trĭvĭum , i, n.
Literal definition: a place where three roads meet, a fork in the roads, cross-road
Idiomatic definition: a public square, the public street, highway.
Those steeped in the jargon of classical education can poll-parrot Dorothy Sayers’ profundities {found here} concerning the trivium with alacrity. A quick Google search will reveal copious articles that expound on her ideas. In an effort to avoid repetition, I would like to approach the trivium from a personal angle – anecdotally.
Classical education structures itself on the trivium – a place where three roads meet. What are those three roads? The grammar, logic, and rhetoric stages.
This perfect trifecta of stages naturally aligns with the stages of child and adolescent development thereby creating an effective educational model.
So how did the trivium play out that day as we searched for the ruins at Paestum? Almost two decades prior as all children do, my little ones toddled into the grammar stage. They learned fundamental facts, rules, and general knowledge: colors, numbers, shapes, letters, directions, laws of nature, words, etc – in other words, the grammar of life. As the middle school years approached, my children ventured into abstract thinking. They wanted to reason and think for themselves. The study of logic was vital! And then they became high school/rhetoric school students where they tackled mastering their both their written and spoken communication skills. They were studying traditional subject matter: math, English, foreign language, science, history, etc.; but through the structure of the classical model.