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REVIEWS OF THE GREAT BOOKS ACADEMY
 A review by Mary Pride
Nursery - 12. The Great Books Academy, 1213 N. Piedmont Rd., Box 360,
Piedmont, OK 73078. (800) 521-4004. Inquiries: (405) 373-0600. Fax: (800) 515-5565 or (405) 373-0700. Web: www.greatbooksacademy.org.
As Classical Education becomes more and more popular among
homeschoolers, people keep asking, "Why isn't there a classical curriculum?" Great Books Academy, which launches in fall 2000, wants to be that
curriculum. Although it is designed to educate students in the 3,000-year-old Western tradition, the program is not antiquarian, or devoted only to the past, but goes right up to the
present day. In fact, six of the 60 Great Books volumes your high-school student will study consist solely of works written in the 20th Century.
Based on the three Paideia program methods expounded by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler (more on that in the
sidebar), GBA is a serious attempt to make the upper-class "prep" school style education of previous
centuries available to all - not to foster elitism, as the prep academies do, but to build those qualities
of incisive thinking, deep knowledge of our civilization, leadership for which schools such as Eton and
Harrow are famous. It does this via a combination of textbooks (mostly for the science and math
"labs"), "Good Books" for the younger children (worthy, time-tested readings that aren't as heavy-duty
as what we normally call the "classics"), Great Books, and "Socratic seminars."
Literature studied on the Nursery through Grade Eight level comes from the famous "1,000 Good
Books" list compiled by Dr. John Senior who taught the Great Books program at Kansas University in
the 1970s. Dr. Senior's contention was that, in order to understand the Great Books, a child first had
to read 1,000 "good" books. Here, "good" doesn't mean just "fun fluff to read" like the Hardy Boys,
"sentimental bosh" like so many Christian kiddy books, or "delving into sociopathic attitudes
dysfunction" like so many "realistic" modern books. A "good" book has to be good literature and
ethically worthy, introducing children to Great Ideas and preparing them to reject Bad Ideas, without cant or gush.
In grades 9-12, GBA literature consists of selections from the Great Books themselves, chosen by Dr.
Adler, Robert M. Hutchings of Yale, and a host of prominent experts in many fields. We're talking
about Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World" series that took eight years, millions of
dollars, and hundreds of people to develop during the 1940s and 50s. Within a few years of its
publication it was selling 40,000 sets a year, until the decline in study of the classics began in the
1960s. The 1990 set, revised under Dr. Adler as Editor-in-Chief for Britannica, in association with the
University of Chicago, is 517 works by 130 authors bound into 60 volumes. From this, the high-school student will study a core reading list.
You will not have to purchase the Britannica set, since most of the books in it can be found in other
editions at your library or bookstore. However, GBA is making the set available to its students for
$695, a notable savings off the regular retail price of $999. In addition, each GBA student gets free access to Britannica On-line.
Here's what the curriculum includes:
* Language Arts. Nursery level, A Beka Letters and Sounds. Preschool-3: Sing, Spell, Read &
Write. Grades 1-8: Shurley Grammar. Grades 1-3: English from the Roots Up. Grades 4-8: Vocabu-Lit.
* Foreign Language. Each student in grades 1-8 will be required to study at least one foreign
language. Latin and Greek are particularly encouraged, but any language other than English will fulfill
the requirement. Proficiency and fluency will be tested at the end of eighth grade; a satisfactory standard must be achieved before passing into the Great Books program in ninth grade. GBA will
make resources available for a number of languages, including Latin, Greek Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Russian. Latin's Not So Tough will be used for the first three grades, followed by The Latin Road
to English Grammar. For Greek, Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek will be used for grades 1-6. For Hebrew, the Learnables program will be used.
For other languages, the Power-glide courses will be used.
* Math. Nursery level, Learning Numbers with Button Bear. Preschool: Numbers and Skills with
Button Bear. Grades K-8: Developmental Math series. As new levels are added to the Developmental Math program (it presently includes 16 worktexts, covering counting through
pre-algebra), they will be incorporated in the program. Levels 12-22, Algebra and Geometry, should be
ready in fall 2000. Dr. Saad also plans to create a Calculus level. While waiting for these new
worktexts, GBA will use Jacobs' algebra and geometry texts, Mathematics: A Human Endeavor, and Anton's calculus text.
* Science. Grades 1-6, Harcourt Brace science textbooks. These are typical secular school texts.
Grades 7 and 8, the Glenco series (published by a division of Harcourt Brace). In grades 9-12, biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy will be studied. At press time, the texts had not been
selected.
* Philosophy will be studied starting in grades 1-6; critical thinking in grades 7-8. Touchpebbles, a
collection of moral tales and dilemmas, is used in the early grades. A unit on "How to Read a Difficult Book" is planned for the end of eighth grade.
* Music. Nursery, Classical Baby. Preschool, The Mozart Effect. Kindergarten, Color the Classics.
Grades 4-6, Strike Up the Orchestra! Grades 7-8, The Enjoyment of Music.
* Art will include mostly art appreciation, starting in nursery level. The following historical periods and
types of arts are studied at these grade levels: grade 2, Bible history; grade 3, Eqyptian; grade 4,
Grecian; grade 5, Roman; grade 6, medieval. The History of Art by Janson will be studied in grades 7 8.
* History Geography studies will correlate with the art studies, as above, with Modern American
history following medieval. Reading study selections will include, among others resources, portions from the complete back issues of National Geographic, now available on CD-ROM. These are being
screened carefully to avoid any objectionable content.
* Religion. GBA respects the right of parents to select the religion and the means of instruction in it.
In keeping with their Western Civilization emphasis, they point out that "nearly every sage who writes
on the subject notes that no education is complete without the study of God and one's relationship to God." The Bible is one of the Great Books studied.
Comprehensive tests will be available, in addition to the regular course tests, at the fourth, eighth, and
twelfth grade level. These will be essay tests and oral (via the Internet) tests, not true/false or multiple choice like most standardized tests.
One sample schedule they suggest is:
* Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: language arts, foreign language, science, math.
* Wednesday: history, geography, philosophy, art, music, units, (from third grade on) Socratic Discussion Group.
Religion can be scheduled with either grouping.
The lesson plans I saw were minimalist. Each textbook or workbook is introduced via an overview of
its content and presentation. Then you get either assignments broken down by week and day, or a
general plan for attacking the material. E.g., for English from the Roots Up, "There are 50 words to
cover in 36 weeks. Combine two root words during some classes in order to teach all 50 words." Don't look for extensive teaching tips or background information.
To make up for the lack of in-depth help in the lesson plans, tutors will be available for personal
tutoring, educational counseling, and grading. The academy will help with recordkeeping, transcripts,
and diplomas. GBA will also communicate with students and their families via newsletter email.
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Mary Pride
Editor of
Practical Homeschooling
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In another year or so, Socratic seminars discussing the classics will be
conducted weekly over the Internet using the latest multi-conferencing technology, and in person periodically in major cities. In the meantime,
Socratic discussion groups will be available through live audio online, bi-weekly for grades 3-8 and weekly for grades 9 and up,
"moderator-controlled access", in which only one person may speak at a time.
GBA is concerned that the student retain and understand information,
rather than passively listening to lectures and cramming for tests. Thus, their Socratic "questioning" rather than "answering" approach. Thus
also, outlining of readings will be a major part of their program. This requires analysis and judgment of the work, and will be required in
progressively greater depth as the grade levels increase. Dr. Redpath, the developer of their Philosophy for Children program, is perhaps the nation's foremost expert on this subject.
Upon completion of the 12th grade level, a high-school diploma will be awarded. At that point, further
options will include taking the Advanced Placement exams in areas covered in depth by the curriculum (e.g., English Literature and Composition, Calculus, sciences). GBA plans to "incorporate
an orientation" toward the A.P. exams from the beginning, so their grads can avoid remedial and repetitive courses in college.
GBA would like to award a B.A. degree, via its Great Books University College, to those who do well
enough in its high-school program. This fits in with Dr. Adler's long-time advocacy of pushing the B.A. program back to the secondary (high school) level where it was in the Middle Ages and Renaissance,
when it indicated successful completion of the liberal arts portions of the trivium, quadrivium, and some humanities. Further specialization would then be pursued via college or graduate degree.
The GBA curriculum was still in its final developmental phase as I wrote this, so I can't give a definitive
verdict or our famous PHS "heart rating", since such verdicts and ratings are normally based on having
seen each and every lesson plan and having attended online chats, etc. What I can tell you is that the GBA approach has a lot of potential. For the most part, the products from other publishers that
they have chosen to use are streamlined and easy to use for home education. The science curriculum is unexciting but thorough. The literature reading list is way beyond what any other
program offers, with the exception of the Sonlight curriculum, which has an entirely different emphasis (multicultural v. GBA's Western Civilization focus). The addition of real-time Socratic discussion
groups enables GBA to fold in the best of what online courses have to offer, to what is otherwise a
heavily reading-based curriculum. Their standards are high, and their future plans are ambitious. If
you're sold on the "great books" approach, this might be what you have been waiting for.
A review of the GBA from The School of Abraham
 School of Abraham recommends The Great Books Academy. The School
of Abraham officially recommends The Great Books Academy at www.greatbooksacademy.org. A Homeschool Program, which provides traditional classical education for homeschooling students ages preschool
through adult. The Great Books Academy mentors students by using Socratic teaching methods over the internet with live audio, and follows a
classical curriculum based on the "good books" and the "Great Books". Their homeschool program is uniquely flexible, allowing the student to tailor
their studies and choose curriculum materials. They incorporate a required reading program from the elementary years. During the high school years, the student will study Encyclopedia Britannica's The Great Books of Western Civilization, leading
upon qualifying oral exams and other required testing to an accredited bachelor's degree upon graduation from their high school program. The model for this educational paradigm is based on the
work of the scholar Mortimer Adler (see the "Great Conversation"). The Center for the Study of The
Great Ideas and St. John's College at www.sjca.edu. To read all the details, call 800-521-4004 and
ask for their free magazine, visit their website or write the Director for more information. A student need not enroll in the Great Books Academy to participate in the School of Abraham. The Great
Books Academy is accredited with the National Institute of Liberal Education (NILE) as a complete
liberal arts homeschool program, nursery - 12th grade. Copyright © 2001 School of Abraham. All rights reserved.
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