The Lost Tools of Learning
Dorothy Sayers
As my kids are entering the grade school years, education has been on the front of my mind. What school should they attend; public vs private, religious vs secular, institutional vs homeschool? These are important considerations and they all beg the questions what is the purpose of education? What is the ultimate goal of education? What is the most effective way to accomplish this?
All these questions are of profound importance, and subject matter for future posts. In this post, I want to focus specifically on examining the book, "The Lost Tools of Learning" by Dorothy Sayers.
First published in 1948 as the text of a speech, Sayers discusses the Classical model of education. She discusses her concerns with modern education citing that students taught simply facts that are easily forgotten. They are not taught how to think and reason with those facts, how the study of one subject relates to the study of another. She is concerned that while children are taught what to learn, they are not taught how to learn.
Therefore, she argues, we should return to the classical model of education. In this model, the Trivium provide a framework or method for dealing with subjects and teaching kids how two learn. Specifically, the trivium consists of three age related phases: grammar, logic and rhetoric.
Grammer: This stage focuses on the building blocks of knowledge. It is the learning of facts, often in the form of memorization, recitations and song. Students learn numbers, shapes, words, geography, dates and more.
Logic: This stage focuses on how to use the facts, how to construct an argument, how to detect logical fallacies. Logic will show how subjects are inter-related. And students will be taught how to begin to gathering information for themselves learning how to assess sources and material.
Rhetoric: This stage is the final stage where students use their knowledge of logic and textual criticiscism to begin the process of self-expression. Their goal is how to express the facts and logic in a elegant and persuasive way.
I found this to be a very good and concise description of the classical education philosophy. Sayers does an excellent job establishing the problems with modern educational theory, defining the classical education method and providing a practical description of the classical model throughout the three phases of the trivium.
I have noticed that too many people maintain only a casual acquaintance with the truth and have no clue how to formulate an argument that doesn't devolve into cliches or ad hominem rhetoric. Personally, the classical model makes sense to me and certainly fits with my desire for how I want my children to be educated. In my view, education is not just filling students with information. Rather, it should be prepare the pupil to be a well rounded individual. It should teach students how to critically evaluate information presented to them and present that to others. And education should prepare the pupil to be a life long learner who has an ability to discern and an appreciation for truth.
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