The Question - Teaching Your Child the Essentials of Classical Education

by Leigh A. Bortins

Brand new; never been read or used. no marks, no highlights. The Teaching Your Child the Essentials of Classical Education, paperback.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Parenting

223 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Leigh A. Bortins is the founder and CEO of Classical Conversations, Inc., whose enrollment is 20,000. She hosts a weekly radio show, Leigh! for Lunch and lectures widely about the importance of home education at nationwide conferences and seminars. She lives in West End, NC.

Reviews

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "The Core" 3-4 times, I had high hopes for "The Question", Leigh Bortins' 2nd book in this series of 3. Unfortunately, I struggled to get through it. Partly because the language itself is difficult and then also because many times too many words were used to illustrate a simple point. Where "The Core" is a simple-to-use, easy to understand book for any homeschooler out there, "The Question" is geared specifically to Leigh's homeschool program "Classical Conversations". Although I've been a part of CC for 7 years now and have a daughter currently participating in Challenge B, I still found the book overwhelming and unclear in many areas. It would be beneficial for Leigh and her team of writers to remember that not all her readers are seasoned classical educators. Some of us need less fancy talk and more practical application.

[Helen Purdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classical - repetition. Yep. This book follows the classical model set forth in Leigh Bortin’s earlier book, The Core. She sets out the grammar of the dialectic stage and repeats it, then repeats it again. Chapter by chapter through each subject the reader is classically introduced to practical ways of implementing the next level of learning in the classical method. I’ve appreciated the book and am eager to utilize exact examples with my kids & future students.

Edit - Practically speaking - I can use the exact examples because participating in the Classical Conversations programs includes using the texts and resources she presents.

[Shaina Herrmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this 10 stars, I would! Wow!👏👏👏

This is the second book in a trilogy written by Leigh Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations. I read this very slowly because there was so much to grasp on each page! Lord willling, I will be rereading this one several more times over the next 14+ years that I plan to be in CC.

Also.... what craziness is this?! I just happened finish it exactly one year from the day I started it! This is the second time this has happened to me this month! 😱

[Brittany Sprague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful tool for understanding how to use the dialectic in all the many areas of life. Inspiring for homeschool parents with older elementary/middle school students.

[Kela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found The Core to be a very informative book about classical education so I was looking forward to reading The Question, the follow-up geared towards parents of middle- and high-schoolers. Initially I enjoyed the book, but after awhile it became very repetitive. The purpose is to guide parents through five essential questions that will help students become critical/analytical thinkers. Bortins shows the reader how to apply these questions to every subject, from geography to math to literature. Each subject is its own chapter, but since the five questions are always the same the book becomes quite tiresome. I eventually gave up on it.

[Odette Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! This was my second book by Leigh Bortins and geared more for middle school age and high schoolers..Super insightful on how to ask questions to promote thought and how to foster environments where open communication and freedom to think on their own is welcomed..

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a great deal of value in this book being written by an amateur teacher who has a passionate interest in classical education. At its core, this book is about logic, the second of the three stages of the trivium, and an area of study whose heart is the question of proof and the tension between knowledge and authority that is at the heart of so many problems in the contemporary education system. After all, a great many schools pay lip service to the thought that they want to cultivate students with critical thinking skills, but all they end up doing is raising children who have groupthink mentalities and a pitiful knowledge of such areas as questioning the authority of bad mathematical and computational models that have such problems in areas of economics and science (and polling), and who lack the ability to think critically about the sort of education that they have been given and the political worldview of the people giving it. And yet students who critique the institutions of public schooling and the university system are not cultivated or encouraged or praised at all, which demonstrates that what is wanted is that only certain authorities be critiqued for the interests of others, not that students be equipped with the mental tools to critique whatever they will.

This book is about 200 pages long and begins with acknowledgements, a preface, a foreword by the founder of Patrick Henry College, and an introduction. After this the book is divided into three parts. The first part gives a discussion of the classical model of education (I), divided into three chapters. The first chapter discusses the author's view of why we still need classical education (1), while later chapters discuss how the dialectic teaches families to wrestle with truth (2), as well as some frequently asked questions (3). The second part of the book then applies the dialectic of the logic phase of classical education to a variety of different fields of study, including reading (4), writing (5), math (6), geography and current events (7), logic (8), history (9), science (10), and fine arts (11), while an epilogue explores the author's view of the rhetorical process by which she wrote a book by looking at this book as well as the author's previous work (which I am of course unfamiliar with). The third and briefest part of the book then consists of two appendices which discuss model questions (i) as well as further resources for the reader (ii), after which the book ends with an index.

By and large I found this book to be deeply interesting in that it shared the author's point of view and allowed the reader to empathize with the author's goal of figure out how to better educating her children in fundamental aspects of knowledge while dealing with the knowledge that the process was itself part of the goal. That is not to say that I found everything about the author's opinions to be equally valid. In many ways the author appears to be not nearly firm enough about the moral basis of many aspects, coming off as someone who is interested in classical education but not really classical Christian education. This does at least somewhat mar the enjoyment of the book as a whole because the author is obviously writing to people whose objections with the public school system are not only educational but also moral, and this book answers only the intellectual shortcomings of a system which does not equip its students to reflect critically about the lazy and wicked mentality of the contemporary left whose agenda is frequently pushed in the school system as a whole. To be mentally equipped to think logically is better than the alternative, but to lack a solid moral base is to be missing the purpose for which God gave us minds to think and reason with in the first place.

[Mh Weyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a book club. Normally don’t love to read purely educational books.
As background, despite doing cc foundations for three years, I have never read “the Core”. So can’t say how much is repetitive with that book… albeit, if like most of cc, it likely is highly repetitive, in which case, the book would lose most of its value. I was prepared for the book to be “dry” and dull. I actually found the intro chapters to be interesting and enlightening (but remember I never read the first book). I further understand why I love the middle school age. Moving into the chapter of subject-specific application and example… I found the reading and writing chapters quite useful. They provide lots of good examples of questions to ask. At this point the book was somewhere between a 4-5 star. Then, it took a turn. I adore math, but found the math chapter completely dull. The rest of the subject chapters only slightly better. The examples weren’t as enlightening and the material just became repetitive without further insight.
Worth a read for the first few chapters until you get the gist and then can probably put the rest of the book down.

[Shaleece Keithley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing tool for those interested or already engaged in classical education. Bortin takes the reader through each of the subjects (Math, Science, History, Etc) and gives examples of how to apply the 5 common topics (definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance, and testimony) to each of the subjects. But the core of The Question is built on just that: questions. Questions are the foundation of learning and understanding not only things like Math and Science but also current events and art. The dialectical stage is when the student takes what he/she has learned in the grammar stage and starts trying to figure out what it all means. A timeline becomes more than just a string of events but now it has the answers to how culture and history have been shaped. Highly recommend this book if you are considering classical education or as a means of helping your dialectical student develop questions that lead to true learning and understanding.

[Heidi Thorsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book explains how to integrate the second phase (dialectic) of the classical trivuum into your homeschool. It describes the five common topics (definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance, and testimony), and how to apply them to major subjects of instruction (reading, writing, math, geography and current events,mlogic, history, science, and fine arts). I read this book since I’m following the Classical Conversations curriculum and it behooves me to understand the teaching methodology. The book delivered on describing the system, but I wasn’t thrilled with it because it did nothing to make me energized and excited to implement this in my homeschool. There are other more motivating books out there.

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information but a very difficult book for me to read. It was so hard to get through because, i think, I was struggling with the fact that every time I read how the author would excellently execute the skills with her own children, I kept wondering why on earth that doesn't work with my children. Sometimes all those examples paint a picture of a "perfect idyllic homeschool family" that, after many years of homeschooling classically myself, I just cannot visualize. Classical education IS incredible and amazing and fruitful and beneficial to our children.

[Rebekah Blaha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Question has definitely stirred up my desire to be thorough in educating my children. I love how this book painted the picture of how to walk through the five common topics: definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance and testimony. I'm looking forward to walking through the ideals presented in this book and having in depth discussions with my children on a plethora of topics. This book is inspiring and a good read for any parent homeschooling their children.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. It had a lot of good information about classical education and how it helps enrich your students life and not just master skills needed for school, but to make them a more enlightened human being in general. However, I don’t think every student fits the mold they describe. Not all kids are that naturally inquisitive and I think it probably is a lot harder to implement everything she says in the book then how she makes it sound! But it is a good reference.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on how to teach your child through a classical education. This book is geared toward children who are in Dialectic phase of learning, around 12-14. The author thoroughly covers the five common topics as well as how to implement these topics and ask good questions in each area of study. So much good information and I'm going to have to return to this book at least every year for reminders.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this as my classically-educated daughter is entering 7th grade, which Bortins recognizes as the beginning of the "Dialectic" stage. I enjoyed this book more than her first one, which covers the "Grammar" (elementary) stage because it feels like this finally gets to the heart of the classical model. Students in this stage start asking more questions and synthesizing the information they memorized in previous years, so it's inherently more satisfying.

[Adrianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book literally not only changed my homeschooling approach but day to day life interactions with my children. It’s worth it’s weight in gold. If you are in CC especially I recommend reading this book by the time your oldest is 7-8 and especially before you enter Essentials. I’m happy I read this and can’t wait to finish out the trilogy now 😁

[Katie Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars because it did exactly what it set out to do. I caught the vision for what classical education looks like in the middle and high school years and it’s beautiful!! Leigh’s writing is accessible and easy to understand. I borrowed the book but I’ll buy my one copy to reference throughout the challenge years!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder of our aim into the next season of homeschooling. I really enjoyed the general principles as they were given in Part 1 over the way it plays out specifically in each subject in Part 2. (But that's probably because we're not there yet in our journey.)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent, though much more difficult to read than The Core, mostly due to the use of classical Logic language. I had to really work to keep the terms straight in my mind. But on the whole very good prep for parents about to teach kids headed into the "pert" logic phase.

[Shannon Woodhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been very helpful to me in understanding the 'why' behind what my daughter has been studying the past two years of Challenge A and B. I am eager now to read the final book in this series over the summer as we prepare to enter the high school years of Challenge!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first bit, but found it got less accessible/practical as it went on.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Core was 5stars, this was a bit of a let down

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very practical, but less inspiring and more repetitive than The Core.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books as “teacher development.” They’re encouragement and a reminder of why I homeschool! I will be revisiting!

[Jennifer Moughon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great second book of Leigh’s trilogy of classical education!
She shared practical ways to present and ask great questions to the 11-14 year old.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful book if you're homeschooling pre-teens.

[Kerri Hayward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A helpful book for learning about how to ask good questions of our kids when teaching.

[M. Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really helpful book for classical homeschoolers whose students are entering or already in the dialectic stage.

[Meagan Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is needed and its explanation of the dialectic art is vital. But it is a slow, academic read which makes it a less enjoyable read than its predecessor, “The Core.”

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical, engaging handbook for the dialectic process.