{"id":6284,"date":"2024-08-05T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T09:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/?p=6284"},"modified":"2025-05-02T02:21:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:21:51","slug":"from-dorothy-sayers-to-leigh-bortins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/blog\/from-dorothy-sayers-to-leigh-bortins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lost Tools of Learning: From Dorothy Sayers to Leigh Bortins"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>In 2010, before I\u2019d ever heard the name Dorothy Sayers, someone whom I had never met challenged me to homeschool my children using a classical education approach.<\/p>\n<p>Pause. Problem: I wasn\u2019t homeschooled. I wasn\u2019t educated classically. I wasn\u2019t trained to be a teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Even with my lack of training and skill set, she still invited me to start a Classical Conversations<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> community with her, where we would learn together with our children and model this mysterious classical approach.<\/p>\n<p>Being part of a community was a start, but I needed more help, and who better to turn to than two modern pioneers of classical education?\u00a0If you happen to be a Licensed Director with Classical Conversations, you\u2019re most likely already familiar with the names <strong>Dorothy Sayers<\/strong> and <strong>Leigh Bortins<\/strong>. I wasn\u2019t. There were no pegs in my brain to hang a single grammar fact about either woman! But that would soon change.<\/p>\n<p>Following some great advice, I read Sayers\u2019s famous speech, <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/LostToolsOfLearning-DorothySayers.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe Lost Tools of Learning.\u201d<\/a> Oh boy. At the time, I understood <strong>maybe<\/strong> 10 percent of what I\u2019d read. But I kept at it (repetition is the key to learning, after all) until I grasped its meaning. And that changed everything.<\/p>\n<p>I was on my way to laying the foundation.<\/p>\n<h2>Dorothy Sayers: A Pioneer in Classical Education<\/h2>\n<p>Dorothy Sayers\u2019s (1893\u20131957) legacy lives through the inspiring words she left behind for us to read. One of the first women to be awarded a degree from Oxford University, she went on to write sixteen novels, ten plays, six translations, and twenty-four works of non-fiction<em>.<\/em><sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"1\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-1\">1<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-1\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"1\">Lindsey Scholl, \u201cThe Remarkable Dorothy L. Sayers,\u201d C.S. Lewis Institute, June 7, 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cslewisinstitute.org\/resources\/the-remarkable-dorothy-l-sayers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.cslewisinstitute.org\/resources\/the-remarkable-dorothy-l-sayers\/<\/a><\/span> She is most known for her mystery novels that feature the whimsical sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey.<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"2\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-2\">2<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-2\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"2\">Ann Kennedy Smith, \u201cDorothy L. Sayers\u2019s Graduation Day,\u201d Cambridge Ladies\u2019 Dining Society 1890\u20131914, October 17, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/akennedysmith.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/akennedysmith.substack.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dorothy Sayers\u2019s life was dedicated to the written word. She was a copywriter for an advertising agency as well as a poet. She advocated for women\u2019s liberty.<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"3\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-3\">3<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-3\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"3\">\u201cAbout Dorothy L Sayers,\u201d Dorothy L Sayers Society, accessed June 6, 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sayers.org.uk\/biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.sayers.org.uk\/biography<\/a>.<\/span> She passionately shared the gospel of Jesus Christ (despite some criticisms of her modern English translations). She was even a friend to C. S. Lewis!<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"4\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-4\">4<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-4\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"4\">David Downing and Crystal Downing, \u201cC.S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers: A Feisty Friendship,\u201d Wade Center, May 10, 2019, YouTube video, 57:03, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZHu3h7xN4DI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZHu3h7xN4DI<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And, of course, she was a pioneer of the classical education movement in the modern era.<\/p>\n<h2>Authority and Credentials<\/h2>\n<p>Did Dorothy Sayers have any credentials? On whose authority did she criticize modern education and propose a solution? In the opening line of her &#8220;Lost Tools of Learning&#8221;\u00a0speech delivered to a group of Oxford students and faculty in 1947, Sayers states, \u201cThat I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, and whose life of recent years has been almost wholly out of touch with educational circles, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology.\u201d<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"5\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-5\">5<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-5\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"5\">Dorothy Sayers, \u201cThe Lost Tools of Learning\u201d (London, 1948: E.T. Heron; Project Gutenberg Canada, 2008), p. 2, <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversationsbooks.com\/products\/the-lost-tools-of-learning-pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/classicalconversationsbooks.com\/products\/the-lost-tools-of-learning-pdf<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Um&#8230; what? If you\u2019re like me, you probably scratched your head while reading that. Is she saying that she\u2019s not going to apologize for her lack of teaching experience while presuming to discuss education?<\/p>\n<p>Well, yes. That\u2019s exactly what she\u2019s saying.<\/p>\n<p>A few breaths later, Sayers continues, \u201cThere is also one excellent reason why the veriest amateur may feel entitled to have an opinion about education. For if we are not all professional teachers, we have all, at some time or other, been taught. Even if we learnt nothing \u2014 perhaps in particular if we learnt nothing \u2014 our contribution to the discussion may have a potential value.\u201d<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"6\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-6\">6<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-6\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"6\">Sayers, \u201cLost Tools,\u201d 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Okay, now that makes sense (aside from \u201cveriest\u201d). We\u2019ve all experienced education in one form or another. Maybe that\u2019s enough for us to build our understanding of the subject at hand.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border: 1px dashed #59637e; height: 1px; width: 75%; text-align: left; margin: auto; color: #59637e;\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read:<\/strong> \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/blog\/homeschool-qualifications\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Are You Qualified to Homeschool Your Child?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What Does Dorothy Sayers Say About Modern Education?<\/h2>\n<p>Before concluding her introduction, she assures her listeners that nothing will come of this speech, \u201cThis prospect need arouse neither hope nor alarm. It is in the highest degree improbable that the reforms I propose will ever be carried into effect.\u201d<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"7\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-7\">7<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-7\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"7\">Sayers, 3.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ah-ha! Now she\u2019s got our attention. She has something to say about education, but she doesn\u2019t expect it to change our education system. Why? Speaking to a post-WWII generation, she said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong><em>For we let our young men and women go out unarmed<\/em><\/strong><em>, in a day when armour was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the <strong>incessant battery of words<\/strong>, <strong>words<\/strong>, <strong>words<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; <strong>they are a prey to words in their emotions<\/strong> instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armoured tanks with rifles, are not scandalised when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed <strong>propaganda<\/strong> with a smattering of \u201csubjects\u201d; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotised by the arts of the spellbinder, we have the impudence to be astonished. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>We dole out lip-service to the <strong>importance of education <\/strong>\u2014 lip-service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school leaving-age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school-hours, till responsibility becomes a burden and a nightmare; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because <strong>we have lost the tools of learning<\/strong>, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it.<\/em><sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"8\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-8\">8<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-8\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"8\">Sayers, 9.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, that\u2019s eye opening. We\u2019ve lost the tools of learning. <strong>Can we get them back?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have lost the tools of learning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Dorothy Sayers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>The Lost Tools of Learning and The Trivium<\/h2>\n<p>Sayers believes we can: \u201cWhat, then, are we to do? We cannot go back to the Middle Ages. That is a cry to which we have become accustomed. We cannot go back \u2014 or can we?\u201d She then lays out the ways in which we can recover education through the <strong>trivium<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I am convinced.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Bortins is convinced, too. Leigh churned over every word in that speech more than twenty-five years ago. Like me, Leigh wasn\u2019t homeschooled, wasn\u2019t educated classically, and wasn\u2019t trained to be a teacher. Leigh and her husband were engineers with a young family and no plan to homeschool. Yet there was something about this speech that stirred her to take up the mantle and restore the tools of learning. The trivium: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric. This tool is just that, a tool. \u201cThe trivium is by its nature not learning, but a <strong>preparation for learning<\/strong>.\u201d<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote modern-footnotes-footnote--expands-on-desktop \" data-mfn=\"9\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-9\">9<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000302d0000000000000000_6284-9\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"9\">Sayers, 10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Taking on this mantle led Leigh to launch Classical Conversations. She, along with many others, developed a curriculum to model classical education. Her strenuous and painstaking efforts helped those like me follow the forgotten path that Dorothy Sayers had rediscovered and then paved for us. And like Dorothy Sayers\u2019s passion for Christ, Leigh\u2019s passion to share the gospel is evident in the mission of Classical Conversations: to know God and to make Him known.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The classical, Christian education movement is here.<\/strong> I am grateful to all those who journeyed before me. My family reaps the fruits of their labor. And I\u2019m grateful to be a part of the solution. Let\u2019s continue our journey together and take part in carrying the mantle. Let\u2019s press on and educate our children using the tools from the trivium.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border: 1px dashed #59637e; height: 1px; width: 75%; text-align: left; margin: auto; color: #59637e;\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read:<\/strong> \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/blog\/what-is-the-trivium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Is the Trivium?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Taking Up the Mantle: Take the Next Steps<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve found encouragement in this post and want to join me on the journey of the classical, Christian education movement, consider reading Dorothy Sayers\u2019s entire speech, <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversationsbooks.com\/products\/the-lost-tools-of-learning-pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe Lost Tools of Learning,\u201d<\/a> available as a free download here and on the Classical Conversations bookstore. If you&#8217;d prefer a physical copy, you can find the \u201cThe Lost Tools of Learning\u201d in the appendix of <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversationsbooks.com\/pages\/search-results-page?q=classical+christian+education+made+approachable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Classical Christian Education Made Approachable<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border: 1px dashed #59637e; height: 1px; width: 75%; text-align: left; margin: auto; color: #59637e;\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Download:<\/strong> \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/LostToolsOfLearning-DorothySayers.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">The Lost Tools of Learning<\/a>\u201d<br \/>\n<object data=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/LostToolsOfLearning-DorothySayers.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\"><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2010, before I\u2019d ever heard the name Dorothy Sayers, someone whom I had never met challenged me to homeschool my children using a classical education approach. Pause. Problem: I wasn\u2019t homeschooled. I wasn\u2019t educated classically. I wasn\u2019t trained to be a teacher. Even with my lack of training and skill set, she still invited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":6292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[465],"tags":[3136,3240,3137],"class_list":["post-6284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classical-christian-education","tag-april","tag-april-foster","tag-foster"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Lost Tools of Learning: From Dorothy Sayers to Leigh Bortins - Classical Conversations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is Dorothy Sayers? What did she contribute to classical education? 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