The Trivium or "3 ways of thinking"
The traditional model of classical education has adopted learning stages, but when children are expected to be at a particular stage by a certain age, education becomes formulaic rather than individual. A deep understanding of the Liberal Arts (the foundation for the Classical movement) is the Trivium and the Quadrivium. The Trivium is the foundational thinking skills for the Quadrivium to be built upon. This view of the Trivium takes students a mile deep and an inch wide rather than a mile wide and an inch deep.
The Grammar phase of thinking for any subject is the concrete understanding necessary for building upon. The Logic phase is the puzzling process of asking questions such as "why." Finally, the Rhetoric phase culminates with the understanding a student gains during the grammar and logic phases pouring forth in art, music, writing, and speaking.
Children are met at their level by understanding the Trivium as thinking skills rather than stages of development. The advanced five-year-old can be challenged to think more deeply, and the struggling five-year-old can be given more time for concrete understanding.
Once these thinking skills are developed, a student can launch into the love of learning essential to navigate the world in which we live rightly.
