The Well-Trained Mind is a parent’s guide to a do-it-yourself, academically rigorous, comprehensive education—a classical education. (Location 290)
What is classical education? It is language-intensive—not image-focused. It demands that students use and understand words, spoken and written, rather than communicating primarily through images. It is history-intensive, providing students with a comprehensive view of human endeavor from the beginning until now. It trains the mind to analyze and draw conclusions. It both requires and develops self-discipline—the ability to tackle a difficult task that doesn’t promise an immediate reward, for the sake of future gain. It produces literate, curious, intelligent students who have a wide range of interests and the ability to follow up on them. (Location 291)
Every involved parent is a home educator. If you’re checking your child’s compositions, talking him through his history homework, or drilling him in math, you’re already teaching him. (Location 363)
Encourage your child toward absorption in grades 1 through 4, critical thought in grades 5 through 8, and expression in grades 9 through 12. (Location 371)
We were experiencing firsthand the terrific leveling pressure applied in so many schools: the effort to smooth out the bumps by bringing well-prepared kids down to the level of the rest. (Location 434)
We no longer teach our children the process of memorization, organization, and expression—the tools by which the mind learns. (Location 495)
I was the best teacher my children could possibly have had because I was their parent. (Location 511)
Home education teaches children to learn and eventually to teach themselves. (Location 526)
A classical education is more than just a pattern of learning, though. First, it is language-focused: learning is accomplished primarily through words, written and spoken, rather than mostly through images (pictures, videos, and television). (Location 595)
Second, a classical education follows a specific three-part pattern: the mind must be first supplied with facts and images, then given the logical tools for organization of those facts and images, and finally equipped to express conclusions. (Location 600)
Third, classical education strives for mastery in the skill areas, but discovery and exploration in the content areas. (Location 602)
Fourth, to the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. (Location 612)
All of them maintain the pattern that is so central to classical education: exploration in the early years, critical thinking and analysis in the middle grades, specialization and self-expression in the high-school years. (Location 657)
Rigorous, systematic study has two purposes. Rigorous study develops virtue in the student: the ability to act in accordance to what one knows to be right. Virtuous men or women can force themselves to do what they know is right, even when it runs against their inclinations. (Location 672)