CC and The Well-Trained Mind

If this is not your first time at the classical education rodeo, then you've probably run across The Well-Trained Mind at some point.

Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Story of the World series) and her mama, Jessie Wise, collaborated on this remarkable plan for classical education at home. 

You may have guessed by now that I'm a Classical Conversations groupie, so to speak, and I fully support founder Leigh Bortins and her fabulous program. It has worked so well for our family, and you can read about my experiences here and here. Well, while surfing the internet doing my own research the other day, I ran across someone's blog post that called CC 'classical-lite' (we'll come back to that in a minute). 

Hmm. . . that got me thinking. Is The Well-Trained Mind really the end-all-be-all for classical homeschoolers? 

So, I thought I'd do a quick little comparison (I say 'quick' because I'm only going to touch on the biggest differences that matter to me. One could certainly spend more time dissecting and comparing both books, but I promise that I do have a life, and therefore I need time to get off the computer and live it. ;).

The Well-Trained Mind, 2nd Edition (WTM) vs. The Core by Leigh Bortins

To begin with, check out the size difference:

Both books discuss the Trivium at length in the beginning, giving explanations of the three stages of learning and development (grammar, logic/dialectic, and rhetoric). Bauer says the Trivium is a "three-part process of training the mind" (WTM, p. 13). I love this short-and-sweet definition!

Both books give a good overview of classical education:

Classical education is, above all, systematic. . . Rigorous study develops virtue in the student: the ability to act in accordance with what one knows to be right. . . Classical education continually asks a student to work against her baser tendencies (laziness or the desire to watch another half hour of TV) in order to reach a goal - mastery of a subject. . . Systematic study allows the student to join what Mortimer J. Adler calls the "Great Conversation": the ongoing conversation of great minds down through the ages. (WTM, p. 17)

The purpose of a classical education is to strengthen one's mind, body, and character in order to develop the ability to learn anything. (The Core, p. 15)

However, the biggest difference to me between these two books, which explains why The Core looks to be less than half the length of The Well-Trained Mind, is that The Core is not a comprehensive guide to classical education at home.

What?! But I'm new to CC and everyone keeps telling me to read The Core!

Yes, certainly read The Core if you're in CC, but do so knowing that its focus is on the grammar stage - the Foundations level of the program (children under 13). The first time I read it, I didn't understand that. If you're in CC, you may be happy to hear that Leigh's next book about the Essentials program (the next level up in Classical Conversations) is being released this Fall.

In contrast, WTM is everything in one place. Also, WTM presents a very detailed plan for every developmental stage. From the inside book jacket blurb:

This book will instruct you, step by step, on how to give your child an academically rigorous, comprehensive education from preschool through high school. . .

Yes, it certainly does!

There are detailed instructions for setting up a Language, History, and Science notebook for the earlier grades (p. 222), including exactly what to include in each tab and how much time to spend on each component. I like this and find the notebook ideas the most useful part of WTM for me right now. However, something is missing. See if you can spot it:

The history notebook should be accompanied by a certain amount of memorization. Dates, personalities, and wars serve as pegs on which to hang incoming information. . . You can pick your own "pegs." (WTM, p. 114)

Did you catch that?

As in any classical education curriculum, the Bauers stress memorization, but they don't tell you what to memorize (aside from the list of leaders and wars in the back of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia). 

I know what some of you might be thinking: What? Are you a baby that has to have things spoon fed to her?

Well, no, but if there's a program out there that already has these 'pegs' (quality content for memorization) ready to go, why reinvent the wheel? The main criticism I've heard of WTM is that it takes hours of preparation each week. Now, I can't speak from experience; I've yet to try its method, but this seems about right if the parent has to piece together the memory work each year as she goes.

Classical Conversations, the program described in The Core, already has memory work for 24 weeks in seven seminars (subjects). I don't have to go fishing for things to memorize each year. It seems to me that CC would fit in nicely with WTM. Therefore, I cannot agree with the blogger who called CC 'classical-lite.' I believe Classical Conversations can be used as a tool to provide the memory pegs for the classical education. To bring both views together, I can picture WTM as the car and CC as the map to get the car to its destination of a rigorous classical, Christian, home-centered education. Does that make sense? I'm sure some of you reading this have experience using the two together. Do they complement each other? I've pretty much decided that we're going to pick up some components of WTM next year when we start first grade, and I'm excited to see how our CC memory work will plug in. I say 'some' because we won't follow WTM's suggestions to the letter. For example, WTM uses The Story of the World series to cycle through all of history in four years. CC cycles through history in three years, so we would adjust WTM's notebook plan to fit our own schedule.

It is interesting to note here that in The Core, Leigh Bortins says that she didn't have a time each day to study history and science when her boys were younger, in the grammar level. Instead, she focused on the basics:

. . . we work very hard on memorizing (phonics, spelling, math) rules and facts and concrete ideas while practicing reading and writing and arithmetic. Brain training is paramount. . . History and science were not subjects we studied in our home-centered grammar school. Instead we read and wrote and calculated ideas concerning history and science. (The Core, p. 177, emphasis mine)

Back to our book comparison, both WTM and The Core stress the use of memorization, recitation, and copywork in the early grades (remember, The Core is focused only the the grammar stage of learning, but that does not necessarily mean younger children only. Anyone starting a classical education should begin in the grammar stage, regardless of age. Grammar is the basics of any subject, and they have to be mastered before moving into the logic/dialectic stage.) And while both books share other commonalities, the next difference I'd like to touch on briefly is that of worldview. First, it appears that WTM tries to appeal to a wider demographic by acknowledging God but leaving the worldview up to the reader:

Arguing for the presence of God is generally considered "biased." Assuming His absence is usually called "neutral." Yet both are statements of faith; both color the teacher's approach to any subject; both make a fundamental assumption about the nature of men and women. . . Education cannot be neutral when it comes to faith. . . You cannot learn - or teach - about humanity without considering God. . . separation of religious faith from education yields an incomplete education. . . Don't ignore instruction in (at the bare minimum) the facts of the world's major religions. Do try to relate the child's studies to your own faith, to your own religious heritage. (WTM, p. 205) 

I've often heard people say that WTM isn't written from a Christian point-of-view, and I would have to agree. And while Susan Wise Bauer addresses this very issue on her blog in this post, she's basically saying that WTM is a book on education, not religion. From her blog:

The Well-Trained Mind is not a book of science, a book of history, a book of literature, or a book of theology. It is an overall plan for education, laying out an entire curriculum for the home educator. This overall plan for education must have a theological center which encompasses every single subject. But who is responsible for providing this theological center? Should my mother and I lay it all out for you, so that you can give your child a godly education?

Yikes! Does that come across as a little harsh to anyone else? I'm actually glad that she doesn't go into her theology in her book, because I'm not sure I would agree with some of it. Again from her blog post:

. . . when using the third-grade A Beka Book grammar text, I found myself continually encountering a particular view of salvation which I thought was limited and (in the end) wrong. The exercises continually refer to “getting saved” and “accepting Jesus” as though the central event of salvation is a single point in time during which the child is instantly transformed from pagan to Christian in the blink of an eye. Yet our worshipping community is centered around the reality that belief in Christ is an ongoing discipleship of obedience, not a split-second decision, and that “being saved” is only a partial description of salvation.

 Hmmm. . . I'm not Reformed or Calvinist and certainly don't believe in limited atonement, but I do believe there is a point where Jesus "saves" you and you're transformed into a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Her blog post is an interesting read if you have a couple minutes.

Now, to be fair, The Core doesn't come across as very Christian either. However, since the program it's describing is overtly Christian (we memorize Scripture passages every cycle in Classical Conversations and must agree to its Essentials of Faith to hold a leadership position), most people know where Leigh Bortins stands on this issue. CC actually has its own book, Classical Christian Education Made Approachable, which is overtly Christian:

For the classical student, the Bible is the source of the true, the good, and the beautiful. (Classical Christian Education Made Approachable, p.  35)

No other skill is so pivotal to the spreading of the Gospel as the ability to speak and persuade. Our students should always be prepared to give an answer for their faith. Graduates of a classical, Christian homeschool can use their trained minds to reclaim our culture and spread the Gospel. (Classical Christian Education Made Approachable, p. 21)

Well, that's all I the time I can devote to comparing and contrasting these two wonderful books. I believe both works deserve a place on any classical, Christian educator's book shelf, and I don't believe that one is necessarily superior to the other. However, since I am a Classical Conversations mama, I tend to follow more of Leigh Bortins's advice right now, although, I am excited to incorporate some of Susan Wise Bauer's suggestions in the coming years.

What about you? If you're a CC mama, have you had success using WTM? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as I know that many, if not most of you have more experience than I do. Share away, friends!
:)

If you'd like to see what other mamas think about The Well-Trained Mind, visit the Classical Mamas Read link-up at Living and Learning at Home!