Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition

by Karen Glass

The word, the logos, is the foundation of the “right thinking” which should lead to “right acting” in every area of life. The Greeks believed that a training in the use and power of words was the chief part of education, recognising that if the thought fathers the word, so does the word in turn father the thought. They concerned themselves with no language, ancient or modern, save their own, but of that they acquired a consummate appreciation. With the words came the great thoughts, expressed in whatever way the emergencies of the State called for—in wise laws, victorious battles, glorious temples, sculpture, drama. For great thoughts anticipate great works; and these come only to a people conversant with the great thoughts that have been written and said. (Philosophy of Education, p. 316) Quintilian, that Roman teacher and writer who informed all the Renaissance educators such as Erasmus, Montaigne, Elyot, and Comenius, offers some interesting perspectives on grammar that might serve to enlighten us even today. He says in the Institutes of Oratory that “no part of grammar is harmful save what is superfluous,” which is a valuable hint that some parts of it are, indeed, superfluous. He further proposes that, in lecturing, the grammarian will also have to give attention to minor matters, e.g. he should require that a line of poetry be analysed and the different parts of speech named to him. (Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory)