Curriculum Spotlight

Common Arts Education – “The academic foundations of classical education do not alone guarantee human flourishing. The liberal arts—the trivium and quadrivium—represent the core frameworks for cultivating virtue and practicing skills vital to our life in the world. And yet, they alone are insufficient, for we must eat, heal, defend ourselves, trade, build, find our way around, and more. It may seem evident that the common arts should be an integral part of education, and yet we see that every generation is losing skill in the common arts as we increasingly rely upon others to provide them for us. In Common Arts Education, author Chris Hall provides not only an argument for an integrated liberal, fine, and common arts pedagogy, but also some practical advice for crafting a robust, hands-on curriculum.

Beginning with the story of the classroom experiences that led him to explore the common arts as a vector for the liberal and fine arts, the author outlines a vision for the resonance between the arts, supplies concrete steps that teachers can take to implement a common arts curriculum, and provides a series of experiences to try in any classroom, at any grade level. As you read, you will find the liberal arts applied, the fine arts situated, and the common arts revealed as a critical element of a classical education.”

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer is the homeschool curriculum “bible” of many a homeschooler. Whether you intend to follow the classical education model or choose a different route, this guide is full of incredibly helpful instructions on planning your school year, choosing curricula, and forging a path from elementary through to high school years. “The Well-Trained Mind will instruct you, step by step, on how to give your child an academically rigorous, comprehensive education from preschool through high school―one that will train him or her to read, to think, to understand, to be well-rounded and curious about learning.”

Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Curriculum. The MCT language arts curriculum is a comprehensive, multilevel curriculum designed to provide children with a thorough understanding of the English language. This curriculum stands apart in its approach to language, grammar, poetry, and classical vocabulary development. In their own words: “We do not use worksheets. We believe that they are the neutron bombs of education; they kill all intelligent life while leaving the textbook intact. Coping with a worksheet sends a child in search of a short answer that will fit on a short line. We would prefer children to seek large panoramas of ideas and relationships. To worksheet a subject is to trivialize it. While we have a sense of intellectual and artistic play, we do not sacrifice what we believe children must know. We think that there is a core of knowledge that educated people should have. We would never shortchange that; our view of core knowledge is far more extensive than that of other educational publishers. We do not dumb down material, and we do not abide low expectations.”

You can now order Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Curriculum from Classical Education Books in Canada!