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Homeschooling in Fort Mill
kicks it old-school
By Tracy Greene - treasaigh@comporium.net

FORT MILL TOWNSHIP -- 

During a random visit to Fort Mill’s Classical Conversations chapter, students were discussing Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionhearted’s campaign against the Turks during the Crusades. They did a science experiment that illustrated how Saturn’s rings appear to be continuous, conjugated the Latin word for “love,” learned the parts of the food chain (Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers), and plotted the locations of the five major rivers of Europe on “Our World” maps.

And that was in the kindergarten/first grade class.

Classical Conversations is a group of homeschooling families that meets once a week at the Fort Mill Church of the Nazarene. It’s one of many homeschooling programs available to families that choose the route, but it’s more than a textbook. It’s also an educational, social, and spiritual support group.

Students as young as kindergarten and first grade age delve into deep subjects at Classical Conversations."

Nicole Lemmonds is the director of the Fort Mill CC, which grew out of the Rock Hill chapter three years ago. Each Tuesday, the 40 families enrolled come together to review what they’ve learned and introduce the new material families will be working on at home during the coming week. Classes are taught by tutors who are each experienced homeschooling parents, and have gone through intense training in the curriculum. Class sizes are small, with only eight or nine kids each.

During the afternoon, kids attend an enrichment program called “Kids Around the World” and participate in sports classes. They take field trips to museums and children’s theaters. Discovery Place’s mobile planetarium will soon be making a visit to campus.

The homeschooling movement might be new to a lot of people, but CC’s methods are very, very old, dating back to Roman times. It’s based on the Classical model of education, which follows what is known as the Trivium.

There are three stages of learning based on the child’s age: Grammar for K-5, Dialectic for middle schoolers, and Rhetoric for the high school years.
The Grammar program uses a lot of memorization, filling the kids up with the information they’ll use later. The model’s advocates believe this is perfectly suited to the young child’s natural abilities. Kindergarten might seem a little early for conjugating Latin, but the purpose is not so much to learn the language as to plant the seeds of grammar structure for later.

“Kids this age pick up commercial jingles in seconds,” Lemmonds explains. “Why not apply that skill to great material?”

To prove her point, Lemmonds asked her 2 year-old to sing a song she’d heard her older sister practicing at home. It was about the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Otto III, and it included the date.

“She learns just by being around the older children,” Lemmonds says.
Once the children reach the middle school years, they enter the Dialectic stage. The learning of new material continues, but they are also taught to evaluate information. Logic is introduced as a subject.

“It’s about getting them ready to think critically,” tutor Kari Flachman says.
When I visited, Flachman’s class was learning how to determine the truth value of supported statements. She gave the group examples such as “The New Testament was written in Greek,” and the class concluded it was true based on authority, or because of evidence in books. They also discussed articles on current events and there were plans to evaluate arguments on the death penalty.

By spring, they’ll be holding mock trials.

In the high school, or Rhetoric years, the kids learn how to express what they know through writing and oral presentations. The Fort Mill chapter of CC doesn’t have high schoolers yet, but it’s only a matter of time. The majority of their kids are currently in the Grammar grades, but they have the flexibility to structure their classes according to their families’ needs.

In every grade, there is a huge emphasis on Christian formation. Classical Conversations states that the purpose of education is “To know God and to make Him known.” Class days start with prayer. The young children memorize Bible facts, with hand motions and occasional sound effects. The kids do mission projects with charity organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse. This strong Christian focus is what attracts a lot of families to CC above other homeschooling programs.

Joanna Bryant of Indian Land enrolled her daughter Ava this year, after attending Kindergarten at a public school. She admits her decision raised some eyebrows among her friends and family, given that she herself used to teach first grade.

“I’m a public school teacher, and that’s against the rules, that’s weird,” she says of their reactions. “But I felt personally called by God to do it.”

Starting out, Bryant had the comfort of her educational background, but she was concerned about being isolated. The support available with CC sold it for her. Once her family began seeing Ava’s progress after only a few weeks, all dissent evaporated.

“They were impressed by the song about Charlemagne, but when she recited the eight parts of speech, that really got them,” she laughs.
Bryant feared Ava might complain about not being at “big school,” but that hasn’t been an issue.

“She enjoys learning from her mama and not having to get up super early,” she says.

And Bryant likes knowing that they can fit in more activities and learn about whatever Ava’s interested in that moment without having to wait for the end of the school day.

“The world is much bigger for us now,” she says.



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