Workshop PowerPoint Presentations

1. Workshop PowerPoint Presentations Can be found here: http://hef.org.nz/workshop-powerpoints/

2. “Training Our Children’s Minds” “The Tools of Learning” and “Motivating our Children” The Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric States of the Classical Trivium (1 ½ hours) Prepared and presented by Barbara Smith www.hef.org.nz

4. ClassicalIncludes anything that is of good form and lasting value Classical Christian – Includes anything that is of good form and lasting value, and which conforms to a Biblical standard within a Biblical worldview From: Teaching the Trivium Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

5. In her essay Miss Dorothy Sayers lamented the inability of modern educators to educate • Students are taught more subjects, but they know less about everything. • They cannot divide fact from opinion, or plausibility from proof. • They are incapable of directly addressing a point, or staying on point without introducing irrelevant, material. • They do not define terms, and they cannot understand different senses in which a term can be used. • They speak the language with inaccurate syntax. • They cannot learn a new subject on their own. • They do not make the connection between different subjects. Modern students have lost the tools for thinking and for learning on their own.

6. 3 Stages of the Classical Trivium(Formal Trivium) • GRAMMAR - Student was taught the mastery of the elements of a language giving skill in comprehension and to accurately receive knowledge • LOGIC – Student was taught the mastery of statements, definitions, arguments, and fallacies. He learned to critically analyze and to understand • RHETORIC – Student was taught the mastery of creative and persuasive speech. It gave skill in communication. Student learned to wisely and effectively express and practice what he had learned.

7. Trivium Model of Child Educational Development Dorothy Sayers describes these 3 stages as: 1. GRAMMER – “The Poll-Parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished. At this age one readily memorizes the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite… one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible polysyllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things.”

8. 2. LOGIC – “The Pert Age, which follows upon this (and, naturally, overlaps it to some extent) is only too familiar to all who have to do with children: it is characterised by contradicting, answering-back, liking to “catch people out” (especially one’s elders) and propounding of conundrums (especially the kind with a nasty verbal catch in them).” 3. RHETORIC – “The Poetic Age is popularly known as the “difficult” age. It is self-contented; it yearns to express itself; it rather specializes in being misunderstood; it is restless and tries to achieve independence; and, with good luck and good guidance, it should show the beginnings of creativeness, a reaching out towards a synthesis of what it already knows, and a deliberate eagerness to know and do some one thing in preference to all others.”

9. 3 Stages of the APPLIED Trivium (Trivium Model of Child Educational Development according to Dorothy Sayers) 1 GRAMMAR When the child absorbs factual information like a sponge 2. LOGIC When a child is more inquisitive and analytical 3. RHETORIC When a child is more creative and expressive

10. The learning process naturally falls into this three step progression: According to Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn GRAMMAR The first step is to accumulate the facts – Knowledge LOGIC The second step is to comprehend the relationships between these facts – Understanding RHETORIC The third step is to put to practical use the expression what we know and understand – Wisdom

11. Teaching the Triviumby Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

12. Some Verses showing the Trivium Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Proverbs 3:19, 20 The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew: Proverbs 24:3, 4 Through wisdom is a house builded; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches Teaching the Trivium

13. The Trivium (According to Barbara Smith) GRAMMER This is the time for training our children’s minds LOGIC This is the time for teaching our children the tools of learning RHETORIC This is the time for us to be motivating our children and helping them to open doors for their future.

14. “The evidence shows overwhelmingly that these children (home educators) perform extremely well, above average, when they re-enter formal education. That appears to be across the board, whether they sat at home and had formal lessons…or whether they were up-a-tree hippies who had no formal learning pattern. On any measure you like, socially or academically they will do better.” – Jeff Richardson, Monash University, Melbourne.

15. He is educated who knows how to find out what he doesn’t know George Simmel German Philosopher

16. Home Based Education, “Not “Does it Work?” but “Why does it work so well?” by Roland MeighanUniversity of Nottingham School of Education • “Families starting out on home-based education who at first adopted formal methods of learning found themselves drawn more and more into less formal learning. Families who started out with informal learning at the outset found themselves drawn into even more informal learning.The methods that both groups grew into had much more in common with the methods of younger children. The sequencing of learning material, the bedrock of learning in school, was seen increasingly as unnecessary and unhelpful.”

17. “This study challenges the almost universally held view that children of school age need to be formally taught if they are to learn. In school this may be the case but at home they can learn just by living.” -- Alan Thomas’s research

18. “If you ask what schools are for the obvious answer is to educate kids… …but there’s an equally important answer. And that is to socialise them, to bring them up to be comfortable in adult society and I think this has always been a feature of the education process, otherwise it wouldn’t take so long. You don’t need 15 years to educate somebody but you need 15 years to socialise somebody” -- Sir Neil Waters, past Vice-Chancellor of Massey University, NZ Qualifications Authority Board Chairman in an interview in the NZQA’a magazine LEARN, Issue 10, November 1996 p.8 (The punctuation of this paragraph is exactly as it appears in the magazine.) From: “Preparing for an ERO Review” by Craig Smith page 18 & 19

19. In any study of high-achieving people, three factors kept emerging: • Warm, demanding adults who loved and challenged their children throughout their lives; • An exploratory curriculum with an opportunity to explore new ideas and interests that arose in the mind of the learner rather than a totally imposed curriculum • Giving people only limited access to their peer groups. Sir Christopher Ball, the Chancellor of the University of Derby and the Millennium Visiting Fellow at the Auckland University of Technology

20. Socialisation and the Occurrence of Genius In 1960 Harold G McCurdy examined “The childhood pattern of genius” in a study supported by the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D.C. • A big degree of attention focused upon the child by parents and other adults, expressed in intensive educational measures and, usually, abundant love; • Isolation from other children, especially outside the family; • A rich efflorescence of fantasy as a reaction to the preceding condition.

21. Socialisation and the Occurrence of Genius “ It might be remarked that the mass education of our public school system is, in its way, a vast experiment on the effect of reducing all three factors to a minimum; accordingly, it should tend to suppress the occurrence of genius. Quoted in Doctoral thesis of Brian D Ray, President, National Home Education Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, 29 July 1986

22. Home Educators scope and Sequence “How” and “Why”

23. One of the primary purposes of classical education is to equip the students to learn for themselves From: Classical Education-The Home School By Douglas Wilson, Wesley Callihan and Douglas Jones

24. In preparation for this overall task, the reading you do should begin with the lists given in this booklet. And we state emphatically, again, that the reading of the teacher (parents) is more important than the reading of the student. If the teacher (parent) reads as he/she should, the reading of the student will naturally fall into place. But if the teacher is just in search of a “book list” for the student to read, then it is not a classical education that is in view. From: Classical Education-The Home School By Douglas Wilson, Wesley Callihan and Douglas Jones

25. Keep it simple and set yourself up to succeed. Big ambitions and big plans are great, but if they are unrealistic, you will burn yourself out and set yourself up to fail.

26. Your home education programme, almost regardless of what it is, has vast advantages over even the most gifted of teachers in a classroom simply because it is you, their mum, doing one-on-one for as long as you like, any way you like, and where you like, 7 days a week. 365 days a year. With such conviction you will be spilling over with the kind of confidence that stirs up not only your own children but nearly everyone else you engage in conversation to want more! (Excitement, enthusiasm, conviction and lastly confidence.) Training our Children, Keystone Magazine

27. Training Children’s Minds The gathering of information – Knowledge The child is always learning facts, relating the facts to each other, and using these facts and relations in practical ways. Our Goal is to develop competence in the tools of inquiry: reading, listening, writing, observing and measuring. From: Teaching the Trivium, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

28. Always begin each day with your Number One goal

29. READ TO YOUR CHILDREN AT LEAST 2 HOURS A DAY

30. Read a wide range books: • The Bible • Biographies • Autobiographies • Historical fiction • Church history • Books on science • Nature • Musicians • Artists etc

31. 3 Keys for Memorizing Scripture 1. Review 2. Review 3. Review

32. Narration • On what I read to my child and • what my child reads to me Charlotte Mason

33. Dr Raymond Moore Suggests three categories to focus on: • Work • Service • Academics

34. I believe that training young children to do jobs around the home to a high standard is training them to do their studies later in life to a high standard

35. Life is a great teacher. Do you know everything?

36. The Tools of learning Arranging information in a logical order – Understanding It takes 2-4 years to teach our children all the skills that they need for life, to make sure that they are good readers, writers and mathmathians. From: Teaching the Trivium

37. We need to teach them how to: • Take notes • Write book reports and general reports • Write letters • Write essays • Do research • Logic • Debating

38. http://www.careycollege.com/Lesson_Plans.html http://web.archive.org/web/20060117192850/http://careycollege.com/curriculum/subject.php3 • Subject List • Bible • English • English - Composition • English - Grammar • English - Literature • History • Mathematics • New Zealand Geography • Science http://web.archive.org/web/20060519005611/http://careycollege.com/curriculum/subject.php3?id=3 • Answering Examination Questions requiring Essay Answers • Letter Setting-out • Quotations & Footnotes • Writing 5 x 5 essays • Writing and Presenting Speeches http://web.archive.org/web/20071014212627/http://careycollege.com/curriculum/documents/english-composition-general-essay5x5.pdf Writing 5 x 5 essays

39. We also need to teach them the skills of: Reasoning – to critically question, analyze, evaluate, and discern causes, motives, means, purposes, goals and efforts, to investigate the theory. Understanding is imparted through coaching, correcting and drilling. We develop a vocabulary of relationships, order, and abstractions. From: Teaching the Trivium, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

40. Our goal is to develop competence in the tools of investigation: analyzing, comparing and contrasting Our greatest tool for this in Home Education is hospitality

41. Motivating our Children Putting the information and order into practical use – Wisdom We teach the skills of prudent judgment and effective expression – through communication and practical application. Wisdom is imparted through encouraging individual initiative and innovation, asking questions, and leading discussions. We develop a vocabulary of philosophical ideas and values. We begin to recombine the knowledge and skills from separate disciplines. We seek the application of principles, values and goals. Again all achieved by being hospitable From: Teaching the Trivium, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

42. The intensive Wisdom period lasts for two to three years, and when it is over, Wisdom, of course, continues to grow and develop, but all three capacities – Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom – which have been developing all along, emerge as a fully developed team of tools. From: Teaching the Trivium, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

43. The emphasis of home-based education on self-discipline and self-directed learning and the personal confidence this produces creates young people who can adapt to new situations and new people Home based Education, “Not “Does it Work?” but “Why Does it Work so Well?’ by Ronald Meighan

44. You cannot possibly “teach” your children everything they need to know. But you can give them one thing they need to learn – a positive learning attitude. Educating the WholeHearted Child page 3 Clay and Sally Clarkson

45. Summary In summary, the capacities for Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom are not neat little compartments with sealed doors between them. Rather, they all develop at the same time from the very beginning, yet they each pass through successive periods of intensive development, until they finally catch up with each other and work harmoniously together. From: Teaching the Trivium, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

46. To summarize… …it all in one sentence; we first instruct the child in Knowledge or Grammar; Then we guide the child in Understanding or Logic; And finally we challenge the child in Wisdom or Rhetoric. Taken from Teaching the Trivium

47. OR We train our children’s minds, Then teach them the Tools of Learning Which leads to them being motivated to put everything together. They have the tools to study, now they can go out to study in their areas of interest. A motivated child will learn much quicker.

48. Parent’s role The parent’s other role during this Rhetoric – Wisdom stage is to guide the child in opening doors for their future and to train the child to be ready for their future.

49. TRAINING OUR CHILDREN By Craig and Barbara Smith

50. HomeEducationFoundation www.hef.org.nz