The Trivium

Grammar is the initial step in the classical method known as the Trivium. The Grammar stage corresponds to grades 3-5. Children at this age have a natural ability to store an amazing amount of information from songs and poems to math facts and history. At this age, students enjoy memorizing and this is the age to fill their minds with knowledge. Phonics and spelling rules, history dates, math facts, and basic Latin grammar, as well as reciting poems and catechism answers are central to this stage of education.

Dialectic (or Logic) is the mechanics of thought and analysis. The Logic stage corresponds to grades 6-8 or middle school. Students begin to develop the ability to reason abstractly. In Grammar, they learned facts. In Dialectic, they seek to understand those facts and relate them to one another in a significant way. The students begin to learn Logic, as well as encounter the great literary masterpieces of Western Civilization, beginning with Ancient times, continuing into the Medieval period, and concluding into our Modern era.

Rhetoric is the use of language to instruct and persuade. This is the high school phase, grades 9-12. The students learn to express the things they understand in the most compelling way. Their study in the classics becomes more analytical and they continue on to a more advanced level of language study with higher Latin, Greek and modern languages.

For more information on the classical method of education or the Trivium, we recommend Dorothy Sayers'; article "The Lost Tools of Learning".