Our Courses
All ACT courses fit into one of two categories: live, virtual courses that meet via Zoom and are typically held during the summer and fully asynchronous courses that are available year-round through our partnership with ClassicalU. Scroll down to view information on both summer and year-round courses.
Spring 2026 Course Offerings
The courses below are available for the Spring 2026 season. Learners in these courses complete assigned readings and then meet virtually on Zoom to discuss the reading assignments in a seminar. Participants earn 10 CEUs that are applicable towards teaching recertification.
| Course Title | Description | Schedule | Facilitator | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chestertonian Education | “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” So writes G.K. Chesterton in the midst of rising political tensions in England, just a few years before The Great War. This simple, witty line from the early 20th century thinker succinctly encapsulates the heart of the man. As one biographer put it, his life was marked by a “defiant joy”.
Even his opponents could not help but be drawn in by his joviality. Cosmo Hamilton said, “To hear Chesterton’s howl of joy…to see him double himself up in an agony of laughter at my personal insults, to watch the effects of his sportsmanship on a shocked audience who were won to mirth by his intense and pea-hen-like quarks of joy was a sight and a sound for the gods…It was monstrous, gigantic, amazing, deadly, delicious. Nothing like it has ever been done before or will ever be seen, heard, and felt like it again.” In nearly every sense, Chesterton really was larger-than-life. In this course, participants will read one of G.K. Chesterton’s seminal works, Orthodoxy, along with selections of his essays. We will use these to explore many themes that occupied Chesterton’s thoughts, such as the human being, storytelling, paradox, tradition, wonder, and joy. His wit and wisdom have a timeless effect, for, as Chesterton himself wrote, “What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century.” And thus, a century later, we are left to ask ourselves: How might our schools—and our culture at large—recapture some of this Chestertonian ethos? |
1/15, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, and 2/19 from 5:00-6:30 MST | Wayne Kiehne | Click Here to Register! |
| Curdie Finds His Way | The Princess and Curdie is the sequel to the 4th grade text The Princess and the Goblin. Rich in beautiful imagery and symbolism, you’ll follow Curdie’s journey and personal growth as he re-encounters Princess Irene and her great-great-grandmother. While he works to save Princess Irene from danger, he is himself saved from being a “commonplace man.”
In this course, we will read The Princess and Curdie closely, appreciating MacDonald’s beautiful descriptions of the natural world and observing Curdie’s evolution as a human being who comes to know Truth. The goal of this course will not be how to teach the book, but rather what it can teach us as we mentor and guide the developing human beings in our care. |
2/10, 2/24, 3/24, and 4/7 from 5:30-6:00 (MST) | Bethany Hunter | Click Here to Register! |
| Journeys in Classical Geography | In this course, we will explore the nature and value of geography and ways to incorporate it in K-12 classical education. We will explore an ecslectic selection of readings and maps, and in each session, we will discuss key geographic concepts and specific ideas for activities and projects to use in the classroom.
We will start with Geographica by the Roman Strabo, who explores the scope and utility of geography and makes a case for who should be considered the “father of geography.” We will then turn to regional geography through Germania, in which the Roman Tacitus describes the culture and landscapes of his German neighbors to the north. Then we will discuss Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Explorer and explore cartography by looking at great maps, including maps that have changed history, and ways that maps can enhance classical learning. Finally, we will explore frontiers by following Alexis de Tocqueville on his 1831 journey in search of the frontier of American civilization. |
3/16, 3/30, 4/13, and 4/27 from 4:00-5:30 PM (AZ time) | Robert Thornett | Click Here to Register! |
| The Road Goes Ever On: Embracing Teaching as a Journey | In The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien invites us to join Frodo Baggins on a personal journey that will not only change the course of his life but also influence the lives of those around him as he explores the idea of Power and Responsibility. Ultimately, these first two books that make up The Fellowship of the Ring form a rich literary backdrop for an introductory exploration of cooperative and virtue-based leadership for educators of students.
Through key readings and reflective activities, teachers will examine their own calling towards education, marked by self-sacrifice, service, moral courage, humility, and strength found in the leading of self and of others. The course emphasizes the importance of pursuing a calling from conviction, faithfulness, and temperance, while addressing the real challenges of authority, failure, and solitary decision-making. In the end, teachers can expect to be able to articulate a personal teaching mission, learning to identify and leverage student strengths, and have faith in future filled with hope and not always seen. |
3/24, 3/31, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, and 4/28 from 4:30-6:00 PM (MST) | Tony Cruz | Click Here to Register! |
| A Journey with the Brontë Sisters | The Brontë sisters, Agnes, Charlotte, and Emily, each contributed significant works of literature to the Western canon, following Jane Austen’s influential works. In this course, we will go on a journey through some notable works of the three Brontë sisters through seminar. We will focus on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
This course is for Educators who love diving into literature and uncovering the truth, goodness, and beauty within those texts. |
3/30, 4/13, 4/27, and 5/11 from 6:00-8:00 (CST) | C. Suzanne Meledeo | Click Here to Register! |
Year-Round Course Offerings
The courses below are available all year long through our partnership with ClassicalU. These courses are self-paced and fully asynchronous. Participants earn CEUs that are applicable towards teaching recertification.
| Course Title | Description | Facilitator | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials of Drawing | In this course, Brighton Demerest-Smith (a classically trained artist and veteran educator with Great Hearts Academies) moves from how to teach the elements of drawing up through still life and master study. Grounded in fundamentals and close observation of subjects, his methods of teaching drawing are traditional and time-tested. | Brighton Demerest-Smith | Great Hearts Employees and Affiliates – Click here to register |
| Classical Theorems and Proofs: An Introduction to Elegant Mathematics | In this course, veteran mathematics teacher and leader Jake Tawney provides a clear and engaging introduction to the beauty of Mathematics. This course does not propose a specific curriculum. It does, however, present a list of “those things from mathematics you should have learned but probably didn’t.” In the opening lessons of the course you will hear that truth is effusive. Upon its discovery truth demands to be shared, and the mathematical proof is the medium through which mathematical truth is communicated. There are certainly no results in this course that Jake Tawney claims as his own, and many of the mathematical proofs are centuries old. These proofs represent, in a small way, some of the best that has been said within the discipline of mathematics. | Jake Tawney | Great Hearts Employees and Affiliates – Click here to register |
| The Teacher’s Playbook: Practical Pedagogy for Classical Educators | As Great Hearts has grown from one school of 140 students to 32 schools with over 20,000 students by 2021, Jerilyn has had the opportunity to capture the best practices of teachers across multiple contexts and share those practices with each new campus. Teachers are truly at the center of every school and teaching is the work of practical wisdom—it is neither a pure philosophical endeavor nor a utilitarian social science. Newer classical school teachers often find it difficult to visualize what good practice looks like in one’s own particular context. Such teachers often hear talk about the Great Tradition, truth beauty goodness, and Platonic ideas but aren’t sure what means in particular for planning tomorrow’s lesson on fractions.At the same time, practical teaching handbooks that are full of techniques and strategies aren’t easily harmonized with a classical pedagogy. How can we know how and when employ techniques from these sources?Using classical rhetorical ideas and real-life anecdotes, Jerilyn seeks to bring together the great philosophies of classical education with effective, practical methods that good teachers employ every day. In these sessions, Jerilyn lays out a vision for practice—a description of what good teaching might look like, and how teachers can organize their ideas around the framework of rhetoric. Along the way, she gives some advice for your ongoing journey in learning good pedagogy, practicing, and getting feedback. Toward the end, she also gives advice to leaders who seek to help guide and develop effective classical teachers. | Jerilyn Olson | Great Hearts Employees and Affiliates – Click here to register |
| The Trials of Socrates: Plato’s Dialogues | This course contains a series of lectures designed to complement the study of the selection of short Platonic dialogues which are required reading in the Great Hearts curriculum (namely the Meno, Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, and Crito). Each of these will receive a stand-alone commentary offering comprehensive readings of each dialogue. That is, close readings are provided, “front-to-back,” of each of the dialogues in turn treating them as self-contained wholes and highlighting features that are particularly fruitful for conversation in Humane Letters seminars. Each dialogue will be treated in segments, varying in length according to the section of the dialogue under consideration. The intention of the series as a whole is to offer intermediate students of Plato some food for thought and perhaps refresh the reading of the dialogues for those more advanced students by pointing out some key details that make for novel and provocative interpretations. The expectation is that auditors will have some significant familiarity with the dialogues I’ll be discussing, either from reading them on their own, or for a class, but ideally from having studied them in seminar with, or preferably as, students, or with colleagues. If you have not had the opportunity to read and discuss these dialogues, it is strongly recommended that you read and then re-read them carefully. | Michael Ivins | Click here to register |