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Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education

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Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning is a solid reference for those who are already convinced of the need for Christian parents to provide their children with a truly Christian education and it is a great place to start for those who want to know why some Christians are so strongly opposed to public education. Wilson does a good job of explaining and defending why public secular education is not a healthy option for Christians who wish their children to grow up to embrace the faith. Wilson also shows that, even if one wasn't interested in a Christian education, the current public system struggles with even imparting basic literacy much less providing a good solid educational foundation. He not only shows the steady downward trend in public education's standards and results but also proves that, even with any number of solutions currently proposed, they cannot possibly improve the public education situation as they all fundamentally misunderstand the problem. (The book has an admittedly US focus but the arguments and principles laid out can be applied anywhere.) Removing God from all parts of the education process does not make for a neutral education but teaches students that, for all practical purposes, God is irrelevant and unneeded. Thus, modern secular education, far from being neutral, is actually anti-God.

This book advocates not only faithful Christian, parent directed, education, but it advocates a particular model of Christian education: classical. This model uses the trivium (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric - three stages that relate to the three stages of a child's natural mental development) and applies it to every subject area as a way not to merely learn a bunch of seemingly disconnected factoids in each subject but to understand the broad scope of facts for any given area of inquiry and to see how those facts relate to each other as well as how they interrelate and affect things beyond just the immediate subject. Then the student is taught how to pursue their own research in any field, form their own conclusions and is taught how to argue eloquently and convincingly for their position.

Wilson operates under the biblical maxim that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge and therefore, if one does not have a right orientation toward and relationship with God, none of the "facts" one knows is known within its true, correct and full context. Therefore, nothing but a thoroughly and faithfully biblical education into an all-encompassing Christian world-view ought to be the goal of Christian parents. Learning the facts in various subject areas without understanding how those subjects relate to each other, to the triune God of the universe and therefore to everything else is to have only begun to scratch the surface of learning. Christians are instructed to "take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ", not just to take every religious thought captive. Unfortunately, modern secular education doesn't even teach students how to think, much less how to relate all thought to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Some have been turned off by the amount of references Wilson makes to Logos School, a classical Christian school he was involved in starting, calling the book one long advertisement for Logos. Wilson can hardly be blamed for using Logos as an example however, since he is one of a very small handful of folks pioneering the recent movement toward classical and Christian education and Logos is certainly not only one of the first such schools to come into being in recent times but the way it has been executed and continues to function does make it a model school upon which dozens of other schools have patterned themselves. The academic record of the students of Logos speaks for itself.

Some have said that Wilson is anti-home school. This is a very bad misrepresentation of his position, however. Wilson advocates a classical Christian school as the best option for a number of reasons, not least of which is division of labor, but he himself states very clearly that if the only options were the public system or the typical Christian school model (tacking a Bible class, chapel and a creation module on to the state curriculum), he and his wife would have home schooled their children as best they could, using the classical Christian model.

The essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning", by Dorothy Sayers, (an appendix in the book) is itself worth the price of this book and then some. She lays out the fact that the classical education model, one which served the western world for millennia, provides a much better education than the current model. Modern day schools serve to teach students what to think and were designed for that very purpose (see writings of such social engineers as John Dewey and Horace Mann if you doubt this claim - you may be shocked to learn that these socialist elitists designed the current education system to create an unquestioning populace who viewed the state as the effective replacement for God, the schools the replacement for church, and the godless curriculum the replacement for catechism). The classical approach to education teaches students how to think for themselves in such a way that, once educated, they can approach any topic on their own and master it - social engineers fear a populace who can think for themselves. And putting God and his Word at the center of this system, as it was for some centuries, orients that thorough education, and therefore the student, rightly.

This is a good introduction to Classical Christian education from an author who helped jumpstart the modern classical Christian education movement.

Some other great reasources on lcassical and Christian education are Repairing the Ruins: The Classical and Christian Challenge to Modern Education, Seven Laws of Teaching, The, Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning, Messianic Character of American Education, Classical Education and the Homeschool, The Case for Classical Christian Education. See also the lectures of George Grant of Franklin Classical School.

This book is outstanding. Mr. Wilson presents excellent information about the educational and moral decay of the public school system. His argument for classical education is convincing. Anyone debating if they send their child to public school or private Christan scchol (or even homeschooling) should read this book.

Mr. Wilson's book on education is outstanding. Does it matter that a teacher is a Christian teacher or a secular one, in light of basic math problems? or perhaps history?-Yes. Read the various cases that Wilson wrote about and you will understand why this principle matters. Also he promotes the need to learn Latin among school age children, which is great; look how often our English language borrows from Latin. Above all I like this book because Wilson promotes the need for a truly Christian Education.

Wilson has delivered a great book for anyone who sees nothing wrong with public education and wonders why some schools don't measure up or why the education reformers are complaining. He also challenges every existing Christian school to a high standard. First, he establishes his belief that public school is pitiful and brief addresses suggested reforms, and then he writes at length about a thoroughly Christian education. He says that a cleaned-up "public school" education within an environment where prayer and chapel is allowed does not make a Christian education or even a good secular education. We must raise the bar dramatically in order to allow all students to learn the most they can. What does that mean? It means teaching a classically structured curriculum or the Trivium. Wilson advocates training our students to engage "the great conversation" of the past by reading the Great Books of the Western Canon, as recommended by Mortimer Adler.
Personally, I think he's exactly right, but this book didn't scratch my inch as parent wanting to teach my children a classical education at home. In fact, Wilson doesn't think homeschool classical education is an achievable goal for the average family; but he doesn't advise against it. He warns that while it may be better than public school, it may not be as good as it should be, considering historical standards of education, not measuring it against currently failing public schools. For my needs, this book helped me only a little. The greatest help to me would have been in its appendices which can be found online at ... There are three: Dorothy Sayers article on the Trivium is of great help; a description of Logos School's classical curriculum provides good details on what to teach; and a history of education.

I read this two years ago when my husband and I started researching different education philosophies in preparation for homeschooling our children. We knew Wilson's writing from Credenda/Agenda and had liked his style of writing as well as his critical analysis.

In this book he lays out the arguments against public schools pretty succinctly. I come from a long line of public school teachers and so it was intriguing to me to see it all from a different angle. I am a product of "government schools" and was shocked to realize that when he wrote this book, I was a senior in high school! What we don't see when we're in the middle of something! It has all become clearer.

I appreciated the logic behind Wilson's arguments and must say that this book convinced me on the value of classical education and that it is the best way for my family to approach homeschooling.

Wilson does say that a private, Christian Classical school is the best option and that homeschool takes second seat. I don't have any basis to weigh this statement; there is no school like that anywhere near our home. So, like another reviewer said, we will prepare against the downfalls of homeschooling that Wilson points out.

This book is what I would hand to someone (ie my public school parents) to justify our decision to classically educate our children.

Wilson's book is full of great ideas and practical suggestions. His critiques of public education is very necessary, and the educational structure he sets up in its place is grounded in history and biblical truth. While I don't want to negate the value of Wilson's work, I must say that the essay of Dorothy Sayers' which is included really upstages him. But this should not be seen as a slight against Wilson; Sayers is just a great writer.

The author makes a very strong argument for one particular type of private school--classical christian. He spends much of this book showing the weaknesses in the alternatives: public school, other types of private schools, and homeschooling. He comes out strongest against public schools.

He then builds an argument for the "ideal" school. The book is an interesting exercise. Even if you do not share his conclusions about schooling children, Wilson will challenge your thinking on the subject. Personally, my sense of responsibility towards my children's education grew through reading this book.

For Wilson, the exercise is not just an intellectual one. He took the ideas expounded in this book and built a school for his own children around them. His experiences with the Logos School are interesting and add a practical dimension to the book.

People thinking of homeschooling would benefit from his criticism of the practice. He sees it as the second best alternative. He shows weaknesses in homeschooling, many of which can be overcome with preparation. This is a good read for anyone preparing to educate children.

I first read this book as a sophomore in college. I got so excited about the idea of classical Christian education, that I resolved on my future career: teaching mathematics and physics at a classical Christian school.

Mr. Wilson's comments about public school seem very accurate. They closely correspond with the few comments I have had from people who "survived" the public school. There seems to be a prevailing anti-intellectualism displayed amongst the graduates of the public schools. I especially enjoyed Mr. Wilson's critique of the "look-say" method. I have a friend who went through look-say, and to this day he cannot read out loud in anything like a natural manner.

Mr. Wilson's book represents the close of the public school system, yet in contrast to purely sarcastic negative articles and books, Mr. Wilson has given us a solution. This solution makes so much sense.

I have discussed the idea of classical education with other Christians. I tend to get two answers: either they are afraid of what the Greek philosophy will do to young Christians, or else they see what Mr. Wilson saw: that studying Greek philosophy is not to commend it, and that the primary purpose of doing so is to understand the world at the time of Christ. This will facilitate an understanding of the historical context of the Bible, which we are obviously commanded to study.

I did have one criticism, however. In his argument that foreign children are out-performing American children, Mr. Wilson fails to realize that the statistics are incorrect. The samples that the scores from foreign countries represent are taken from the elite: the best from foreign countries, whereas the scores from American children represent a much wider sample. Thus any argument about averages will fail at this point. However, it is still valid to compare highest scores. I happen to agree with where Mr. Wilson was headed, but this argument is weak because of the mathematics.

This criticism, however, is but a mild one, and it is the only one that I have. Other than this, the book is very tightly argued, and it is one of the clearest, best-written books I have ever read. Even if you do not agree with it, read it as a guide to writing!

Excellent philospohical AND practical insight into why Christian education is such an important endeavor. Wilson did a tremendous job defining and defending his ideas about educating from a Christ-centered world view and also enabled me to feel like I could immediately implement his ideas in overseeing my child's education. Usually you'll get one or the other from a book... this one gives you both.

This book is a fascinating elucidation of the reasons behind the academic and moral failure of the American public school system, and a call to arms for Christian parents to rise up and create a viable alternative to that system. Wilson's arguments are lucid and well-thought out, clearly showing how the public school system has failed to teach children how to think independently, while at the same time force-feeding them with an ever-increasing number of "facts" without context.

He proposes a model ("Classical" Christian Education) that draws from the rich cultural heritage of Western Civilization, while still maintaining a distinctively Christian worldview. Crucial to that model is its grounding in the Classical "Trivium" (Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric) which he demonstrates is the foundation for learning in all other areas of study (which he lumps together as the "Quadrivium", going far beyond the classical definition of that term).