Notes on The Well Educated Mind Chapter One

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“Any literate man (or woman, we would add) can rely on self-education to train and fill the mind.” (pg. 22)

Obviously, my mind goes to Good Will Hunting. I aspire to be a well educated autodidact, but my lack of self discipline has made this just a dream. It feels like a moral failing that I lack a solid foundation in history and geography.

“Limited to the learning they could acquire for themselves once a brief period of formal education had ended, American women of the last two centuries kept journals and commonplace books chronicling their reading, met with each other, and took responsibility for developing their own minds.” (pg. 24)

I've always identified strongly with these women. Maybe, because I understood at some point that I was on my own with regards to my education. When I was nine, I devoured books on Ancient Egypt. In middle school, I read voraciously - even from my mother's book collection. I read things like Of Human Bondage and Bottoms Up With a Rear Admiral for fun. I read tons of detective stories and anything Stephen King wrote. At some point in high school, I became enthralled with Tudor England, and read a bunch of historical fiction about the era.

My mother loved word games and puzzles, so her need for a Scrabble opponent helped expand my vocabulary. Cryptograms and logic puzzles gave me a good foundation in solving things based on deduction.


Reading deeply is different that reading fiction or the newspaper. It is a skill that requires practice.

Classical education skills can help. Grammar - understand the basic facts. Logic - Analyze. Rhetoric - explain your thoughts and opinions about what you learned - learned verbally or in writing. This is the trivium.

trivium
The three subjects (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) were considered essential going back to ancient Greece, but the word trivium was first used in the Middle Ages.

More modern education tends to encourage voicing opinions too early in the process - before the student truly understands the subject. Consequently, many adults are in the bad habit of expressing their thoughts before they understand the facts and connections. (Yes, I am truly guilty of this one.)

Study one thing at a time, and read in chronological order.

“Engage not the mind in the intense pursuit of too many things at once” - Isaac Watts

Set up a regular reading and study schedule. Morning is better than evening.
Start short. The brain is a muscle and has to be trained.
Don't forget to take breaks so you don't burn out. Four days a week for study is good because it gives you the weekends free and one day for "meh".

Summary

I can achieve a classical education on my own without going back for a Master's degree by building up my reading muscles and learning to study for deeper understanding. Step One of the program is to create a study schedule.

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