Classical with a "C" means, “of or relating to the ancient Greeks and Romans, especially their art, architecture, and literature; conforming to the artistic and literary models of ancient Greece and Rome; versed in the Classics.” We've been told it is now naughty of us to use a capital C but it does help us remain clear about what we mean by the word.

The other day I was discussing course options with a parent who was interested in a classical education for her child whose school program offered no Latin whatsoever. When you see lower case “c” classical (or today, any use of the word classical), what does it mean? Why do we talk about classical music and classical literature that has nothing to do with ancient Greece and Rome, or little to do with Latin or Greek?

If you are new to the world of home education, I invite you to visit any of the many bustling home school conferences available, at least in the U.S., throughout the spring and early summer months. You can’t make it through a vendor-packed isle without somebody touting classical education. In fact, we often attend these conferences as vendors and see that their speakers’ line-up features a “classical track.” We are never invited. We are Classical rather than classical, so we aren’t in the popular kids’ club. What’s the difference?

Lower-case-c-classical education can (not always) refers to an educational approach that was, at least at one point, inspired by the form of Classical education that worked beautifully for both the Greeks and Romans: the Trivium. 

Trivium comes from the same root as the English word trivial because both refer to three (tri) roads (via). Trivia is the sort of information one often gathers at intersections, water coolers, and crossroads where one might get the latest gossip. Trivium is a modern approach to education in which main subjects are graded and geared toward the three main stages of academic development: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.These levels correspond neatly to our traditional elementary, middle, and high school divisions in most U.S. systems. 

School/home education programs that call themselves classical often just refer to how their topics are taught and reviewed differently at the three different academic levels with, presumably, sufficient strength that their students are prepared for college. When classical is used in this fashion (I find it is the most common way you’ll see the term used at conferences), there’s no real relationship to the original tenets of ancient Classicism nor even the medieval concept of a classical education. It has become the modern alternative description for “prep school” which now sounds too stuffy for a good bottom line.

The concept of the classical Trivium, when applied to formal education, first appears in the Middle Ages, and was then further defined in the Renaissance in a work by Martianus Capella referring to Plato’s explanations about how grammar, logic, and rhetoric were essentials in a good early education. Plato would have preferred the world had remembered to include the Quadrivium which added arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Together the Trivium and then the Quadrivium formed the combined “Seven Liberal Arts.”

Today there are hundreds of programs, schools, and groups that maintain they are classical. Some of them truly sustain strong connections to the Trivium and might even toss in parts of the Quadrivium in upper levels. Throwing shade at classical, I can confirm that some schools and programs use the title classical for no reason besides how it spices up the top of a transcript. The term has also come to refer to the normal procession of subjects that were common 30 or 40 years ago in a public education with no connection to anything Classical whatsoever. Rhetoric gets a few hours in English classes while logic is rolled into a variety of math classes. Formal grammar is diminished to workbooks.

Most programs with classical in their title offer either a little Latin or none at all. You’ll not likely find Classical Greek anywhere but The Lukeion Project where we often have Classics majors in college come to take our history and literature courses because their college program stopped offering those types of things years ago.

If you are looking for a true Classical approach, The Lukeion Project is as close as you’ll find but, like many successful Lukeion families, you'll need to add your own strengths to our course offerings. Plato would assure us that we need to augment our program with music, math, and astronomy but we’ve made good starts in that direction. So many of our parents provide such robust alternatives in those subjects that the old philosopher would be proud! For the rest of the classical programs you find out there, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.  

3 Things that Worked for Us

Basics to Our Home Education
By Amy Barr

My youngest of three children graduates from college in a few months. If you hang out with all three of my adult kids, you’ll find they are funny, reliable, and capable human beings with broad interests and firm opinions about restaurants. This officially qualifies me to offer some advice about homeschooling because my job as their personal educator is now complete. I’ve moved into an advisory role now.

I’ll now present with limited ado and a mild allotment of sarcasm, 3 things that were effective in the home education of my own children. Certainly, some will disagree with my wizened words while others will nod vigorously in union. Maybe these things will work for you too. Simply discard the rest. No need to email and complain.
I decided I would educate my children at home before I even had an interest in having children. When I was in college, I worked at a special collection library for education majors. I’ll save the specifics for my memoirs but, suffice it to say my experience was slightly traumatizing and my life was changed forever: I would never trust my (yet non-existent) child’s education to anyone else but myself and my (as of yet) undetermined spouse! Most people don’t have that lightning bolt moment to spur them on, but I did. The main benefit to this early decision was that I could start to build plans for how I might best educate a young mind. Here are three things. I have lots more where these came from.

Start with the End in Mind

This was easy for me because I had strong opinions about how my own education had gone (not that great up to that point) plus I had interests in how people learn best. My children hadn’t been born yet but I identified several goals that were important. Your list might be quite different. Here is a short list of what I wanted for my children:

• to enjoy reading good books (plus have time to do so)
• to have the chance for creativity
• to be prepared for anything academic, even if they didn’t choose college
• to be able to express themselves well in a variety of circumstances
• to have a good grasp of the practical skills necessary to make life pleasant

While each of these goals deserves more attention than a list in this blog, I’ll start with academic preparedness which took a very specific form for our family because mom and dad were ourselves in the very academic field of Classical philology (Greek & Latin), archaeology, and ancient history. I wanted my children to write well, communicate confidently, manage research analytically, and—above all--know how to learn for themselves without helplessly waiting to be taught. Sharing their parents’ interests in old Greek and Roman things wasn’t even on the table. That’s good because none of them were interested.
If given the opportunity, time, and means, children will excel at things that interest them. Offer as many tools (and seeds) as possible to keep that garden of subjects and interests growing for them. Enjoyment is robbed from learning when only the transcript matters. Some of that is unavoidable as students mature and form goals. It is difficult to flourish when education is nothing more than a chore list. The beauty of home education reveals itself when we can offset academic duties with subjects that our students genuinely enjoy.   
One of my favorite bloggers (Homeschool Libertarian) once said, “The idea that a child reaches cognitive milestones at a predictable age is damaging. Books that give lists of what children should know and when they should know it should be approached with the caution usually reserved for eating pufferfish or cobra wrangling.”  
Truer words were never spoken. The worst damage is done by well-meaning educators trying to convey perceived benefits by lock-stepping a child’s education through arbitrary academic steps before (or after) they are ready for that material. Learning happens best in leaps and lags, peaks and valleys. Don’t sweat the details because you aren’t accomplishing their education in the narrow confines of a single academic year. An education will happen but via the ebb and flow of many years. Their isn't meant to be a heart pounding sprint. They aren’t in an exhausting marathon either. Education is more like a hike along the Appalachian trail with flat paths, steep rock climbs, a few nice cold waterfalls, and a few long breathers when the view is good.

Have Them Read Real Books and Lots of Them

My children all had to learn sentence diagramming, writing, spelling, and all the other details that educators categorize as language arts. Some of that was done more formally than other parts but we carefully avoided those graded readers, that pablum that publishers insist elementary readers must endure before they are ever allowed to read real literature. We just went right into real literature as soon as we’d gotten through the basics.
My kids were given or selected for themselves stacks of books that interested them. If the book that looked good to them was a bit difficult for their “reading level” (whatever that is), no problem! What spurred them on to grow their vocabulary and broaden their interests was decoding a fantastic plot line written by writers who knew their craft well. When an older sibling held court at dinner talking about a new book series, the younger sibling might be keen to try it or go a different direction, just as a point of pride. Today, few high school graduates have read even a single literary work cover to cover. Simply keeping a love of reading alive through childhood and into the teen years is two-thirds of the battle won. Do whatever it takes to foster that love of reading.       

Allow Them to Have an Acceptable Form of Procrastination

One of many fatal flaws in the modern academic system is the belief that we can shove absolutely everyone through an identical education yet still expect them, at age 18, to have unique strengths and opinions about what they’d like to do when they grow up.
I had only three to educate and they couldn’t be more different. My oldest was compelled to draw. My youngest was attracted to all things musical. My middle child wavered between architecture, cooking, chess, and figuring out puzzles. Since both mom and dad worked from home, we’d take turns sweeping through the house to find out how daily academic progress was going for everyone. The tacit agreement was that our artist was allowed to procrastinate with a bit of art before we could get her to focus on something else (I just kept buying stacks of sketchbooks). Our musician needed to pound out on the piano whatever piece he was learning before he could settle down and think serious thoughts (he was very keen on playing during the time allotted to algebra). Our middle child needed a spot of time on Minecraft or Rollercoaster Tycoon and then he could work his way through the next school project quickly enough.     
Today my eldest is a senior graphic designer and illustrator. My youngest is training to be a sound engineer and already enjoys working with state-of-the art equipment and big-name professional groups on stage. My middle child, who easily grew bored with puzzles once they were solved, is finishing his studies as a physical therapist (humans are unsolvable puzzles). We are happy that we always gave them the room to explore their own interests, even if a more conventional approach would have just called it procrastination.