Study Means Reading

One of the concerns frequently raised in the media is that children simply are not reading enough. Reports tell us that reading for pleasure is in decline, that children spend too much time on screens, and that parents need to encourage more books at home. While there is undoubtedly some truth in these observations, I wonder whether they address the real problem.

As homeschooling parents, perhaps we should begin by asking a different question.

Why do we assume that children need to do most of their reading after their formal education has finished for the day?

If a child spends six hours at school, surely a substantial part of those six hours ought to have been spent reading. If books truly form the heart of education, then pupils should come home having already devoted several hours to reading history, science, literature, grammar, geography, Scripture, and other worthy subjects. In that case, parents would be free to let their children enjoy music, sport, hobbies, outdoor play, and family life without constantly worrying whether they had read enough.

The fact that we continually encourage children to "read for pleasure" after school perhaps suggests that reading is no longer at the centre of education itself.

For most of history, this would have seemed a very strange idea.

Reading was not viewed primarily as a leisure activity. Reading was the very means by which education took place.

The great schools and universities of Europe were built around books. Pupils read. Teachers explained. Pupils read again. They narrated what they had learned, discussed difficult passages, committed important sections to memory, and gradually grew in knowledge through continual engagement with carefully chosen texts.

This understanding can be seen clearly in the Ratio Studiorum, the great educational plan of the Jesuits published in 1599. Throughout the document, the emphasis falls repeatedly upon the careful reading of authoritative texts under the guidance of a teacher. The master's task was not to replace the book but to help the pupil understand it through explanation, questioning, repetition, and discussion. The book remained at the centre of the lesson.

This remained the pattern of education for centuries.

Today, however, many children encounter remarkably little sustained reading during the school day. Lessons are increasingly built around PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, short extracts, teacher summaries, videos, and slides projected onto interactive whiteboards. These resources are often well designed and engaging, but they inevitably reduce the amount of time pupils spend wrestling with substantial texts.

For homeschooling families, this presents a wonderful opportunity.

We are not constrained by the habits of the modern classroom.

We are free to place books back where they belong, at the very centre of education.

This conviction lies behind the entire curriculum of Britannia Classical Institute.

Every lesson begins with carefully selected reading. Whether the subject is history, science, geography, grammar, Latin, Greek, literature, or Sacred Scripture, pupils are expected to engage with real books written by experienced educators and great authors. Rather than replacing these books with summaries, we have organised them into a carefully sequenced curriculum that guides parents lesson by lesson through the material.

One of the greatest advantages of living today is that these remarkable books are now freely available. Through the public domain, we have access to educational treasures that previous generations often struggled to obtain. Instead of continually searching for new curricula, families can once again learn from authors whose works educated generations of pupils and whose methods have already stood the test of time.

If your child faithfully completes the lessons in Britannia Classical Institute, you need not constantly ask yourself whether he is reading enough.

The study is the reading.

Every lesson requires sustained engagement with worthwhile texts. Every subject develops vocabulary, comprehension, concentration, and the ability to follow increasingly complex ideas. Children encounter excellent models of written English every day, and without even noticing it they gradually improve their spelling, composition, grammar, and general command of language.

Reading ceases to become an extra activity squeezed into the evening.

It simply becomes the normal way in which education takes place.

There is another reason why we have adopted this approach.

Aristotle distinguished between what he called substance and accidents. The substance of a thing is what it truly is, its essential reality. The accidents are those features that may accompany it without changing its fundamental nature.

The same distinction can help us think about education.

The substance of a lesson is the content or reading material. Everything else exists to support that purpose.

Pictures, diagrams, videos, worksheets, animations, and presentations all have value. They can clarify difficult ideas, illustrate complex concepts, and hold a child's attention. We make use of such resources ourselves whenever they genuinely assist learning.

However, they should remain servants of the lesson, not its replacement.

If a picture helps a child understand the text, it has fulfilled its purpose. If a short video makes a scientific principle easier to grasp before returning to the reading, it has been used well. Problems arise only when these resources become the lesson itself and the book quietly disappears from view.

At Britannia Classical Institute, we have deliberately chosen a different path.

We believe the reading is the substance of the lesson. Everything else is there to help the child understand what he has read more fully.

This approach asks more of the pupil, but it also gives far more in return. Children become better readers because they read every day. They become stronger writers because they are continually exposed to excellent prose. They develop patience because good books cannot be rushed. They learn to think because thoughtful reading requires attention, reflection, and judgement.

Homeschooling gives families a remarkable freedom to recover this older understanding of education.

If we make books the centre of our curriculum once again, many of the concerns surrounding literacy begin to resolve themselves naturally. We no longer need to ask how we can persuade children to read more.

Instead, we allow study itself to become reading.

For thousands of years, those two ideas were almost synonymous.

Perhaps it is time we made them so once again.

A R Hutchinson