The Apprenticeship
is our Heart.
For over 15 years the CiRCE Apprenticeship has been equipping teachers to understand the nature and principles of classical education, and showing how those principles can be brought back to any classroom.
“The CiRCE Apprenticeship has been a deeply formative experience . . . I have grown in my ability as a teacher and am learning how to truly love my students. The Apprenticeship is intense and challenging, but worth every moment. The fellowship of being in a group of people who share a common desire to love the true, good, and beautiful is unlike anything else I have ever experienced.”
Jill C.
“Just say yes. This program changed my life. When I entered the apprenticeship I had never read a classic, I did not understand the connection between form and freedom, and I had a lot of growing to do as a teacher. Because of this program, not only did I grow and learn in all of those areas, but I also became a better human, a better friend, a better neighbor. Please check this out. You will not regret it.”
Jennifer D.
While prayerfully seeking to be transformed by the renewal of my mind, I feel less conformed to the world, and more attuned to God’s will and His goodness, truth, and beauty all around. For brevity sake: the Apprenticeship makes me see less dimly.”
Nancy D.
Discover the CiRCE Apprenticeship!
The CiRCE Institute’s Apprenticeship Program is an in-depth, personal teacher development community in which a Master Teacher mentors a small group of educators in classical rhetoric and classical modes of instruction. It’s founded on the idea that to feed students properly teachers must feed themselves. With mentorship and community at its core, it’s a program for teachers (from all walks of life) who want to drink deeply from the wisdom of the ages, engage in inspiring conversation with like-minded friends, and push hard towards Truth, Wisdom, and Virtue.
Why the CiRCE Apprenticeship Exists
The noblest aim of Christian classical education is to cultivate wisdom and virtue in students. The CiRCE Institute Teacher Apprenticeship Program exists to set teachers free to focus on this aim.
How does a teacher cultivate wisdom and virtue? By nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty.
How does a teacher nourish the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty? By means of the seven liberal arts and the four sciences.
How does a teacher present the seven liberal arts and the four sciences? Through two modes of instruction: the Mimetic and the Socratic. Mimetic instruction applies the Christian classical idea that humans learn and become virtuous by imitation, while Socratic instruction applies the idea that truth is knowable.
Why would teachers develop Mimetic and Socratic teaching skills? So that the student is enabled to better know, glorify, and enjoy God.
To this end, the CiRCE Institute mentors teachers in the art of classical instruction, equipping you to:
- Teach facts, skills, and ideas classically
- Assess students with confidence and grace
- Practice classical rhetoric effectively and clearly
You will learn that classical teaching is about embodying truth, goodness, and beauty for students. You will learn to energize your classroom and engage the attention and imagination of your students through Mimetic and Socratic instruction. And you will learn to improve both your writing and your teaching using The Lost Tools of Writing, a classical composition curriculum rooted in the canons of classical rhetoric.
For fifteen years, the CiRCE Institute’s Apprenticeship has mentored teachers in the art of classical instruction by providing an in-depth, personal, teacher training experience. We lead groups across the nation including the East Coast, the MidWest (Ohio and Kansas), the Gulf Coast, and the Mid-Atlantic.
***
"The knowledge that I've gained here is not just about education . . . I'm experiencing a formation."
- Chris, an apprentice from Georgia
***
Mentorship Matters
The mentor/apprentice relationship–and the community that springs out of it–is the very heart of the program. Each of our seven groups is kept small so that mentors and apprentices can truly know each other. The mentors guide the apprentices by providing assessment that blesses them, accountability that strengthens them, and regular discussions that nurture them. The environment is welcoming and safe, the community develops over shared meals and stories, the pedagogy is founded on Christian classical education forms, and the assessment is for the apprentice to flourish. These are the things that set this teacher training program apart.
How the Apprenticeship Works
If completed in full, the CiRCE Apprenticeship is a three-year program. In the spring of the first year, apprentices decide whether to continue for an additional two years as journeymen. Journeymen help mentor and assess first-year apprentices. Upon successful completion of the program, journeymen become CiRCE Certified Classical Teachers.
To receive certification, apprentices must do the following:
- Attend six retreats (one summer and one winter each year)
- Teach lessons at the retreats from the Lost Tools of Writing
- Teach lessons at home from the Lost Tools of Writing
- Attend two webinars each month, September through May
- Complete requisite assigned writing assignments
- Implement mimetic instruction at home or in the classroom
- Read all assigned literature
- Pass biannual evaluations
- Mentor a first-year apprentice
- Prepare and teach an original mimetic lesson at a retreat
- Lead a Socratic discussion
- Fulfill all payment obligations
Head mentors assess apprentices on their participation, teaching, and writing. In December and May they offer individual evaluations, providing specific feedback with suggestions for improvement.
//
The CiRCE Apprenticeship group is made up of regional groups: three groups based in North Carolina (led by Matthew Bianco, Buck Holler, and Heather Shirley), a group based in Houston, Texas (led by Renee Mathis), a group based in Denver, Colorado (led by Andrea Lipinski), a group based in Ohio (led by Molly Rychener), and a Mid-Atlantic group that gathers in New Hampshire, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (led by Christine Mooradian).
Each group launches its year via a week-long retreat in late July or early August. During the day, the first, second, and third-year apprentices gather for teachings, reading, and discussions with one another and their head mentor, who guides the literary and pedagogic terrain the group will traverse. During the retreat the apprentices teach lessons and observe other apprentices’ lessons. In the evenings, apprentices are invited to gather at local restaurants to share meals and form friendships. On the last evening of the retreat, each group hosts a banquet to celebrate what the group has accomplished that week and where they are headed in the months to come.
During the school cycle the apprenticeship thrives via weekly gatherings and at-home assignments. Each week apprentices gather online (or over a phone). And during once-a-month webinars, first-year apprentices convene with their head mentor. Second and third-year apprentices gather in a separate monthly webinar with the head mentor. A third monthly meeting for all apprentices focuses on a literature discussion. A fourth monthly meeting is planned for first-year apprentices to engage with a second or third-year apprentice; this time allows a graduating apprentice to practice skills of mentorship while a first-year apprentice is learning the new program. At home apprentices are reading, writing, and teaching The Lost Tools of Writing. Monthly webinars and assignments provide an opportunity to discuss Great Books, assess writing, and review teaching.
In February apprentices gather for a second 4-day retreat that, once again, culminates in a celebratory banquet. At this retreat apprentices will observe, model, and assess each other's teaching; they will also discuss the term’s literature, take walks, enjoy meals, and make friends. In both late December and late May, apprentices have a personal review over the phone with their head mentor. This time is for accountability, assessment, encouragement, and reflection.
Head mentors provide a syllabus; apprentices complete their assignments and submit notice through Canvas, our online classroom resource. Assignments include reading Great Books, teaching the Lost Tools of Writing weekly, attending webinars, and participating in our online discussion community. Along the way the head mentor guides the apprentices through the work of authors like of Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, Hicks, Berry, and Lewis.
Live Q&A!
Do you have questions about how the CiRCE Apprenticeship works? Our head mentors are here to help! Each week this spring, one of them will be available via online Zoom room to answer your questions about the program. So whether you have questions about the curriculum, the retreat experience, or the purpose of the program, we’re here to clarify.
Click the link to join during any of the times listed below. This will also be the link to all future dates, so keep it handy!
Passcode: Homer
Live Q&A
2023 Office Hours continue with our Head Mentors. Join us to hear an introduction to this teacher training program in which we gather in person for two separate retreats and meet online the rest of the year while teachers teach in their local schools.
Thursday, Jan 12th 6-7pm ET with Andrea Lipinski (Rocky Mountain)
Wednesday, January 18th 5-6pm ET with Renee Mathis (Gulf Coast)
Passcode: Homer
The Head Mentors
Andrea
Lipinski
Andrea Lipinski
Andrea Lipinski is the Vice President of Training and Consulting for the CiRCE Institute, where she also serves as a Head Mentor in their teacher training program, the Rocky Mountain Apprenticeship. A homeschooling mother of two sons, she has graduated her oldest son who attends the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. Her younger son has one more year at home. She and her family live in the Pacific Northwest where they grow fruit, ski Mt. Baker, and paddle the lakes. She is a co-author of A CiRCE Guide to Reading.
Dr. Matthew Bianco
Dr. Matthew Bianco
Dr. Matthew Bianco is the Chief Operations Officer for the CiRCE Institute, where he also serves as a head mentor in the CiRCE apprenticeship program. A homeschooling father of three, he has graduated all three of his children, the eldest of whom graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. His second graduated from Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, NC, where his youngest still attends their great books honors college. He is married to his altogether lovely high school sweetheart, Patricia. Dr. Matt Bianco has a PhD in Humanities from Faulkner University's Great Books Honors College. He is the author of Letters to My Sons: A Humane Vision for Human Relationships.
Email: mattbianco@circeinstitute.com
Renee
Mathis
Renee Mathis
Renee Mathis has “graduated” from the classroom after finishing a combined 30 years of teaching in both her home and tutorial settings. She and her husband Steve, recently relocated to central Louisiana, have five children and eight grandchildren. She has served the homeschool community in Houston in various capacities, including as administrator and teacher of the PREP Classes Tutorial. Additionally, she is a CiRCE Certified Master Teacher of The Lost Tools of Writing, having completed the CiRCE apprenticeship program. She now leads the Gulf Coast Apprenticeship as a Head Mentor.
Buck
Holler
Buck Holler
Buck Holler is a former horse trainer and rodeo cowboy from Red Bluff, CA. After receiving more injuries than winnings he retired from the rodeo circuit to study theology and languages at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Leaving the beautiful New England campus he jumped back into the arena of secondary education as a teacher. Buck first joined The CiRCE Institute as an apprentice in 2007. In 2009, he moved to NC with his wife and three daughters, teaching, farming, and raising animals. He leads an East Coast Apprenticeship with The CiRCE Institute as a head mentor, and, mirabile dictu, leads CiRCE's first Latin Apprenticeship aimed to promote and