Training the Mind to Think and Learn

Author's Rating:

Pros: well written and friendly, provides wonderful hope and encouragment

Cons: method is not easy

Author's Review
For anyone wanting to educate their children at home either full time or as a supplement to what they get in school this book is a wonderful resource to have on the shelf. I have planned on homeschooling my children since long before I even had children to school and finding this book was a dream come true.

There are many different methods to homeschooling and this book concentrates on one specific type: classical education. It defines a classical education, talks about the pros to it, tells you how to do it for each subject and even suggests curriculum and scheduling if you are looking for that type of in-depth help. Although it does suggest curriculum and scheduling the authors point out a few times that they do not expect you to follow it to a tee, they are just giving suggestions.

What is classical education? A classical education is one based on a long-known about and recently (as in over the past 100 years or so) disregarded theory of educating a child based on three distinct stages that the brain goes through as a child matures called the trivium. The first stage, the grammar stage is the stage of fact gathering and memorization. The second stage, logic, is the stage of understanding and of finding relationships between various facts and tidbits of knowledge. The third stage, rhetoric, is the stage of communicating ideas both in speech and in writing. By going through this process a child gathers knowledge, learns how to analyze it and then how to express it. It teaches them to think and discern logically and rationally. It teaches children how to learn so that they can continue their education long past the age of schooling is over. Classical education is the method by which many of history’s greatest men and women have learned. Reading the book will more thoroughly discuss what a classical education is and why it is such a wonderful method of educating children.

There are several key points to a classical education which this book discusses. Children learn to read by in-depth phonics, including all the rules and “exceptions” that prove English really is a phonetic language and as a result they learn to SPELL!! They will spend a lot of time on grammar so that that they can fully understand what they read (or hear) and so that they can eventually write correctly and precisely. They will learn mathematics in an organized and methodical way rather than jumping around or putting the cart before the horse. History is also taught chronologically from the very oldest time periods to the most current in four steps each step being repeated three times, once in each stage. At approximately third grade the children will begin to learn Latin, which also helps to teach logic and order as well as improves their own use of the English language (since about 50% of English is based on Latin.) In approximately the fifth grade a child will start learning the skill of logic, which will help them to think intelligently and for themselves about any idea that is presented to them. Lastly, children will read, read, and read some more. They will read the most intriguing and magnificent works in all history, they will read the ideas of many of the greatest thinkers of our time, and they will read the extremes in thought that have come into our cultures, for example they might read both the “Communist Manifesto” and “The Wealth of Nations” and they will have the tools of thought to read those without developing any “scary ideas.”

The Well Trained Mind tells you how to do all of this, or more precisely as much as you, the parent want do. In each area there are suggested curriculums and reading lists as well as a rather large appendix of resources for other places to shop from should you decide to go with something different. You can do as much or as little as you wish and there are some guidelines to help you develop a supplemental education plan for a child that goes to school outside the home.

There were two downfalls to this book for me. The first was that the content on spiritual matters left a whole lot to be desired for me as a Christian. Both authors are Christian but because this book is published for the secular market religion was left glossed over. If you do not subscribe to any particular religious ideas, or to a religion other than Christianity, this book won’t offend you. If you are a Christian the authors are looking to try and get a supplemental resource published but it is up in the air as to when or even if that will happen.

The second downfall to this book was it trashed any ideas of my own academic achievement aside. When they talk about learning Latin or logic or even in-depth grammar my first thought was I never learned any of this stuff, how come my teachers never talked about this. I graduated with a 3.9 and after reading this book I have to wonder exactly what that means I learned!! The wonderful thing though is I can learn it all now as I prepare to teach my children things they would never have learn either if I sent them to public school. Looking at the book lists for the high school grades left me wondering what happened that I didn’t even read these books in college. In fact if you have ever questioned your own education and are wanting to fix the holes and gaps that are in it this book has something to offer every person who never learned by this method, which is most of us. I do not mean to say that the authors talk down to the reader or that the book is hard to read. It is extremely easy to read and the authors are very friendly, it is just surprising to find out that there is so much to education most of us never had or even were made aware of!


The method of Classical Education is probably more like “school” than any of the other methods parents have adopted for homeschooling. If you want less structure, less drill and memory work, less academic involvement, less of the “boring” parts of school then this is not a book for you. If your only problem with the school system was what they didn’t teach or have time for, or discontentment with “how” they taught what they did teach then this is definitely a book worthy of a prominent place on your shelf. It is by no means an easy method to use but when you look at it in its entirety and ultimate goal it looks as if all the hard work will be worth it and then some.

This book has really put me on fire wishing that my children were already old enough to do this. While I wait for them to get there however I will have to be content with my own re-schooling, so many books, so much knowledge to be gained, so little time…