Thomas Jefferson on classical education

"I am more indebted to my father for my classical education than for all the other luxuries his cares and affections placed within my reach."  -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson attended English school, as it was called, starting from the age of 5, and at age 9 went to a Latin school, where he studied Latin, Greek and French.

At the age of 15, he began studying with "a correct classical scholar" and at age 17 he started at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. After two years of a formal course of study, he began to read law with George Wythe. He did not earn a degree, even after many years of study there, and later advised his grandson not to be concerned with a degree, but with getting an education that would be useful to him.

Jefferson's education was tremendously useful to him. Among the founders, Thomas Jefferson was known as the most eloquent writer, and for this reason was drafted by John Adams to write the Declaration of Independence.

Source: The web site of Monticello.

Great Hearts

The visit to Great Hearts academies in Arizona last week was fast but fruitful. I am confident that we will be able to replicate this model of classical education.

Archway-Veritas Headmaster William Haley

Bill Haley, above, is the new headmaster. He was previously a third-grade teacher in the school. And boy, were his third graders great. I watched their new teacher, Miss Clark, teach them how to calculate the area of a rectangle. "What's the algorithm for the area of a triangle?" one kid asked. And all the other kids got very excited, begging the teacher to tell them how to calculate the area of a triangle. Miss Clark was young, had majored in philosophy at a small liberal arts college. "But here you are teaching math," I pointed out to her after the class was done. "Oh, I love math," she said. Clearly, she did. And her enthusiasm for math had been picked up by her students.

It was great to see also how Singapore Math, which we'll also be using, works in the classroom. Miss Clark didn't just tell her students to multiply base times height to calculate area, but drew a large rectangle on the board, showed them the base, the height,...and then drew lines through the rectangle to divvy it up into small squares. Then she numbered each square while counting out loud...showing her students why multiplying base times height gives you the right answer.

Singapore Math does a lot of this showing. Teachers don't just tell students which calculation to use, but show them using simple graphics why this calculation produces the correct answer.

Also notable is that teachers teaching Singapore Math don't just give an example or two, and then tell students to work on problems on their own. This is often not enough instruction for students to really understand what is being presented to them. With Singapore Math, teachers go over and over a single type of calculation, ensuring that all students truly and deeply understand.

Scared of the Common Core? We're Not.

Florida adopted a lightly edited version of the Common Core this year - deleting a few standards that were really obtuse. What we have is now called the Language Arts Florida Standards (LAFS) and the Mathematics Florida Standards (MAFS).

It is important to note the the LAFS are not substantive. That is, they don't say what a child should learn, only what skills he should have in each grade. For example, here is one of the standards for Kindergartners:

Recognize common types of texts. (e.g. storybooks, poems) 

It doesn't say what books or poems Kindergartners should be reading or have read to them. Only that they should know the difference between a story and a poem. Ok.

The MAFS, on the other hand, are substantive, describing what math a child should know in each grade. For example, here is one of the standards for first graders:

Understand the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if equations involving addition and subtraction are true or false. For example, which of the following equations are true and which are false?  6=6, 7=8-1, 5+2=2+5, 4+1=5+2

The Singapore Math program that the Lake Worth Classical Academy will use for grades K-5 is aligned with the Common Core (and therefor also with the MAFS). That is, it will teach children what they need to know per these standards at each grade level.

The reading program that the Lake Worth Classical Academy will use -- Riggs phonics combined with Junior Great Books -- covers and goes well beyond the LAFS standards, which tend to emphasize reading comprehension.

We are not worried about the "Common Core" (LAFS and MAFS) affecting our curriculum. The bottom line is that it won't. Not at this point. Given the strength of our curriculum, our students should do very well on the state assessments that test whether they've met these standards of learning.

Here is a link to the LAFS standards for each grade: http://www.fldoe.org/pdf/lafs.pdf

Here is a link to the MAFS standards for each grade: http://www.fldoe.org/pdf/mathfs.pdf

Off to Phoenix

I'm off to Phoenix tomorrow to see Great Hearts academies. I'll stop by an upper school tomorrow afternoon, and then spend the whole day Friday at Archway Veritas, meeting with the headmaster, William Haley, and observing classes.  -- Margaret Menge

Application In

A draft application was turned in to the Palm Beach County School District on May 1. I'll get it back with comments by July 1, and have until August 1 to resubmit with changes. By October 1, we'll know whether we're approved to open the Lake Worth Classical Academy as a tuition-free charter school in August of 2015.