In the rhetorical stage one is working with children who have been prepared for the arguments they are now addressing. The foundation has been laid in terms of methodology and in terms of content. This is true even if they haven’t been in our program, at least in some measure, because, in terms of methodology one is always working with the natural inclinations of the student. Whether students have been in our program or not, they memorized, observed and sequenced in their early years, they argued in the junior high years and now they are ready to move on to eloquent persuasion about high and noble objects.

In terms of content, a student who was not using the MODG program in the early years might not have quite the same preparation, but hopefully he studied material earlier that he can now come back to and study on a deeper level. In MODG that is intentionally worked into the program. In history, for example, we begin the chronological study of history with Ancient Egypt in 6th grade. In 7th grade the students study ancient Rome and Greece, and in 8th grade move on to medieval history. In 9th grade they study US history. In high school the student returns to the same ground, but in a much deeper way. 10th grade history is once again the study of ancient history, 11th grade history is the study of medieval history, and in 12th grade the students study US government.

All learning is cyclical. One learns something and comes back to it later at a deeper level. In addition to the deeper consideration of the subject matter, for example, ancient history in 10th grade, there is always an additional content goal. The writing assignments in 10th grade history provide ample opportunity to consider the definition of the goodness of man, make judgments about whether someone is good or not, consider the nature of a stable government, and think about how the virtue of a people affects the common good of the country.

All of these topics are appropriate to the rhetorical stage of formation. All along, hopefully, there has been an emphasis on truth, beauty and goodness. If children are nourished on the true, the good and the beautiful, they will love those things, for they are desirable in themselves. Children raised this way are naturally repelled by the ugly and the false. (I’m not saying well raised children can’t make bad choices. Look at Adam and Eve. But it is easier to be good when you have been raised in accord with right reason at every level.) Heroic lives have been presented to the children, which I find to be a very helpful tool in developing virtue. The beauty and goodness they have been exposed to are all ordered to the truth as such.

At this age, the 10th through 12th grade years, the children are ready to pursue the ends of rhetoric explicitly. One can certainly see why this stage is called the rhetorical. Rhetoric is of three kinds: the political, the forensic and the ceremonial. These three kinds differ in their ends. Political rhetoric aims at establishing whether a proposed course of action is expedient or inexpedient [whether it will work or not], forensic rhetoric addresses whether an action done was just or unjust; and ceremonial rhetoric addresses whether someone deserves praise or blame. In our high school program students discuss all three types of actions and characters. These ends are all suited to the man who is concerned with the noble and the good. They will be best achieved by the man who is wise. I find that student of this age like to address apologetics, for there is no more noble or worthy subject. For the object of apologetics is Wisdom Himself.

Now, to attain these ends, the speaker has three means of persuasion. The first is his own character: he must present himself as one who is worthy of belief. The second is his power to affect and control the emotions of his listeners, for their state of mind will greatly affect how receptive they are to his argument. The third element is the persuasive quality of the argument itself, for the premises must be likely and the procedure logical. In my experience, the student in the rhetorical stage is interested in the high and noble, he cares about what is good and bad, and about what is blameworthy and praiseworthy. So the ends of rhetoric are by nature of interest to the high school student.

In the Mother of Divine Grace program there are over 6300 students. Among these students there are a small percentage of special needs children. One of my personal goals was to develop a program that will help these children learn well. To that end, we started the special needs department, and have developed a certification program for Mother of Divine Grace Special Needs Consultants. At one of our certification meetings we had a speaker, Sharon Hensley, author of Homeschooling Your Special Needs Child, a certified special
education teacher. What she said was very valuable in its own right, and found it illuminating as to education in general.

She said that in special needs education there must always be a balance between compensation techniques and therapy. For example, when a dyslexic child just can’t seem to learn to spell, one must both teach him to use a spell checker and continue to teach the principles of spelling, with an emphasis on strengthening his visual imagination. The spell checker is a compensating technique that will help him in life, but the therapy of strengthening the visual imagination is even more essential.

One should imagine these two elements in a pan balance. During the younger years the balance should be weighted toward therapy. One will teach compensation techniques, but he should concentrate on strengthening the areas of weakness in the student. During the middle school years the balance should be at parity, that is, there should be an equal emphasis on both compensation and therapy. In high school the balance should be weighted in favor of compensation, but without abandoning therapy.

Now, that seems like common sense to me, partly because it is the same general model I have used in thinking about the content and method of the classical curriculum. Imagine another pan balance. The items in the balance are educational content on the one hand, and educational method on the other. During the younger years the balance should be weighted toward method. One will teach intrinsically good content, but he should concentrate on strengthening the tools of learning in the student. During the middle school years the balance should be at parity, that is, there should be an equal emphasis on both content and method.

In high school the balance should be weighted in favor of content, but without abandoning method. In the case of these two items, this is even easier to accomplish than in the earlier case of compensation and therapy, because there is no opposition of any kind between content and method.

When a teacher teaches a student to use the spell checker, she is not working on strengthening the visual imagination. To include that side of the pan balance she needs to have another, different, educational activity. But when a teacher is teaching the Roman constitution she will adapt the way she teaches it to include the appropriate method for the student at his current stage of formation. Thus, though the emphasis might change as the student develops, both content and method are important components of every assignment. Content concerns what you are thinking about, while the method has to do with how you think about it.

There is a sense in which methodology and content converge in high school. Any of the formative activities of the various stages ‐‐ memorization, analysis, and communication of beauty ‐‐can be done with many different subject matters. It is usually a good idea to
exercise them with the materials that are easiest to use, or that meet the particular student’s interests. This is not because there is nothing in one material that is better than another, but because students learn better when their differences in interest and learning style are taken into account.

However, in explaining a view of education that invokes the difference between formation and information, methodology and content, the question naturally arises, “Isn’t the formation within information itself?” One friend told me, “It makes me nervous, Laura, when people start talking about formation as though it was something that happened without reference to the material that is doing the forming. Surely some materials are better than others?” Surely that’s true. There is always some degree of connection; there are degrees of formation within the various materials themselves. Even in the words, one sees the connection. There is ‘formation’ within information. Nonetheless, formation and information are not necessarily identical.

In the first developmental stage we address, the grammatical, usually up to 5th grade, the student has a natural inclination to memorize and observe. A child can do this with any number of materials and still attain the same benefit. Some materials are virtually indifferent, in terms of formation. Whether one uses Aesop’s Fables or The Book of Virtues by Bill Bennet will not materially affect the rest of life. Memorizing poems is a useful and formative exercise, but which poems are chosen is not necessarily significant. In cases like these, the method is more formative than the material.

Other materials are more formative in themselves, but it is not always essential to use one particular source. For example, I like to have the children read and re‐tell Bible stories in their early school years. The stories are certainly formative, and the method used in the re‐telling is formative, but there are a number of good texts that might be used, and which one is chosen is not particularly significant. This is true about grammar texts as well. It is very important to do analytic grammar in the analytic stage of formation, but which grammar text is used ought to be based on individual considerations. Is the parent going to teach this subject on a daily basis? Then Voyages in English would be recommended. Does the student like to work independently and does he usually work well? Then Easy Grammar might be the best choice. Has the parent ever done diagramming before? If not, Mary Daly’s Diagramming Workbook would be highly recommended. The subject matter is important, but the usefulness of a particular presentation depends on circumstances.

However, there is a third category of materials that are formative by their very nature, primarily from the words used and the order within the presentation of the doctrine. The works of Aristotle, the Summa of St. Thomas, the formulations of doctrine from the Church, and even the Baltimore Catechism are examples of this type of material. In each of these cases, the matter has to do with principles of understanding and being. The clearest example I can think of is the Physics of Aristotle. Learning about matter, form and privation, or the four causes: matter, form, agent and end, or the definition of motion as the act of the imperfect qua imperfect can be life changing. Other texts which may state the same information generally, will not have the same effect, because the understanding of the one writing the original text is so great that it permeates the presentation and is an essential component in the effect achieved in the learner.

Even though, with such powerful material, the formation arises primarily from the information, the method used in teaching is still important. At Thomas Aquinas College, for example, the method employed involves student discussion. The classes are not lectures, rather the students grapple with the material and the tutors guide the discussions. This way the questions are truly those of the student, and therefore he can appreciate the answers when they come. 

At every level, the truths of the faith fall into this third category: materials that are formative by their very nature. Nonetheless, the method used with this matter should reflect the current stage of general intellectual formation. Students should memorize and observe at the grammatical stage. At this time of life memorizing is fun in and of itself. In terms of religious instruction, this means that having your student memorize catechism questions is an activity that is appropriate to his particular stage of formation. This is important in itself. Children don’t need to understand the full implications of the answers now; if they memorize them, the answers will be in their minds and hearts later, when they need them. This memorization is also important in terms of the formation it gives to the imagination.

Almost all the texts where the formation is essentially tied to the particular text or material are found at the college level. The high school materials, however, are more like those I mention above than were the student’s earlier materials.

A look at the arguments made in the MODG High School Curriculum:

I find that a large argument developed over time is important. Our whole high school history program is one long argument about the nature of government in general and our government in particular. (This is not to say that there are not other considerations being made – such as what the appropriate life of a man is.)

In 9th grade we are setting the context for the argument about government and learning how to make an argument. In 10th grade we read Daniel so that the student may reflect on the way Daniel deals with the government he lives under (among other things). We read the Iliad, so that the children can think about the public and the private life of man, and Antigone so that the issues raised regarding the relative merits of God’s law and man’s law, and the difficulties in ascertaining responsibility, can be assessed. We also look at the life of Alexander, who was taught by Aristotle and whose governmental policies in some measure set the stage for the coming of Our Lord in the “fullness of time”. Then, in Polybius’ The Rise of the Roman Empire the student examines the Roman constitution in some detail, so that he can see in that particular government some universal truths about the nature of government and what makes a government successful. He is also working on how to use a text, and how to format an argument. The last element of the 10th grade history is a consideration of goodness and greatness in men, as exhibited in Julius Caesar. The difference between the public and the private, between great achievement and great goodness needs to be considered.

In 11th grade we are doing two things. We are most importantly expanding the student’s understanding of the nature of government and the ingredients of a successful government by looking at two instances: English and, especially, Spanish government. I hope that the
children see explicitly, or at least implicitly, that while the formula for a mixed government enunciated in the sixth book of Polybius’ The Rise of the Roman Empire contains a universal truth, the Roman government is only one expression of that truth. I want them to see another successful government that had a mixed character, but was a monarchy. That form of government is present in medieval Spain, especially in Aragon. The History of Medieval Spain by O’Callaghan has such a discussion. Not only does it have the discussion, but the discussion of kingship in general is masterful. All of this is ordered to understanding St. Thomas on law and especially Question 105 on government in the senior year. And the St. Thomas we study is ordered to understanding our Constitution. The students read the Federalist and the Antifederalists to grasp the issues surrounding the drafting of the Constitution. After these considerations the read sections of Democracy in America by de Tocqueville. This is a difficult course, but it is an interesting course, and it is important in the formation of our children. Throughout this course the children are asked to consider matters in the light of the expedient and inexpedient, the just and unjust and the praiseworthy and otherwise. They write both papers and essays on these questions and discuss the matters. They are encouraged to make a judgment and explain it convincingly.

There is another matter that we are working on in the 11th grade history, namely showing the students the difference between universal principles and particular historical information. The students read Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall because it is interesting in itself, but it is also an opportunity for the student to see that history, though important, has limitations. Learning about Richard III teaches the student that there is no universal truth about particulars. It’s very hard to judge a man’s motives when he is in front of you. It’s even harder when he lived hundreds of years ago. What makes a man good doesn’t change, but whether this man is good is very hard to judge. However, one must make some judgments, and there are reasonable ways to do that. Mr. Kendall does it very well.

In the science courses in high school there is also an argument made. There is a general theme in the high school years about the nature of man. It is appropriate to investigate the nature of the soul as part of that study. The Natural Science course begins that study. The student first reads two delightful books, King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz and Fabre’s Book of Insects. Both of these books contain entertaining accounts of scientific investigations with animals designed to help the observer come to an understanding of the cause of animal behaviors. Then the student does a project involving living animals. In the project, the student observes animal behavior,raises a question about some aspect of that behavior, and changes the environment in a way that may affect the behavior. He then observes again, drawing at least a tentative conclusion in answer to his original question. The primary aim of this course is to learn about the living creature as living, seeing the animals performing their proper operations. It is a philosophic course as it prepares the student to do the De Anima of Aristotle, or any psychology course. One learns about the soul by observing its proper operations. This approach also prepares the student for the study of biology. Students appreciate biology more if they have considered the proper operations of living animals before they start dissecting dead ones. Even if students do not dissect specimens, most biology texts consider living creatures without reference to the end to which they are ordered, namely, the life of a living being. Natural science supplies for that deficiency.

Other appropriate facets of argument and of understanding the causes of things are found in the study of geometry and Latin. Geometry is an important discipline. It not only trains the mind, but also provides a model of what it means to move from cause to effect. Most human learning moves the other direction, from effect to cause. We see that something is so, and start to wonder why. Then we work on figuring out, from what we see, what must be true of whatever caused it. All our natural knowledge of God is arrived at in this way. God, on the other hand, knows everything in terms of the cause. He sees things in their causes. In geometry, students have an opportunity to know, in this area, as God knows in all areas, for in geometry the student moves from a knowledge of the first principles of the subject to what effects such principles can bring about. Geometry supplies the student with a model of what we mean when we say God knows all things in their causes.

Latin is also important in training the mind at this stage of formation. It is a discipline for the mind, expands the vocabulary, enables students to read Church documents in the original language, and improves test scores. (This may be a practical consideration, but it is nonetheless a real one.)

However, the most important use of argumentation and the presentation of that is Faith based. The end of classical education is wisdom. The liberal arts, grammar, logic and rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, are ordered to philosophy and natural theology, and all of this is ordered to Sacred Theology, that is, to knowing God who is the first cause. When we know God, we have wisdom, for we see as He sees. All men are made in God’s image and likeness, but this is achieved most perfectly when we are actually knowing and loving Him. To think about God, to contemplate God, to serve God in our intellectual as well as practical lives is the goal.

As educators we give children the tools to do that intellectually in two ways. We use a method which strengthens the intellectual tools of the student and we arrange educational content that lays the foundation for argument and provides the principles for judgment We achieve this goal morally by giving good example, and forming the students in good habits, habits that are in accordance with right reason. We make sure that they have in their lives the good , the true and the beautiful. We must be clear ourselves about the ends of rhetoric and how they are to be achieved. We must be examples, and we must most importantly love and serve God and our neighbor in the children in front of us.