The Trivium is the basis of the classical education curriculum. As its name suggests, the curriculum is separated into three phases. The grammar stage is the first, and it corresponds with grades one through six.
At this stage of a child’s life, the physical brain and the cognitive thinking skills haven’t matured yet. That’s why the focus needs to be on solid information. To put it another way, children at this phase just need facts.
Even though some children this age want to know the whys and hows, their brains can only absorb the whats. You can still respond to your children’s whys and hows, but they are not the focus of the grammar stage.
The whats are important for creating a foundation for the higher-leveled thinking and philosophical questions of the hows and whys later. Children in the grammar stage simply don’t have the ability to process reason.
This is largely due to their own lack of experience and background knowledge: They don’t yet have the tools to process reason.
This is the beauty of the grammar stage in the classical education curriculum. Even though the grammar stage is solely based on facts, it is the foundation for all the other learning that will take place in the other two stages.
The next two phrases need this solid foundation in order to be successful.
The next phase in classical education curriculum is the dialect stage. Children can start this phase usually between grade 5 and grade 7.
A noticeable change takes place for a child in this stage as his/her brain development and cognitive skills mature from the concrete to analytical.
Although the child will move from one phase to the next, the first methods aren’t abandoned. The classical education curriculum has a cumulative effect. Concrete learning remains part of the process, but analytical learning is added to it.
The grammar stage focuses on delivering concrete information, the facts. The dialect stage switches focus to the whys and hows. In this second stage, these questions become very important.
The dialect phase sets the stage for the child to apply the facts he or she has already learned, testing to see whether they are actually true. Encouraging this exploration and self-examination is an important step in developing the child’s thinking skills.
In this stage of classical education curriculum, children are introduced to the importance and the need to ask questions, analyze, judge, and examine in a respectful way. There is no need to be disrespectful when asking questions.
By not getting defensive when children ask questions, parents and teachers can encourage a positive atmosphere. Setting a good example helps children learn that you can be respectful and disagree.
The rhetoric stage, or last phase in classical education curriculum, usually begins somewhere around 9th grade and ends with 12th.
Some subjects that are commonly taught include History, Language, Literature, Math, Music, Oratory, Philosophy, Science, and Writing. This is where the all the phases come into the picture and put into practice.
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