BFCCPS - Classical Education

1. Students are grounded in the fundamental subjects of literature, history, mathematics, science, language, music and the arts in order to understand culture and enable active participation in it.

2. The developmental stages of classical education (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) guide how our curriculum is taught. In addition to learning the content of a wide range of subjects, students develop the ability to analyze, reason, and express themselves.

3. The Core Knowledge Sequence and the MA Curriculum Frameworks guide our curriculum. These provide the “body of knowledge of proved, lasting significance, assumed in public discourse and known by a broad majority of literate people” (original BFCCPS charter).

4. The curriculum is systematic, rigorous and challenging.

5. There is an emphasis on learning through reading, writing and spoken language.

6. A variety of thoughtful, engaging teaching methods promote a student’s active role in learning. These may include collaborative learning, writing process workshops, hands-on projects, plays, interdisciplinary and theme-based units, seminars, differentiated instruction and cooperative education.

Background

When taking on the task of defining the principles of classical education at BFCCPS, the Mission Committee consulted a variety of sources to better understand the concept of classical education. The first source studied was the original charter language submitted to the commonwealth in 1994 by the founding families of BFCCPS. The language on the school’s website giving an overview of the Core Knowledge program further enhanced our understanding of the founders’ intent.

To supplement these sources, three additional documents were studied. First, Dr. William Schmitt, headmaster of the Trivium School, in Lancaster, MA, prepared a presentation for the Mission Committee on the topic of classical education. Dr. Schmitt’s paper that formed the basis for the presentation was a great resource as well. The Committee read an essay on classical education, “The Lost Tools of Learning” by Dorothy Sayers, a British writer, scholar, and expert on the Middle Ages. Lastly, an essay titled “What is Classical Education?” by the educator, Susan Wise Bauer, provided additional thoughts and concepts for our consideration.

One component of a classical education is learning about the Greeks and Romans. Their history, literature, languages, and philosophy can provide a basis for a classical education curriculum. Understanding the past and learning about the essential truths about man and nature discovered by these ancient civilizations can help prepare our children for the future. (Schmitt)

An extension of this component is the belief that a classical education provides a “body of knowledge of proved, lasting significance, assumed in public discourse and known by a broad majority of literate people” (BFCCPS original charter). There is a shared history and shared literacy.

Another component is an emphasis on the concept of the trivium – the tools of grammar, logic, and rhetoric – which shape the approach used to teach a classical education curriculum. These tools of learning can be applied to any subject being studied. The grammar stage focuses on learning the structure and building blocks of a subject - facts, names, dates, etc. As children get older, they develop logic skills and learn how to argue, contradict and debate issues within the subject. They can learn how to really use a language or subject and recognize cause and effect. The rhetoric stage, usually reached around high school age, leads young adults to express themselves in a more nuanced manner, focus on the big picture and produce more originality in thought. (Schmitt; Sayers; Bauer)

A classical education is often language focused. Learning is primarily done through written and spoken words and less through images. Language learning requires the mind to work harder and be more active and engaged than image learning (Bauer).

A classical education uses history as its organizing structure and includes science, literature, art and music of each era (Bauer). All knowledge is interrelated.

A classical education is systematic and rigorous. This rigorous study helps develop virtue, the ability to act in accordance to what one knows to be right. “Classical education asks students to work against his baser inclination in order to reach a goal – the mastery of a subject”. (Bauer)

BFCCPS believes in blending these components in defining its classical education pillar.

Overview

We strive to provide a curriculum that has at its core emphasis on a classical education. This means literature, history, mathematics, science, language, music and the arts that have been valued by many generations as important to teach to children are important at BFCCPS.

The Core Knowledge Sequence, originated by Edward Hirsh, Ph.D., stressed the importance of being grounded in these fundamentals for understanding the basis of our culture and participation in it. Such fundamentals include, for example, the basic principles of constitutional government, important events of world history, essential elements of mathematics and of oral and written expression, widely acknowledged masterpieces of art and music, and stories and poems passed down from generation to generation. By clearly specifying important knowledge in language arts, history and geography, math, science, and the fine arts, the Core Knowledge Sequence presents a practical answer to the question, "What do our children need to know?" Shared Literacy depends on shared knowledge. To be literate means, in part, to be familiar with a broad range of knowledge taken for granted by speakers and writers. For example, when sportscasters refer to an upset victory as "David knocking off Goliath," or when reporters refer to a "threatened presidential veto," they are assuming that their audience shares certain knowledge. One goal of the Core Knowledge Sequence is to provide all children, regardless of background, with the shared knowledge they need to be included in our national literate culture

Our curriculum blends the Core Knowledge Sequence with the educational guidelines of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. We reach beyond both of these, emphasizing classical education, through our music and arts programs, and Latin and French language programs. BFCCPS is proud to have been selected by the NAMM Foundation as one of the "Best 100 Communities for Music Education" in 2006 and 2008. In language we do not stop at our classes in French and Latin during the school hours. After hours programs have included other languages such as American Sign Language and Mandarin.

Our vision of "classic" extends to the future as well as we consider the skills our children will need as they mature. Our mathematics, computer technology and science programs are growing. Children learn not just the facts of science but also the ability to reason scientifically and support their data statistically. Our annual science fair, proctored by parents who are scientists, provides a venue for teaching children to communicate in our increasingly technical world.

In the curriculum knowledge is transmitted to children sequentially, grade by grade, so that there are no gaps in learning. A topic covered in the first grade "spirals" back to be covered in greater depth or from a different perspective in later grades. People often find the topics covered in the curriculum to be challenging ones, and so they are surprised that first graders, for example, learn topics such as Mesopotamia and electricity. What parents and teachers together have discovered is that children are sponges, and it is up to us as educators to provide them with the right kind of "liquid" knowledge to absorb.

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