Why Does Classical Education Work? Meet Dorothy Sayers

Students graduating from classical schools leave with a deep sense of their role within the world. They leave understanding how they can shape for themselves a truly good life. Not only that, but they leave with skills and habits that will serve them for a lifetime. I was recently approached by a parent who had seen this first-hand in their classically educated child. She asked: “Why is that? What is it about the classical method that works so well?” Well, there are a lot of different answers to that question, but I’d like to offer one that I find particularly compelling. 

Allow me to introduce you to one of the giants of classical education. If you’ve ever homeschooled with a classical curriculum, you’ve likely heard her name. Meet Dorothy Sayers - a renowned English writer. Sayers wrote her own stories and poems, but she also contributed massively to the classical education movement by explaining so many of the “hows” and “whys” behind the teaching philosophy.

If you remember from this article, classical education has its roots in Ancient Greece. Before Sayers, though, not many people took the time to explain just why we do what we do in classical classrooms and the lasting impact it has once students leave.

For Sayers, the answer is in child psychology. Classical education engages a child in one of three stages of development - each one naturally fitting with the tendencies of a child’s age. As you read through the rest of this article, I’m guessing that there will be a fair number of head nods and knowing smiles as you recognize the traits in your own child. 

For those well-versed in classical education, you will recognize these three stages as corresponding with the subjects and arts that make up the Trivium. For those new to classical education, consider these the essential or introductory arts of classical education.

#1 Elementary School: The Grammar or Poll-Parrot Stage:

If you walk into an elementary school classroom at a classical school, it’s not uncommon for there to be a fair amount of singing, chanting, and reciting. If you stay for long enough, you’ll also notice that the students are taking in tons of information. They learn people, places, dates, and general facts about a variety of subjects.

This, according to Sayers, is because at this age learning by heart is easy and pleasurable. The elementary school-aged brain is naturally prone to memorization and recitation and their powers of observation and memory are at their most powerful. They latch onto engaging content and are delighted to learn the nitty-gritty details of all their subjects.

At this age, classical education gives students a firm foundation of knowledge that they can use for building and analysis. It’s also the age where students build satisfaction and pleasant confidence in their knowledge. School is satisfying for them because it feeds their natural psychological inclinations.

“To learn six subjects without remembering how they were learned does nothing to ease the approach to seventh; to have learned and remembered the art of learning makes the approach to every subject an open door.”

-Dorothy Sayers in The Lost Tools Of Learning

#2 Middle School: The Logic or Pert Stage:

As students move from elementary school to middle school, their satisfaction with facts diminishes. They enter a developmental stage where they are naturally argumentative and challenging.

They crave, to a certain extent, to challenge the things they have been taught thus far. Remember when I mentioned that some of you will have a knowing smile? Well, just know that Sayers sympathized with the families of middle school-aged children.

Psychologically, students in this stage have a powerful tendency toward discursive reason - or, thinking through a problem step by step. In the classroom, teachers start to move away from the memorization that marked elementary school and more towards discussions including questions that complement this unique stage of learning. In history, you might hear something like “Was this behavior justified?” while in literature students try their hand at persuasive essays.

The benefit of this developmental stage under a classical model is that students learn how to harness and direct their argumentative tendencies toward something good. They are encouraged to find answers for themselves and often find their foundation of knowledge is not enough to satisfy their desire. If they are going to continue to question and debate, they need more information. In this way, by the end of middle school, the imagination is reawakened after temporarily going dormant under the guise of youthful surliness.

#3 High School: The Rhetoric or Poetic Stage:

At last, we arrive at the last stage. Sayers notes that the Poetic stage is marked particularly by a student’s yearning to express themselves. They work their hardest to achieve independence, and they are most capable of synthesizing their knowledge across multiple grade levels and subjects. 

This synthesis is particularly important and is the reason that many schools end high school with a senior thesis or presentation in which they answer a question that requires them to utilize all that they have learned thus far. 

The gift of classical education, in particular, is that it leaves students with a greater creative ability and deliberate eagerness to know and do more. They are primed to enter life after high school with the prowess to continue learning - in whatever arena they choose. 

Classical education gives children knowledge, yes, but more importantly, we give them essential tools - hammers, saws, chisels, etc. - that they can take with them as they approach any new problem or question.

And that, as Sayers would point out, is the ultimate end of education:

“To learn six subjects without remembering how they were learned does nothing to ease the approach to seventh; to have learned and remembered the art of learning makes the approach to every subject an open door.”

This is why your classical student is different. This is why they can tackle new challenges with vigor and tenacity rather than fear and hesitation. Classical education concerns itself with knowledge, yes, but also with the training in how to think.