Rebekah Merkle knows which high school classes you like and which you roll your eyes at, which books you enjoy and which you kinda skim. That's because she went through this whole thing called classical education, too.
Classical Me, Classical Thee is light-hearted and—most importantly for you busy students—very short. It has a simple goal: to explain why you students are doing what you do in class. (Spoiler: it's not because you'll use your knowledge of the Iliad Book 5 yearly until you die.)
What you do in class is a drill—and nobody drills for the sake of the drill. You do drills so you can win the game. The real tragedy, though, would be if you didn't know you were doing drills . . . or didn't know there was a game at all.
Rebekah Merkle has dabbled in a number of occupations ranging from running her own clothing label to designing fabrics to becoming a full-time high school humanities teacher. Her designs have been featured in a number of magazines and she has edited a Brit Lit curriculum for Canon Press, but by far her proudest accomplishment is her crew of five outrageous, hilarious, high-speed teenage children, and her favorite role is that of wife to her similarly outrageous, hilarious, and high-speed husband Ben Merkle.
Last year I read Rebekah Merkle’s Eve in Exile, and found it to be a delightful and enlightening read. So, when I started looking at books for the year’s #vtreadingchallenge, I noticed that one of the first categories was “a book for teens and young adults.” Because of my previous experience with Merkle, her book Classical Me Classical Thee rose to the top of my list for this category.
In this book, Merkle is directly addressing students in classical Christian schools, and she is attempting to persuade high school/rhetoric level students of the importance of their education. As she tells her readers, “The whole education thing is not something you choose, it’s something that’s being done to you.” There’s a potential for students to take a great classical education method, designed to give them a leg-up in life and squander it by not entering into their education fully. Merkle’s goal is to have students value the education they receive and use it in the very ways that their parents are most hoping.
She begins by explaining how different the education they are receiving is from the one that most American high school students receive. It’s an education that will make these students stand out in comparison to those around them. These students assume that their peers are similar except for not having to learn as much Latin and Bible, and they find that they’re on a whole separate trajectory.
Once Merkle establishes that, she takes students on a journey through each of the subject areas, explaining how their education in each of these subjects prepares them for life and gives them a framework for truth, beauty and godliness.
The book is light and breezy. It’s also a slim volume that could be read in an hour or two, depending on the inclinations of the teen reading. Her arguments are interesting and a little elitist. I felt a little distaste at her arguments to the students because she argues to them from a place of building them up to the superiority of their education. That may appeal to our pride, but as I read, I mostly felt pity for the children whose education the author looks down so upon. I also kept having the verse from I Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
Perhaps I am being to0 stern with the author because all she is trying to do is to convince children to buy into their education. Although we don’t educate classically, I do agree that children need a proper framework to hang their education on and that classical education is a worthy frame. It’s not the actual content of this book that I find myself in disagreement with so much as the tone and the comparison that creates almost an us and them mentality for me. I read this book because I was I hoping to find some wisdom to help my eleven year old buy into the idea of education in general and I didn’t find any thing that I would truly use. So, even though Merkle’s last book was for me, this book really was not to my taste.
Confession: surrounded as I am by classical Christian schools and educators, I have never read a book on the topic. So I waited for the easiest-peasiest one to finally make that happen.
Too bad the author couldn't read it herself, but she's too busy marrying off sixty percent of her offspring in rapid succession. Something about an alliance with Poland, I think...
An excellent short book! I grew up in public school and never knew what classical education was until I was in my twenties. I found it encouraging, as a hopeful future partaker in teaching CCE, how she was writing to a student as a former student of a classical school and detailing the importance and privilege of this particular form of learning. It was a great outline of classical subjects and differences in the same subjects that are taught in public schools. Excited to read more!
An excellent brief apologetic written for students of CCE by a product of CCE. Answers many objections and let's them get the broader picture of why they are sitting there doing what they are doing and admonishes them how they ought to be approaching the work.
From one who was not classically educated, but wishes I had the opportunity...do not squander your opportunity! As Bekah points out, if you are at Logos or a similar school, you are immensely blessed and are being given an immeasurable gift! I am so grateful my children get this wonderful opportunity and we will continue to joyfully make sacrifices to make it possible (whatever the cost!!!). Thanks be to God!
Education should not be something we endure. It’s not something “done” to you. How you perceive your own education AS you are in it can increase or negate its value.
Merkle writes, “Because, and I acknowledge this cheerfully, if you graduate with all of the skills but none of the discernment, then you’re actually turning into a monster.”
I couldn’t agree more, and this tiny book challenged me as a teacher. I’m not sure my everyday classes do understand the “why” of education, which motivates me to be more intentional.
In Classical Me, Classical Thee, Rebekah Merkle has written a winsome explanation and defense of classical Christian education for students currently enrolled in a classical Christian school. Of course, the book is wonderful for educators and parents as well, but Merkle knows her audience well and does not depart from a focused conversation with that audience. And this ought to surprise no one as Merkle is both a classical Christian educator and a product of classical Christian education herself. This uniquely qualifies her as one who can speak from both perspectives, from one who understands the struggles of the day-to-day grind for classical students, but who also can look back and understand how easy it can be to waste a wonderful gift.
Merkle begins by building rapport with the reader, particularly taking time to win over the student whose parents “forced” them into classical education and they have yet to see the value of it. In order to accomplish this difficult task, she not only empathizes genuinely with this student, but presents a convincing case explaining why they have been given a gift. In chapter 1, “A Fundamentally Different Pizza,” she uses the first of several silly, yet helpful analogies to explain her point. She suggests that many classical Christian students think that they are getting basically the same education (pepperoni pizza) as public school kids, just with a few add-ons like Latin (green peppers). However, later on she claims these students will find that public school kids received something vastly different and altogether less satisfying than their classical Christian educated peers (tuna and crackers, not pizza at all!).
As she progresses throughout the work, she demonstrated how various subjects in classical Christian education not only teach different content in many cases, but all subjects help refine skills that will serve the student well throughout life, regardless of whether or not one remembers the content. For example, in chapter 4 she shows how studying Latin helps refine our language use, and in chapter 5 she shows that literature is a fundamentally different subject when we learn what a text means (according to the author) as opposed to what does this text “mean” to you. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss logic and rhetoric respectively, both classes that are rarely taught in public school, and yet shows how an ability to think and communicate clearly, correctly, and persuasively will help students become leaders rather than followers. Chapter 8 on Worldview points out that skills without discernment turn is into monsters, so she argues that we can never say the word Worldview too often, for it stands at the heart of what we do. Chapters 9 and 10 show how math, science, and history are vastly different subjects, despite similarity in content, when we view them through a Christian lens of a creator God and an organized and purposeful universe.
Chapter 11, “Complications with the Trivium,” serves as a helpful clarification on the terms Trivium and Quadrivium and how they relate to the learning frame of the student. Of all the chapters, this is the one that seems least applicable to her audience, yet by placing it at the end, Merkle makes it a helpful clarification that readers are willing to consider as opposed to an introduction that would cause many student readers to disengage. The book would be great without this chapter, but it’s certainly not irrelevant. Finally, Merkle provides an appropriately stern warning about the dangers of wasting such a gift, using Jesus’ parable of the talents as her foundation. Since Merkle has worked so hard to win over her audience through empathy (pathos), her own credibility (ethos), and a convincing argument (logos), I suspect most students will receive this warning well and desire to act in such a way that they will make a return on the investment they have received in their education.
I would highly recommend this book for any high school student, especially those entering their freshmen or senior years, as it helps provide a wonderful reflective exercise during a season of significant change where it would be easy to despise one’s education. I also recommend this book to parents who are considering classical Christian education for their children. The difference between public education (or even non-classical private) and classical Christian education is a far wider gap than most parents probably realize, and this book helps demonstrate those differences persuasively and clearly.
As someone who wasn't classically educated, I find myself wishing I had been. I wonder if even with that opportunity, I might not have appreciated it or taken it seriously. Despite my upbringing lacking any clear push towards such an education (parents were public school educators, non Christian education), the value of classical schooling has become apparent to me now (prior to this book reading but more recently). My hope is to provide this type of education for my future family, God willing, and to extend the blessing that it is to the children in my church and community.
Neat little book written mainly for individuals who have received a classical Christian education or are currently receiving one. Rebekah does a good job at reminding those people the incredible value and uniqueness of receiving this type of education. I commend this book for those also, who are wanting to learn more about CCE.
This a great book for current classical Christian students. Equally valuable as a teaching tool for parents with students at the Logic/Rhetoric School level. Classical Christian school administrators should consider this book to supplement their parent education programs. Well written Rebekah! Thank you.
A quick 100 pages written to classical school students to point out the benefits of such an education, and to call for appreciating and not squandering such a gift.
Merkle does a decent job speaking to a high school audience, with little gimmicks or patronizing, making the case for logic, rhetoric, Latin and more. I’m not sure 6-7 chapters were needed each on a different topic, but the basic point was a good one: you’ve been given a gift. Don’t squander it like the man given 1 talent who buried it in the ground.
This books was written to an audience of students in the classical Christian education world, but I, as a teacher not even in that world, greatly benefitted from it! I was challenged to really know why I teach what I teach, and to make sure that I actually am effectively accomplishing the goals for why I teach what I teach. This is a great breakdown of why the different subjects matter, and is sure to make you at least very curious about classical Christian education, if you aren’t into it already!
On top of that, Rebekah’s writing style is delightful. I found myself craving this book whenever I wasn’t reading it, haha. :)
Fabulous!!! Absolutely hilarious and witty (I kept bursting into laughter at the hair dresser). As someone that’s never been classically educated I found myself stumped by many of the “obvious questions” she asked in the book. I can’t wait to hand this to my daughter in a few years.
This is an excellent book written for CCE students, demonstrating the vast difference between the education they are receiving vs. that of a modern public education. Having been a student guinea pig in some of the first CCE classes in the USA, there are few people who could write a book such as this. I'm so glad that she had the opportunity to take this on! I look forward to sharing this with my girls when they are older.
SO good. Didn't expect to get much out of this since I've already finished my classical Christian education, but I was wrong! Give this one a read. (It is written for students, so if you're not a teenager anymore, you'll just have to deal.)
I am not in the target audience for this book. I am one of the parents who is trying to "give" a classical Christian education to my kids. But my oldest is in Bekah's bullseye, as are all the other secondary students at our school. This is a fun (and short) and persuasive book that makes the water look tasty to many horses (even if they don't know how thirsty they are).
This book is not so much an argument for classical Christian education as it is an encouragement to high schoolers in the CCE trenches that all the hard work will be worth it. Don't be embarrassed that you're different - you're learning superpowers! On the level of encouragement, it could be helpful.
On the other hand, the representation of other, non-CCE schools is not good. Classical Christian education does not have a monopoly on knowledge, despite what this book's tone implies. The tone could easily encourage snobbery among CCE graduates - who'd be in for a rude awakening when they went to college and discovered that they still had a lot to learn.
First off, how fun is that title?? XD Secondly, This is a great book about taking full advantage of the gift of education. Written in an easy-to-read style and very clearly communicated. Lastly: While it doesn't cover all the ground, it's the only book like this I know of and it is much needed. Everyone should read it and I say, the sooner the better!
Read this for the second time now. So encouraging in going through my senior year. This book has a great explanation of why we classically schooled kids are classically schooled. I highly recommend this book!
This book is a pretty good idea: now that we are getting into the second or even third generation of classical education, have someone from the first generation write to the current generation trying to get them on board with the project. In execution, it turns out pretty OK: there is definitely a lot here that might help get current students on board.
Alas, as Kierkegaard warned, life, which can only be lived forwards, can only be understood backwards, and so I fear a lot gets lost in translation across time and experience. Proclaiming that the aim of classical education is to make you a "leader" seems like a sop to adolescent vanity, particularly when it gets translated in terms of "success," and "success," it is strongly suggested, will show up on balance sheets. (And if we tried to put the Beatitudes on a balance sheet, would they be what anyone would describe as "success"? Was Jesus a "successful" teacher, having no place to lay his head, no assets to speak of, a paltry number of students, by one of which he was betrayed, abandoned by the rest?)
The trouble is trying to communicate the value of something which is not really of instrumental value to people (that is, young people) who think almost exclusively in terms of instrumental value, if not in more explicitly hedonic terms . Though it can be done, trying to convey the importance of cultivating the soul to someone who is motivated by superficial things is not easy. To try to enlist a sanitized version of the will to power (Nietzscheans 4 Jesus) to try to motivate young people to cultivate their souls is an understandable move, given the circumstances, but I am not really sure it is productive.
There are some other assorted issues here, though none very major. Though I am as skeptical of the mainstream education system as anybody, some of Merkle's descriptions of it are pretty dismissive, and few of them seem to be based on firsthand experience. There are also some embarrassing rhetorical gaffes here -- words used with indifference to their meaning and register (has nobody ever told Merkle what "schmuck" means? It is hardly a polite word), confusion about terminology ("case" is used where "tense" is meant in a discussion of Latin grammar), and a colloquial tone that sometimes comes across as patronizing ("She wrote 'wait a sec'? OMG! Merkle is one of us!!"). In a typical book targeted at high school students all this would be de rigeur, but in a book that claims to prize eloquence and precision it is somewhat disappointing.
For reasons best explained at length in a different medium, I also do not particularly find the emphasis on "worldview" helpful. However, Merkle's discussion of it is more nuanced than one often finds. Her comments about other subject areas are also often helpful and even insightful. (Her ebulliently optimistic attitude about the power of logic to make us more rational is almost certainly wrong, however: abundant evidence seems to show that pretty much anybody behaves very rationally when discussing topics on which they are well informed and predictably irrational elsewhere, in spite of formal training).
Overall, a good attempt and a worthy project. Hopefully it will inspire further efforts at talk about education across generations.
Quick, easy-to-read overview of the classical education model. While the book is intended for students enrolled in a classical Christian high school, it also makes for a quick, birdseye view of the classical model for parents interested in a classical education for their children- specifically the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ of makes a classical Christian education different from the traditional education model.
Kindle freebie. Quick read geared toward students in a classical school. I'm trying to compare Charlotte Mason/classical methods. Karen Glass is probably better for what I want.
Very good book to have your child read if they are being classically educated. Also helps those (like me) that were not understand what we lost out on :) Recommended!
Even though I couldn’t relate to every aspect of this book, I still found it very engaging and encouraging. Rebekah Merkle could write a book about wood chips and make it thoroughly entertaining.