Classical education was and still should be built on scholé learning.
Classical education at home should not mean excessive workload, endless memory pegs, and joyless rigor. Classical educators like Plutarch commended short lessons, meaningful memory, leisure, and potent work ordered toward wisdom.
Plutarch, a late Roman thinker, thought short lessons and lots of free time was a good idea. He also said that education is like lighting fire and that memory work should be contextual, rich, and meaningful.
I have an idea: Let's let the classical authors define our classical education paradigms for us.
Classical education was never gravel-eating rigor, with reams of memory work and stacks of books and tons of work. Classical education is supposed to be potent work – the most effective practices based on the best philosophy – so that students have both the time and the full mind with which to live a full, educated, well-governed and well-ordered life.
Right now, homeschools are in the best position to work out real classical education.
As I read slowly through The Great Tradition: Classical Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being, I have seen what we'd now call "Charlotte Mason" practices and ideas held up by ancient educators.
Even as homeschool moms, we can benefit from looking to the past and seeing what great minds have had to say about childrearing and education (two inextricable topics).
What is classical homeschooling really supposed to be?
Plutarch wrote:
The mind is not a vessel which calls for filling. It is a pile, which simply requires kindling-wood to start the flame of eagerness for original thought and ardor for truth.
Sound familiar? Apparently Yeats was not the first to associate education with fire. Yeats did, however, read Plutarch, as should we.
Plutarch also write:
water in moderation will make a plant grow, while a flood of water will choke it. In the same way the mind will thrive under reasonably hard work, but will drown if the work is excessive.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, which is a warning some in classical education need to heed.
Plutarch was all for short lessons and plenty of free, unstructured time.
Classical education should give students the time, attention, and full mind needed to live a well-governed and well-ordered life.
Short lessons are also classical
Plutarch goes on to say:
We must therefore allow children breathing-time from perpetual tasks, and remember that all our life there is a division of relaxation and effort.
If they are going to experience the leisure that grows the life of the mind, they need the time to form those affinities.
Although education is a life, lessons should only be a short, concentrated part of a full, whole life. Schoolwork should not be all-consuming if we want well-formed, mature students.
Classical memory work is contextual
Plutarch did value memory work, but not in the way many classical educators do today:
Above all things one should train and exercise a child’s memory. Memory serves as the storehouse of culture, and hence the fable that Recollection is the mother of the Muses – an indirect way of saying that memory is the best thing in the world to beget and foster wisdom.
So, maybe the classical justification for memory work is not as abstract pegs upon which to hang future learning, but, as Cindy Rollins echoes Stratford Caldecott, it is for memory. We should stockpile the memory with good things to remember, not with fragments of data.
Here’s a source for that concept, apparently – straight out of Plutarch.
As Plutarch reminds us, education should kindle the mind, give children meaningful work, preserve leisure, and form memory through rich, living context.
Let's make our classical homeschools truly classical
According to Plutarch, a classical homeschool would contain these five elements:
First, we would use short lessons instead of dragging children through excessive work.
Second, we would choose potent work, not busywork. All work given to a student should be meaningful. Fun stuff can be part of a full life, but let it just be creative and enjoyable, not artificially tied to lessons. Education doesn't need craft projects attached.
Third, we should give children free time for reading, play, conversation, and pursuing interests. This is where learning meets life and becomes wisdom.
Fourth, we should make memory work meaningful through poetry, Scripture, hymns, speeches, and rich language. All memory work should be contextual, beautiful, and meaningful. We're filling our children's treasury of memories, not preparing them to win trivia games.
Finally, we must remember that classical education aims at wisdom, not performance. There is no room for pride in a truly classical education. Wisdom is humble and always in the posture of a learner.