A Classical Education

Yesterday I went to an all day conference in Huntersville, NC hosted by the home school curriculum “Classical Conversations“.  This is a curriculum that  a few families from our church use.  It is a Christian curriculum that is based on the “classical” model of education.  Basically this means that they want kids to memorize a ton of information about history and science while they are young and they brains are still sponges.  Then, after they have all the information in their heads, the next step is to move to the conceptual stage of learning.  The third stage, Rhetoric, is the higher thought and philosophical stage of using the information.  I truly believe that this way of learning can be very beneficial as the child grows and continues to reuse the information year after year.  I wish that I remembered everything that I was taught, but I feel that I learned a little bit about a lot of topics over 12 years.  This curriculum has a three year cycle so that every three years the kids are reusing the information stored in their brains.  A great way to remember information.

The conference was very interesting.  It motivated me to home school and it was great to hear from experienced moms and home schoolers.  I can see myself home schooling next year and through elementary school, possibly, but the thought of doing it through high school seems impossible.  But, as one mom told me,”the great thing about home schooling is that you only have to commit to one year at a time.”

The hardest and most intimidating thing about Classical Conversations is that students are required to learn Latin and be fluent in it.  I took my first look at Latin yesterday and it was difficult!  You not only conjugate verbs (as in Spanish), but the nouns as well.  It was very intimidating.  I am not so sure I want to spend all that time and brain power on a dead language.  There are benefits to it, such as word deciphering skills, but what else is there?  I guess we will find out how hard it really is next year.  Wish me luck!


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