The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to a Classical Education at Home
was written by Susan Wise Bauer, a homeschool graduate and
college English professor, and her mother, Jessie Wise. This
course of study is based on an ancient model of education called
the trivium. Within this system, a child progresses through
three stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In the grammar
stage, a child absorbs information and learns the building
blocks of education: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the
logic stage, when a child is becoming naturally questioning and
argumentative, information is analyzed. In the final stage of
the trivium, the rhetoric stage, students learn to speak and
write clearly and persuasively. The Well-Trained Mind divides
these three levels among grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Within each
level, the authors present a course of study covering reading,
language arts, math, history, geography, science, foreign
language, logic, religion, rhetoric, computer, and the fine
arts. Additional essays deal with such to