The Rest of the Bluedorn Book Review
I've finished reading Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn. Actually, I finished it a couple of weeks ago, and since then I've been wading through the appendices and becoming distracted by other books and catalogs.
The final analysis:
The Bluedorn's did indeed assert that it is not necessary to teach formal (worksheet) mathematics until age ten. I'm not sure I necessarily agree, though. I think if you have a child that struggles a great deal with math, I might consider this. But I think that for most kids, waiting that long is not necessary. The Bluedorn's didn't seem to back up their assertion beyond saying that this is how it used to be done, and this is how various other experts think it is best.
Worksheets in any subject aren't "evil", so to speak, as long as we keep them in their place. No need to make a young child do 2 worksheets in each subject every day. That would be enough to make anyone discouraged from learning. Yet, I think there is a value in the discipline being taught to a child (older than, say 5 or 6) who must complete a page of math work.
Otherwise, I didn't find much to disagree with the Bluedorns. I appreciated the way they brought to light the ways the Bible advocates education in a classical style, which reveals the fact that classical learning was not originally Greek or Roman, but Jewish.
Overall, this book was not quite so practically helpful as The Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, but philosophically it was much better, in my opinion.
The final analysis:
The Bluedorn's did indeed assert that it is not necessary to teach formal (worksheet) mathematics until age ten. I'm not sure I necessarily agree, though. I think if you have a child that struggles a great deal with math, I might consider this. But I think that for most kids, waiting that long is not necessary. The Bluedorn's didn't seem to back up their assertion beyond saying that this is how it used to be done, and this is how various other experts think it is best.
Worksheets in any subject aren't "evil", so to speak, as long as we keep them in their place. No need to make a young child do 2 worksheets in each subject every day. That would be enough to make anyone discouraged from learning. Yet, I think there is a value in the discipline being taught to a child (older than, say 5 or 6) who must complete a page of math work.
Otherwise, I didn't find much to disagree with the Bluedorns. I appreciated the way they brought to light the ways the Bible advocates education in a classical style, which reveals the fact that classical learning was not originally Greek or Roman, but Jewish.
Overall, this book was not quite so practically helpful as The Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, but philosophically it was much better, in my opinion.
4 Comments:
You said it very well as always!!!
I also appreciated their opinion on some of the old stories and myths that I thought were not very appropraite for my elementary age kids.
I just found the Bluedorn's website and thought it had a lot of good ideas. I'll have to keep an eye out for the book.
I'd like to see more info on the effect of earlier formal math learning, but if it does cause confusion, it seems like there would be better ways to learn discipline at that age.
The Bluedorn's had an appendix dedicated to quotes and information regarding delaying math, but the effects of early formal math weren't really made that clear to me. After reading it, I decided to continue with math with my 6-year-old, but I think if he were struggling with it, I would back off for a while and not feel a bit guilty. :-)
With children for whom math is a breeze, I think it can be a huge learning motivator when they're younger.
I can understand that; on the other hand, I was a child for whom math was a breeze and even my favorite subject (I was studying Algebra at 11); yet for many very basic math concepts I know I didn't really understand them until I was a teenager--and trying to teach them to my younger siblings, or implement them at work. I don't know whether it was a matter of brain development or teaching methods or what, but I know I'll be more careful with my kids to ensure that we're not just creating confusion even if math seems easy.
Right now I'm leaning towards doing some math instruction, but keeping it all concrete in the early grades, except for perhaps memorization of facts once they thoroughly understand those facts in the concrete. Of course, I still have lots of time to change my mind. :-)
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