Contextualizing the Tools of a Classical and Christian Homeschooling Mother‐Teacher

Abstract

This article reports on the resurgence of classical and Christian education in the United States. This education has been especially popular with evangelical homeschooling mother‐teachers. It seeks to cultivate the biblical virtues of truth, goodness, and beauty through contemplating scripture. The curriculum relies on the ancient Trivium tools of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in order to do this. The inquiry seeks to examine the contexts surrounding a mother‐teacher’s classical and Christian educational practice guided by two questions: (1) Why and how does an evangelical homeschooling mother‐teacher use classical and Christian tools? (2) What are the possibilities and challenges of classical and Christian homeschooling for an evangelical mother‐teacher? This curriculum is illustrated with the portrait of April Greene, an evangelical homeschooling mother‐teacher of two preteen boys. April enacted agency through the complex and dynamic development of her children and herself. April engaged the Trivium using bricolage, making educational meanings by picking and choosing from available resources and tactics to suit her purposes of intellectual and Christian identity formation. She moved beyond the borders of the official curriculum to create unofficial practices as well. These choices allowed her to negotiate the requirements of evangelical identity and the fact that living and leading in the world may require some knowledge of popular culture. April experienced possibilities related to classical and Christian curriculum, pedagogical tools, and mother‐teacher identity. Classical and Christian education also presented a number of difficulties for April regarding cost, time, child agency, perspective taking, isolation, and gender burden. April’s identity and agency as a mother‐teacher reflected her intense devotion. She struggled with competing roles and expectations while thriving on the unique challenge of becoming an evangelical homeschooling mother‐teacher.

Notes

Notes

Evangelicals are strongly represented in the homeschooling movement—both in numbers and in their political clout (Kunzman, ).

All participant names are pseudonyms, and some participant characteristics nonessential for this analysis have been masked for confidentiality purposes.

Generally speaking, homeschoolers are White and middle‐class (NCES, ), and so we might assume that most classical and Christian homeschoolers also fit this demographic.

Evangelical homeschoolers regularly use technology for investigating and purchasing curriculum and related texts and materials (Kunzman, ).

The topic is certainly not straightforward. It is important to point out here, for example, that while Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise are brilliant Christian women and their evangelical worldviews seep through in their writing, they are careful to invite readers of various faiths to explore classical education. Bauer and Wise call their program classical rather than classical and Christian.

Classical and Christian education is not a “package” curriculum or textbook series. Generally speaking, supportive guides by authors such as Bauer and Wise () provide a philosophical background for mother‐teachers. Additional texts are then brought in to support the aims. There are even guides that help mother‐teachers remediate any perceived deficits in their own educational background through individual studies of classical history and literature. One such important guide has been Susan Wise Bauer’s () The Well‐Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had.

It is important for understanding the significance of mother‐teachers’ roles in curriculum development to establish the incidence of homeschooling in the United States. The most recent data are from the 2007 National Household Education Survey (NHES) and show that an estimated 1.5 million students (1,508,000) were homeschooled in the United States in 2007 (NCES, ). This shows an increase in U.S. homeschooling from 2.2% of students in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007. The data from the 1999 NHES reported 850,000 homeschooled students, approximately 1.7%. The rise in homeschooling over the 8‐year period from 1999 to 2007 represents a 74% relative increase (NCES, ).

On this insight, Kunzman () expands: “By virtue of their freedom to shape their child’s education in almost any way they choose, homeschoolers [whether religious] are pushed to grapple with several vital and profound questions: What are the central purposes of education? What kind of person do I want my child to become? How can I make their learning experience the best it can be?” (p. 26). In this project, evangelicals must consider their religious principles and their pedagogy.

The gendered difference in authors’ voices is perhaps best seen in the contrast between Douglas Wilson on one hand and Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise on the other. Wilson has made polemical arguments against public education:

In the nineteenth century, our nation established a socialistic system of education, telling parents that they did not have to exercise the same degree of responsibility for their children that they used to. Lo and behold, over time parents began to relinquish their parental duties, assuming that “they” out there somewhere would pick up the slack. Children became increasingly unloved, uncared for, undisciplined. … One of the means that our modern technocratic society discovered was the ability to hit kids on the head with a chemical rock. (Wilson, , p. 17)

Bauer and Wise, meanwhile, have proclaimed the limits of the schools in a gentler, more personal voice: “I [Jessie Wise] made it through public school at the top of my class because my guardians taught me from what they had learned. But sooner or later, the capital gets used up. … My own children were faced with teachers who brought them down to the level of the class … they were surrounded by peers who considered anyone good at learning to be a geek” (Bauer & Wise, , pp. 8–9).

There is some variation in what is considered most crucial in classical and Christian homeschooling. A good example is Leigh Bortins’s Classical Conversations project (www.classicalconversations.com). Through this Web site and additional information presented in a comprehensive catalog (www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=1203&pkey=idvoxdeus), subject areas are deemphasized as parents work together in supportive communities. In this program, classical and Christian education is a mission, a model, and a method. The catalog presents the mission as using academic skills and rhetoric to know God and make Him known to others, the model as combining the biblical worldview with the tools of the Trivium, and the method as equipping parents to encourage their children. A few parents are trained as directors and tutors who then support cooperative groups of parents and children (co‐ops) that meet 1 day per week, modeling the Trivium tools for other parents and children, with classes available to accommodate all of the Trivium stages.

According to H. I. Marrou (), in ancient times, individuals studied the Trivium as children and youth as well as the Quadrivium during university education at around the age of 16. Together, the Trivium and Quadrivium formed the seven liberal arts. The earlier arts were preparation for the later arts and sciences, with knowledge building in a sequential fashion. The Trivium provided the language, metaphor, and analogy important for subsequent learning about numeracy and physical space and time, which then prepared students for higher‐level studies in the sciences, ethics, philosophy, and theology.

Classical and Christian educators have explained their cultural‐historical identity in the following manner: “Classical and Christian parents who impart this [Western] knowledge to their children are not being xenophobic, or hostile to other cultures. As Christianity permeates the Far East, for example, its cultural impact will certainly be glorious—and quite different from what we have seen in the history of our civilization. But we do not honor another culture by disparaging the achievements of our own culture” (Callihan et al., , p. 14).

Classical and Christian leaders often position their education against progressivism. The argument against progressive education has tended to assume that public schools are necessarily progressive in their aims when this argument is limited. While public schools in the United States have been characterized as widely reflecting progressive philosophies (Ravitch, ), in reality public schools are not especially progressive and often rely on a basic skills approach (Kliebard, ), what Paulo Freire () termed “banking education” which is a metaphor to illuminate the idea of deposits being made by teachers into the brains of passive students. The first stage of the Trivium (the Poll‐Parrot stage, to be discussed later in detail), taken on its own, reflects such a banking approach.

Remarkably, Dorothy Sayers was a single mother who, in the 1920s, hid the existence of her son (her father was a distinguished member of the Anglican clergy). While working as a writer of jingles and mystery novels to support her child financially, he was raised by a relative (Reynolds, ). Sayers was well known within the church, and had a broad network of friends and some influence. For example, one friend, the theologian C. S. Lewis, once urged her to speak out against a controversial Anglican movement in the 1940s: the ordination of women. Her personal history is ironic, fascinating, and important to consider in relation to evangelical homeschooling gender and motherhood.

Because of my focus on homeschooling, I use the moniker “classical and Christian” not to discuss ACCS schools (and homeschools) necessarily, but to describe more broadly Christians who espouse a classical approach. Unfortunately, because of inconsistent and insufficient reporting requirements across states, there is no information on the real number of homeschoolers using a classical curriculum. But it is safe to say that there are many more classical and Christian adherents than the ACCS has documented. And homeschoolers purchase the bulk of classical and Christian materials, indicating that they outnumber the brick‐and‐mortar population (Perrin, ).

Classical and Christian scholars Littlejohn and Evans () have reconceptualized Sayers’s use of “tools.” Instead of seeing the tools as the Trivium itself, they regard tools as the skill set the classically educated child acquires and can then use in the world. The specific tools that these authors see as relevant are “memory, penmanship, phonetic decoding, reading comprehension, computation, critical thinking, analysis, problem solving, research, synthesis, effective writing, public speaking, and sound moral judgment, to name a few” (p. 39). They see these skills overlapping across time.

Bauer and Wise () offer a curricular sequence built of 4‐year cycles of history with lists of recommended texts, literature, and supplementary resources. The following schedule is for seventh graders, students at the same grade level as April Greene’s eldest son:

Logic: 3 hours per week.

Spelling and word study: 45 minutes day one. Do review 5 minutes other days.

Grammar: 40–60 minutes.

Structured reading: 40–60 minutes. Late Renaissance through early modern literature, memorize and recite poems and passages.

Free reading: 60 minutes.

Writing: 30–60 minutes, 2–3 days per week. Do formal writing, craft letters for friends at least twice monthly.

History: 60 minutes 3 days per week or 90 minutes twice weekly. Late Renaissance–Early Modern History (1600–1850). Activities include reading core texts, listing facts, creating a time line, outlining, reading primary sources and critical thinking resources, map work, writing one composition per week.

Latin: 3 or more hours per week.

Religion: 10–15 minutes per day. Basics of personal faith and world religion study through history.

Science: 90 minutes, 2 days per week. Do chemistry experiment day one, write a report on day two.

Mathematics: 50–60 minutes per day of pre‐algebra.

Art and Music: Twice per week, 90–120 minutes per session. Do art projects and listen to music from the Renaissance through early modern period, make biographical pages on artists and musicians, and enter the dates on a time line.

There is debate within classical and Christian scholarship as to how flexible pedagogy should be in relation to developmental stages. Overlap among knowledge, understanding, and wisdom is sometimes suggested across the range of development.

Dialogues in classical and Christian education differ from the dialogues described in progressive education in terms of (1) the framing of knowledge construction, (2) the purposes of the dialogue, (3) ideas about when children become ready to engage in dialogue, and (4) the precise actors. Classical and Christian authors present dialogue as “a conversation in which you [the parent] guide her toward the correct conclusions, while permitting her to find her own way. You'll allow the child to disagree with your conclusions, if she can support her points with the facts” (Bauer & Wise, , p. 234). This classical and Christian definition of dialogue is a technique between the parent and child to help individual students understand the content and the structure of subject matter, usually following the principles of formal logic. Critical praxis‐oriented education, in contrast, is a relationship that seeks to reveal and change unjust power dynamics that exist in the world. In the critical frame, “dialogue is a way of knowing and should never be viewed as a mere tactic to involve students in a particular task. … I engage in dialogue because I recognize the social and not merely the individualistic character of the process of knowing” (Freire & Macedo, , p. 379). Wilson () goes further to describe the nature of classical and Christian dialogue between the teacher and the Pert:

It is possible to believe in ultimate truth and pass that truth on to students without propagandizing them. One of the best ways to do this is to utilize the “pertness” of each student. If they are going to question, then teach them how to question. Teach them to recognize a fallacious argument, and they will not just hold the rest of the world to that standard, they will hold you to it. (p. 95)

In classical and Christian education, dialogue does not become a primary tool until the Pert stage (approximately ages 11–14). This is very different from, for example, the progressive Reggio Emilia early childhood education, in which preschoolers powerfully seek completeness in themselves and others through dialogues they co‐create not simply between mother‐teacher and child, but among peers, teachers, and parents (Filippini, ). In the Reggio Emilia philosophy the purpose is not surveillance, accountability, and correctness, but rather the construction of knowledge and critical transformation.

I followed traditional data‐gathering techniques. Once approved by my institution’s institutional review board (IRB), I observed the primary mother‐teachers and talked with them formally and informally about their homeschooling practices after gaining their consent. When I returned home from each observation, I wrote up thick field notes of the full action (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, ). Reconstructing the setting and dialogue on paper was a time‐consuming task taking many hours. Regarding interviews, I drew on Kvale and Brinkmann’s () general principles of qualitative interviewing.

In Kunzman’s () case example of a mother‐teacher who was planning to implement a classical and Christian program, he noted that they spent “about three‐quarters of their homeschooling time actually at home, and the rest in co‐op activities or other community learning experiences” (p. 194). With this and past knowledge of other homeschoolers in mind, I sampled practices both inside and outside the home.

The questions that elicited important data for this analysis were as follows:

1)	What long‐term goals do you have for each of your kids? Who do you see them each becoming someday?
2)	What curriculum(s) do you use and why/how did you choose them? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different curricula? Who makes curricular decisions? How?
3)	Tell me about how you approach teaching religion? How about teaching other content? How are they the same/different?
4)	How do you plan lessons and how do you decide how closely to follow the plans?
5)	How do you learn to homeschool? What are you most excited about in your teaching? What parts do you worry about?
6)	Who or what are your three best homeschooling supports? How does each one help you?
7)	How are being a mom and teacher the same and different? How do you balance the two? What could make homeschooling easier?

This is not to say that a classical and Christian program could not be adapted for children with learning disabilities. The program is reading heavy, however, and Sarah’s eldest son was 6 years behind grade level in his reading skills. I have found little in the way of formal classical and Christian material providing elaborated suggestions for addressing the needs of students with disabilities.

Christian death metal music is heavy metal band music with Christian lyrics. The band members are professed Christians and the music may be evangelical or intended for believers.

As described in endnote 10, Classical Conversations is a company run by Leigh Bortins which offers materials and social networks to support classical and Christian homeschooling families.

Unless otherwise noted, participant quotations are responses from interviews.

She had targeted at least tentatively a competitive classical private college, Hillsdale, so the boys could move forward with the Quadrivium. It was one of the few U.S. colleges that do not accept federal funding. By not accepting federal funding, a college may promote separation between education and government. This is a radical form of privatization that is rare among private colleges in the United States. A major implication of a strict no‐government‐funding policy is that U.S. students and families cannot receive government‐sponsored grants and student or parent loans to pay for their college expenses. Thus, April’s children would need substantial private scholarships to attend, which increased performance pressures.

The American College Test (ACT) is the most popular standardized test for U.S. college admissions (see www.ACT.org). It consists of four required parts: English, reading, mathematics, and science, and an optional writing assessment.

As evidence for the claim that this curriculum is male dominated in its content and scope, consider this list of suggested authors in the Pert stage literature sequence (Bauer & Wise, ): For fifth grade (Ancients), only two of twenty‐eight texts centered on women (the books of Esther and Ruth in the Bible). In sixth grade (Medieval–Early Renaissance), one female author was listed (Rosemary Sutcliff who composed a text on King Arthur). For the seventh grade (Late Renaissance–Early Modern), just four of twenty‐two recommended authors are women (these are Jane Austen, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Mary Shelley). And in the eighth‐grade Modern curriculum, less than one‐third of the authors listed are women.

April’s stance is a bit surprising given that outward signs of inner virtue have historically been important evidence of a classical education. These were cultivated, for example, in the classical Medieval cathedral schools through behavioral modeling in which the students followed the teachers (Jaeger, ). But April stated, to the contrary, that she did not see the disciplined body as a mirror for the soul. She eschewed the public school classroom as too controlled, and tried to mitigate the pressures of classical and Christian homeschooling with humor and a relaxed atmosphere. The Trivium supported her stance at this stage. Pert children were by definition argumentative and at times a bit unruly.