Locus Classicus - The Source for Classical Education at Home

The traditional style of classical education emphasizes learning in and through the classical languages and cultures of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The neoclassical style of classical education focuses on teaching the student the proper tools of learning during each stage of the trivium. History takes centre stage as we glean wisdom from the great minds of the past.

Knowledge of Latin and Greek increases English vocabulary and understanding of English grammar, aids in learning the romance languages, and disciplines and expands the mind. In the course of study and translation the student reads ancient Latin and Greek literary, historic, political and rhetorical classics, and in so reading is exposed to the best the world has to offer.

A classical education considers competency in higher-order math skills to be part of basic literacy. The ancients believed the study of mathematics reinforced the mind's powers of concentration, memory and logical process. David Hicks, in Norms & Nobility, says that the discipline of mathematics is "a habit of mind subjugating the young person's natural inclination toward intellectual sloth and self-centeredness; it teaches him to delight in making the scholarly discoveries that usually attend an organized search. It stands as a mighty bulwark against the heretical and preposterous notion that there can be sound learning without concentration, memory, and logical process."

The Well Trained Mind, in advocating the stages of learning, reminds us that during the grammar stage we lay the foundation for high-level abstract thinking. This includes the skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; a knowledge of basic geometric shapes and patterns; and a grasp of the relationships between numbers.

During the logic and into the rhetoric stages students transition to symbolic thinking before doing more complex problems requiring logic and abstract reasoning: negative numbers, percentages, probabilities and decimals. Upper level mathematics begins in grade 7 with pre-algebra. To quote TWTM, "Algebra, like logic, teaches the mind to think straight. It demands, not only the memorization of information, but also the ability to apply that information in a number of different situations. That is higher-order thinking."

A fundamental assumption in teaching maths is that the student needs to understand the mathematical principles and the reasoning behind each step in the solution of problems. David Hicks says this "foundation laid in the beginning will determine how far the student will go in his understanding of mathematics, how adroitly he will apply mathematical reasoning in other disciplines, how quickly he will gain an intuitive second sense into the nature of numbers and their functions, and most importantly, how deeply he will delight in the science of numbers.... If a solid foundation is not laid in the seventh and eighth grades, the student will grow frustrated and bored with his mathematical studies, and the faulty foundation will have to be relaid."

Oliver Van DeMille, in A Thomas Jefferson Education, encourages the study of the great mathematicians in the order they appeared, while learning the principles of mathematics.

The Well Trained Mind recommends spending a year each studying biology, astronomy and earth science, chemistry, and physics. These subject are covered in increasing depth during each stage of the trivium. Grammar stage science is a time of exploration, discovery and a time to learn the basic facts. The goal is to foster enthusiasm for science.
In the dialectic, or logic, stage the student will dig below the surface of the discoveries and make connections among the branches of science and between science and history. It is an experiment-focused study. The goal is to teach the student to think critically about doing science.
Rhetoric-stage science will leave the student with a firm grasp of foundational scientific ideas. The student will explore science resources, perform experiments, read and write about science, and ask questions about the implications of each discovery and principle. The goal is for the student to study science in the context of his or her broader study of ideas.

A traditional classical education seeks to integrate science into the curriculum through biography, history and ethics. Science would be studied informally before high school. In the early years the student would focus on nature observation and the study of basic facts. Toward the end of the logic stage the student would study scientific literacy in preparation for formal science study. Through all levels the scientific history and ethical concerns are studied and discussed.

Oliver DeMille, in a Thomas Jefferson Education, encourages parents to read the original works of the great minds in science with their children. He says parents must be fluent in the "scientific method" and guide their children through the steps, but allow them to make sense of and draw meaning from the world around them. Parents should help their children see the science in all fields of human experience: literature, art, music, math, language, culture and history. Parents and children should learn from the great scientists of history, in chronological order, reading about their lives, questions, discoveries and accomplishments. Students should duplicate their experiments to experience what they knew. Through experiment and discussion they will learn to think like scientists.

Mortimer Adler, in How To Read a Book, suggests that anyone desiring an understanding of the history of science must read the classical texts and become acquainted with the crucial experiments of that history.