The parroting stage

When I started to homeschool, I searched everywhere for information on how to do it. My sister tipped me off to a book about classical education called The Well Trained Mind. The author explains how children learn in stages, called the trivium. I love homeschooling because I am constantly learning. I have been able to apply the trivium way of learning to my studies of Isaiah. I will show you what I’ve found.

The Trivium Classical Education

1.  The Parrot Years — The Grammar Stage: Kindergarten through fourth grade
2.  The Argumentative Child — The Logic Stage: Fifth grade through eighth grade
3.  Speaking Your Mind — The Rhetoric Stage: Ninth grade through twelfth grade

The Parroting Stage

In the parrot years, children learn to repeat what they hear — they love to memorize jingles and poems. They are actually very good at repeating from memory long lists. My kids memorized all the prepositions. You may even remember things you memorized —

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 except for February.

During their early years, I gave my kids information by telling them stories, reading to them from history and science books, teaching them math facts — And I expected them to repeat back the stories they heard. I didn’t make my kids search for information. Instead, I spread it out for them. As an adult, you know how discouraging it can be when you can’t figure out something new — it takes lots of trial and error.

So, at first, it is good to guide your kids along with the exciting materials. I love books by Susan Wise Bauer– First Language Lessons Level 1 and Writing with Ease, Level 1.

However, we must get past the parroting stage. We must move on to the second learning stage that requires more questioning, such as “why did Rome fall?” I want my kids to search for and using more critical thinking. The final stage of the trivium stresses expression and flexibility.

So while it is good to learn the parroting-back of information, we must move on. We must move on from the milk to the meat. This is true for any age in the process of learning, even in our religious development.

I believe we miss Isaiah’s meaning because we don’t understand his native tongue and his culture. Maybe because we’ve learned to parrot-back what someone in authority has told us — never getting to the higher learning stages — questioning and searching the text. We can build upon scholarly translations that add insight to older translations of the Bible. And we have to move on from parroting back the basics.

Isaiah asks, to whom should God give instruction:

Whom shall he give instruction? 

Whom shall he enlighten with revelation? 

Weanlings weaned from milk, those just taken from the breast? 

For it is but line upon line, line upon line,

precept upon precept, precept upon precept; 

a trifle here, a trifle there. (Isaiah 28:10)

Ephraim’s mode of learning is still “line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little” Assonance and alliteration parody their rote method of learning that consists of parroting back what their leaders teach:

saw lasaw saw lasaw qaw laqaw qaw laqaw ze‘ir sam ze‘ir sam  

How parrots learn to copy what you say

*Updated, original published date June 2018.