Book Review: Teaching the Trivium

 

Teaching the Trivuim: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, by Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn
Reviewed by Claymore

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I don’t think I ever heard the word “Trivium” before reading this book, but Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style explains it quite well. It explains a great many things. I read nearly the whole thing (it’s over 600 pages), and I thought my head was going to explode. Maybe I could absorb it more easily if I had received a classical education—but I didn’t, and now I need to remediate myself. I want to make sure my children get a solid education, and have the tools to teach themselves. We parents cannot know everything, but we can teach our kids the skills of learning, and that is what this book is all about.

Teaching the Trivium is a goldmine of information for homeschoolers and hope-to-be homeschoolers. The Bluedorns start by explaining what “classical” and “trivium” mean. Basically, their meaning of “classical” is what has good form, has lasting value, and which conforms to a Biblical Christian worldview. Trivium is a Latin word meaning “where three roads meet.” The Trivium model is:

A. Mastery of the facts (grammar, discovery, knowledge),
B. Mastery of their relationships (logic, reason, understanding),
C. Mastery of their uses and applications (rhetoric, application, wisdom).

Using a variety of sources and arguments, their case for homeschooling is very compelling, and places the responsibility of educating children squarely on the shoulders of the parents. Teaching our children is a God-given duty, not to be taken lightly, and children should be bound to their family, not to their peers. I particularly liked this little tidbit:

Thou wouldst not, deaf to Nature’s tenderest plea,
Turn him adrift upon the sea,
Nor say, - “Go thither”; - conscious that there lay
A brood of asps, or quicksands in this way;
Then only governed by the self-same rule
Of natural pity, send him not to school.
- William Cowper, 1785

Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn have put years of experience and tons of practical wisdom into this book. Written in a matter of fact, though not humorless way, there is excellent food for thought on many aspects of life. Like the Trivium model itself, the chapters follow a path of progressive elaboration - providing detailed advice on curriculum content, planning and execution of daily routines, and long term goals. I found the book to be educational, and it challenged me to do better as a parent/teacher.

Rating: 7 out of 10