The Importance of Education: What is a proper education?

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

A proper education can be defined by many things, but most importantly is the retention of facts learned and the ability to speak and write coherently. To achieve these things, a few basic principles and subjects must be employed.

Similar to the way unit studies connect multiple subjects to one basic theme, a proper education should be connected across the curricula so as to help the child better connect ideas and remember them. The way to achieve this is through the proper study of history. Almost every subject can be connected to history: music, art, science, literature, writing, even math problems. And the best way to study history (and consequently, the other subjects) is chronologically so that the child can place events in their proper context and also better remember past events that may be connected.

Rote learning, a technique used to memorize facts is a simple way to retain information. The major practice is repetition. One way to accomplish this through history is to break the chronology of history into four parts and repeat them through the school years. In the Well-Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer breaks history down in this way: ancient times, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and modern era. As history is repeated, more details are learned and since history is learned chronologically, events such as wars are better understood.

A proper education also includes phonics, instead of whole word (or sight word) reading. Children are better able to read and learn new words faster and easier when they know the proper sounds for each letter or group of letters. I do not understand how the phonics method could have lost its appeal in the school system!

The use of logic and rhetoric are extremely important in a proper education. This gives children the ability to organize information properly and express their thoughts articulately, while making a sound argument. It also gives them the ability to see through fallacies and propaganda.

A study of Latin will complete the education by giving the ability to increase vocabulary and spelling. Latin words and derivatives comprise close to fifty percent of the English language, and English grammar is based upon Latin. French, Spanish, and Italian are also related to Latin and will therefore be easier to learn. From the Catholic standpoint, Latin is important in the Church and many documents, prayers, and songs, as well as the Tridentine mass and the Vulgate are in Latin.