We continue our journey today into Grammar School foundations and aims. Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins begin by discussing pre-rational/ pre-classical stages of learning. This is achieved through exposure to classical literature (fables, fairy tales, and mythologies) and music. It allows students to be primed to recognize and accept Reason when it arrives in Logic School. It also, cultivates the desire for beauty and longing later in the student's life. This is especially helpful in the Rhetoric stage where the beautification and effectiveness of language are both taught and honed. This stage is much more difficult if the Grammar and Logic stages are lacking, both for the instructors and students.  
 
Our hosts then bring insight that may often be overlooked when one is gathering resources in a Grammar or Primary school; one must make sure the resources are of the best quality. Only quality resources will allow the students to build quality structures (intellectual frameworks) that can withstand the rigors and demands of life, academic or otherwise. Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins weave a web of interconnectedness from the Three Little Pigs to Plato to Sherlock Holmes to Narnia to The Metalogicon by John of Salisbury, synthesizing the disciplines of Philosophy, Theology, and Literature to further prove their position. 
 
It cannot be overstated that the Grammar Stage of Education may well be the most important, yet most neglected in the formation of fully formed humans, Christians, and citizens.  
 
You will not want to miss this episode!