Every so often it is a good idea to step back, look at our school year, and evaluate it in terms of long-term goals. That’s why we have second consultations in Mother of Divine Grace. But the evaluations we make, and even the consultations we do, will be more fruitful if we have been considering what our long terms goals are. Thus, it is important for all of us, certainly those of us with high school students, but even those with grade school students, to think about what we are trying to achieve, academically, in terms of our general goals. In this article, I would like to talk about some of those goals.

In high school, we want our students to read well with good comprehension. We want them to write well, which includes having a pleasant, clear style, clearly understood and stated arguments, and good mechanics.

We also want them to develop a real interest in academic subjects. It is our hope that using real literature, rather than textbooks, where possible, and generally enjoyable materials (C.S. Lewis’ The Case for Christianity and Konrad Lorenz’s King Solomon’s Ring come to mind) will help the students develop that interest.

We want them to love history, because that love is foundational to many other disciplines, such as philosophy, English literature, and the development of prudence in daily life.

We also want the students to be aware of the power and beauty of words. This has three advantages. It will result in an increased vocabulary, which in turn will help the student be a more discriminating thinker. (Having a more precise word for a concept makes it easier to formulate the concept accurately, and see how it relates to other concepts. C.S. Lewis said, when someone thanked him for the clarity of his works, that the clarity came from painstaking work in trying to understand something he didn’t initially understand. He had
to “take apart” the concept, see the various parts, name them, and think about them when he had gotten the idea isolated from other ideas. Then he could really work on the idea intellectually.)

A large and precise vocabulary also helps the student appreciate and understand great literature and poetry. And an awareness of the power and beauty of words helps motivate students to discuss. Discussion is a large part of our curriculum, and an important part, both academically and socially. In conversation, students develop their ability to think. They have to defend and explain their statements, and they will get better at doing so the more they do it. Socially, conversation with our children is formative for them (and for us) and a large part of the reason we began homeschooling in the first place.

In order to help students to read well with good comprehension, we emphasize reading in the curriculum. We want to make sure that the students are not just using textbooks, that they are reading literature. In virtually every one of my consultations I ask the mother what each child is reading these days. Our curriculum has many opportunities for reading what Charlotte Mason calls ‘real books’. This is especially true, of course, in our high school history courses. And in most cases, there are quite a variety of possibilities offered.

In the high school curriculum, we have many opportunities for developing writing skills. In 9th grade the religion course not only has a number of required papers, but is sound pedagogically because the first papers have outlines for the student to use. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. One day my daughter said reflectively, "Isn't it strange that though we can't see our mouths the spoon always goes straight in?" I laughed, thinking about what her face had looked like after her early meals. Of course, she doesn't remember the mess she made when she was learning to eat with a spoon, she just knows that now the spoon goes straight in.

Constructing an argument or writing a paper is a similar experience. Once you are used to finding the topic sentence in a paragraph, it seems very simple. When you answer a question, you know what information will satisfy the questioner and the order in which it should be presented. Once you have experience, putting the material in the right order in your paper is easy. But we tend to forget how hard that is to do at first. For this reason, supplying the student with an outline is an important first step in learning to write.

We also have the students practice writing assiduously in their 9th grade Earth Science Course. They use four small workbook texts
from Milliken Press and numerous reference books. The students use the worksheets for direction and the reference books for information, regularly writing an essay in which they collate the information garnered. The students write this essay in a journal, and illustrate each entry. At the end of the year they have their own earth science book, they have regularly practiced short essay writing on a given topic, and they have greatly improved their research skills. Further, in my experience, the information gained seems to become a permanent possession.

In history, for all four years, we have the students write a number of papers. Not so many that there won’t be time for them to work on the papers to make them really good, but enough so that they can develop their ability to present a position.

The process we follow in the 9th grade history is intended to prepare the children to present arguments in all the remaining years. First, we have the student write a paper in the first person. That’s the paper on the colonial period. This is to help him see what it means to speak in a 'voice’, to present a consistent point of view. Then he writes a conversation. That gives him the opportunity to present two points of view, in a context where it is easy to keep them separated. He again sees what it means to speak in a ‘voice’, this time two ‘voices’. Then we have him do the westward expansion paper. This is to be a simple, more or less chronological narrative of that period of history. Here he is practicing speaking in the third person, in an objective voice. 

That brings us to the Civil War paper. In this paper, all of those aspects we have been practicing are to be put to use. The student should pick a topic that relates to the war, and that interests him, such as the right to secede. Then he should write an introduction, setting the stage by giving the context details. He proceeds to speak in one voice, either the Southern or the Northern, giving the best argument he can for the position held on that issue. Then he does the same thing for the other side. Finally he draws a conclusion. He is using the techniques practiced in the earlier papers, speaking in a voice, giving two different sides, and writing in the objective third person. We have added the drawing of a conclusion to this paper.

The next paper in that course is a book report. That gives the student the opportunity, if he uses the “Questions for the Study of Literature” at the end of the ninth grade resource list in Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, to consider the literary works he has been reading in terms of setting, plot, characterization, etc. I think he is in a better position to do this now that he has practiced writing a paper in which he concentrates on giving a position.

Book reports are not primarily about argument. They are about laying out the elements of the book, and making some kind of judgment about how well those elements have been presented. But the consideration of truth that is implicit in the later questions on that list I mentioned depends on an ability to see that author’s position, which is sometimes veiled. By this time in the course, we have spent 3/4ths, at least, of the year, learning, step by step, to construct an argument. The student is more likely now to recognize the argument he encounters in another text.

And then there is one more paper in that course, where the student is able to practice, again, the skills of argumentation.

In 10th ,11th, and 12th grades the history courses also have ample opportunities for writing arguments. In every paper, the mechanics of writing should be attended to. In the Mother of Divine Grace syllabi we have rubrics checklists and the general subject rubrics. I suggest that you use those rubrics, especially the writing rubrics. The rubrics can help us be more aware of how we should be directing our children.

We use real books when we can, rather than text books, because they are intrinsically more interesting. As I said earlier, it is our hope that
using real literature and generally enjoyable materials will help the student develop his interest in academic subjects. Long ago Aristotle defined a good story. He said that it is an imitation of action and life (Poetics 1450a16), and an imitation of the agent of the action for the sake of that action (ibid. 1450 b4)

Now, stories are not concerned with life the way history is. The difference between the two is like the difference between a photograph of a scene and a painting of the same scene. Both are likenesses, but in the painting the artist shows the viewer a particular aspect of, or an insight about, the object that he is imitating. By his rendering of the object he makes the viewer see what he sees. A photograph, by contrast, is simply a reproduction of the outward appearance of a thing.

"The historian differs from the poet [the storyteller] by speaking of what has actually occurred, whereas the poet speaks of the kinds of things which are likely to occur. In view of this, poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history; for poetry speaks rather of what is universally the case, whereas history speaks of particular events which actually occurred. (Poetics 1451b1-10)

History is particular, literature is universal. G.K. Chesterton says it another way: a good poet, or storyteller, is able to give his readers "a
glorious glimpse into the possibilities of existence". (Autobiography, The Collected Works of GKC)

We use literature to support history, so that the universal truths contained in literature may be seen applied to historical situations. Also, the study of history is foundational to many other disciplines, such as philosophy, English literature, and the development of prudence in daily life. This is true especially because of the particularity of history. Both literature and history are important in developing the academic life.

Young students don’t have the experience necessary to do philosophy. That is one reason why it is important for them to read great works of literature and history. Through these works the student gains a sort of experience. Further, the great works of literature appeal to the imagination and move the affections rightly. They present or imply profoundly important views of human life and reality as a whole. Similarly, the great works of history provide vicarious moral experience, a conception of human society, and an awareness of the greatest issues mankind faces. All of this prepares the student well to read the more difficult things at the right time.

Also, the student must have an ability to study, to wonder about what he sees, an interest in causes, not just facts, an ability to reflect, a respect for reasonable argument, and a confidence in his ability to proceed reasonably by himself and in company with others. Our curriculum, to be excellent education, should incorporate materials and methods that will facilitate the achievement of these goals.

One of the most important lessons I have learned along these lines is not to think for the student. Resist the temptation to just whip out the answer key, when the student has made his first attempt to answer a question. Let him think about it longer. One of the reasons there is no answer key for the questions I ask in Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum about The Case for Christianity is so that the student has a chance to reflect on the material, maybe make a mistake, and come back to correct it later. It’s important to have confidence in the mind of the student.

One of our students had used another program for her first two years of high school. When she started with Mother of Divine Grace, her mother watched for several weeks, then asked, “What do you think about this curriculum compared to what you have done in the past?” The daughter’s reply was enthusiastic, “I love this curriculum, it’s so easy! I can get a day’s work done in a day.” The mom wasn’t sure what to think. She was glad that her daughter was happy, and she was grateful that a day’s work could be done in a day. But “easy”? That just didn’t seem right.

Three weeks later, the daughter came to her mom spontaneously and said, “Mom, remember when you asked me about comparing the two curriculums? Well, I’ve been thinking about it. I still say this is easier in one way, because I can get done in a day what I’m supposed to get done in a day. But it’s harder in another way. This curriculum expects you to think. In the other course of studies, I was never asked a question that I couldn’t just go to the book and find the answer for. It took a long time, but the answer was always right there. I didn’t have to think about it. In the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum, I’m asked questions that require me to use the material I’ve read, but go beyond it. It’s harder in another way.”

When the mom told me this story, I was very pleased. That’s exactly what we want to have happen. We want our children to think, not just spit back facts. We also want the students to be aware of the power and beauty of words. I mentioned three advantages to this already. Remember that in tenth through twelfth grades it is communication, emphasizing the power and beauty of language, that forms the heart of our curriculum. I have said before that it is essential to education that when the children are capable of grasping and marshaling arguments, they should practice doing so. If they do, then this last stage, the rhetorical, is able to be given to articulating those arguments elegantly, in the service of the truly noble. History is a great place to practice rhetorical skills, because the topics that come up in history often revolve around moral issues, and they always admit of at least two points of view. The children exercise their intellectual powers by considering both sides of an argument, applying moral principles, making a judgment, and then articulating that judgment in a persuasive manner.

Remember that formation is at least as important as information, because it is more fundamental. Subjects, including history, provide the
material through which formation is acquired. However, some material is more suitable than others for the acquisition of the skills of learning. History and literature are both subjects well suited to this purpose, because they are interesting in themselves, revealing with respect to the origins of the culture we see around is, and enormously enlarge our fund of knowledge about particulars and universal truths.

An important note: one of the most important aspects of the high school curriculum is the conversation that accompanies religion, history, and literature. All that we have said here is true, but it is important to remember that the spoken word is closer to the concept that the written word, and is really necessary to prepare the student to write. If a mom is just sending her child off to read and write, without conversing, she is not going to get the same formation as she will if she lets him read, then talks to him, and then lets him write.

Remember, these are our general academic goals. They are not our final goals. In the end, all learning is directed to understanding God
more perfectly, so that we may love Him more ardently, and serve Him more diligently. My final goal for my family, for myself, and for you, is that when we finally meet Him face to face, He will say, “Welcome, my good and faithful servant.” It is my belief that the well educated man, having achieved the goals outlined here, is helped by his formation in achieving this goal.