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.

Summer 2026 Course Offerings

The courses below are available for the Summer 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
Memory, Meaning, and the Necessity of Books in Fahrenheit 451	This course proposes to read together two texts perhaps not likely to find cause for pairing on the basis of a glancing or cursory consideration: Dorothy Sayers’ The Lost Tools of Learning and Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. And yet, upon further deliberation, the case for reading the texts together becomes pressing. Though the literary genre varies Sayers writing in essay form in 1947, while Bradbury expresses his concerns dramatically through fiction in 1953, both authors express their alarm at the decline in true learning under the regime of “modern education.” Sayers’ Lost Tools treatise seeks to remind us of what we have lost in the throes of what she calls “modern educational methods,” and what we might gain through a recovery of the education children were more likely to receive in the Middle Ages, the education revived today as “classical education.” Ray Bradbury’s novel – a parable for our times – prophetically describes what occurs when a society ceases to read of its own volition. The powers of society, both social and political, seize control of the chronicles of human knowledge and history when the people relinquish the willingness and ability to think through the ideas and arguments for themselves. This course consists of a series of readings along with regularly scheduled seminars held on Zoom. All materials and important links can be found on this course homepage. While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.	6/1, 6/3, 6/8, and 6/10 from 10:00-11:00 AM (AZ time)	Dr. Carol McNamara	Click Here to Register!
Overview of the History of Art: Renaissance to the Modern Day	In this course, participants will look at great works of art from the Western Cannon of Art History. Each session will focus on a particular century and cover trends and artistic styles that emerged across that century. The participants will engage in discussion surrounding the works and learn about the artworks, artists, and periods of history. If you love appreciating art and spending time looking at great paintings, this course is for you. There is no homework and there are no assignments outside of the virtual sessions. This course consists of regularly scheduled seminars held on Zoom. All materials and important links can be found on this course homepage. While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.	6/2, 6/9, 6/16, and 6/23 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (AZ time)	Brighton Demerest-Smith	Click Here to Register!
America’s Spiritual Founding	One hundred years ago this summer, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States gave a landmark address on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He said, “The Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions…[which] have their source and their roots in the religious convictions” of the American people. In this course we will explore those roots by studying President Coolidge’s speech and the writings of several prominent leaders he mentions, including Thomas Hooker, Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield, who Coolidge believes set the spiritual foundation for our nation. By examining the writings of these men, we will understand three important spiritual principles that have important political implications: 1) the importance of individual sovereignty, 2) the doctrine of equality and 3) the proper definition and use of liberty. President Coolidge argues that belief in these spiritual principles is necessary if we want to continue to enjoy our political freedom and economic prosperity and warns that “[w]e cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.” Join us in celebrating our nation’s 250th anniversary and discover how we can maintain our nation for another 250 years! This course consists of a series of readings along with regularly scheduled seminars held on Zoom. All materials and important links can be found on this course homepage. While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.	6/15/26, 6/17/26, 6/19/26, 6/22/26, 6/24/26, and 6/26/26 from 9:30-11:00 AM (AZ time)	Ross Garner	Click Here to Register!

Course Title

Description

Schedule

Facilitator

Registration

Memory, Meaning, and the Necessity of Books in Fahrenheit 451

This course proposes to read together two texts perhaps not likely to find cause for pairing on the basis of a glancing or cursory consideration: Dorothy Sayers’ The Lost Tools of Learning and Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. And yet, upon further deliberation, the case for reading the texts together becomes pressing. Though the literary genre varies Sayers writing in essay form in 1947, while Bradbury expresses his concerns dramatically through fiction in 1953, both authors express their alarm at the decline in true learning under the regime of “modern education.”

Sayers’ Lost Tools treatise seeks to remind us of what we have lost in the throes of what she calls “modern educational methods,” and what we might gain through a recovery of the education children were more likely to receive in the Middle Ages, the education revived today as “classical education.” Ray Bradbury’s novel – a parable for our times – prophetically describes what occurs when a society ceases to read of its own volition. The powers of society, both social and political, seize control of the chronicles of human knowledge and history when the people relinquish the willingness and ability to think through the ideas and arguments for themselves.

This course consists of a series of readings along with regularly scheduled seminars held on Zoom. All materials and important links can be found on this course homepage. While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.

6/1, 6/3, 6/8, and 6/10 from 10:00-11:00 AM (AZ time)

Dr. Carol McNamara

Click Here to Register!

Overview of the History of Art: Renaissance to the Modern Day

In this course, participants will look at great works of art from the Western Cannon of Art History. Each session will focus on a particular century and cover trends and artistic styles that emerged across that century. The participants will engage in discussion surrounding the works and learn about the artworks, artists, and periods of history. If you love appreciating art and spending time looking at great paintings, this course is for you. There is no homework and there are no assignments outside of the virtual sessions.

This course consists of regularly scheduled seminars held on Zoom. All materials and important links can be found on this course homepage. While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.

6/2, 6/9, 6/16, and 6/23 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (AZ time)

Brighton Demerest-Smith

Click Here to Register!

America’s Spiritual Founding

One hundred years ago this summer, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States gave a landmark address on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He said, “The Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions…[which] have their source and their roots in the religious convictions” of the American people. In this course we will explore those roots by studying President Coolidge’s speech and the writings of several prominent leaders he mentions, including Thomas Hooker, Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield, who Coolidge believes set the spiritual foundation for our nation.

By examining the writings of these men, we will understand three important spiritual principles that have important political implications: 1) the importance of individual sovereignty, 2) the doctrine of equality and 3) the proper definition and use of liberty. President Coolidge argues that belief in these spiritual principles is necessary if we want to continue to enjoy our political freedom and economic prosperity and warns that “[w]e cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.” Join us in celebrating our nation’s 250th anniversary and discover how we can maintain our nation for another 250 years!

6/15/26, 6/17/26, 6/19/26, 6/22/26, 6/24/26, and 6/26/26 from 9:30-11:00 AM (AZ time)

Ross Garner

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.

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	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	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	Click Here to Register!

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

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

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

Click Here to Register!