Appreciating the Arts: Art and Music
Link to purchaseCornell Notes
Main Notes
- Author (Susan) enjoyed homeschooling, with a flexible schedule and focus on favorite subjects
- Excelled in college despite initial nervousness, testing out of many courses
- Noticed a lack of basic skills among college peers, even at selective institutions
- Classical education follows the trivium pattern: grammar, logic, and rhetoric stages
- Grammar stage (grades 1-4) focuses on absorbing information and memorization
- Logic stage (grades 5-8) develops analytical thinking and understanding relationships
- Rhetoric stage (high school) emphasizes expression, originality, and specialization
- Classical education is language-focused, systematic, and views all knowledge as interrelated
- Curriculum organized around historical periods, repeated at increasing depth over 12 years
- Rigorous study develops virtue and allows students to join the "Great Conversation"
Cue Column
- How did the author's homeschooling experience prepare her for college?
- What skills did the author notice were lacking among her college peers?
- What are the three stages of the trivium in classical education?
- What is the focus of the grammar stage, and which grades does it cover?
- How does the logic stage differ from the grammar stage?
- What is emphasized in the rhetoric stage of classical education?
- Why is classical education described as language-focused?
- How is the curriculum organized in classical education?
- What are the four historical periods used to structure the classical curriculum?
- What are the two main purposes of rigorous, systematic study in classical education?
Summary
This chapter provides a personal account of classical education from the perspective of Susan, who was homeschooled using this method. She describes her positive experience with homeschooling and her subsequent success in college, contrasting her skills with those of her peers who often lacked basic writing and analytical abilities.
The chapter then outlines the classical education model, based on the trivium: the grammar stage (grades 1-4) for absorbing information, the logic stage (grades 5-8) for developing analytical thinking, and the rhetoric stage (high school) for honing expression and specialization. Classical education is characterized as language-focused, systematic, and interconnected, with a curriculum organized around four historical periods repeated at increasing depth over 12 years of schooling.
The author emphasizes that classical education is rigorous and systematic, serving to develop virtue in students and enabling them to participate in the "Great Conversation" of great minds throughout history. While acknowledging the challenges of implementing this educational approach, the author attests to its long-term benefits in terms of academic preparation, independence, and career readiness.
Action Items
- Dedicate 2 hours, twice per week
- Allocate one period for music study and another for art study
- Use separate notebooks for art and music
- Design notebooks to last for the entire four years of the rhetoric stage
- Continue studying drawing, painting, and modeling
- Consider focusing on one skill for mastery
- Explore options for professional art instruction (tutor, college classes, or art museum classes)
- Use an art survey text to cover techniques, philosophies, and schools
- Spend 18 weeks per year on art history
- For each study session, read from the base text and use additional resources
- Record learnings through writing or sketching in the art notebook
- Maintain instrument practice for interested students
- Discontinue lessons for uninterested students
- Dedicate 1.5 to 2 hours weekly for music appreciation
- Progress through base texts at a relaxed pace, taking time to listen to recordings
- Write biographical sketches for each composer studied
- Discuss characteristics of different schools of composition
- Keep a list of works listened to and write personal reactions
- File art and music materials in respective notebooks or in the history notebook
- Consider creating a separate music notebook for compositions, biographies, and reactions