Locus Classicus - The Source for Classical Education at Home

Classical education uses the best methodologies of the past to develop the best minds of the future. Many people homeschooling their children have chosen a classical method to teach. This lens will explore classical education theories and share many links to facilitate that method of learning.

Classical education methodologies

Traditional and neoclassical education

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.

About Classical Education

Wikipedia's article: explains the trivium, quadrivium and apprenticeship, as well as modern interpretations of classical education.
What is Classical Education?: Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well Trained Mind, explains.
In Defense of Classical Education: Tracy Lee Simmons article in Memoria Press's Classical Teacher
The Lost Tools of Learning: Dorothy Sayer's 1947 speech called for the restoration of classical education and began the neoclassical education movement as promulgated in Wise and Wise Bauer's The Well Trained Mind
Seven Reasons to Study the Classics: Oliver DeMille's essay on the importance of the books we choose to read.
The Great Conversation: Why the great books are key to a liberal arts education.

Books that discuss classical education

Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin

by: Tracy Lee Simmons

Amazon Price: $18.96 (as of 11/21/2008)

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The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Edition

by: Susan Wise Bauer, Jessie Wise

Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 11/21/2008)

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A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

Amazon Price: (as of 11/21/2008)

How to Read a Book (A Touchstone book)

by: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 11/21/2008)

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The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric

by: Sister Miriam Joseph, Marguerite McGlinn

Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 11/21/2008)

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The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had

by: Susan Wise Bauer

Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 11/21/2008)

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Latin and Greek

apologetics and how-tos

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.

from the serious to the ridiculous

Ancient Greek Tutorials: with audio examples. Based on Donald J. Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek, but useful with any text.
Learn Greek and Latin: free and fully downloadable Greek and Latin grammars and readers.
Free Latin: resources for the Latin teacher.
Latin Classical Education Yahoo group: this yahoo group is for those interested in a Latin-centred classical education. You must explore the links and file sections - the members of this group have been extemely generous in sharing their knowledge and discoveries.
Memoria Press: Using the Latina Christiana program, my girls say they love studying Latin. They also carry the Henle Latin series.
Latin Resources: from Memoria Press.
Latin by the Dowling method: learn to actually read Latin
Latin...: the way the Romans learned it - the easy way
Handy Latin phrases: Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.
Oh! Was I speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.
Latin teaching songs: Nouns declensions sung to the tune of "Ode to Joy", and active personal endings to the "Mickey Mouse Song". This makes all the years of vocal training worth it!
What have the Romans ever done for us?: a Monty Python classic.

Mathematics

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.

great math sites

Living math books list: from Penny Gardner's site this is a list of "living" math books and math classics.
Singapore Math help forum: a great online resource for those using the Singapore Math series.
Euclid's Elements: the text of all 13 books, with diagrams illustrated using the interactive Geometry Applet.

great math books

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

by: Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Amazon Price: $12.92 (as of 11/21/2008)

Mathematics: A Human Endeavor (3rd Edition)

by: Harold R. Jacobs

Amazon Price: $71.80 (as of 11/21/2008)

Elementary Algebra

by: Harold R. Jacobs

Amazon Price: $64.60 (as of 11/21/2008)

Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding

by: Harold R. Jacobs

Amazon Price: $75.00 (as of 11/21/2008)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Penguin Classics)

by: Edwin A. Abbott

Amazon Price: $8.80 (as of 11/21/2008)

The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, Books 1 and 2

by: Thomas L. Heath, Euclid

Amazon Price: $11.21 (as of 11/21/2008)

Science in a Classical Education

How to and resources

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.

Science links we actually use

Readable Science: "an incomplete book list" compiled by Charlotte Mason interpreters Penny Gardner and Karen Rackliffe.
Outstanding science book list: compiled by the National Science Teachers Association.
Free Labs: experiments as well as a lab notebook guide.
History of Science Sourcebook: all sciences, all through the ages.
Science biographies: biographies and more of the science greats.
Monthly science: each month an experiment, factoids, book recommendation for kids and adults, and web links.
Science Friday: science radio for kids - topics in the archive range from archeology to technology, site includes teacher resources.
History of the Universe in 200 Words: This is actually quite fascinating, and a great springboard for further research in chronological order. Each term is linked to a Wikipedia definition.