Classical Education

Yesterday I started reading a book called "The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had."  Through the advice offered in this book I hope to be able to better understand the classics and the great conversation of culture that we have been born into.

According to the author there are three aspects to a classical education.  They are first grammatical, second logical, and third rhetorical.  The general idea being that a classical education follows these three steps: first teaching a child to read and understand written language, second to evaluate the logical assumptions behind the written word, and finally to articulate either through writing or speech an opinion on the subject.

This larger educational framework is also applicable, the book states, to the studying of a single work by an author.  First a general reading of the work is required, second an evaluation of the ideas being presented, and thirdly the formation of an opinion generally expressed through writing.

The utilization of the larger framework upon single works is greatly facilitated by the keeping of a journal.  This journal encompasses three general types of writing: a summary of the work at hand, any quotes or snippets of interest, and a commentary upon it.

The object of a classical education is not to simply read an authors work once, put it back on the shelf, and forget about it.  Rather it is the engaging of ideas and the wrestling with concepts often beyond our human abilities of reason and understanding.

I am going to give this framework a try.  Some of the essays that I will write on the different books that I read will undoubtedly find their way onto this blog in some way or another.  I am starting with Don Quixote today.

Yours in Christ,

Reader Nicholas