Orientation in Classical Education: Foundations, History & Effective Teaching
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INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL EDUCATION
Lecture 1: A Clear Definition of Classical Education5 Topics|1 Quiz -
Lecture 2: Clear Words for Classical Education4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 3: To What Shall I Compare Classical Education?3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 4: Various Models of Classical Education2 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 5: The Major Elements of Classical Education3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 6: Tracing the History of Classical Education (part one)4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 7: Why Classical Education?4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 8: Communal Education (Paideia)4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 9: Implementing Classical Education5 Topics|1 Quiz
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATIONLecture 10: Classical and Medieval Ideas of Leisure and Learning3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 11: The History of American Education4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 12: Education in the Medieval World4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 13: The History of Ancient Education3 Topics|1 Quiz
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ESSENTIALS OF EFFECTIVE TEACHINGLecture 14: Foundational Principles4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 15: Aiming at Human Flourishing4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 16: Meaningful Planning4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 17: Meaningful Assignments4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 18: Meaningful Assessments4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 19: Meaningful and Effective Classrooms4 Topics|1 Quiz
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THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTSLecture 20: The Seven Liberating Arts3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lecture 21: The History of the Seven Liberal Arts3 Topics|1 Quiz
Tests and Facts
“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them…. In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but the Facts!” –Mr. Thomas Gradgrind
In the opening scene of Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times, the machine-like Mr. Thomas Gradgrind gives a passionate explanation of his philosophy of education. Gradgrind sees students as merely empty depositories to be mechanically filled with “Facts.” This is made strikingly clear both by Dickens’s brilliant use of language and when a new student comes to class one day. She has grown up with horses her whole life and knows horses intimately, but is chastised for not being able to give a textbook-style definition of a horse. Though obviously dramatic, this type of focus on facts and trivia is strikingly similar to the modern culture of standardized testing. Students are asked to mechanically learn certain facts to be assessed and graded by a machine. This sort of assessment does not allow for the nuance to determine if a student is learning to love the right things. Likely, clear corrections will never be provided, so it truly is merely a way to dump facts into the depository in hopes they will stick. The growth of the person is not demonstrated to be valuable. Though, as Robyn Burlew points out, a deeper assessment is often more crude and less objective, it can get closer to testing the things that a classical education seeks to instill in students.
“From the heron flying home at dusk,
from the misty hollows at sunrise,
from the stories told at the row’s end,
they are calling the mind into exile
in the dry circuits of machines.”
— Wendell Berry, Sabbath Poems 1990, II