dialectical
[dahy-uh-lek-ti-kuh l]
capable of logical discussion employed
in investigating
the truth or falsity of a theory or
opinion
maturity
[muh-choo r-i-tee]
full development; perfected condition; ripe
Marking Milestones
Once a baby is born, its parents begin marking milestones.
Some of the most important milestones come in the form of vaccinations and
immunizations designed to protect the child throughout a lifetime in world full
of germs and diseases. But there is always controversy about the timing of
milestones … and immunizations.
Likewise, the milestones of formal education are plagued by timing.
We intuitively understand that schooling over the years is a journey of
maturation across many land and seascapes from physical and intellectual to
social and spiritual. And yet, we tend to erect our achievement milestones
based almost exclusively on age and grade rather than the more difficult [but
also more helpful] assessments of maturity in a specific area at a specific
point on the trek.
Secondary education is especially challenging in this
regard, because the student is reaching [or failing to reach] so many different
milestones in so many different areas over such a relatively short period of
time. Even those of us who know the student best can have a hard time
understanding what is maturing when and what is not. This can lead to anxiety
and frustration about reaching “THE MILESTONE” on time rather than a patient
confidence that incrementally grows as “the milestones” pass … one by one.
The Three D’s
In that spirit, it is possible for us to imagine a point in time at which a liberal arts
secondary student becomes “an adult” in the sense that [s]he can [if willing]
- Define,
- Differentiate and
- Deploy
the three learning tools of the Trivium [grammar, logic and
rhetoric/dialogue] routinely in the classroom and on assignments. Let’s name
this milestone “dialectical maturity”.
Ability and Responsibility
Of course, this is not to say the student has “arrived” at
learning’s final destination [because there is no such thing]. And furthermore,
even if we can imagine such a point, identifying it is going to be difficult …
being much more a “sense” than a “score”. But as difficult and imprecise as the
task might be, its importance is unquestionable. For once the ability to learn is achieved, the responsibility to teach begins to grow … even if both are
unperceived by all concerned … including the student … especially the student.
Orders and Gowns
If we think of the teachers among us as those who have
formally taken up the mantle of their responsibility
to teach other learners, we can begin to envision them as members of a sort of
“order” in which they make certain implicit and explicit vows to God, to one
another and to the public which they are obliged [or should we say privileged]
to keep. And, as with all “orders”, there will be “novices” who pledge to
follow the order’s mission but have yet to prove themselves or to gain the experience and judgment needed
to function safely on their own.
If we continue this analogy, we
might think of all students who enter a liberal arts secondary school as
novices … rough and crude … but with potential that must be refined before it can
be assayed and displayed. Having done that we can more easily envision an
intermediate level within the order at which the novice is recognized [by
others in the order who are senior] as having accomplished an important
milestone [which we called dialectical maturity above] evidenced by his
abilities but bringing with it responsibilities which those who remain novices
are not yet expected to bear. Let’s name
this intermediate order “the Order of the Gown” and let it
be recognized publicly by the member wearing an academic gown on special days
to testify to acceptance of the new responsibility to use this proven ability
to learn in the service of him[her]self
and others.
Certificates and Privileges
Then, let an official recognition and specific privileges be
granted to this “gownsman” in the form of
- a “Liberal Arts Certificate” [to be used as evidence of competence when dealing with others outside the school] and
- admission to a higher level study program [which might be called “Northfield Friends” at a secondary school named Northfield whose students can earn the privilege to study at a university named Friends] consisting of approved post-secondary courses in which college credit can be earned towards future awards and privileges.
And ... voila !!
And so, we have a way to define and identify an important maturational milestone in the
life of every liberal arts student that “speaks” a solemn and important word of
encouragement to everyone involved in the secondary learning years.
The Northfield Story
Northfield School of the Liberal Arts is a private secondary
school in Wichita Kansas which uses a Trivium-conscious
curricular approach to bring students to a point of dialectical maturity from which the student can successfully
progress
- to college or vocational training or
- directly to a career
with the confidence of knowing he has acquired the learning tools needed to learn [and
teach] almost any subject.
By refocusing its faculty and pedagogy away from the
traditional school approach of teaching
subjects per se to one of using any
or all subjects to develop and strengthen the student's dialectical skills, Northfield has recovered an educational model
that we believe enables students to reduce the time spent maturing
in secondary school while improving student readiness for post-secondary
academic or vocational endeavors.
Confessing needs
Begun in an industrial warehouse in 1994 with 4 teachers and
30 students, Northfield
focused on the subject study of Latin, Greek, Literature, History, Math,
Science, Art and Music in grades 6-12 with a traditional college-prep goal in
mind for its graduates. However, it experienced the same problem that is common
to most, if not all, secondary school teachers, students and parents:
Teacher and student readiness,
interest, aptitude and qualification in/for teaching and learning from a given
common core of subjects, in a specified order based on student age, varied
greatly making it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, then build on, consistently
excellent results harmoniously and efficiently.
Considering answers
As a result, in 2013 Northfield
returned to pedagogical questions posed, then examined, by Dorothy Sayers in
her paper THE LOST TOOLS OF LEARNING presented in a course on education at Oxford University
in 1947:
"Whether, amid all the
multitudinous subjects which figure in the syllabuses, we are really teaching
the right things in the right way; and whether, by teaching fewer things,
differently, we might not succeed in ‘shedding the load’ (as the fashionable
phrase goes) and, at the same time, producing a better result."
Sayers goes on to propose that, and explain why, a sound and
complete secondary education consists of reaching a common dialectical maturity not a specified subject competency. As proof of her thesis, she returns
to the medieval pedagogical bedrock of the Trivium, consisting of grammar,
logic and rhetoric, where she claims to find the three lost learning tools
which are embedded in and can/must be utilized to reach maturity in learning which enables competency in subjects.
- Sayers broadens the notion of Grammar from the abstract memorization of syntactical rules of language to the initial discovery and nascent articulation of the irreducible elements and concepts inherent in any subject.
- Logic for Sayers is no longer just a mere formality but rather the vital co-relativity of each and every grammatical element to the others within the subject and eventually to all other subjects.
- Rhetoric, commonly understood as making an argument in defense of the truth of one's position, gives way to a thorough and unrelenting, but vitally communal, engagement in dialogue with others to reveal and examine the certainties and uncertainties of a subject or proposition as the necessary prerequisite for doing what each individual must eventually do alone … decide what is most “truth-full” … and then make a moral choice and take individual action.
Changing actions [and lives]
By refocusing our goal for secondary education on achieving
common dialectical maturity as explained
by Sayers, Northfield
has discovered a pedagogical model that can work in any secondary educational
setting:
All faculty members essentially teach
the same few "things" using whatever various "subjects"
happen to be of interest, available and acceptable to the teachers, students
and parents making up the local school.
This substantially reduces [and arguably eliminates
altogether] the need for academic interference by outside federal, state and/or
local school boards, since subjects are secondary to targeted results.
Furthermore, by knowing the limited but essential goal for a secondary
education in advance, the school is able to reach and recognize it earlier as
well as more flexibly and consistently than a traditional subject-competency,
achievement-test or common-core based school.
Naming a Milestone
In pursuit of this vision, Northfield has introduced what it calls a Liberal Arts Certificate [“LAC”] which
the faculty, acting by consensus, awards to the student upon recognition of the
student's ability to use the three tools of learning effectively. We believe
this milestone can be reached sometime during the sophomore or junior year of
high school [if not sooner]. The student is then free to engage college study
or vocational training in a variety of settings [using the LAC as a formal
recommendation from Northfield
for acceptance]. College or vocational credits subsequently earned are also applied
towards the student's Northfield
high school diploma which is customarily awarded 1-2 years after the LAC. This
permits the student to reduce the time/expense spent in/on secondary and
post-secondary education by two full years [or more] while achieving a higher
degree of learning readiness and dialectical maturity.
PS. Strengthening morality and democracy along the way
An important by-product of this approach to secondary education is that it promotes a common immunization of more students and future citizens against the flood of propaganda increasingly prevalent in public media and, by so doing, strengthens the foundation of real American constitutional democracy which has always been ... a citizenry capable of inter-generational consideration of shared facts followed by logical formulation of moral and legal positions on any subject properly arising in the public forum ... as opposed to uninformed or misinformed acceptance of half-truths or outright lies- prepared in secret with hidden conflicts of interest
- then promulgated as veiled or blatant conclusions
- via for-profit mass-media outlets which are easily co-opted
- by those with financial or political power seeking to gain or retain control over public opinion
- for purposes which may not reasonably be [or ultimately prove to be] in the public interest.
… and this should be one kind of immunization that EVERY
CARING PARENT wants their children to get ... as early as possible !!
