Literature, Composition, and Rhetoric

At Northfield, the study of great literature is not confined to one classroom; it permeates every subject, and is one of the cornerstones of a Northfield education. In our literature classes, we dwell in books, linger over words, sentences, ideas, characters. From Sophocles to Dante, Shakespeare to Yeats, the finest prose and poetry of the ages not only show us how to live, but live on in us as friends and mentors to whom we may always turn for comfort, wisdom, understanding, and joy.

Writing and reading are inextricably intertwined. A good writer is a good reader. We teach composition from Grammar School I through the graduate year, progressing through the stages of the trivium. In grammar, students learn the tools with which they can give form to ideas found in every discipline. Logic provides a way to integrate the rules of grammar in the exploration of questions. Rhetoric exhibits a maturity to use grammar and logic persuasively to form a defense of truth.

Adela Garton

Mrs. Garton teaches Grammar, Grammar School I Literature and Composition, Grammar School II Literature and Composition, and Grammar School III Literature and Composition.

“All knowledge falls into one of two divisions: the knowledge of truths and the knowledge of words; if the former (truths) is first in importance, the latter (words) is acquired first in time.”
            —Erasmus