Classical Education For Elegance

In my recent search on the study of elegance, I've discovered how certain types of education produced elegant and sophisticated women.

I realized the importance of classical education.
what is classical education

What is Classical Education?

In The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Susan and Jessie Bauer explains what is classical education:

A Classical Education is language-intensive and not image focused. It demands that students use and understand words, not video images.

It is also history intensive and aims to help students understand the view of human endeavor from the beginning until now.

It trains the mind to analyze and draw conclusions. It cultivates and enforces self discipline.

To quote the book,

"It produces literate, curious, intelligent students who have a wide range of interests and ability to followup on them."

In short, it trains students to be self-reliant and to learn how to learn.

That would essentially give confidence and skills for life.

How does A Classical Education Relate to Elegance?

Though The Well-Trained Mind was written as a guide for parents to home school their children, it serves as an invaluable reference on obtaining a sophisticated sort of elegance. It works wonders for your mind and your self confidence.

In The Elegant Sophisticated Woman and Layers of Class - How to be Classy, I discussed the need to further educate yourself. There are many reasons for this and I hope you find your own.

Pursuing knowledge, I hope you'll find fulfilment, understanding, satisfaction. An education helps in all areas of life, confidence, development of character - an interesting person is an interested person.

You can but don't have to follow the strict classical education school curriculum.

You can pick, choose and customize your classical education by exploring what piques your interests and curiousity. You can also choose subjects or 'areas of interest' where you do not feel sufficiently confident. For example, if you feel at ill ease in certain restaurants or luxury boutiques, go to them, read about them etc. until you feel its familiarity. Thus, your confidence grows.

(Remember, going to them does not mean shelling out your life savings. Window shopping is free as well as trying things on. You can read about them in libraries. Having a cup of coffee there is also inexpensive.)

Similarly, I've noticed that elegant folks prefer a liberal arts education, which I was fortunate to have though it was not as 'liberal' as I hoped.

Regardless, I am convinced that a classical education shapes your mind for elegance. It helps you become an accomplished lady.

The Classically Educated Woman

It gives the classically educated woman a greater self confidence to learn and undertake a useful skill, such as Japanese cooking. It gives her enough knowledge to be an interesting companion to her husband, to be great host to many people. She defines herself, not losing her identity, dreams and ideas to her host of enormous responsibilities - her job, children, housework etc. She becomes a avid reader, growing in both inner and outer beauty. She is a better and more confident mother, gaining the respect from her children and husband.

I also believe, as silly as it sounds, that your thoughts, heart and value shapes the beauty of your face and your expressions. An interesting person has an interested face. An interested face is more beautiful than just a pretty face, which you can sometimes tell results from superficial thoughts.

You Can Be Classically Educated

Susan and Jessie Bauer has made a Classical Education possible to undertake at home. Though, it was written for homeschool, Jessie, who is the mother of Susan, said she learned more by homeschooling her children than at college.

While I would love to go back to school and read a liberal arts education, like you, sometimes we just have other commitments that make this dream unfeasible.

Surely you understand that I don't think one needs a classical education to be elegant. It is, however heavily beneficial in more ways than one. With a classical education, you'll most certainly acquire self confidence and mentioned traits of class. It is, one of the easiest ways to cut across 'class lines' of society.

SO....

Personally, I've majored in Science, Math and Grammar, but feel a strong lack in my education of Literature, History and Languages, therefore I've tailored my own studies towards that, using the resources and references mentioned in The Well-Trained Mind.

ElegantWoman.org's Classical Education Experiment

What I'm going to do in the next coming months is to analyze Susan and Jessie Bauer's book and write my findings in a form of a 'journal and diary' style. I hope to 'put myself' through as much classical education training as possible. I will record my experiences on a separate section of this website, only accessible by this page. If you haven't noticed already, the left hand side navigation bar is different from the rest of elegantwoman.org.

Please remember, I'm not an authority site on Classical education. My goal is to sift and find the quickest and best way for women to be elegantly educated.

Though the links on the nav bar is empty for now, I will be adding those pages on Classical Education and How it Relates to Elegance as I explore the material.

If you would like to be the first to know, subscribe to my ezine, blog or join the rest of the community on Facebook.

P.s. I've also started a Classical Education Blog (for random posts of inspiration) dedicated to further education of women.

I don't know yet how it will pan out and I may not keep up once these education pages are set up in full.

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