The Lost Tools of Learning

Dorothy Sayers was a British writer during the early 1900’s, and a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1947 she wrote an essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, describing what is now the foundation for the resurgence of classical education in the U.S. In the introduction of her essay, she makes the argument that the reason for the “great defect of our education today” is the emphasis on teaching students numerous subjects, instead of providing them with tools on how to learn. If a student memorizes and learns information for an exam, but is unable to transfer that knowledge to other facets of his life or even worse, cannot even remember what he learned after leaving school, the education system has failed.

Upon presenting the problems of the education system of her day, Sayer describes the medieval education system, which included the Trivium and Quadrivium. The Trivium consists of the three distinct learning stages: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. These stages form the building blocks of learning, thus enabling the student to take what they have learned and to apply it to any new information presented to him. The Quadrivium follows the Trivium and is made up of specific subjects, including geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. The focus of Sayers essay is the Trivium.

The first stage of the Trivium, Grammar or what Sayers terms as “poll-parrot,” is more than a reference to a subject within language arts. It addresses the foundation of subjects. Like a parrot that mimics what it hears, the Grammar stage is focused on memory. The ability to memorize comes easiest to children at a young age, which is why this is the first stage. For example, this is the ideal time to memorize math facts, history dates and major events and people, geography facts, and language basics.

The Grammar stage is then followed by the Dialectic, or “pert,” stage. This stage in a child’s development is when they start to become more argumentative or impertinent in nature. They are sorting out all the facts within their minds and beginning to construct rational arguments from the information they know. For example, “If A, then B.” This stage is also referred to as the “logic” stage.

After they sort through the logic of what they have learned, the child desires to express themselves in a thoughtful manner, which is the Rhetoric, or “poetic,” stage. Now the student will have an opportunity to utilize the skills he has obtained during the first two stages and to articulate and present logical arguments.

It may appear that classical education is not sufficient, because it does not offer the array of subjects that we see in our current education system. On the contrary, as Sayers concludes in her essay, the goal of classical education is beyond teaching a student how to do a specific task, but about providing students tools, so that they are able to learn anything on their own.

To read the entire Sayers essay, go to the following link:

http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html