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What is The Well-Trained Mind, The Essential Edition?

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The final edition of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home - The Essential Edition has been published!

Since the first edition of TWTM came out in 1999, the book and its subsequent revisions (the current edition is the fourth!) have been tied, in format, to that very first edition--meaning that all of the recommended resources (titles, ISBNs, prices, availability, format) have all been printed in the book.

This is silly, and came about before people actually used the Internet (believe it or not, I remember those days.). Resources are always mutating. They go out of print. Their prices change. They get edited (sometimes out of recognition). Innovative new ones come along. And meanwhile, the core of TWTM – how to teach classically – remains essentially the same. 

So my wonderful publisher, W. W. Norton, has given Well-Trained Mind Press permission to establish an online database (easily searchable, clear to navigate) with all of the specific resources we've researched, evaluated, and decided to recommend. This is hosted at welltrainedmind.com – along with information that changes rapidly (such as college application details). That way we can keep all of the recommendations up to date. 

The Essential Edition of The Well-Trained Mind contains all of the teaching strategies and plans – not the specific curricula recommendations. The strategies and plans won't need to be updated! (At least not every five years). You can just use the Essential Edition and pick your own resources. You can ignore the Essential Edition and just subscribe to the database for our recommendations. OR you can use both. It's completely up to you. 

I'm sure there will be a lot of questions about this, and I'll provide as many answers as possible, but here are a few FAQs and my (Susan's) responses to start with.

 

If I own the latest edition of TWTM, do I need the Essential Edition?

Nope, not really. If you'd like to keep up with our ongoing curricula recommendations, you should probably subscribe the the database. But the teaching strategies and overall plan in the Essential Edition are not significantly different than those in the fourth edition of TWTM (although the college prep recommendations are outdated, and have been moved online). 
 

If I own previous editions of TWTM, do I need the Essential Edition?

That's a little trickier. Because we were privileged to hear from so many parents who'd followed the Well-Trained Mind all the way through high school, we did make some significant changes in the fourth edition (primarily having to do with STEM subjects) from earlier editions. But the core strategies? Those are unchanged. Maybe check out the Essential Edition at your library before you decide.
 
What edition should I recommend to my new homeschooling friends?
Definitely the Essential Edition, with the suggestion that they subscribe to the curricula database for specific recommendations of particular titles, as needed.
 
What is the subscription fee?
$12.99 per year.  
 

 

 

 

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