A Guide for Parents in Search of a Truly Classical School – The American Spectator

On Jul 13, 2023

Over eight hundred schools in the United States identify as classical, meaning that they subscribe to the educational philosophy of the Greeks and Romans, who grounded education in what they termed “the liberal arts.” These arts include the trivium — grammar, logic, and rhetoric — and the quadrivium — music, astronomy, arithmetic, and geometry. The name “liberal” indicates that these subjects liberate students from ignorance and teach them to enjoy said liberty wisely. Herein lies the value of a classical education: it educates the whole student.

The term classical goes beyond rooting education in the Greco-Roman world. The idea of a “classic” as better than others in that same class indicates that classical education is oriented toward the very best books, music, and other artifacts of human ingenuity from the past twenty-five centuries.

A classical school may be a charter school, private school, or homeschooling alternative, such as a pod, co-op, or microschool. Such schools may carry the name “classical,” but what makes them such? And what should you — the interested parent vetting the best educational options available — look for in a school if you want to ensure that your children are classically educated?

The Curriculum

The word curriculum means “racetrack,” the kind on which the Romans would race their chariots. In education, curriculum refers to the courses students take throughout the year: the books they read, the languages they study, and the ways of the trivium on which they travel.

Most classical schools organize their instruction around works known as the “Great Books.” These books form the backbone of the Western tradition and include the dialogues of Plato, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the works of Shakespeare, the Old and New Testaments, and a host of other works of literature, philosophy, science, and history. Such classics have stood the test of time, present a high view of mankind and of man’s abilities, and help the reader understand his purpose and place in a chaotic and confusing world. Their authors wrestled with the overarching questions of life and wove their insights into engaging storylines, incorporating deep themes and beautiful language. In reading these great works, teachers and students alike cannot help but be impacted in mind, heart, and soul.

Bill Wilson/The American Spectator

But that is not to say that students in classical elementary schools are Shakespeare. Instead, students in kindergarten through fifth grade typically read age-appropriate adaptations of such stories, followed by longer, more contemporary, novel-length versions in middle school. Students generally read the primary sources themselves beginning in high school.

Following the second tenet of classical education, most classical schools offer courses dedicated to Latin or Greek. These languages hold a special place in the classical curriculum because their acquisition opens the world of the Greeks and Romans to the students. Latin is found on the curricula of more schools because its alphabet is more accessible — the Anglo-Saxons borrowed the Latin alphabet, after all.

Of course, students can and should learn other languages, for learning a new language imparts untold benefits to students. Mandarin and Spanish, for example, are often offered at upper-grade levels. Still, classical schools give pride of place to Latin and Greek because of their connection to the ancient world and their foundational role in shaping languages “alive” today.

Lastly, most schools offer a puzzling series of courses called the “trivium.” The word trivium comes from the Latin tri, meaning “three,” and via, which means “way” or “road.” Thus, trivium is the metaphorical place where the three ways of grammar, logic, and rhetoric meet. The first way, that of grammar, refers to, well, grammar and the fundamental rules of communication. The second, logic, concerns the art of argument, the task of organizing information and identifying truth from falsehood. The last, rhetoric is the art of public speaking, which encompasses the tools needed to compose creative works and stirring speeches. Students in ancient Rome and Greece had to study the trivium before they could continue on to study the more difficult subjects in the “quadrivium”: the four ways of astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts found at the core of education in the Greco-Roman world.

Modern educators jettisoned the trivium, but its rediscovery began with Dorothy L. Sayers’s influential essay The Lost Tools of Learning (1947). Sayers was an English novelist and a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Speaking at the University of Oxford, Sayers argued that removing the trivium from schools kept students from distinguishing truth from falsehood. Sayers said, “[I]f we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages.”

In the modern world, students must make sense of a disparate array of facts. According to Sayers, the means to do that is found in the trivium, which orients all of education toward the discovery of truth.

The Teachers

Those who teach in a classical school should recognize, first and foremost, that they are themselves still students. Teachers are far from having learned everything there is to know. As such, classical teachers recognize that their course of action is to bring to the classroom the joy that should always accompany learning — that is, they should model what it is to read and discuss something of great value.

At heart, classical teachers are curious, and they display a Socrates-like joy when discussing ideas that matter as well as an eagerness to help students better understand what is true, good, and beautiful. Such teachers love discussing philosophical questions, solving mathematical proofs, or conducting experiments, and they seek to share that joy with those in their classrooms throughout the day.

The Students

Last but not least, we turn to the students. Students in a classical school should seem engaged and happy during a lesson. Classical education is rich in content and oriented toward the appreciation of truth and beauty; as such, students should find plenty to capture — and keep — their interest. Indeed, many classical educators strive to magnify this natural tendency, intentionally orienting lessons toward the cultivation of wonder.

In presenting children with the very best of what has been taught and thought throughout human history, classical education helps students become their very best — and it shows in the way they interact with adults and enthusiastically take on new challenges.

The Mission

The Roman educator Quintilian (35–100 AD) identified the creation of the “ideal orator” as his goal for educating students: “We are to form, then, the perfect orator, who cannot exist unless as a good man, and we require in him, therefore, not only consummate ability in speaking but every excellence of mind.” Quintilian believed that students should be taught not only how to write and speak well but also how to live and be well, a goal that inspires classical teachers today. “Every excellence of mind” certainly reaches beyond just writing and speaking to include math and the sciences, hard work and vocational skills, and truth telling and personal integrity — all that composes the nature of what philosophers call “the good life.”

That promotion of the good life is ultimately the goal of classical education programs across the country. As Aristotle explained in his Nicomachean Ethics, the good life is a state of human flourishing, a life well lived in which people use their intellects and gifts through the habits of moral excellence, or virtue. Aristotle and his teacher, Plato, wanted to connect knowledge and content with virtue and character, for the knowledge they imparted to their students about the world and themselves would help them become more responsible, more competent, and more virtuous adults. Upon completing the racetrack of a classical school, students should love that which is worth loving: their families, their neighbors, wonderful books, strong friendships, and meaningful conversation — in short, everything that makes up the good life. As such, students study the great books of the Western tradition so that they can take on the whole world.

Winston Brady is director of curriculum and director of Thales Press at Thales Academy, a network of classical schools with campuses in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.