A writer's Random ramblings
Do I follow my parents or my conscience in choosing a career? This represents the age-old question for students everywhere. What happens if the parents have one plan in mind but the student does not see eye to eye with it?
In Luther’s day, a student would go off to university expected to begin studies in the Classical model. First year studies took from this model the Trivium, focused upon communication skills. Students would begin with grammar, then progress to rhetoric and logic to learn how to present their thoughts and arguments on a given topic. After studying these foundational, or lower, of the 7 Classical liberal arts, one would go on to more numerical and scientific studies. The Quadrivium, or higher four of the 7 liberal arts, introduced pupils to arithmetic, music theory, geometry, and astronomy. After learning these core thought processes and their expressions, a student could choose a career path in law, theology, medicine, or any other field. Martin Luther’s father had paid for his education looking toward creating another lawyer in the family tradition. However, as young Martin walked home from University for a visit, a bolt of lightning nearly hit him, convincing him otherwise. After this experience, he followed in the footsteps of Saint Francis and became a monk. However, as Martin Luther progressed in the monastery, he began to see another light: that of where Roman Catholicism had gone wrong. He put his Classical humanities education to good use, researching and writing about his grievances. With each discovery of something gone wrong, he consulted the Bible to see why that information contradicted Christian origins. Luther studied Catholic doctrine on his way to becoming a monk. Under this doctrine, people needed to perform good works to show devotion to God and earn their way to Heaven after death. Using his scholastic research skills, Luther proved this wrong by consulting the Bible and showing how Saint Paul wrote that only faith in God through Jesus can lead to a Heavenly reward after earthly life ends. According to Luther, this saving grace through faith leads the individual to reflect Jesus’ light by doing the good works it inspires. Around this same time, the Catholic church sought to increase its power by selling “indulgences,” which the faithful could use either against time in Purgatory while awaiting judgment after death or to help a loved one get to Heaven. He pointed out the greed in this practice, which he saw as outweighing the tithes meant to uphold the church. Over the centuries before his time, Catholic parishes had also used art to excess and left Mass in Latin. Luther revolted against the idolatry inherent in people worshipping the art and the saints depicted in it rather than the God who set them as examples for others. He sought to bring worship to the people by translating it from Latin to the German of his area as well as using the paintings and statues to teach people how the saints in them brought others into God’s light. Martin Luther even took the abuse of power by popes and priests creating secret families, which they held as against God’s will since they supposedly saw the Church as their bride to reflect Christ to the people. He showed in helping some nuns escape their convent and later marrying one of them, Katherine von Bora, that a pastor could have an earthly family and still preach the Word effectively. Thus, Martin Luther showed how one person can take education and the Word of God to spread God’s light to humanity in many ways.
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Parents today find ourselves confused and astounded by the subjects our children learn in school. Many of us never saw Earth and Space Science or some of the mathematical and social studies subjects they tackle. How can we support their education and maybe even learn along?
Chaperone field trips or take the into nearby museums when possible. Museums and historical sites can teach people of any age about various subjects. On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., my daughter’s group found a hall in the National Air and Space Museum on how air travel at its beginning changed the arts. This tied in not only to the Structure and Change project which sent them there, but the very theme of their school, which integrates the arts into academics to bring the world together. I assisted them in photographing this hall along with the Wilbur and Orville Wright exhibit outside of it for the project. Don’t forget to look up while waiting for the bus or coming home from the store. You’ll be able to find new subjects to learn about together this way, too. Sometimes, it’ll start a discussion of seasonal changes – flowers in spring or why leaves change in fall. Other times, you’ll find reasons to check out moon phases and maybe even see a planet that you don’t normally observe. We’ve had plenty of this recently. While waiting for the bus one morning, we saw a planet that we mistakenly called “the morning star” since it looked more like a star as the sun rose. Not knowing which planet that was, I took a photo of it with my cell phone. Upon e-mailing it to the morning meteorologist at our local TV station, we found out that Venus was lined up under the Moon’s curve and had it been Mars, it would have been higher in the sky. The same week, the evening news told us we could see Uranus around sunset. Sure enough, when the sun went far enough down, we saw the faint blue in the sky to show us the large planet. Never be afraid of Google, research books, or asking for help. As mentioned above, calling out for help on e-mail or the telephone often brings answers from those who do know the subjects. Trips to the library or your own bookshelf or computer can inspire learning as well, as both parent and child read together. When you need to, take photos of flowers, leaves, and celestial objects to help you look them up. Whether taken with a camera and fancy lens or simple cell phone, those pictures will prove valuable in finding out exactly what you saw. Who knows, if art is more your thing, you may even be able to teach your youngster some art skills or principles as you take or process the photo in the phone or computer. Learning can be fun for all generations. When we come together with children, adults can acquire as much new knowledge as the young ones. We can find new hobbies and keep our brains growing. This keeps everyone healthier throughout the lifespan and inspires us along. What does a parent do when children begin questioning the world? These questions can make life feel stressful when Mom or Dad has no idea how to answer. Children generate these questions from many sources. They may see a new animal or plant along the way to school, or a difficult story on the news. A friend may have asked it of the teacher, who did not hear, or the child him or herself may wonder why something is as it is after class. Embrace these questions and learn alongside the child! It will make both feel better about learning as a team. What good reasons exist for doing this?
1. You get to see the child show pride in both of you. Help look up or Google the information. You can start by asking the child to try checking it out with a voice assistant such as Siri or Alexa. For a bigger challenge, ask him or her to type the question into the machine. Then, if the answer does not pop up, provide help. Spell an unfamiliar word or go to the library and find the information. Children beam with pride upon finding answers with or without help. 2. You’ll likely learn something as well. This keeps everyone’s mind young and operational. Studies prove that continual learning helps stave off age related mental difficulties. 3. You could discover a mutual interest. These make the best hobbies as you and the child learn side by side and grow passions for the subject. Each can eventually teach the other new aspects of whatever subject you choose to tackle. 4. It will give you a better basis if you choose to volunteer among youngsters interested in the subject later. You could assist any group from the child’s friends to one based in the community. 5. Your child comes up with a first resource for that subject. He or she may refer classmates or others who need to find out about what you’ve learned. This creates respect of others toward both of you as you become known for expertise in a given subject. 6. Learning along with the child shows your interest in him or her as well as the subject. This respect for the person helping with research makes the child more likely to ask other questions as he or she grows, and the process above can repeat itself with new subjects and ideas. More learning for all equals more functional minds and a better society in the long run by promoting relationships of learning. For these reasons, everyone should pay attention to children. Supporting their education by answering questions and learning alongside the child helps foster respect and mutual learning. This brings along more nourished brains and better conduits of information, which in turn helps create a more connected society as everyone learns from others. The process teaches us about ourselves and the world as we soak up new information, cultivating and sharing new interests. Society prides itself on progress. Moving forward in everything we do gives us a benchmark for becoming a successful world. How do we measure this when many try to phase out or ignore the roots of our social structures and systems? We learn how our forebears did things and see whether we still follow those ways or can adapt them to better serve us now and in the future. Education gives us a starting point for both learning and applying historically rooted methods to what we do today. Classical and medieval educational theory revolves around the seven liberal arts, taught in groups known as the Trivium for elementary level education and the Quadrivium to which students advanced once they demonstrated mastery of the former.
Trivium studies comprise grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These studies provide a solid communications foundation in any language. Naturally, teaching students early on how to spell and construct grammatically appropriate communications in the language of their area prepares them well to become good citizens. Following from studies of grammar, students can use literature, philosophy, history, science, basic math, and the arts to study how logic informs the human world. Rhetorical studies allow the pupil to them marry grammar to logic and present it to others. Presentation skills formed in these ways flow into all later studies by providing a framework for helping other see how one reached a given conclusion on a project. The trivium also reappears later in education as middle and high school age students study second and third languages by giving structure to first and second year courses before students learn to study literature and other communications in the new language. Whether following from the first language or a later one, more advanced Quadrivium style subjects appear as children demonstrate mastery of Trivium subjects. Middle school music students add music theory as an offshoot of logic studies to see how math and the arts come together. This promotes more complex thinking and reasoning in music and other subjects. Students can learn to relate the math behind music theory to visual or literary arts for their higher studies of those subjects. Music theory also informs physical and social sciences in the study of how the music of various eras affects listeners psychologically. More advanced mathematical theories such as algebra and geometry come into play during these studies. These bring communications and artistic theories to scientific minds, as music theory brought math to creative types. Astronomy and geometry become one in the field of earth and space science, which also brings the more modern fields of chemistry and physics to the masses. To bring the whole system into our times, technology courses and the arts, with their language structures and logic systems, can become the unifiers of the Trivium and Quadrivium for all students so they can identify future careers. As with any other system of learning, bringing the old back to the new needs adjusting sometimes. This admitting the Trivium and Quadrivium of Classical education into our current system provides more comprehensive education. However, parents need to receive information in the form of brochures and news reports on how it works. School systems across nations need to meet and discuss how to implement it in their areas in quantifiable ways to gauge student progress and preparation for higher education. However, agreed upon methods for bringing the ancient ways into our time and the future will enhance education for generations to come and create more engaged students who go into the world as lifelong learners. |
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