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THE GREAT BOOKS ACADEMY
Introduction
"The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history
and that continues to the present day. Whatever the merits of other civilizations in other respects, no
civilization is like that of the West in this respect. No other civilization can claim that its defining
characteristic is a dialogue of this sort. No dialogue in any other civilization can compare with that of the West in the number of great works of the mind that have contributed to this dialogue."
- Robert M. Hutchins
 The Great Books Academy (GBA) is a homeschool and charter school
organization dedicated to liberal education based on the classic great books of Western Civilization. Liberal education, based on the Liberal Arts, takes its
name from the Latin word "liber", meaning free. This dedication to liberal education is borne of the understanding that it is liberal education, traditionally
understood, that leads men to freedom and happiness. Hand in hand with this understanding of liberal education is the acknowledgement that freedom and
happiness do not mean license and pleasure. Rather, freedom and happiness are found in the life of virtue. The GBA has been inspired by the educational
initiatives of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler, who sees in classical liberal education not only the means necessary to imbue students with the skills to become excellent life-long learners, but
also the means to be fully engaged citizens, exercising civic duties from a principled understanding of the issues which confront them daily. These too are all qualities shared by free and happy men.
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Meet the Chairman of the GBA:
Max Weismann (left), life-long friend and colleague of Mortimer J. Adler
(right), with whom he co-founded the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas in Chicago of which he is Director and President, has dedicated his time and talents
to promoting the philosophical and pedagogical ideas of Dr. Adler. Besides recently editing Dr. Adler's most recent book: How To Think About the Great Ideas, Max
serves as Chairman of the Great Books Academy.
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We owe a great debt to Dr. Adler for devoting most of his life to developing, editing, promoting, sustaining and
perfecting the Great Books educational reform movement. He has done this from 1921 to the present day. Several of our directors were present at a Socratic Discussion seminar presided over by Dr. Adler as
recently as May, 2000. Besides editing the 60 volume Britannica Great Books set (last revised by Dr. Adler in 1990), he has published over 50 books on philosophy and education, including the Great Ideas, which are
those ideas contained within the Great Books that make them worth reading and rereading (for example, beauty, truth, goodness). Our Chairman, Max
Weismann, co-founded (with Dr. Adler) the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas, in Chicago, which is still promoting this study.
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Meet the President of the GBA:
Patrick S.J. Carmack, B.B.A.,
J.D.; after earning his Juris Doctorate, completed numerous additional courses in psychology and philosophy. A former Administrative Law Judge at the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission, member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and President of an independent petroleum company for many years, Pat lives with his wife Elisabeth
and their four homeschooled children in Piedmont, OK.
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In addition to the great debt owed to Dr. Adler, the GBA unabashedly credits St. John's College
(Annapolis, MD and Sante Fe, NM) and the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program (no longer extant) at Kansas University as the models upon which its curriculum is based. Working from these models,
the GBA maintains that a genuine liberal education requires a study of the greatest books in the Western tradition, ordered not only in its method, but also toward realizing human happiness and
wisdom. These books are the discussion throughout the history of Western Civilization regarding all the aspects of men's souls, science, and experiences. This discussion has taken place within the
written works of writers such as Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, Galileo and Newton. Based on statements and responses, proposals and contradictions, these works are an ordered
discussion which spans three millennia. They examine man's relation to himself, his community, his world, and his Creator. To take the time to listen to this discussion by reading these great works, one
cannot help but be led to greater appreciation, greater wonder, and greater understanding of what it means to be human.
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Plato and Aristotle, School of Athens |
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The great books which have formed men, communities, and even nations, have done so in different forms. Whether that form is the
philosophy of Aristotle, the poetry of Shakespeare, or the politics of Rousseau, readers are continually challenged to grasp, evaluate, and judge works of great depth and complexity. Yes,
these works are often hard to read. Yet, just as a blade is sharpened on a hard stone, so too are intellects sharpened on hard books. The result is the ability to cut through the noise and
confusion found in the world, and see in its place order and understanding. However, if one only reads these works, one is participating in a one-sided conversation.
Calling the body of work known as the great books a "conversation" is obviously not entirely metaphorical. There is indeed a written conversation within these books. Yet, it is the
very real verbal conversation regarding these works, that takes place between students today, that advances the knowledge and understanding of our students, our community, and our culture.
As with most lofty and profound matters, the Great Ideas are understood best in discussions and disputations. It was Professor John Erskine who initiated the
Socratic (questioning) discussion group manner of delving into the contents of the great books discussing a given text, usually read beforehand, among 15 to 25 students in round-table seminar
format with a moderator, rather than listening to lectures. The participants profited enormously from this approach (made famous by Socrates and Plato), and thus in this country was reborn the Socratic
method of learning. Likewise, St. John's College conducts discussion groups as the means for teaching. The GBA follows these leads with its own optional discussion groups, being the first
homeschool organization to do so, using the Internet and other means.
The Curriculum
There are three basic learning methods or activities: memorizing, being coached, and discussing. At
the GBA, all three activities are employed at some point, with overlapping methods through the years.
At first, students memorize basic rules and concepts such as those relating to grammar, spelling, and
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Fun and Games in Education
"One of the
reasons why the education given by our schools is so frothy and vapid is that the American people generally - the parent even more than the teacher - want
childhood to be unspoiled by pain . . .childhood must be filled with as much play and as little work as possible. What cannot be accomplished educationally through
elaborate schemes devised to make learning an exciting game must, of necessity, be forgone. Heaven forbid that learning should ever take on the character of a
serious occupation . . . The kindergarten spirit of playing at education pervades our colleges . . .they have turned the whole nation . . . so far as education is
concerned - into a kindergarten. It must be fun. It must be entertaining.
We must honestly announce that pain and work are the irremovable and irreducible accomplishments of genuine learning . . .Unless we acknowledge that every invitation to learning can promise pleasure only as a result of pain, can offer achievement only at the expense of work, all of our invitations to learning, in school and out, whether by books, lectures, or radio and television programs will be as much buncombe as the worst patent medicine advertising, or the campaign pledge to put two chickens in every pot . . .shams and delusions."
- Dr. Mortimer J. Adler, Invitation to the Pain of Learning
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arithmetic. It is coaching that helps a student to learn skills such as how to read, write, and draw.
Coaching is best done one-on-one, so naturally, homeschooling is best for this. The GBA will augment its text-based homeschool curriculum by offering optional, weekly or bi-weekly, Socratic
seminar discussion groups over the Internet (with live-audio), alternating these with bulletin board
posted questions and chat-room discussions. These discussion groups begin at the 3rd grade level,
but are largely preparatory until the high school program. As advances in Internet video technology allow, the entire high school program will eventually become exclusively based upon the great books.
Future optional seminars will be conducted via full-motion-video Internet conferencing, moderated by a GBA tutor, and including the participation of homeschool students from around the world.
It bears stressing at this point that the aim of the optional discussion group is not to prepare students
for tests (though they will indeed be prepared), but rather, to produce liberally educated individuals in
order that they may live free and happy lives. This naturally follows when individuals increase their
understanding of themselves, their world, the characteristics of the intellect, the nature of virtue, and
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May Adults Enroll?
A number of adults have
made this inquiry already. Our answer is: yes.
As Dr. Adler has written: "What is the ultimate goal toward which every part of schooling, or education, is directed? It is wisdom. But how long does it take to become wise? The answer is: a lifetime. Hence if wisdom is the ultimate goal of the whole process of learning, then the process must go on for a lifetime...the decline in the mental abilities of adults is functional; it results from disuse and not from organic degeneration." We also plan to establish adult Socratic groups following the great books four year reading plan, leading to the B.A. degree tests. Please contact us for details, 800-521-4004.
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the methods and benefits of life-long learning. The principle aim of the GBA program as a whole is to
provide society with increasing numbers of such individuals so as to ensure a solid foundation for a free and civilized society. This is because even the most wise and educated man must have a
civilized society in which to be happy and free.
While we may find teachers in the classroom, or in the great books, the final responsibility and
authority for the day to day education of children lies with their parents. The GBA recognizes this as a
fact of nature. This is true whether the student is studying from a text book at home, or participating
in a great books seminar at home or online. In the latter case, the online tutors are themselves still
learning. To think otherwise would be to betray the aim of becoming a life-long learner. Also, for a
tutor to proclaim that his own particular response to a particularly difficult question was the correct answer, and then to foist his "answer" upon the students of the group, would be to betray the
discussion mode itself. That is to say, a tutor forcing an answer would undermine the fundamental attempt to get students to grapple with the issue themselves in order to formulate their own
conclusions, and thus hone their own intellectual skills. The discussion tutors are moderators and
guides, not sources of "correct answers" to the great questions over which even the greatest minds in
history have disagreed. The tutors are themselves simply students with a bit more experience. The faculty are the authors of the great books.
The GBA seeks to help facilitate the on-going "Homeschool Renaissance" by grounding it in the liberal
arts. Before one can run, one must learn to walk. So we have developed a rigorous liberal arts (that is,
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Cindy Guthrie
joined the staff of the Great Books Academy from the staff of the University of Central Oklahoma. She has worked in two college administrations, in Kansas and Oklahoma. Cindy is the Chief Operating Officer for the Academy and the proud mother of three. Cindy and her husband, Dwayne, and family live in Piedmont
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the learning arts) program, selected without regard to cost, but rather for
excellence of materials, organization, and pedagogy. This curriculum represents the collective effort of experts from around the world, over
many decades, to produce the finest texts possible. This is the great advantage of using an eclectic approach to textbook selection, as opposed to attempting to produce our own. Having reviewed and
collected these, we have added GBA Lesson Plans to assist parents and students in organizing their studies.
Quarterly tests will also be provided for enrolled students up to the 9th
grade level, followed by quarterly or semester exams in the high school program. At completion of the elementary grades (nursery - 8th grade),
students will be ready to tackle the best - the great books. The high school great books readings are arranged predominately on a chronological basis, beginning with the ancient Greeks, then the ancient
Romans, Medievals, and Moderns. All of us are faced with numerous modern errors on a regular basis. It is therefore critical that our students
grapple with modern errors and be equipped to compare and contrast them with classical wisdom. The alternative is to cast them unarmed into
the fray. Apart from the weekly book reports, the high school students will be required twice a year to write an essay on one of the works read during the current semester.
Enrollment and Services
Enrollment in the GBA is a simple procedure, and may be done by phone, fax, e-mail, or on the GBA
website. The present annual fees are as follows:
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Preschool or
Kindergarten
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OPTIONAL ONLINE SOCRATIC DISCUSSION GROUPS
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$195
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$195
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$195
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9th, 10th, 11th
or 12th Grade
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Besides offering a greater number of courses for students, enrollment in the GBA provides parents
and students with a number of valuable services that are difficult (if not impossible) to find elsewhere.
- Free Membership in Britannica Online
- Lesson Plans - enrolled students who purchase their books from The Great Books Store will
receive the corresponding lesson plans at no additional cost.
- Telephone Counseling - access to a GBA staff member regarding questions on texts,
testing, seminar procedures, or any other GBA-related questions.
- Quarterly Tests - 1st through 8th grade; Semester Tests - 9th through 12th grade; Great
Books reports (weekly 9th-12th).
- Periodic Comprehensive Testing - every 2-4 years by the GBA.
- Test and Essay Grading Services
- Annual Report Cards - or on request.
- Certificate of Completion - for each grade level.
- High School Diploma - for 12th graders upon successful completion of comprehensive tests.
- Transcript Service - small fee for more than one per annum.
- Optional Discussion Seminars
- 3rd through 12th grade; to be held on the Internet using live-audio discussion groups, typed chat rooms, and bulletin board Questions and Answer assignments.
- Great Books University College Tests - for Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree; a modest fee will
apply.
With the exceptions of the Great Books University College test and the optional online seminars, all
these services are provided with enrollment, at no additional cost.
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