Abstract
This article argues for classical education's trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—and its step-by-step building of knowledge as a heuristic for general education courses. Specifically, courses must intertwine the four rhetorical acts of reading, writing, speaking, and listening to achieve a trivium-based heuristic. Current curricula, however, have separated these four rhetorical acts—especially listening—from one another and have left their teaching to competing departments. All general education courses—regardless of department—should combine the rhetorical acts through this trivium-based heuristic to better prepare students for communicating and transferring knowledge. A reorientation toward listening and self-reflective practices as a theoretical basis in general education achieves this trivium-based heuristic and the goals of a liberal arts education.
