By Carrie Eben
In this article Carrie Eben examines the Seven Liberal Arts ( the trivium and quadrivium).
Over twenty years ago, a spark ignited within me.
I was invited to teach at a new “classical school” in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA) and promptly read as much as I could to understand this “new” way of educating—which wasn’t actually new. I did not make it to the end of the school year due to the birth of my firstborn child, but I learned enough that year about the classical liberal arts tradition which changed the trajectory of my teaching and learning. This was how I wanted to teach, this was how I wanted to be educated, and this was the education I wanted for my newborn son.
My original impression of the liberal arts was very shallow. I knew it only as a general area of study one adopted at the university when they were not sure what else to do. However, I discovered that the liberal arts were seven specific areas of learning to encourage the freedom of people. As Helen Koutroulis mentions in her essay (on the ACES website here: Paideia Education), the ancients sought to educate people for “paideia” meaning “educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature…” This was the vocation of the seven liberal arts acknowledged by such ancient teachers and philosophers as Plato and Aristotle. Leading students to wisdom and virtue formation, they furnished a form for ordering the soul. These forms for freedom include the Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric of the Trivium and Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astronomy of the Quadrivium.
Through Dorothy Sayer’s essay titled, The Lost Tools of Learning, I encountered the word, “Trivium,” for the first time. This is Latin for “three roads” and represents the first three of the seven liberal arts. The three roads of the Trivium--Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric--encourage the love and mastery of language. The Art of Grammar is a student’s first encounter with words and as Clark and Jain describe in The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education, they help the student “be at home in language.”
The Art of Grammar is mastering language via letters, words, and sentences for writing and reading. In the structure of a school, Sayers notes that “grammar students” are younger students (thru age 11) who primarily learn the basics of reading and writing as well as other areas of knowledge through imitation. The Art of Grammar is foundational to younger students since the mastery of language is formative for all other areas of knowledge.
The Art of Dialectic (or Logic) is the road which studies orderly thinking. It practices the analyzation of thoughts and ideas created by letters, words, and sentences to arrange thinking and support arguments. Language becomes governed by organized meaning to make sense of ideas and illustrate consequences. According to Sayers, students who are entering the “pert” years (12 and up) begin to argue naturally and thus are ready to learn how to arrange ideas for well-crafted arguments.
The Art of Rhetoric practices the poetic presentation of arguments in speech and writing to lead souls toward truth. Students who are ready for Rhetoric are those who have mastered the Arts of Grammar and Dialectic and generally fall in the age range of 14 and up. While Sayers tends to direct the roads of the Trivium to certain developmental stages of learning, it is important to note that students of all ages practice all roads of the Trivium to varying degrees. The true focus of the Trivium is not developmental stages, it is the word as it relates to reading and understanding great literature, history, and poetry as well as the practice of expression in speech and writing. The Trivium arts are the skills needed for all other areas of learning. As David Hicks articulates, in Norms and Nobility, “At the heart of a classical education is the word: the complete mastery of its shades of meaning, of its action-implicit imperatives, of its emotions and values.” This is the focus of the Trivium.
As I continued to study classical education, I encountered the Quadrivium (meaning “four roads”). It represents the final four liberal arts and includes the Art of Arithmetic (numbers), the Art of Music (numbers in motion), the Art of Geometry (shapes) and the Art of Astronomy (shapes in motion). The ancients regarded these areas of knowledge as representations of the world to be studied at large and the medieval university fleshed out even more specific areas of study. For the modern student, they are represented in math, science, and music/art. The knowledge of arithmetic gives stability and constancy to practice precise thinking while music primes the soul for truth. Geometry and astronomy help students learn the nature of the universe and how it works together. While there are many more areas of study available to students in modern times, the spirit of the Quadrivium remains the inquiry of the natural world. When students practice the liberal arts, they can continue the pursuit of knowledge in any area. They have the tools for learning virtue and wisdom in the word and the world around them.
Over one hundred years ago, the study of the liberal arts was still an integral part of any education. With the advent of industrialization and utilitarianism, education became a vehicle to serve the needs of “usefulness” instead of human flourishing. However, the liberal arts are as important today as they ever were. Moreover, a student’s soul needs leading through the jungle of social media, pandemic aftermath, and political polarization. A student of the liberal arts will gain wisdom from Great Books of the past and order conversation in speech and writing to address the common questions held by all humans. The liberal arts student finds common threads within diversity to uphold shared humanity.
The spark that was ignited within me over twenty years ago is now my life’s work. I am dedicated to preaching the good news of this kind of education that nurtures souls and cultivates human flourishing. I do this because the liberal arts have changed me! They have enriched my understanding of others, developed my faith, and directed my students (as well as my family) in purpose. Over the past twenty years it has been a joy watching the spark of classical education develop into a wildfire over the United States. Increasingly, this freeing education is gaining attention of parents, teachers, and lawmakers as they witness the effects of purposeful soul-edifying learning and its capability to create well-rounded and self-sufficient citizens. As Father Schall says in his essay Artes Liberales—The Liberal Arts, “We should recognize from the beginning, that the ‘freeing’ or ‘liberal’ arts are not simply a body of books to read, but a way of life enabling us to be free enough to know the truth of things.” The liberal arts are not just a type of education, they are a lifestyle for inquiring about the “good life.” They are the roads every human deserves to journey to find the riches of truth, beauty, and goodness for freedom.
References
Clark, Kevin and Ravi Jain. The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy for Christian Classical Education. Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press. 2019.
Hicks, David. Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, In. 1999.
Perrin, Christopher. And Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents. Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press. 2004.
Sayers, Dorothy. The Lost Tools of Learning. https://www.pccs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/LostToolsOfLearning-DorothySayers.pdf
Schall, James. The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books. 2006
About the Author
For over twenty years, Carrie Eben has championed classical education in both the private school classroom and homeschool arenas in the U.S. She currently serves as founding Board Vice-Chair, Curriculum Chair, and Teacher Mentor at Sager Classical Academy in Siloam Springs, AR, USA. Carrie passionately leads teachers and parents in the classical model of education. She develops and delivers customized workshops for administrators, teachers, and parents in both classical school and homeschool settings via Classical Eben Education Consulting (www.classicaleben.com). Carrie holds a BSE in Intermediate Education from John Brown University and a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University. She is currently a PhD student in the Humanities program at Faulkner University and will graduate as a CiRCE Institute Master Teacher in Summer 2022.
