Thank you God as I recall in my public high school HAVING to read Hamlet, etc. etc. I was BORED, and I thank God for steering me away.

Thanks again Robin! God bless you and your family!

If this is what it takes to have a well-trained mind, I don’t want one. Implementing just a few of the book’s suggested methods created a joyless learning experience for my children and me. Training (instructing/drilling) and educating (developing/enlightening) are clearly not the same thing. Also If the authors have such well-trained minds, why do they take so long to make their points? The book is BORING!

We should know there is a problem when EVERY private Catholic school is uses the classical appraoch.

But, I guess here’s where I’ll get the bash, I do like another classical ed book that is VERY focused on the Bible and does not use the pagan classics. It blends perfectly and reinforces much of HOW for me. It’s called Teaching the Trivium by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn and I do like it. They are serious about the Bible being foundational and permeating everything. They are also VERY serious about not treating children like recepticals and using the better late than early approach for “bookish studies” like the Moores. This is the ONLY classical resource that I have found helpful. In the early years they are much more CM like HOW is and they even focus on the fact that at any age, all literature (no matter it’s rave reviews or classical status) is not suitable or edifying to the body of Christ). I know this may be the most unpopular post in response, but I truly do not see that much difference in the Bluedorns approach and the HOW approach with the exception of HOW focusing on Hebraic roots I think the Bluedorns have actually included that in their teachings without calling it the same things, too. Just my .02; I think by blending them, I get more encouragement for homeschooling my children God’s way. I love HOWTA and am so thankful for all the encouragement. I also love the Bluedorn’s and find them equally encouraging along with the Clarksons, who minister to me greatly!

Seems like every year the pressure to go back and conform to the pagan model of education places such pressure on us. Fear that our children will not measure up to the education system and standards (standards, yeah right!!) of this world is a fear most homeschool parents go through time after time.

Again, I must repent for “respecting” the educational gods of this world and allowing them to intimidate me back to the pagan pattern.

All over the country, even the world, God is calling HIS people OUT. He is calling us out of the murky waters of compromise and syncretism found not only in education but in churches that are becoming more and more liberal, corrupt politics, immoral entertainment… all over the world!

Does anyone else hear the cry of the spirit that we are hearing?…. “Who is on the Lords side, come out from among them and be ye seperate!” I believe its getting louder and louder.

Your website and articles have blessed us beyond words as God continues to confirm what we are hearing in our spirits.

Thank you!

Over 3 years ago, when I was a new homeschooler attempting to traverse the waters of curriculum and philosophy, a friend excitedly shared The Well Trained Mind with me, and I dutifully researched it all over the internet. Site after site claimed that it was the best thing since sliced bread, and not sharing it with my child would be an extreme injustice. So I bought SotW, along with some other recommendations, and started my child out on the path of learning for knowledge’ sake. Well, about 3 weeks into it, my 7 year old son (how open a child can be!) asked why he had to learn things that weren’t true. Manual in hand, I plunged forward, confident that I was doing what was best. Didn’t all the sites say so?

A few months later, he had approached me a few more times, asking me why history contradicted God’s Word, and why his history curriculum consistently contradicted even the books it suggested he read. Well, even my trusty manual couldn’t answer that one for me…so I bravely took matters into my own hands and (gasp!) gave up the manual. We floated for a while between unit studies, workbooks, and just reading what looked good. While I felt a bit lost without a manual as a compass, this allowed me to see that I was removing him from his true Compass, and I began to search out what I should do according to God’s Word. I realized that I was given the responsibility to raise my son to be a wise, godly man that could be used by God to His glory, not a godless thinker who seeks to glorify his own knowledge and abilities.

Eventually, I found Heart of Wisdom when I was searching the internet one day, and I was intrigued. I was a bit put off by yet another Classical approach, but I downloaded the free excerpts, and wow…was I impressed. A teaching approach that strives to glorify God in our children while teaching them to study to show themselves approved. I couldn’t get enough of it, but I thought there had to be a catch somewhere. I read through hundreds pages of excerpts…and there was no catch.

The Hebrew approach to teaching has turned things completely around for both my son and me. He loves to learn in order to become who God would have him be, and I am constantly and consistently challenged to present knowledge of the world around him, worldviews, historical information, and scripture in a way that will truly illuminate God’s plan for him.

Nor do we need the modern tracher of the classical approach (author of The Well Trained Mind) Susan Bauer’s ideas (rigid, stifling, harsh, severe, and downright boring) zapping all the fun out of learning.

Philo of Alexandria (and many others), a Hellenized Jew merged Hebrew mythical thought with Greek philosophical thought in the first century B.C. which resulted in almost 2000 years of pagan Christianity for the Catholics and a very distorted view for many protestants. Bauer doesn’t really try to merge the Bible- she just ignores it or misquotes it.