Four Ingredients of a Classical Education

In our marketing material, we refer to Tyburn Academy as a Catholic Classical School. I think it would be worthwhile to spend time delving into what both “Catholic” and “Classical” mean as terms placed in front of “School,” but today’s post will focus exclusively on the what makes an education “Classical”. We will review 4 essential elements of Classical Education which will also reveal how it differentiates itself from Modern Education.

The first ingredient for a Classical Education is the content of what is studied. For centuries, the backbone of a classical education was a focus on the works of Greeks and Romans. Greco-Roman history, language, literature, science, and mathematics were recognized as containing all the principles necessary for a well-formed mind and insight into Human Nature. For example, in studying the Roman author Cicero’s writings in Latin, students would not only study rhetoric and grammar, but would also read someone who gave serious thought to permanently relevant human topics: such as coming to terms with living in old age or what makes for a valuable and authentic friendship. All of America’s Founding Fathers had a Classical Education in this strict sense, and it produced a generation of wise leaders who established one of the greatest nations to ever exist. Today the catalog of what is studied in Classical Schools has expanded, but principles of studying permanent human problems and curricular integration of topics remains a consistent feature.

How this content is studied forms the second ingredient of Classical Education. A Classical School will read full books, a discipline many college professors note is lacking among today’s high school graduates (Atlantic, Oct. 1st 2024).  The progression of a student’s engagement with the curriculum is also broken down into 3 phases: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. In the grammar phase, students learn the structure of language. This is not only the English or Latin language, but the grammar of mathematics or music as well. Before communicating well, students must learn and memorize the rules of punctuation. Before reasoning well in mathematics, students must first learn and memorize the principles of arithmetic and their multiplication tables. In the logic phase, students discipline their thoughts and are trained to use the rules of reasoning to discern and discover truth. The final phase of rhetoric then equips students to be a loquacious articulator of what truth, goodness, and beauty are.

The third ingredient of Classical Education is the relationship between teacher and student. Children crave the human aspect of education. Try as hard as we might to scale education through online learning or through robots teaching kids how to read, these methods will always be 2nd class to the human interaction of a teacher and his or her pupil. In a Classical School, teachers are lifelong learners in their own content area. They transmit their enthusiasm and acquired wisdom to students. The student, in his or her turn, is challenged to wrestle with a given subject or academic challenge. In this dynamic the teacher’s job is to help the student by guiding them through the principles of Math or Literature, from which the student can more clearly grasp the topic at hand. For example, the teacher will lay out the principle of what makes a strong thesis statement or a geometric proof - the student then must implement these guided principles into his or her research paper or geometric demonstration.

The final ingredient in a Classical School is its goal. The goal is the most striking contrast from Modern Education and the source of every difference between the two. Classical Education seeks to form Men and Women who live excellent or virtuous lives in pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These 3 things are not just ideals, but are human necessities. To live in error (or worse, a lie) can be fatal to oneself and is the death knell of society. To lack moral rectitude or goodness hampers the happiness of any individual and does damage to their loved ones and community. In the absence of beauty, we lack a care for important details and are surrounded by architecture that is symbolic of our misery. Modern Education is very explicit in the fact that its goal for students is imparting 21st century skills that are necessary for career readiness. By tying themselves to career readiness in the current age, education becomes intrinsically transient and loses its value the moment that next technological leap is made that changes our economy. It is impossible to predict what the next leap will be or look like, so building the purpose of your education upon the jobs of today is a self-defeating proposition. The jobs of tomorrow will be different. Humanity though, and our desire for Truth, our desire for what is Good, and our desire for the Beautiful, will remain constant.