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In a series of rooms adjacent to the chapel of Knox Presbyterian Church in Kenmore, about 30 Western New York students gather twice a week to exchange ideas, discover new concepts and engage in other activities typical of school-age children.
Well, somewhat typical, anyway.
In one room, a group of elementary-age children spend their mornings conjugating Latin verbs and learning advanced English grammatical concepts.
Down the hall, the middle school-age children learn how to form logical arguments and enhance their public speaking skills.
And across the hall from them, the high school-age students engage in debates and other oratory activities meant to perfect their skills with rhetoric, critical thinking and speech.
For about eight hours per week, the students — all of whom are home-schooled — take part in the classical approach to education that was widely accepted worldwide for centuries.
Classical education, so named because of its roots in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, encourages enhanced thinking in three parts. Elementary-aged kids focus on grammar and the rote memorization of information, based on the notion that young children have an enhanced ability to retain information even though they can’t always form complex connections.
That information is then processed in the dialectic phase (grades seven to nine), during which the natural urge to dispute things is culled. And in the rhetoric phase (grades 10 to 12), advanced study teaches students to critically analyze arguments and become engaging speakers.
Such an approach to education has fallen out of favor in many schools, according to Heather Asbach, the center’s head administrator. With many institutions compelled to teach to certain tests or trades, the ability to analyze has taken a back seat to the regurgitation of facts and figures.
“We feel like we can stand in the gap” created by standard education, she said. “Classical education began to fall during the Industrial Revolution. Since then, there’s been pressure to be ready for vocational training ... pressure to keep up with the demands of industry.”
Started small, still small
About four years ago, Asbach and a few other parents of home-schooled students experimented with an educational enhancement for their children. The parents would have their children gather around a kitchen table and receive lessons from a college professor.
Asbach had started reading about the classical approach to education prior to that, which sparked her curiosity.
“The more I read, the more I experimented with my kids,” said Asbach, a Grand Island resident who has home-schooled her children for the past 15 years and has a 15-year-old daughter enrolled in Rivendell.
By the following fall, those parents decided to open a center built around the classical approach.
One of those parents had connections with the Blackburn Study Center in Pittsburgh, a classical education center upon which Rivendell was ultimately based.
Wanting to maintain a Christian theme, the parents found space to rent at Greek Orthodox Church in Buffalo. A year later, the center was moved to Knox, which is in its second year of hosting Rivendell’s classes.
Classes are led by tutors. Some of these tutors are teachers working on the side, while parents and professors help fill in the ranks. Most current students are from Erie County, but a couple Niagara County students attended last academic year and are eligible to attend.
Rivendell remains a small-scale operation, at least in quantity. About 30 students are enrolled, with Asbach’s “office” being a classroom that’s unoccupied during the first part of the day (her laptop sitting atop a study table is the only accouterment to indicate that administrational duties are carried out there). The center has students in grades three through 12 now, but Asbach hopes to eventually expand to as early as first grade.
“We want to offer what we do at a broader level,” said Asbach, who continues to home-school her own children as well as help run the center. “It’s a lot of work to do this with 30 kids, but it’s rewarding.”
A better option
Victoria Spencer, 10, and her older brother Jeffrey, 15, have been rewarded by the Rivendell experience. The Town of Tonawanda siblings were without a school after the nearby Covenant Academy closed a couple years ago.
Their parents, Jeffrey and Michelle, heard about Rivendell through friends. After they decided to home school their children beginning in fall 2008, the choice to add Rivendell to their educational experience was easy.
“I want my kids to be critical thinkers,” Mr. Spencer said. “(Rivendell) is not just absorbing the material ... they’re encouraged to discuss things in class.”
Victoria, who’s in fifth grade, was one of the aforementioned Latin-conjugating students observed during a reporter’s recent visit to the center. An examination of her required texts found that she’s also studying American society during the Great Depression, learning about various verb forms in English and making Bible-based dioramas to be used as a springboard for classroom discussion. Her brother, meanwhile, has authored numerous debates, which his parents say has helped him blossom as a person.
“That’s a real dividing line as far as leadership,” Mr. Spencer said about the focus on public speaking at Rivendell.
“I feel like I didn’t have an education,” said Mrs. Spencer, a Kenmore East graduate who primarily lords over the children’s home-school duties.
The Spencers were interviewed in their home’s kitchen nook, which features a computer, rustic wooden picnic table and floor-to-ceiling shelf full of books. When Jeffrey and Victoria aren’t studying there, the children are engaged in extracurricular activities (rowing for Jeffrey, ballet for Victoria) and otherwise pursuing other interests their parents said wouldn’t be possible with a traditional education.
This approach was of great benefit to John, their eldest son who attended Rivendell last school year before enrolling in the Army Reserves last spring. A private school student until his senior year, John managed to start up his own business-related Web site, take on a part-time job and establish a vending machine service that counts the Kenmore Department of Public Works among its customers. On top of that, he took some freshman-level college classes at Daemen College.
“It helped him come out of his shell,” Michelle said. “You can do all the required work, then you can veer off to what (your) passion really is.”
Social extroversion isn’t the only benefit to Rivendell, the Spencers said. Victoria was able to share World War II stories unknown to some college graduates during a reporter’s visit to her home, while Jeffrey has taken biology labs at Niagara University to enhance his studies.
“There’s no way I could teach him logic, debate,” Michelle said. “They push (students) academically ... they do keep you accountable.”
Cultivating a love of learning — which many students have at a younger age but sometimes lose in the traditional school system — is another way Rivendell assists students, Asbach said.
“They love to learn, and (Rivendell students) haven’t lost that,” she said. “I think we’ve been able to challenge them more.”
Exposed to new things
Victoria Spencer has been enthralled by the “Anne of Green Gables” series since being introduced to it by Rivendell this academic year. Some of her peers have read “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and “Winnie the Pooh” this year. Jeffrey Spencer has read “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Animal Farm” as well as “The Argument Builder.”
This has been a welcome addition for their parents, who lamented the de-emphasis on reading classic literature in traditional education.
“They read a ton, and they read these great books they wouldn’t get to otherwise,” Michelle Spencer said. “I’m shocked at what they’re getting.”
Rivendell allows Victoria and Jeffrey to have a social outlet that might not otherwise be there, their parents said. But by receiving the bulk of their education at home, they’re exposed to life lessons that are absent from traditional schools, such as helping out with the care of their uncle, who recently had surgery. Both still have household chores, as well, such as Victoria providing cleaning services for the family’s pet guinea pig and his cage.
“They’re learning compassion,” said Michelle, who also cited the self-motivation that home-schooled students require. “When life comes crashing down on you, you still have to do it.”
That can-do attitude is what propels Asbach to forge ahead with Rivendell. The center will remain at Knox for at least a while, but Asbach would love to see student enrollment compel Rivendell’s leaders to seek a bigger space.
“Our students get so much out of this,” she said. “We have seen fruits.”
Contact Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.
