What is the Trivium?

A classical liberal arts curriculum is based on the division of the liberal arts into the Trivium and the Quadrivium. The traditional subject areas of theTrivium were grammar, logic and rhetoric, which were mastered prior to the study of arithmetic, geometry, music, and physics. 

The terms grammar, logic, and rhetoric don’t refer simply to subjects, but to the dominant theme of each stage of the educational process, which follows the natural development of the child’s mind and personality. 

Adaptation of this sequence of studies requires developmentally appropriate emphasis on skill development in those areas while also imparting basic content knowledge to students. For example, grammar is learned throughout both elementary and middle school years simultaneously with arithmetic and basic geometry. 

Children are presented knowledge and tasks appropriate to their stage of development, by means of appropriate teaching methods. The timing allows for overlapping and individual differences that reflect the way that children naturally develop and learn.

The Grammar Stage

Young children are sponges for information. They like to acquire knowledge, memorize things, and learn the names of things. They ask “What is this?” or “What does that do?” but, generally, not “Why are we doing this?” or “Why is this important?” They learn through play and song, by doing, watching, imitating, repeating. These are the years when they can most easily adapt their minds, ears, and mouths to the learning of languages and music. These early years, from Grades 1 to 6, approximately, are the grammar years. “Grammar” does not refer only to English grammar or Latin grammar. It refers to the basic facts, knowledge, and skills of any subject matter. In language, that’s grammar, writing mechanics, vocabulary, spelling, and handwriting. In math, it means memorizing math facts like the multiplication tables, weights and measures, simple formulas, etc., identifying shapes, and developing facility in the basic operations. In science, it means learning to observe, identify and name things, and to make gradually more refined distinctions. And so on with each subject. This is the foundation. 

The Logic Stage

Grades 5 to 9 (again, approximately) are the logic years. Students are wondering and asking questions. “Why is this important?” “What does this have to do with —?” “Why did they do that?”  They are also beginning to ask the “big questions.” Children this age are thrilled and inspired by stories of heroism and adventure and moved by beauty. Students continue to sharpen their basic skills while they accumulate knowledge and dig deeper into subjects. Through discussion and the study of logic, they are guided to recognize sound arguments and ideas and to detect false ones as they take early steps to synthesize diverse pieces of greater realities and begin to form a coherent worldview.

The Rhetoric Stage

The upper grades in high school are the rhetoric years. Students are thinking critically, drawing conclusions, solving problems, developing their own ideas, and making important decisions. Besides taking on more difficult material in all their subjects, students at this age are guided to express themselves clearly and persuasively in both speaking and writing and to defend their opinions and convictions. Having learned the truths of the Faith, they learn to defend them and communicate them to others.

In practical terms, modern application of the traditional order of Trivium followed by Quadrivium is accomplished by a gradual shift in emphasis from skill development and the accumulation of basic information in earlier grades to the deeper study of the various subjects in the later grades.