To follow is a couple of my famous disclaimers:
1. I still love CC. And may go back to it.
2. I have sat through 8-9 practicums and I get the classical method or CC's version of it really well so I need no "refresher" course in the trivium or Classical methodology.
That being said, I have enjoyed being away from CC for the past few months. I miss my friends and community but we were relocating anyway and that would have been a fact no matter if we had continued or not in our new location. To make this easier to break down I am just going to list a few reasons we have broken with not only the CC model but the curriculum as a whole.
1. We have done it for 7 years. My son was starting his third round of cycle 1. Repetition is good, but for us, it sounded tedious. I had also in these years seen CC grow which was good but with severe growing pains. I missed some of the things that were done well when CC was small.
2. We were not happy. The last couple of years my son and I were miserable. I can never blame that all on curriculum choice, but I do know that since we changed my son specifically, likes his work.
3. The memory master competition that works so well for so many students to motivate them, did not work well for my students when they once again failed. My children learned so much under CC but it was always shadowed as they failed because they did not obtain Memory Master. We were not going to sacrifice all on the alter of Memory master. Please do not misunderstand me. I feel that MM is a wonderful reward and there are so many families that work hard and obtain their goal with guidance and prayer. But there is also the other side to this were it is a matter of pride and stubbornness. So my average students, although learning and growing each year, often felt they had failed miserably when that reward was not obtained.
4. My priorities changed. After many years of feeling that my involvement in CC as director and tutor were for my children, I found that they were not. They took away from my children. This was my situation alone. I am not saying that every director or tutor is taking away from their children. I was taking from mine! This year, I am present with my children. It has been a refreshing break.
5. CC is one interpretation of the classical method. It is a good one, making classical realistic for me for many years. But....as I have read and studied, I am looking for a bit more of a synthetic (or our education having more synthesis) than was translated in using the CC curriculum. "To Know God and to make Him Known" often got lost in our daily parrot of memory work. I wanted to study things more as a whole. How they all interconnect and to ultimately get to truth. (I realize that the foundations phase is prep for that but my deep thinking 11 year old was ready to move on.)
6. I love memory work and the foundation that it gave my children but I want to start to move beyond the poll parrot! They knew facts and would light up if they heard anything relating to something they could recite but that is exactly where it stopped. I guess my son was getting more dialectic than the curriculum was allowing.
7. We were missing out on some other things that have made our home and school enjoyable. My kids have loved good literature and enjoying the discussion of it. We have loved walks and field trips more because we can take a day here and there. We do not lose a whole day and spend another day recouping from our CC community day.
Again, I love CC and may go back to it at some point, but after seven years some of it's weaknesses were wearing on me. I have seen a fire and light in my son that has not been there for many years. He is more confident and more talkative and inquisitive. He no longer second guesses himself or feels complete failure when he doesn't remember week 6's Latin memory work.
We are learning and having fun doing it and isn't that the goal for all homes? I want my children to remember with fondness the memories of us learning together.
Oh and by the way.....
8. I am learning so much too!
That being said, I have enjoyed being away from CC for the past few months. I miss my friends and community but we were relocating anyway and that would have been a fact no matter if we had continued or not in our new location. To make this easier to break down I am just going to list a few reasons we have broken with not only the CC model but the curriculum as a whole.
1. We have done it for 7 years. My son was starting his third round of cycle 1. Repetition is good, but for us, it sounded tedious. I had also in these years seen CC grow which was good but with severe growing pains. I missed some of the things that were done well when CC was small.
2. We were not happy. The last couple of years my son and I were miserable. I can never blame that all on curriculum choice, but I do know that since we changed my son specifically, likes his work.
3. The memory master competition that works so well for so many students to motivate them, did not work well for my students when they once again failed. My children learned so much under CC but it was always shadowed as they failed because they did not obtain Memory Master. We were not going to sacrifice all on the alter of Memory master. Please do not misunderstand me. I feel that MM is a wonderful reward and there are so many families that work hard and obtain their goal with guidance and prayer. But there is also the other side to this were it is a matter of pride and stubbornness. So my average students, although learning and growing each year, often felt they had failed miserably when that reward was not obtained.
4. My priorities changed. After many years of feeling that my involvement in CC as director and tutor were for my children, I found that they were not. They took away from my children. This was my situation alone. I am not saying that every director or tutor is taking away from their children. I was taking from mine! This year, I am present with my children. It has been a refreshing break.
5. CC is one interpretation of the classical method. It is a good one, making classical realistic for me for many years. But....as I have read and studied, I am looking for a bit more of a synthetic (or our education having more synthesis) than was translated in using the CC curriculum. "To Know God and to make Him Known" often got lost in our daily parrot of memory work. I wanted to study things more as a whole. How they all interconnect and to ultimately get to truth. (I realize that the foundations phase is prep for that but my deep thinking 11 year old was ready to move on.)
6. I love memory work and the foundation that it gave my children but I want to start to move beyond the poll parrot! They knew facts and would light up if they heard anything relating to something they could recite but that is exactly where it stopped. I guess my son was getting more dialectic than the curriculum was allowing.
7. We were missing out on some other things that have made our home and school enjoyable. My kids have loved good literature and enjoying the discussion of it. We have loved walks and field trips more because we can take a day here and there. We do not lose a whole day and spend another day recouping from our CC community day.
Again, I love CC and may go back to it at some point, but after seven years some of it's weaknesses were wearing on me. I have seen a fire and light in my son that has not been there for many years. He is more confident and more talkative and inquisitive. He no longer second guesses himself or feels complete failure when he doesn't remember week 6's Latin memory work.
We are learning and having fun doing it and isn't that the goal for all homes? I want my children to remember with fondness the memories of us learning together.
Oh and by the way.....
8. I am learning so much too!
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