The Classical Curriculum

The Classical Education Movement in its origins stretches back to late antiquity. The method was systematized during the Renaissance by Petrus Ramus; by the 18th century, the Classical Education Movement had embraced subjects such as literature, philosophy, history, and art in addition to the Trivium. Today, many schools have adopted the Classical Education 44 Model as the guiding principle behind their curricula. These “classical schools” strive to 45

Note that the Vulgate is, of course, a translation into Latin. While students would not be reading this text in the

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original language, the Vulgate is the source text for many English translations, allowing students to compare translations to the original as well as to analyze the text. There are, of course, many other texts about the Church, Christianity, and religious/moral philosophy written in Latin originally.

Unger, “Classical Education.”

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Today, classical schools are divided into two sects, the “Classical Christian” and the secular “Classical.” The

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major pedagogical difference is that the Christian schools focus heavily on moral development through religion and the secular schools focus more on the “Great Works.”

produce great leaders and thinkers, focusing on developing cognitive skills and building character through inquiry. 46

According to the Center for Independent Research on Classical Education (CiRCE), classical educators believe in a few “common and controlling ideas that set classical education apart.” These educators are committed “to cultivating wisdom and virtue in their students,” 47 faithful to guiding their students to both knowledge and morality, and devoted to assessing and preserving “western” tradition for the next generation. Ultimately, the classical education is not 48 merely a “slight adjustment to the curriculum [but] a much more fundamental and inclusive change in paradigm” that requires teachers with a genuine focus on and intrinsic sense of responsibility for the academic and personal betterment of students. 49

The Classical Education Model proposes to accomplish its goals through a specific structure of pedagogy known as the Trivium. The full “classical” education, as taught in antiquity and the Middle Ages, includes all seven of the liberal arts: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric (the Trivium), as well as Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy (the Quadrivium). Today’s classical schools use the three stages of the Trivium in order to guide students toward successful use of language and reason. Each of the three columns of the Trivium coincides with one of the 50

For a discussion on inquiry, see Part I of Hicks’ Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education, his book on the

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classical education.

CiRCE, “What is Classical Education.”

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CiRCE, “What is Classical Education.”

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CiRCE, “What is Classical Education.”

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The modern classical education is based on the application of Dorthy Sayers’ developmental model of the Trivium

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in the stages of learning. The 20th-century investigation of the classical education largely arose as a response to the debates on the importance and utility of Latin and Greek in schools. See Lowe, “Why Latin is NOT Optional.”

three phases of a child’s educational development. According to Classical Academic Press, the 51 first developmental stage occurs during childhood when students are “naturally adept at

memorizing through songs, chants, and rhymes,” usually around grades K–6. This is the 52

Grammar stage, in which students learn an immense amount of information that sets the basis for later inquiry. The second column of the Trivium, the Logic stage, occurs around grades 7–9, when transescents “are naturally more argumentative and begin to question authority and

facts.” By allowing students to ask how and why, to engage in Socratic dialogue, and to analyze 53 facts and evidence, students learn how to reason and express arguments eloquently. The final developmental stage occurs during adolescence, usually grades 10–12, when students “become independent thinkers and communicators.” This Rhetoric stages builds on the skills developed 54 in the previous two phases in order to produce students who can formulate and express their own opinions persuasively and effectively.

Educators who teach in institutions that use the Classical Education Model must

understand its principles and structure their curricula and classrooms accordingly. These schools are guided by an atypical pedagogical philosophy, so their specific goals cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of teachers. Since the mission of classical schools is to produce great leaders and thinkers by teaching students to express opinions, the classrooms where this learning occurs must allow students to explore and form independent thoughts. To observe the classical

Note that the three phases of childhood education refer specifically to the American school system of elementary,

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middle, and high school.

Classical Academic Press, “What is Classical Education?” The three stages of development described here

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generally fit into the classifications of American Elementary, Middle, and High school. Classical Academic Press, “What is Classical Education?”

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Classical Academic Press, “What is Classical Education?”

education distinction, consider a history classroom. In a typical middle school history class, the students may be assigned a chapter from a textbook, and the teacher may lecture on it the next day. However, in a classical school, the students may be asked to read from a textbook or to watch a section of a documentary or to read an academic article or to examine a primary source; during class, instead of listening to the teacher lay out facts, students would actually engage with the material and with each other through dialogue. Educators in a classical setting must adjust their own role in the classroom to become facilitators, guides, and comrades in learning rather than the omniscient dispensers of information. 55

As it is based on the Classical tradition, classical schools incorporate aspects of antiquity into their curricula. “The classical languages are too historically bound up with classical

education to allow for their separation without a cost. It is not too much to say that a classical education requires the teaching of a classical language, and, historically, that language [has been] Latin. This was the hill on which the old classical educators chose to fight and die, and it was the lynchpin in Dorothy Sayers’ case for the Trivium.” As such, Latin teachers in such schools take 56 up the mantle as the classical core of the curriculum and the fundamental representatives of the ancient world to their students. 57

This places particular pressure on Latin educators that their colleagues in traditional schools may not feel. The classical curriculum is based on reasoning and expression; according

While Classical schools make a concentrated attempt to enact this practice, even at the lower grades, most

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pedagogues would consider it good pedagogical practice; consider, for example, discussions on “flipped classrooms” and seminar-style discussions at the college level.

Lowe, “Why Latin is NOT Optional.”

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This is especially true of small classical schools that only have one Latin teacher.

to the philosophy, Latin learning is the best training for these skills. In addition to its connection to the Classical World, classical schools value Latin for its use developing vocabulary and

English grammar and learning to think critically. As such, educators providing Latin instruction 58 are bound to provide the skills and benefits to students that the institution expects from the course. For this reason as well as the classical schools’ commitment to tradition, teachers in these environments may often feel pressured to teach more by the Grammar and Translation Method and may be discouraged from the Comprehensible Input Method, since the former caters to those skills and the latter may seem avant-garde.

4.2 Textbooks

The curricular environment is not the only factor that guides teachers in building a program or in forming pedagogical methodology. The course materials available to teachers and the institutions’ flexibility with course design influence how much educators can tailor the curricula to meet their own teaching styles and the students’ particular needs. Philosophically, a textbook “should be regarded as one of the many sources teachers can draw upon in creating an effective lesson and may offer a framework of guidance and orientation.” While some teachers 59 choose to follow the lesson plans and activities of their course materials to the letter, other use textbooks as a starting point.

Classical Latin School Association, “Classical Core Curriculum.”

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Gak, “Textbook—An Important Element in the Teaching Process,” 79.