Also announced here: https://x.com/weremight/status/1824877602190070139
This is a free, SELF-PACED course. The ‘meeting dates’ are the timing for starting the ‘next chapter’ and may slip. I will start chat threads if anyone wants to talk about the materials here at substack. Primarily, this Fall, I am serialising the content (here on this ‘stack). The workbooks will be linked PDFs, approximately one per course ‘meeting’.
Github source for ‘Book’ and accompanying workbooks (Work in Progress!): https://github.com/macrobius/Encyclopedia/blob/main/sti/Trivium/Workbooks/FreshmanYear/syllabus.md
Course Announcement for FALL 2024:
Intended Audience (teachers in training for a cottage or traditional school, parent teachers of a homeschool, autodidacts; possibly some students with careful mentoring, as the curriculum is untested).
The course is, naturally, divided into Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year. The entire Trivium is necessarily covered in Freshman year, because it is so necessary for the full programme. In modern terms, the Trivium is 'Language Arts' and the Quadrivium is the common material, mostly Mathematics, for the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Since these are so necessary in the modern world, we are forced to compress the Classical Education curriculum a bit, to both the Trivium and first part of the Quadrivium in the first year! This ends up making all the subjects very highly connected (a good thing, but requiring explanation to highlight it properly) and requires very careful sequencing to make sure the required elements are introduced before the subjects that need them.
These workbooks so far only cover the Freshman year (so that it can begin in Fall 2024!). They are meant to cover main teaching guide, 'the book', which is only virtual for now, and only partly available at Substack1 (where it is being serialised), and this pinned Twitter/X Thread[2]:
[2]: Ambrosius Macrobius on X: "Training Course for Teachers in Classical Schools " / X
The source materials for both the Main Book and the accompanying Workbooks, are archived at this Github Repository[3]:
[3]: Encyclopedia/sti/Trivium at main · macrobius/Encyclopedia · GitHub
Freshman Year closely parallel's Sister Miriam's The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric
https://www.amazon.com/Trivium-Liberal-Logic-Grammar-Rhetoric/dp/0967967503/
This text should, if possible, be purchased. The book is inexpensively available, at least on Kindle (which can use the web browser reader). However if you unable to afford a copy, the workbooks and main text should cover the material in sufficient depth, though you will be missing an important resource and quite a treat to read.
Track 1, as I said, covers the basic and essential elements of the Trivium, and is heavily loaded in Freshman Year
Track 2 requires Track 1 and gives additional materials for classical languages (only Latin in Freshman Year), and for STEM Subjects (Science and Mathematics), as well as more depth in the Philosophies of Aristotle, Plato, and the Scholastic Philosophy (Aquinas).
For further information, see the Curriculum Design Notes (to be published but available at this twitter thread)[4]:
4: Ambrosius Macrobius on X: "Appendix: Curriculum Design Notes " / X
Course Meetings
Meeting 1 (Sep 9th): Orientation and Chapter 1 Workbook
Prep: read introductory materials and syllabus
https://macrobius.substack.com/p/training-course-for-teachers-in-classical
https://macrobius.substack.com/p/trivium-1
https://github.com/macrobius/Encyclopedia/tree/main/sti/Trivium
https://github.com/macrobius/Encyclopedia/blob/main/sti/Trivium/Workbooks/FreshmanYear/syllabus.md
https://x.com/weremight/status/1804175145256522163)
Meeting 2 (Sept 16th): Introduction to Liberal Arts
Prep: read ch. 1 materials
Chapter 1 Workbook
Meeting 3 (Sept 23rd): Grammar Review
prep: Download and start materials linked in Grammar Review workbook
Do the Grammar Review Workbook
Meeting 4 (Sept 30th) Chapter 2 Workbook
Meeting 5 (Oct 7th): Chapter 3 Workbook
Meeting 6 (Oct 14th): English Prose Composition Review
Meeting 7 (Oct 21st): Introduction to Logic
Recomended: Cothran, Traditional Logic 1
Chapter 4 Workbook
Chapter 5 Workbook
Meeting 8 (Oct 28th): Introduction to High School Mathematics (required for Track 1 for background)
Meeting 9 (Nov 4th): Introduction to Philosophy
prep: introduction to Aristotle workbook
prep: start reading Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind Topics:
what is moderate realism?
introduction to Aristotle (and start reading Lear)
The Scottish Scottish Enlightenment and Scottish Common Sense Realism (SCSR) School
Meeting 10 (Nov 18th): Title TBD
Chapter 7 Workbook
Chapter 8 Workbook
Meeting 11 (Dec 2nd): Fallacies and introduction to Debate
Chapter 9 Workbook
Meeting 12 (Dec 9th): The Scientific Method
Chapter 10 Workbook
Meeting 13 (Dec 16th): Measurement Theory and the Philosophy of Nature
Measurement Theory Workbook
Hilary Term 2025 ;) It's His Term
Meeting 14 (TBD Jan 2025): Rhetoric and Poetics (Composition)
Chapter 11 Workbook
Meeting 15 (TBD Jan 2025): The Composition of Speeches Pro-Gymnasmata (Prolusions) handout Orator Workbook
Meeting 16 (TBD Jan 2025): Introduction to Parliamentary Law
Parliamentary Law Workbook (when and how to speak or debate in a meeting!)