![]() ![]() However, we must still teach basic concepts of plot, motif, etc. Because we have access to good translations of works not in English, our teaching is streamlined we have no need to teach grammar and vocabulary alongside the literature, as we do with Latin. Similarly, to teach literature, most of us rely on a “great books” approach, guiding students through texts in the canon of Western literature. ![]() Next, when they have mastered enough to stumble through the texts, we introduce students to bits of Caesar, Cicero, and others. We give students vocabulary, grammar, and translation drills. (If it seems odd to take language arts as models, consider that mathematics is often described as a special kind of language.) So, let’s take a look at how we, as classical educators, teach Latin and literature.ĭespite the great number of Latin curricula today, most of them follow the model given by our early modern predecessors. However, if we take established classical subjects like Latin or literature, we can discover, by analogy, a way to produce a genuinely “classical” program of mathematics. No clear model exists on which to build “classical mathematics” the same way one might build a program of classical Latin or literature. Thus, early modern schoolmasters’ emphasis on rhetoric combined with social prejudice against mathematics explains why classical educators today have struggled to create a program of mathematics that shares the spirit of the late Renaissance. Instead, many of the mathematicians active in England and Scotland during this period held other professions while pursuing mathematics as a passion. Since the university was the breeding ground of the educated gentleman, they rarely had professors of mathematics. Mathematics, in so far as it was useful, was a tool suited for merchants and laborers. ![]() However, on the whole, mathematics was considered beneath the educated gentleman. It’s unclear how much mathematical training students actually received before attending university, but treatises like Thomas Elyot’s The book named The Governour (1531) suggest that a well-educated person was expected to have some knowledge of the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music (i.e. Unfortunately, because of this emphasis on Latin oratory, students received little training in mathematics. Latin was learned in order to make further learning possible. While these Latin authors were prized in themselves, the primary reason Latin was valued was that almost everything worth knowing was written in Latin. A standard grammar (commonly called “Lily’s Grammar”) was used, and students were given reading and translation exercises drawn from Tully, Caesar, and Cicero, among others. Thus, grammar schools were almost entirely focused on training boys in Latin oratory. Thanks to the social and political demands upon upper and upper-middle English society, one skill was prized above all others: rhetorical ability. Only by returning to Europe’s cultural roots by studying a broad curriculum in classical literature would society be reinvigorated, and only then would innovation flourish. In the spirit of the Renaissance, these educators believed that to go forward, one must first go back. It’s not that early modern educators didn’t value logic it’s that they believed an undue emphasis had been placed upon specialized logical systems that had little practical value beyond the university walls. Thus, it’s more accurate to say that contemporary classical education is a descendant of early modern English educational theory as developed by scholars and schoolmasters roughly between the years 15.ĭuring this period, English educators had become disillusioned (rightly or wrongly) with medieval scholasticism and especially with scholastic education’s emphasis on systems of logic. ![]() We forget that the present renaissance in classical education wouldn’t exist without the English Renaissance. While we like to think that contemporary classical education is a direct return to the West’s Greco-Roman roots, it simply isn’t. On the surface, this seems like a decent way to make math instruction “classical”, but, as I’ll explain, it’s inadequate and ignores the history of classical pedagogy.ĭefining classical mathematics primarily as a teaching methodology is problematic, and to understand why, we need to consider the roots of the classical education movement. What does it mean to teach math classically? If you try to find the answer online, you encounter various educators suggesting that answer lies in a particular methodology-essentially some form of Socratic teaching. The Four Elements of Classical Education.A Brief Introduction to Classical Education.The Gathering Place (Apprentices & Mentors). ![]()
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