"Whenever truth comes to man by way of beauty, it necessarily transforms his character and ennobles his behavior."
David Hicks, Norms & Nobility
Explore the Foundations of Classical Education with a Dynamic Online Community
A one-year program, the CiRCE Atrium program explores the foundations of Christian classical education with online classes and discussions. The Atrium now features four courses. Participants can choose any one course or sign up for multiple courses! Courses include Show Me the Glory with Andrew Kern, How to think like a Medieval with Heidi White, The Great Ideas with Jonathan Councell, and Norms & Nobility with Tonya Rozelle.
Through exclusive live webinars (two each month) and an online discussion forum, the Atrium offers a forum for contemplation and collaboration: a place to linger (and take pleasure) in the depths of the Christian classical tradition alongside like-minded fellow educators. We provide the digital platform; you bring the desire for wisdom and virtue. Together we make the community.
The Atrium is now Open!
Show Me the Glory with Andrew Kern
Begins TBD
The purpose of walking this path is to Glorify Christ the Logos by equipping teachers to embody Logos-centered teaching in the home, classroom, or any other education setting.
From this course, teachers will be able to approach teaching with a high sense of purpose, learn how to build “lessons” that follow Christian classical principles, enjoy watching your students flourish in unpredictable ways, fall in love with teaching again, discover peace of mind even when you teach, and fellowship with like-minded teachers and parents in our online and offline conversations.
Show Me the Glory:Transcendent Teaching in the Christian Classical Tradition (even when you’re teaching Rudiments and Foundations)
1. Course Description (What we will do)
The purpose of walking this path is to Glorify Christ the Logos by equipping teachers to embody Logos-centered teaching in the home, classroom, or any other education setting.
From this course, teachers will be able to approach teaching with a high sense of purpose, learn how to build “lessons” that follow Christian classical principles, enjoy watching your students flourish in unpredictable ways, fall in love with teaching again, discover peace of mind even when you teach, and fellowship with like-minded teachers and parents in our online and offline conversations.
2. Course Procedure (How we will do it)
- Online -- Bi-monthly Zoom sessions that include presentations and discussions about the glory, nature, forms, principles, elements, and practice of Christ-centered teaching
- Offline -- Canvas discussions about Zoom session content, readings, practices, and exercises
3. Who should take this course
- School teachers for any age level
- Home school parents
- Laundry washers
- Lesson planners
- Education-decision-makers
- Diaper changers
- Pastors
4. What is required
- Books and readings
- Andrew Kern's newest book, coming out soon
- Articles and handouts provided during the school year
- Literature -- TBDetermined
- Bible
- Gospel of John
- Selected parables and Bible stories
- Pentateuch
- Video recordings from previous courses will be included as needed
5. The Instructor
Andrew Kern is the founder and president of the CiRCE Institute (Center for Independent Research on Classical Education), the husband of Karen, the father of five grown adults, and the grandfather of (so far) ten grandchildren.
He has been researching, speaking, teaching, and training teachers in the Christian classical renewal since 1993, during which he has been instrumental in the founding of three schools, consulted with well over 100 schools and co-ops, and served as Director of Classical Instruction, Academic Dean, and Headmaster. Andrew speaks regularly at home school and classical conferences.
In addition, he is the co-author with Dr. Gene Edward Veith of Classical Education, The Movement Sweeping America and, with Andrea Lipinski, of The CiRCE Guide to Reading. He also led the development of CiRCE’s classical rhetoric program, The Lost Tools of Writing, and he loves Homer, Shakespeare, Anne of Green Gables, and Endeavour. Like Shakespeare, he knows a little Latin and less Greek. Except a lot less than Shakespeare.
Andrew and Karen have settled in Concord, North Carolina where they attend Christ The Good Shepherd Orthodox Mission and watch their five grown children raise their children and pursue their callings.
6. Dates and Times
From late August through May, we will meet two Tuesday nights each month. Those weeks are being identified and will be released here shortly.
7. COST
$477
How to Think Like a Medieval with Heidi White
Begins September 3
In this course, Heidi White will immerse you in the medieval mind on its own terms, walking you through essential touchstones of medieval thought from cosmology to the Holy Grail. Using C.S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy as a literary guide, we will enter the sacramental mind of the Middle Ages through the eyes of Lewis’ Dr. Ransom, a fictional modern scholar forced to reckon with a world beyond his understanding. From beginners to enthusiasts, this course is for everyone who has ever been curious about the Middle Ages… Whether you join us for personal or professional development, this course will lay a foundation for a rich understanding of medieval thought that will bear fruit in the classroom and beyond.
How to Think Like a Medieval
1. Course Description:
From video games to HBO, modern culture continues to be fascinated by the lifestyle of the Middle Ages, but contemporary portrayals fall far short of the vast medieval vision of reality. Contrary to modern perceptions, the Middle Ages were a time of flourishing thought and culture, much of which is largely forgotten or misunderstood today. In this course, Heidi White will immerse you in the medieval mind on its own terms, walking you through essential touchstones of medieval thought from cosmology to the Holy Grail. Using C.S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy as a literary guide, we will enter the sacramental mind of the Middle Ages through the eyes of Lewis’ Dr. Ransom, a fictional modern scholar forced to reckon with a world beyond his understanding. From beginners to enthusiasts, this course is for everyone who has ever been curious about the Middle Ages. Throughout the year, Heidi will provide guidance and modeling of classical pedagogy, providing a practical and accessible roadmap for reading and teaching medieval texts with confidence and wonder. Whether you join us for personal or professional development, this course will lay a foundation for a rich understanding of medieval thought that will bear fruit in the classroom and beyond.
2. Course Procedure
This course teaches medieval thought through C.S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy, including:
- Direct instruction on literary, historical, theological, and philosophical elements of medieval thought.
- Interactive Socratic discussion on assigned reading and ideas.
- Guidance/modeling of classical pedagogy for teaching medieval history, philosophy, and literature at home and in the classroom.
In each class, Heidi will weave together lectures and discussions. Class participants will learn historical, literary, theological, and philosophical characteristics of medieval thought as they read and discuss the three novels of Lewis’ Ransom trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Along the way, Heidi will intentionally model and teach classical pedagogy through Socratic discussion, mimetic teaching, and direct instruction.
3. Who should take this course
This class is for
- Homeschoolers and classroom teachers who want to read and teach medieval humane letters classically.
- Classical education professionals and/or enthusiasts who are increasing their familiarity with medieval thought.
- Thoughtful readers who are interested in an immersive learning experience in a community of enthusiastic learners.
4. What is required
(1) Complete set of C.S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet,
Perelandra, That Hideous Strength (recommended version: Scribner Paperbacks for consistent pagination)
(2) Notebook and writing utensil
(3) Internet Access
Suggested Participation:
Complete biweekly assigned readings
Attend class live or access class recordings
5. The Instructor
Heidi White, M.A., is a teacher, podcaster, homeschooling mother, and author. She teaches Humanities at St. Hild School in Colorado Springs and is the author of The Divided Soul: On Duty and Desire in Literature and Life. She is a contributing author, speaker, consultant, and Atrium instructor at the Circe Institute and a weekly contributor on fiction, poetry, and Shakespeare on the Close Reads Podcast Network. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Anselm Society and the Academic Advisory Board for the Classical Learning Test. She writes fiction, poetry, and essays, and she speaks about literature, education, and the Christian imagination. She lives in Colorado with her husband and children.
6. Dates and Times
1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesdays
8:00 - 9:30pm EST
Launch Date: September 3, 2024
Final Date: May 6, 2025
7. Cost
$477
The Great Ideas with Jonathan Councell
Begins TBD
This unique atrium fittingly takes its format from the Socratic tradition and is designed with opportunities for participants to choose the texts they want to study while discussing six selected “great ideas;” nature, truth, man, good and evil, prudence, and temperance. This course is structured to embody and invite engagement with what the classical tradition means by the terms conversation, dialogue, and participation to clarify and enrich our capacity to learn liberally and to educate humanely. Join us as we enter the Great Conversation around the ideas that undergird communication and community through great books and conversation.
The Great Ideas
1. Course Description
A Conversational Journey Through the Great Ideas of Western Civilization
"But if [concerning the idea], as we were doing just now, we examine the question based on things we agree with each other about, we ourselves will be jurors and advocates at the same time” (Republic, I.348B).
In her book Paradoxes of Education in a Republic, Eva Braun argues that an enlightened Republic is best sustained and preserved by citizens properly educated in what she calls “inquiry.” David Hicks, Mortimer J. Adler, Benjamin Franklin, and Plato’s Socrates–to name of few–all promote this claim. A lively engagement with the great norming ideas found in classic texts is the substance of what it means to be liberally educated and civilized. The love of learning is not cultivated by becoming informed with what is traditionally known about books, authors, ideas, or historical periods; nor in becoming proficient in analytical or abstract modes of thinking; nor is it in being trained in skills that makes one useful. Rather, it is the very human co-creative act of reading the great works that have come into the present to join The Great Conversation that gives to each and all the joy and riches that Wisdom offers. This Atrium embodies and models some of how this tradition can be extended to permeate our homes, schools, and communities.
2. Course Procedure
CiRCE Master Teacher Jonathan Councell will model, guide, and facilitate a seminar that, through agreement and disagreement between these great works, will enable each participant to contribute to the discussion from voluntarily chosen readings. Participants will read two books for each idea from a list of great books selected for that great idea. By giving three sessions to each idea this Atrium demonstrates a way of creating and forming a community that has advanced its understanding of that idea as it exists between free minds and between great books.
We will spend three sessions with each idea and the works associated with them. The first session introduces the idea and establishes the limits of our existing knowledge and understanding surrounding it. The next two sessions observe the great conversation between the selected works about this idea. We do this in a normative and syntopical mode of educational inquiry into the great ideas of human civilization. The goals of this Atrium are to: increase understanding of the great ideas and their norming influence upon our actions and lives, grow in knowledge about deliberative education and its pedagogical practices, and participate in syntopical reading and dialectical discussion.
3. Who should take this course
Adults who want a liberal education.
Educators that want practical experience in dialectical discussion.
Individuals that are hungry for intellectual community and conversation.
Readers that want to try their hand at syntopical reading.
Those who wish for an educational experience more in line with the following educational programs:
The CiRCE Institutes Master Teacher Apprenticeship Program
The Aspen Conferences as Mortimer J. Adler described them in How to Speak and How to Listen
St. John’s College tutorial structure
University of Chicago’s Great Books Seminar and Program
The Humane Letters Tradition
Plato’s Academy
Jesus and his disciples
“The Teachers Seminar” as envisioned by David Hicks in Norms and Nobility
4. What is required
For this course you will select and read two works for each idea. The works recommended for each idea are listed below. After selecting these works you will submit your reading list to the Atrium leader and will then ensure that you have these works. As you will be reading on your own, any translation, edition, or format will be acceptable. Please note that some works are listed for more than one idea and some works are too long to be read in their entirety. Please contact the Atrium leader with any questions or suggestions.
The Idea of Nature
Lucretius’ The Nature of Things
Aristotle’s Categories or Prior Analytics
Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum
Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine
Newton’s Principles
Dante’s The Divine Comedy (choose one)
Melville’s Moby Dick
Darwin’s The Descent of Man
Hobbes’ Leviathan
Hegel’s Philosophy of History
Boswell’s Johnson
Genesis
The Idea of Truth
Aristotle’s Categories
Plotinus’ The Enneads
Hippocrates’ Ancient Medicine
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Plato’s Phaedrus
The Psalms or The Gospel According to St. John
Aquinas’ Summa Theologica (selections)
Spinoza’s Ethics
Hume’s Human Understanding
Kant’s Pure Reason
Chaucer’s Troilius and Cresida
Epictetus’ Discourses
The Idea of Man
Aristotle’s History of Animals
Augustine’s Confessions
Dante’s The Divine Comedy (choose one)
Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning
Chaucer’s The Canturbury Tales
Roussau’s Social Contract
Darwin’s Descent of Man
Genesis
Virgil’s The Aeneid
Homer’s The Odyssey
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
The Idea of Good and Evil
Augustine’s Confessions or City of God
Aquinas’ Summa Theologica (Selections)
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Lock’s Human Understanding
Plato’s Euthydemus
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
Montinesque’s Spirit of Laws
Wisdom of Solomon (Apocrypha)
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Aurelius’ Meditations
The Idea of Prudence
The Proverbs
Ecclesiasticus (Apocrypha)
Sophocles’ Antigone
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall
Virgil’s The Aeneid
Homer’s The Odyssey
Machiavelli’s The Prince
Plato’s Charmides, Protagoras, or Statesmen
Aristotle’s Ethics
Aquinas Summa Theologica
The Idea of Temperance
Aurelius’ Meditations
Mill’s Liberty
Marx Capital
Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
Job and Ecclesiastes
Euripedes’ Medea or Iphigena at Aulis
Herodetus’ History
Geothe Faust
Dante’s The Divine Comedy
Plato’s Republic
Chaucer’s Canturbury Tales
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Join us in the 2024-2025 Atrium year. Instead of bemoaning the decline of liberal education, we must all admit that what a culture promotes, provides, and transmits through its education is what is most in honor. We cannot honor what we do not have. This Atrium honors The Great Conversation by reading to dialogue about the Great Ideas that serve as the basis of human community. In an age of barbarians, these are the seeds of future civilization. They take a long time to grow and we must plant today.
5. Dates and Times
TBD
6. Cost
$477
Norms & Nobility with Tonya Rozelle
Begins August 27
In this Atrium course, CiRCE Online Instructor, CiRCE Workshop Leader, and Certified Master Teacher, Tonya Rozelle will lead us through David Hicks’ seminal work on classical education. We will engage in a close read of Norms & Nobility and discuss what it means for us as classical educators.
Norms & Nobility
1. Course Description
Our Focus--Dig into the Text
In this Atrium course, CiRCE Online Instructor, CiRCE Workshop Leader, and Certified Master Teacher, Tonya Rozelle will lead us through David Hicks’ seminal work on classical education. We will engage in a close read of Norms & Nobility and discuss what it means for us as classical educators.
“[T]he supreme task of education [is] the cultivation of the human spirit: to teach the young to know what is good, to serve it above self, to reproduce it, and to recognize that in knowledge lies this responsibility.” (Norms, p. 13)
Norms & Nobility is considered by many to be one of the foundational texts in the classical education renewal. Educator and author David Hicks states the question shaping today’s education system is, “What can be done?” when it should instead be, “What ought to be done?” But what specifically does this mean and how can we effectively teach in light of this?
Other such questions addressed by this book include:
* Does this impact the curriculum I use? If so, how?
* What “ideal type” should be our focus?
* Why do we even need an ideal type?
* What about science?
If you have not yet read this text, you should. If you have already read this text, you can attest to the fact one read is not enough. This profound work helps us better understand why pursuing a classical education is worth the effort, both for ourselves and for our students. It helps us identify and comprehend that ache in our souls, that burning need pushing us to do the hard work.
2. Course Procedure
The Format--Understanding then Applying
We will meet twice a month to discuss each chapter. The first time we meet on a specific chapter, we will focus on understanding what Hicks is saying to us. The second time will be geared toward the more practical aspects of the material, in other words, what it looks like in practice.
While examining Norms, students will also further their understanding of classical pedagogy. Instructor Tonya Rozelle will lead each session modeling both mimetic and Socratic instruction in order to facilitate robust discussions on this rich material.
3. Who should take this course
Whether you are a teacher in a traditional school setting or a homeschooling parent, if you are trying to lead your students in a classical education, this course is for you. If you just love this text and are always looking for others eager to discuss its finer points, this course is for you. If you are completely new to classical education, and are not really sure what it all means, this course is for you. If you want to better understand how to develop a classical curriculum, this course is for you. If you wish to better understand the benefits of classical education for all levels of society, this course is for you.
4. What is required
Norms and Nobility text
To participate in this course, you will need a copy of Norms & Nobility by David V. Hicks. There is a preface written for the 1990 edition that is excellent and worthy of much marginalia in its own right. Since we will dedicate time to this preface, I strongly suggest you purchase a copy that includes it. A new edition of this text is scheduled to release this August so pre-order now to ensure you have it in time.
5. The Instructor
Join Tonya in the 2024-2025 Atrium year, and together you learn why, "[t]he sublime premise of a classical education asserts that right thinking will lead to right, if not righteous, acting." (Norms, Preface, p. vi)
Tonya Rozelle has been classically educating herself and others for the past 20 years in numerous educational settings. She has a degree in English and graduated from CiRCE’s Certified Master Teacher Apprenticeship program in 2020. After spending most of her life in northern Virginia, where she homeschooled her two sons, Tonya and her husband now live in South Carolina, where she teaches in a private classical school. Tonya especially loves digging into connections between the liberal arts, studying history, and reading from an ever-growing booklist.
6. Dates and Times
The class will meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, beginning on August 27, from 5:00-6:30pm Eastern time.
7. Cost
$477
Participants can expect to grow in knowledge of classical education throughout the year, be inspired and energized by peer discussion and collaboration, and understand the fundamentals of Christian classical education.
* The Atrium works in partnership with the CiRCE Apprenticeship Program and thus is especially well-suited for those who are preparing to enter the Apprenticeship. Participants who complete one year in the Atrium are eligible to receive a $250 credit toward Apprenticeship tuition.
Common Questions
Tuition for the Atrium is $477 for the year. There are two ways to pay:
- One-time payment of $477.
- We offer a payment plan through FACTS. You will pay $75 upfront and we will reach out to you to set up the payment plan for the $477 tuition. Please note that the $75 application fee is non-refundable.
To see the books listed below and purchase, Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/shop/CiRCE). You are welcome to purchase books from your chosen book store as well.
Participants may pay via a single payment of $477 (our annual payment plan) or in ten monthly installments of $47.70 from the tenth of July through the tenth of April. Please note: All accounts must remain in good standing to be eligible for the Apprenticeship tuition credit. If joining the class in September, then the tuition can be divided across remaining months.
Andrew Kern‘s class will read various texts throughout his class such as his newest book (coming out soon) and the Bible. His class will meet on two Tuesday nights each month. Those weeks are being identified and will be released here shortly.
Heidi White’s class will read the complete set of C. S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength (recommended version Scribner Paperbacks for consistent pagination). Please also bring a notebook and writing utensil. The class will meet on the first, third, and fifth Tuesdays of every month, beginning on September 10, from 8:00-9:30pm Eastern time.
Jonathan Councell‘s class will read various texts throughout his class as found in his description. When his class will meet is currently TBD.
Tonya Rozelle’s class will read David Hicks’ educational treatise Norms and Nobility. The class will meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, beginning on August 27, from 5:00-6:30pm Eastern time.
In the Atrium all activities are online, travel is not necessary, the level of participation is determined by the participant, and there is no certification associated with the Atrium. In the Apprenticeship, in addition to online interaction, apprentices travel to retreats twice each year; Apprentices are required to complete various reading, writing, and teaching assignments and are formally evaluated each semester; and Apprentices who complete the 3-year course of study and associated requirements become CiRCE Certified Classical Teachers.
New Atrium communities begin in August and September. All webinars are recorded and available to participants. After September 30th, new applicants may apply to be part of the group for the following year.
All webinars will be recorded. Atrium participants will have access to recorded webinars to view at their leisure.
The application fee is non-refundable.
Participants who decide to withdraw from the Atrium will be refunded 100% of the tuition if they withdraw prior to August 1st. After August 1st no refunds are available.