Classical Composition by Memoria Press is a must-see for homeschoolers looking to provide their children with a classical education.

Memoria Press Curriculum Review: Classical Composition

Today I’m reviewing Classical Composition 1: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set by Memoria Press. I received review copies, but no other compensation.

Memoria Press focuses on Christian education. The fable set content was completely secular due to the content. The narrative set includes some Bible stories, but I would actually consider those useful for anyone to know, religious or not.

What Is Classical Education?

Before jumping into my review, I wanted to take a minute to explain the idea of classical education. It’s a very Western centric approach to education, focused on how people were educated before industrialization.

Why Teach This Way Today?

The truth is, a classical education was only originally available to the best off men in society. These people were much more likely to become leaders than other individuals in society. Classical education was designed to create a well-rounded leader for the next generation of civilization.

Our priorities shifted after industrialization to creating an education that could produce lots of factory workers and higher level managers. Classical education was largely pushed aside in favor of pragmatism.

There are actually some things I really like about the modern education system, personally. I’m a huge advocate for global education, and classical education focuses exclusively on passing on traditional Western civilization. I think we have a lot to learn from all of the civilizations of the world.

Why Add In Classical Education?

The great thing about classical literature is that it has something of such value that it has managed to survive centuries, and even millennia. And I think it’s worth studying the same way I think early and classical music are worth studying. So, when Memoria Press offered me the opportunity to review their Classical Composition Courses, I was happy to say yes.

Memoria Press Classical Composition I: Fable Set Review

As you can tell from the photo above, this is a very complete language arts curriculum. It’s designed to be used with children in grades 4-12, and I really do think children across that age group can benefit from the course. For the purposes of this review, I used the program with my sixth grader.

12-year-old Emma really loves reading, but she doesn’t always love language arts works. There’s still a lot for her to learn by doing this kind of detailed work though! Here you can see some of the work she did based on the fable, “The Ant and the Grasshopper”.

This kind of work is a lot like the scales and etudes musicians practice. A lot of it isn’t necessarily “fun”, but it produces the kinds of techniques you need to write skillfully. I loved the way the program had her dissecting the plot and looking at different ways to tell the story.

Memoria Press Classical Composition II: Narrative

Designed as a follow-on to the Fables curriculum, the Classical Composition Narrative Stage curriculum can also be used at the same time, and that’s what we did for this review. Memoria press recommends this curriculum for grades 5-12, and it does feel slightly more advanced than the fables set. It challenged my sixth grader, and she finds language arts quite intuitive.

The narrative arts focuses a great deal on word choices and vocabulary. The structure of the text and development of narrative are also focuses in this text.

Both of these curricula remind me a great deal of how I was taught to analyze texts and write as a fourth through sixth grader enrolled in French public schools. It often felt tedious, but I learned lessons in the process that I’ve found useful throughout my academic career.

We’re taking our summer mostly off of school, but I think this curriculum will be useful as we start seventh grade in the fall. If you’re looking to teach your child to think logically and to develop independent opinions that they can express eloquently, this is a great place to start.

More Memoria Press Reviews

Click on the image below to read more reviews of the Classical Composition curricula as well as other programs from Memoria Press.

Have you used this curriculum, or other products from Memoria Press? What did you think? Share your opinions in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or by tagging me on Instagram.