The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Edition

Rating:
Summary: Best homeschool book I've read
Review: I checked this book out from my local library and I am thoroughly impressed. I have a 3 year old I am beginning to homeschool and now I have found my how to guide. It seems a bit rigorous and challenging but nothing good comes from very little effort.

Rating:
Summary: a guide to CLASSICAL education
Review: Wow,,,to the person with the one star review, please note that it is a guide to CLASSICAL education. Classical education, by definition, includes learning about ancient Greece and Rome. Secondly, your review prompted me to search my own copy high and low to see where exactly it claims to be a Christian book. It doesn't. Not anywhere, in any way, does it claim to be a Christian book. The book *does* state that you should supplement with the religious teachings appropriate to your family. For my family, that would be Catholicism, the religion you so insultingly and mistakingly refer to as "practicing 2000 years of paganism". For some, I guess it would be whatever materials teach you to take cheap shots at the faith of millions of people and then call themselves "Christian".

For the rest of the reading audience, so sorry to burden you with all that. We have been using The Well-Trained Mind for two years. It is very ambitious. The outline in the book is for the highly motivated. We follow it quite closely, but at this time I have just two children. Most people that I know that use it modify it in some way to the needs and abilities of their families. The authors even state that they know most people will not do everything as it is laid out. This book covers it all, from preschool to high school- everything from the teaching your child to read to computer skills and SAT preparation in one thick volume. If you do half of it, your child will be quite prepared for any of the classes I took my first year of college.

Rating:
Summary: Classical Guide!
Review: You are bound to embrace this book if you are unsure how to get started with Classical home education. Tips about HOW TO do a classical education with some stories and experiences inserted made this enjoyable. It was fun to read how Mom and daughter gained from their learning experiences. I received my copy a year ago and still reread passages. Then my Mom came to visit and found it and couldn't put it down either. This is a guidebook to not miss out on!

Claudine
Atlanta, GA

Rating:
Summary: Rigorous AND Fun
Review: Wow... some funny reviews below. I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend whose homeschooled Kindergartner loves learning and has been reading for close to two years. I have no religious reasons for choosing homeschooling, though I respect the choice of those who do. I've been an English teacher for ten years and have grown increasingly disenchanted with both public and private schools; I've watched bright, creative, passionate young people have the love of learning sucked out of them by a flawed and over-burdened system, or, worse, fall between the cracks because they have learning differences, despite the fact that they have amazing minds.

To the readers who assert that this book is for rigid, obsessive parents, I would urge them to read it again. It's not about rigidity, but about fostering excellence, which does take some hard work. I'm sure that this style of homeschooling is not for every child and every family, but it provides hundreds of resources, and I think there's something here for everyone. Granted, if you're not interested in a Classical approach, you may want to look elsewhere. But I would urge you to consider it, even if it sounds foreign or daunting.

And now for my snotty asides: the reviews that are rife with spelling and grammar errors, and insist that the methods in this book are too demanding for children, are a bit hard to take seriously, you know? Other reviews are clearly written by parents who are intimidated because of how little education they themselves have... but the wonderful thing about homeschooling is that you get to learn WITH your children. It should be exciting to you, and if it's scary to confront all of the science, math, history and literature that you don't know, so much the better! Don't we want to teach our children to seek knowledge, and to try things that are difficult? And what better way to do that than to model it ourselves? If you are a lifelong learner, your children will be too.

I have the greatest respect for those deeply religious Christians who indicated that while this book has much to offer, it's lacking in religious education, and they make up for on their own with Biblical study, many of whom include Biblical languages in said study.

I have less respect for the reviewers who are worried that the lessons of those evil Pagan Greeks (their words, not mine) will teach their children to question. Here's my favorite quote from a reviewer below: "I pray God will open the blind eyes of those lusting after intelectualism (note the spelling error) and lead them to True Wisdom of God! What good is Homer and Shakespeare to the soul?"

What good is Homer and Shakespeare to the soul!?! Don't you actually mean What good ARE Homer and Shakespeare to the soul? I don't even know how to begin to answer that. It's a clear case of "If you have to ask..."

I begin to see why literacy rates amongst the middle class are declining, and most high school students will never take Calculus. Buy the book if you're a homeschooler or teacher interested in educating thoughtful, interesting, interested critical thinkers.


Rating:
Summary: Great Homeschool Book
Review: This book has revolutionized the way we homeschool our four children. The book gives suggestions, study time recommendations and sources for what the authors consider the best homeschool products. The reviews and source lists alone are worth the price of the book, even if classical education is not the philosophy you care to follow.

Rating:
Summary: GOD help the first year homeschooler that reads this book!
Review: The Well Trained Mind

God help the first year homeschooler that reads this book!

This method is rigid, stifling, harsh, severe, and downright boooring. It instantly zaps all the fun out of learning for the students and the teacher.

Why would any Christian homeschoolers want a education approach from the pagan Greeks? Its beyond me. Although I do understand the Catholics liking this book- its based on Thomas Aquinas's (the patron saint of education) classical education methods.

This book claims to be a Christian book but has a bare mention, like an after thought, about Bible study. Why bother calling it Christian (oh yeah MARKETING...80% of homeschooler are Christian.) Bauer didn't waste any time putting out more books for the secular market.

Excuse me, but if an education method calls itself Christian shouldn't that include more than a drop of Bible? It is astounding that for all the fuss we hear regarding Christian education how little of the Bible actually gets studied. We sprinkle the Word of God into education like a little salt on our meals. The Well Trained mind wants you to torture
your children with hours and hours of reading Greek philosophy, and if you have time left over she gives some distorted Bible stories mixed with mythology???????

This is not the first time Christians have tried to merge the Bible with Greek philosophy. Philo of Alexandria, 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.

At first I thought lets add Susan Bauer to the list of others that tried merging Greek garbage with the Bible- Clement of Alexandria, Christian Apologists like Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Origen. But then after reading the rest of the book I see Bauer doesn't really try to merge the Bible- she just ignores it or misquotes it.

Now why are there so many positive reviews about this book? I believe it is one of two things or a combination of both.
1. Maybe the author has lots of Amazon friends.
2. Maybe the fear of homeschoolers is so great they grab on to
this rigid schedule in hopes to cover everything. Ugg

Do yourself a favor- pray and read THE living book- The Bible. You don't need Homer and Plato or Bauer.


Rating:
Summary: Best source to start you on the path to classical homeschool
Review: I loved this book! I couldn't put it down and it totally changed the way I looked at homeschooling. It was exactly what I was looking for and what I felt was lacking in our school. I am a Christian and I will say that although this book is not written strictly on a Christian worldview it is so easy to add exclusively Christian texts and customize your children's learning experience. I don't exclusively do classical education, I combine both Classical and Charlotte Mason and use Tapestry of Grace to happily achieve this. However, this book has wonderful resources listed to complete your classical homeschool. If you are a Christian please don't worry about what others have said about it being a humanistic way of learning...just because something originated in Greece doesn't mean that you need to teach the same humanistic philosophy that they did. Just ridiculous. Sounds like throwing out the baby with the bathwater to me. What classical education means is studying history in depth, in four year cycles, adjusting the intensity to your child's grade level and place in the trivium style of learning. It means exposing your child to great works of literature from the beginning, so that Homer is not so daunting and boring to them when they are thrown it in High School. It means combining these great works of literature and if you are a Christian, adding scripture memorization to the mix and learning classic languages that the scriptures have been written in (like latin, hebrew, and greek)so that your child has first hand knowledge of the scriptures. What is anti-Christian about that? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Buy this book, it will blow your mind and give you all the tools you need to find the books and know how to educate your child classically.

Rating:
Summary: Great guide to a classical home-grown education
Review: First let me say that it's really hard to understand those who are bashing this book because it doesn't support their allegedly "Christian" world view. I know this may come as a shock to some of you who've given the book a negative review for this reason, but not everyone believes you have to use the Bible as your only text to a.) be a good teacher or b.) a good Christian.
The book recommends classical literature for young children as part of a back-to-basics approach to education. Who can possibly argue with that?
I purchased the book along with the history guide, history workbook and one of the recommended spelling guides and am comfortable - intellectually and morally - with the choice.
If you are a close-minded parent who believes that a good, broad-based classical education will put your child on the slippery slope to eternal damnation then, by all means, choose something else.
But if you have the intelligence to realize that good literature and basics in math, grammar, hisotry and science is a complement to the development of a child who is being taught principles then The Well-Trained Mind is a must-have book.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Thing to Happen to the Homeschool Movement!!!
Review: First, you should know that the classical approach is not Christian. The classical system that began by the pagan philosophers in Ancient Greece was brought back by the USA public school system when it turned against the Bible and Puritan education methods. Although some classical educators have tried (like the Catholics of ancient times) to merge Bible and pagan ways but this book doesn't even do that. Bauer and Wise esteem intellectualism to the point of idolatry.

Secondly, this approach is demanding, difficult, strenuous, and relentless. I agree with the review saying this approach is for the "perfection-obsessed parent," I would add it is for the wrong focused, dysfuctional, perfection-obsessed parent.

"The Well-Trained Mind" will take away any love of learning from your child. And take away any love of teaching from you!

Homeschooling used to be about bringing your child home to teach them about God and His Word - this book has changed the homeschool focus on the greek philosophers and Shakespeare.

I pray God will open the bind eyes of those lusting after intelectualism and lead them to TRUE WISDOM of God! What good is Homer and Shakespeare to the soul?