Classical Method . . .

I have been reading a couple of books that focus on the classical method. The first, "The Well-Trained Mind" by Jessie Wise and Susan Baure has a lot of great references and some good ideas about how to schedule things. I did not really like a lot of the "texts" that they were giving for education. I felt like there was a lot of repetition in the book and not enough generalization. A lot could have been taken out and there would not have been any content lost. So, I think this book has some good ideas here and there, but overall a little too structured f0r me. This is saying a lot, because I like to be prepared and orderly, but theirs was too much.

Also, they mentioned that young chilrdren, ages 0-9, need to mostly have a lot of memorization. That they don't need to know what something means right now, they can learn later, just memorize it. I find this interesting, especially since all of my children, ages 0-9, when they can talk, ask what everything is and means. I mean what do you say to the 3 year old that constantly asks why? It doesn't matter now, just memorize it and in 7 years I will explain it? I don't agree with that. I think memorization is good, but why not tell them the how and why also.