The Goal of Classical Education

Earlier in the series, we discussed what classical education is. My children go to a classical day school that has students in preschool through eighth grade. Because of this and because my children are in second grade and younger, we mainly think about the grammar level of education when we think about classical education.

Allyssa wants to be a teacher and a mom. She is 7. David wants to be a cowboy. He will be 6 next month. Kaytlin is 3 and wants to be a bunny.

This is a backwards way of thinking though. Yes, we want our children to do well at the grammar stage of learning, but the goal of classical education isn't to produce masters of grammar, but master rhetoricians.

There is all this talk about being proactive in our children's education and being intentional parents. I personally sometimes feel very guilty about this because I am not always thinking about how everything we do affects the future education of my kids, which seems to me a way of not being proactive and intentional. I think that most parents are probably like me and primarily think about what is going on in this stage or this year or this week rather than the grand scheme of things. However, when we have a broad view (meaning remember the Logic and Rhetoric stages and not only thinking of the Grammar stage) of classical education to begin with, it helps us understand better what classical education is and what its goal is.

When we think about our children's future we want them to do well in whatever they do. We might think of a career that our child might be suited for or we might think of the different vocations that they might be placed in or choose to be in, and we desire for them to do well in each of their vocations. We desire for them to know the good, beautiful and true so that they can be prepared and equipped for whatever vocation that they wind up having.

With that as our end goal, instead of focusing on achieving a master at the grammar level for the sake of having a child who did well, we focus on teaching what is good, beautiful and true so that when they are grown they have this knowledge at their disposal, so that they will be equipped for whatever they become. The one who masters the rhetoric stage is the one who is eloquent and persuasive in speech. He is able to discuss things with depth and clarity. And so we see that this ability is more than mastering the grammar stage of learning. This is ultimately our main goal.

This differs from progressive schools because they desire students to learn what is taught, which is oftentimes not what is good, true, and beautiful, but do not encourage the rhetoric as the child grows.

Take away the rhetoric level of learning, and sadly you don't have the same education. Sure, your child learned a lot of facts but did your child learn how to make sense of them and did he learn to appreciate the good, true, and beautiful? This is why classical education and life long learning doesn't end. There is more to learning than simply mastering the grammar level of education. As one whose children are in the grammar level, I say we should take a hard look at what our children are learning and doing and ask, "Is the goal of this to produce rhetoricians that can appreciate the good, true and beautiful?" There is a bigger question than, "Does this conflict with classical education?" There are many times that we can answer "no" to that question, but what if we asked instead, "What does this say about how we approach classical education and the desired result of classical education?" When we look at things this way, the answer is more than a "yes" or "no" answer. Instead, we have to evaluate what we are doing and teaching and see how it supports or does not support classical education when viewed as a pedagogy that has a specific end goal.