Can I give my children a classical education if…
However you’ve come to learn about the rich tradition of classical education it doesn’t take long to feel overwhelmed with the ideas of interacting directly with art, music, literature, natural philosophy, languages like Latin, and the liberal arts of the trivium and quadrivium. Perhaps even just reading this opening statement is enough to make you feel like you’re floundering in deep waters.
And you begin to wonder if you have what it takes to provide this kind of education to your children and students.
You might wonder if you’re smart enough, academic enough, wealthy enough. You might question whether your own education - with its gaps and utilitarian focus coloured by political ideologies of our time - disqualify you from teaching classically. You might worry that you’ll do it wrong and make mistakes that will have a negative impact on your children.
I remember these doubts well and indeed, even after thirty years, they still try to pull me down from time to time.
The answer is yes you can give your children classical education. There are no qualifiers to this. You simply can. All you need is to humbly embrace the posture of a learner alongside your children. Begin with the ideas and principles that make sense to you and you know you can put into practise. Simple ideas like reading aloud living books and classic stories to your children. Begin with fables, fairytales, and the parables of Jesus. Then work up to mythologies and classic stories. In amongst that read historical and science narratives as you find them. Add to those as you and your children are ready.
You don’t need to overhaul your whole library of teaching and text resources straight away. Begin with the textbooks, workbooks, and curriculum materials that are not working for you or your children. Find options that are created in a living classical framework and pedagogical practise and try one. That’s it.
Don’t rush. Take one step at a time. Seems simple and it is, it’s just not easy. Our culture is geared towards pushing and rushing. So it will take time to become comfortable within the counter-cultural tension of slowing down, considering your steps, and embracing the process of deeper, thoughtful learning.
I’ve found the poem, The Peasant Poet, an encouragement over the years as a helpful reminder that this kind of learning truly is open to everyone. Because it’s not just an academic education, it is a way of learning for the whole hearted person to live a flourishing life, no matter their circumstances or their past education. This thoughtful engagement with nature, the habit of thinking, and a poetic knowledge (observed through our senses) is where education truly begins.
The Peasant Poet
He loved the brook’s soft sound,
The swallow swimming by.
He loved the daisy-covered ground,
The cloud-bedappled sky.
To him the dismal storm appeared
The very voice of God;
And when the evening rack was reared
Stood Moses with his rod.
And everything his eyes surveyed,
The insects in the brake,
Were creatures God Almighty made,
He loved them for His sake--
A silent man in life's affairs,
A thinker from a boy,
A peasant in his daily cares,
A poet in his joy.
by John Clare (1793-1864)
