A Classical Education

What Is Classical Education?

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Regardless of their learning style, children learn in three phases or stages grammar, logic or dialectic, and rhetoric , known as the trivium. In the grammar stage K—6 , students are naturally adept at memorizing through songs, chants, and rhymes. If you can get children in this stage to sing or chant something, they will remember it for a lifetime.

In the dialectic or logic stage grades 7—9 , teenaged students are naturally more argumentative and begin to question authority and facts. During this stage, students learn reasoning, informal and formal logic, and how to argue with wisdom and eloquence.

The rhetoric stage grades 10—12 is naturally when students become independent thinkers and communicators. They study and practice rhetoric, which is the art of persuasive speaking and effective writing that pleases and delights the listener. Again, it is this approach to teaching students based on their developmental stage that makes this approach so very effective.

It is precisely this kind of education that has produced countless great leaders, inventors, scientists, writers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, lawyers, artists, and musicians over the centuries.

Classical education never really disappeared, but it did diminish starting around with the advent of progressive education. In an effort to restore this most proven form of education, the K—12 liberal arts tradition has been being renewed and expanded again over the last thirty years. More than classical schools including private and charter schools have started during that time, and tens of thousands of homeschooling families are educating with the classical approach.

Of course, there are many myths out there about this method of teaching and learning. The Ambrose School in Meridian, Idaho, has done a superb job of explaining four of the most common myths, which are: Would you like to go deeper in your understanding of classical education?

But I was taught this stuff in school! It was fun to listen about ancient Greece and Rome again. I have a feeling though, that for someone who wasn't already acquainted with Greek mythology and other ancient topics, would potentially find the rundown of ancient topics quite boring, despite the amusing writing style.

So if you know nothing about ancient Greece, try reading something short in original, if not instead, then at least alongside this book. Feb 03, Leeroy rated it really liked it. This is a good book.

At a bit under pages, with quite large text, you're obviously not going to get a full classical education per se , but what you will get is a knowledge of what constitutes a classical education. Which is a big deal. Now that you know who Socrates was, or how democracy started, or how Rome became a dictatorship, you know where to look if you want to learn more.

You're no longer in the dark about these subjects, which were usually reserved for the privileged. The author writ This is a good book. The author writes in a casual, jokey style. It's as if you were being told a great, long story by your grandpa, with his encyclopaedic knowledge, after he's had two beers. It helps to keep you enjoying the book, and I'm sure some subjects would be dull without it.

Other subjects, mythological and historical stories principally, are exciting and fascinating enough in their own right, and an absolute joy to read. The author only really gets in the way twice: If you're interested enough to read this far, you'll like the book. Dec 11, Andy rated it really liked it. Whether you are digging into classical civilisations history, politics, literature, religion etc for the first time or using this as a refresher it is humorous, chatty, just detailed enough, and certainly factual.

It's an excellent companion and will help yo know your Sophocles from your Cicero, Your Marcus Aurelius from your Euripides. Aug 17, Lisbeth rated it it was amazing Shelves: This funny, humorous book by Caroline Taggart is a must if you are interested in A Classical Education. Here you get the most important information on the classical world, described in an easy way and with a lot of humour.

I really loved it. We get a look at the classical Gods, the emperors, the philosophers, writers, architectural features, the sciences and much more. Here you find the background to a lot of features in our present world, be it language, characterisations, architecture, mytholo This funny, humorous book by Caroline Taggart is a must if you are interested in A Classical Education. Here you find the background to a lot of features in our present world, be it language, characterisations, architecture, mythology and so on.

It is divided into chapters covering Languages, Religion and Mythology, Crete this is a detour! Here a few teasers. I start with Hercules. People still talk about a Herculean task, which might mean as little as doing the washing-up after a dinner party.

The original twelve Labours of Hercules were rather tougher. The tasks might not sound that challenging, but when you read what it really is, I agree that we talk about a super hero when speaking about Hercules. The introduction to Alexander the Great reads as follow: Caesar, disgusted by this breach of trust, put Ptolemy's sister Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne instead. Pausing only to have an affair with her see the play by George Bernard Shaw, in which she smuggles herself into his presence rolled in a carpet , Caesar went off to win a quick battle in Asia Minor -after which he declared, Veni, vidi, vici 'I came, I saw, I conquered' - and a few more in other outposts of the empire.

He then returned to Rome to be assassinated. The foot note says: If you want something done, ask a busy person, they say. On Livy, a historian living from 59 B. Personally I could never get on with him, not because I am a stickler for historical accuracy but because he had a Henry-James-like attitude to the length of sentences and paragraphs and by the time you came to the verb at the end you had lost all trace of the noun at the beginning, though I realize that this opinion may well put me in the minority and that a modern translation might have a few more full stops in it. About the Roman way of organising their armies.

Six centuries made a cohort and ten cohorts made a legion - which therefore consisted of men under normal circumstances. It sounds formulaic, but in fact the subdivision into small units made it very flexible: It certainly scared the hell out of the Ancient Britons, whose idea of battle formation was to paint themselves blue and run around like lunatics. From Aristotle; 'Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities'.

However, as Ms Taggart says; "Perhaps best to wait till everyone is a bit pissed, though.

And just in case you are still being invited to dinner parties, I rather like: At the end is this final words: The film Ben-Hur won elven Oscars, a feat that was unequalled until Titanic came along nearly forty years later. And why was the Titanic so named? Because she possessed titanic strength, an attribute of the Titans of Greek mythology, who existed even before the gods. As I said almost pages ago, the classics really are everywhere.

It does not hurt to be repeated and reminded when we think we are on top of civilisation today. There were people, long before us, who had already thought about it and gave us the hints. I just love these kind of books and the humour and references makes it a very entertaining read.

I have another one to go; Pandora's Box. Review from my blog thecontentreader. This is a humorous, well-presented overview of the world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught in School

It does not go into detailed explanations, but gives a pleasant mix of interesting stories and basic facts. It was an enjoyable read. I picked this up as part of a Kindle deal and didn't realize how short it was until I started reading, so part of why I'm so disappointed might be that I was expecting a lot more than a book this size can offer. Having said that, I feel as if this book did little more than repeat what anyone with a good general knowledge already knows.

I I picked this up as part of a Kindle deal and didn't realize how short it was until I started reading, so part of why I'm so disappointed might be that I was expecting a lot more than a book this size can offer. I say mention, because for the most part it felt like the author was doing little more than throwing out a name and a couple of sentence description and then moved on to the next name, which left me feeling like I was speedreading a tiny dictionary.

Classical Education is More Than a Method

On the positive side, the book is written in a ver accesible and funny style and I managed to fly through the book. May 27, Ardyth rated it it was ok. Stumbled on this in the children's books section at my local library? It's a light, humorous survey of ancient Greece and Rome suitable for anyone who feels nervous or embarrassed about not having had a classical education.

Unfortunately, if you have any familiarity with ancient cultures whatsoever, this book isn't going to do much for you.

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And I do mean any familiarity whatsoever. Heard of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle? Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Julius Caesar? If Stumbled on this in the children's books section at my local library?

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If you have even a vague sense of these, and why they are famous, this book won't do a whole lot for you. It does touch on many additinap people and topics of interest, but there is too much packed into a slim volume for any of it to be memorable. I got a kick out of this sometimes irreverent book. Taggart takes what can sometimes be a very, very dry subject and injects quite a bit of wit and humor into it.

She touches on things such as the roots of words in language, the greats such as Homer and Aristotle, and then pokes a bit of fun at their logic and rhetoric. It makes for a relatively easy read and a quick source of reference. Very informative and interesting book. I didnt learn all the stuff about romans and greece thingy at school but i heard and read most of it from the movies and books.

Reading this book definitely add up all the things that i dont really know about the classics. Be it herodotus, pompey and hercules, this book is interesting. Funny, witty and yet a readable book. This was a quick read and entertained me as I prepare to go back to school. I bought this a few years ago and plan to use a few sections to cover history sections of the NLE that I don't care to spend much time on. It was engaging and gives a top-line overview of Roman and Greek history. Jul 14, Sandy Morley rated it it was ok.

A Classical Education somehow manages to never cover more than a cheat sheet in pages.

It's condensed enough to never go into detail, but still not concise enough to even highlight a few passages. The author also has a horrible penchant for informing the reader that something is very bloody interesting, without ever going into detail or explaining why it might be so. It's a little unfair to call it a slog, but only a little. The feeling that you're barely scratching th A Classical Education somehow manages to never cover more than a cheat sheet in pages. The feeling that you're barely scratching the surface is consistent and irritating, particularly when the author constantly refers to other parts of the book, sometimes several times a page, as if they include what you need to know.

It's not a mark in her favour that I learnt with greater depth in the very schools she insists don't teach the subject and I absolutely hated. I just can't find enough to recommend it to anyone that has even a passing knowledge of Ancient Greece or Rome. This book wavers between a thoughtful yet entertaining primer on classics and distracting injections of drivel.

Some of footnotes can get especially tiresome, including: I should think not" page Not to mention her ironically? I'm sure some will appreciate Taggart's lighthearted approach, but to me the frequency and nature of he This book wavers between a thoughtful yet entertaining primer on classics and distracting injections of drivel.

I'm sure some will appreciate Taggart's lighthearted approach, but to me the frequency and nature of her commentary felt disruptive. I have read several books by Caroline Taggart, but this one was the most fun to read.

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