The Trivium

Below are some currently featured articles that can help us navigate and understand The Trivium as the pedagogical model we practice at Northfield.  They are meant to promote reflection and discussion ... not to be definitive answers to some of the perennial questions about education.

The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers
(presented in a course on education at Oxford University in 1947)

"The Lost Tools of Learning” articulates a primary/secondary school pedagogy based on the trivium [the first 3 liberal arts] and shows how the acquisition of these learning tools [consciously or by accident] is essential to success in higher education and vocation.
While Sayers has been foundational in the resurgence of “classical schools,” a careful reading of her thoughts reveals that the choice to study classical languages and the great books, while potentially very helpful in exercising the tools of learning, is merely one of way to go about imparting and mastering the trivium; since the tools of learning are basically subject-neutral and thus arise in and may be extracted from ANY subject one might care to study. This frees the secondary school teacher in considering curriculum design. In effect, all Northfield teachers are primarily teaching the same thing ... the trivium ... even though each one does so using a different,  and personally beloved, subject as his/her canvas.

Education in Context by Bob Love

“Education in Context” is largely the copied thoughts of some respected educators who have influenced me. I love how it places pedagogy before morality implying that ALL learning is meaningful only as it leads to sound moral action … a notion almost lost in our day of pragmatic power in which “can do” and “should do” are no longer in the same universe.

American Educational Progression by Bob Love

“American Educational Progression” presents in visual flowcharts a way of thinking about how education has taken place in the past and how it might be improved in the 21st century. The key for us at Northfield is consciously refocusing our efforts on how to reach the demarcation line [which we call dialectical maturity] between secondary and post-secondary education by the end of 10th grade [instead of 12th] so that our students can proceed on to the opportunities for personal and professional development which should occupy them for the remainder of their adult lives.

Putting GOD in Every Lesson by Bob Love 

More thoughts on the role of The Trivium at Northfield



For personal questions or to participate directly in the discussion about The Trivium at Northfield, we welcome your comments below and/or encourage you to contact Bob Love who oversees this blog page on behalf of the School. Thanks!.