circumstance. . . . Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized. Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known. Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated. John Ayto wrote in the Dictionary of Word Origins (1990) that study of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was requisite preparation for study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). For the medieval student, the trivium was the curricular beginning of the acquisition of the seven liberal arts; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. The word trivial arose from the contrast between the simpler trivium and the more difficult quadrivium. See also Classical education movement Quadrivium The three Rs References Further reading McLuhan, Marshall (2006). The Classical Trivium: The Place of Thomas Nashe in the Learning of His Time. (McLuhan's 1942 doctoral dissertation.) Gingko Press. . Michell, John, Rachel Holley, Earl Fontainelle, Adina Arvatu, Andrew Aberdein, Octavia Wynne, and Gregory Beabout. "Trivium: The Classical Liberal Arts of Grammar, Logic, & Rhetoric. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. Print. Wooden Books". Robinson, Martin (2013). Trivium 21c: Preparing Young People for the Future with Lessons from the Past. London: Independent Thinking Press. . Sayers, Dorothy L. (1947). "The Lost Tools of Learning". Essay presented at Oxford University. Winterer, Caroline (2002). The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780–1910. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Cultural lists Philosophy of education History of education Alternative education Medieval European education Liberal arts education es:Artes liberales#Las siete artes: Trivium et Quadrivium he:בוגר אוניברסיטה#מקור השם pl:Siedem sztuk wyzwolonych#Trivium