6 Books for Classical Educators
Classical Education Books to Consider for Teachers and Parents
It’s tough to nail down what a classical or liberal arts education really is. Most schools use the title as an excuse to start doing something ‘older’, but, if you’ve spent any time in classical or liberal arts spheres, that means totally different things to different people. Some people want to imitate a Victorian English boarding school. Others want a one room prairie school house. Still others want an ancient Greek forum. As you can imagine, these are very different models and make for just as different schools. However, I have encountered very few people who actually quote pedagogical sources from periods in which classical education was the norm. Older generations struggled with the same conversations about how to best pursue a classical education, and many of their books are even free online! To truly build up a movement of classical and liberal arts education, the community must find a common language built on shared research. For this reason, I have shared some of the most pedagogically enlightening books that I’ve found with descriptions of what they contain. As an elementary school teacher, my focus is largely on the foundations of an education through high school, so my suggestions do not delve into the planning of a university curriculum. However, I think, with students formed in the classical languages and mathematics, a university curriculum studying the classics in their original language would more or less proceed naturally. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
1. Fr. Robert Schwickerath Jesuit Education
(affiliate links)
Among all of the Catholic Church’s millenia-long attempts to educate youths, the Jesuits may be the all-time gold standard. The liberal education that they provided (long abandoned now) started by prioritizing fluency in Latin and Greek to then read the classics in their original languages. Jesuit priests were also required to learn Hebrew in order to become familiar with the Old Testament. Thoroughly considered from an elementary grammar education all the way to advanced studies in theology, their program created some of the greatest and most inspired minds of the Church.
Fr. Schwickerath’s book clearly outlines and describes both a history of Western European education in general and the methods of the Jesuits from their inception until the book’s composition in 1903. The benefit of reviewing the history of Western education and then highlighting the methodology and techniques of one of its greatest institutions puts this book at the top of the list. If you even have a passing interest in learning about thoroughly Catholic, classical education as it was done by the masters, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
I wrote a reflection on a particularly moving quotation in his book some time ago, which can be found below.
To buy it on amazon, click here. (affiliate links)
Or use this link for the free google book pdf.
2. Charlotte Mason An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education
For those interested in homeschooling, Charlotte Mason may not be the first person to read, but she is an absolute must for developing the proper style and purpose behind the project of home education. Like all great pedagogues, she relies deeply on the classical methods implemented throughout the history of education including monasteries and humanistic teachers. Her entire series is worth reading.
Still, I have a mixed appreciation for Charlotte Mason. Her reasoning is typically quite sound, and she generally says things that I agree wholeheartedly with. However, her language can be confusing for someone used to Thomistic philosophy like myself. For example, where the Thomist would describe building habits of virtue in a child, she tends to use the term ‘will’ and forming a strength of the child’s ‘will’. While I think she is ultimately saying the same thing, her nuanced terminology may be a big hurdle.
For all that, her analysis of education seriously asks the question ‘what are we trying to do here?’, which is a horribly undervalued question. Too few actually consider what ‘going to school’ should do, and her exposition resounds with such clarity and intuition that one cannot help but be inspired.
To buy it on amazon, click here.
Or use the free epub at project gutenberg.
For links to Charlotte Mason’s Home Education series, follow this link.
3. Stratford Caldecott Beauty in the Word
A giant among enthusiasts in liberal arts education, the late Stratford Caldecott brings his keen intellect to bear on what an authentic education should be in Beauty in the Word. This excellent work hits several main topics such as the place and priority of the trivium and seriously analyzes the place of prayer and liturgy. If you are working in classical education, you will inevitably run into this book, and it’s a must for every teacher’s shelf.
To buy it on amazon, click here.
4. Liping Ma Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics
Perhaps a bit of an odd choice for a classical education reading list, this book is about math. However, I consider Dr. Liping Ma’s analysis of the problems with modern American math education so poingnant that it deserves to enter the central conversation of mathematical liberal arts discussions. Her critiques largely base themselves upon the fact that most American teachers don’t understand the math that they teach. They merely demonstrate an algorithm and pound the procedure of that algorithm through their students’ brains until it sticks (more or less). For an educationaly style that prioritizes questioning, discussing, and understanding, the modern educational method will not suffice. Dr. Ma’s examples are riveting and truly show how much deeper our elementary math education could be, and, ultimately, more in line with the entire scheme of a liberal arts education.
Math should be learning about ‘how’ and ‘why’ numbers behave as they do. Memorization techniques to help students ‘flip and multiply’ when dividing by a fraction are good, but they are lacking because all they do is help the student get better at the algorithm, not understanding. Ultimately, both memorized algorithms and understanding are the goal. A student must be able to do basic math computation, but a student that can divide by fractions without understanding why that works has been tricked. He does not know math.
This interview with Dr. Ma with the New York Times helps to illustrate her concerns and a bit of the context of her book. If you’re on the fence about the book, try this article, and I think she’ll sell you.
To buy the book on amazon, click here.
5. St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle The Conduct of Christian Schools
On the other end of the Jesuits, who focused so intensely on humanistic studies at high academic levels, the Christian Brothers, founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, focused on providing a basic education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and catechism for poor children. As seen in his work, The Conduct of Christian Schools, students were required to attend morning mass daily along with vespers and and an examination of conscience at the end of school.1 My experience has not led me to encounter his order, the Christian Brothers, but this work of a Saint discussing helpful topics in education feels like a long-lost secret. Nowhere has any Catholic school teacher mentioned this book to me, and I think St. Jean-Baptiste’s practical methods should be a reference for all Christian teachers.
While making no pretence to offer a liberal arts education, I think the la Sallian method of teaching should still inform classical schools. As the task of teaching students how to perform basic reading and writing skills is undermined by technological advances, la Salle’s proposals for classroom management and curriculum offer attainable goals for schools that are trying to accomplish realistic goals with a Chrisitan spirit.
To buy it on amazon, click here.
The complete works of St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle are available in pdf format for free.
6. Quintilian Institutionis Oratoriae
Probably the most influential book on education of all time, Quintilian’s Institutionis Oratoriae (The Institution of an Orator) stands above the rest for its comprehensive range and focus on liberal studies. As the name suggests, he stresses that the formation of a child into an orator is the goal of his pedagogical method, but this oratorical ability extends to the philosophical and ethical spheres as well, which he takes a great deal of time to elaborate on. Book X is probably the most relevant to teachers and the easiest to find hard copies of. For the html format, click here.
For English and Latin, the Perseus website can be difficult to navigate, but it does have the whole book for free online here. Additionally, Oxford ($90 per volume for a 2-volume set!!!) and Loeb (a slightly easier to swallow $30 per volume in a 5-volume set) both have publications of the Latin. If you’re interested in funding the addition of physical copies to my library, consider making a donation or becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the link.
4 Honorable Mentions:
Do not be fooled! This is a textbook for teachers. Educators MUST do the work to slog through a book like this to truly understand the material that they’re teaching in depth, but don’t expect a friendly, encouraging welcome to the study of the trivium. This book is nothing better than homework. Homework that you should love but still homework.
Amazing book! Everyone should read this, but what people tend not to broadcast is the fact that nearly the entire work is an apology for theology’s place in a secular university curriculum. He’s absolutely right, but, for those making waves with a classical curriculum, it’s just not as relevant unless they really need to be convinced to teach theology classes. In my experience, the classical teachers are already trying to incoporate theology into the curriculum, so this book tends to preach to the choir.
Just read it. It’s not a book for teachers or homeschoolers. It’s a book for life that talks about school too. Just read it.
Having only skimmed through the book, I found it too broad, which may be the intention. The authors were trying to provide guidelines for pursuing a curriculum that emphasizes the trivium and quadrivium in the spirit of the classics. A few times, they make reference to the medieval tradition, but, given my rather brief skim, there didn’t seem to be much substance to that appeal. Perhaps, I will be forced to publish a retraction later when I sit down to a thorough read, but I think this is mostly beneficial for someone first trying to wrap their minds around the classical project.
Questions:
Do you have any favorite pedagogical books you’d like to share?
Can you name a book on education more influential than Quintilian? The only one that comes to mind is Plato’s Republic, but even that is a little too broad to really fit the bill in my mind.
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It’s important to note that daily mass was a key part of every Catholic school’s procedure until the 1970’s. To go to a Catholic school where students didn’t attend daily mass would have been quite odd before then.
What a great round up! I’m looking forward to reading Ma’s interview. Her ideas sound similar to a Montessori approach to teaching math, where kids really get their heads around how numbers work. I once saw 4th graders in a Montessori school doing algebra with math manipulatives because they could actually construct a square and a cube.
I think Montessori’s approach to early years and “sensitive periods” is a good compliment to a classical education in later years. (I know some would disagree, and I don’t think Montessori was correct about everything, but in our contemporary culture, helping children engage with nature and be independent in the sense of being capable seems like a wonderful correction to much of the excessive victimisation/ coddling that seems to be the norm!)