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"Whenever truth comes to man by way of beauty, it necessarily transforms his character and ennobles his behavior."

David Hicks, Norms & Nobility
Pillars and Books

Explore the Foundations of Classical Education with a Dynamic Online Community

A one-year program, the CiRCE Atrium program explores the foundations of Christian classical education with online classes and discussions. The Atrium now features five courses. Participants can choose any one course or sign up for multiple courses! Courses include Shakespeare with Heidi White, Norms and Nobility with Tonya Rozelle, Plato’s Dialogues with Marc Hays, The Great Ideas with Jonathan Councell, and The Divine Comedy with Kristen Rudd.

Through exclusive live webinars (two each month) and an online discussion forum, the Atrium offers a forum for contemplation and collaboration: a place to linger (and take pleasure) in the depths of the Christian classical tradition alongside like-minded fellow educators. We provide the digital platform; you bring the desire for wisdom and virtue. Together we make the community.  

The Atrium is now Open!

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Tonya Atrium Image

Norms and Nobility with Tonya Rozelle

In this Atrium course, CiRCE Online Instructor, CiRCE Workshop Leader, and Certified Master Teacher, Tonya Rozelle will lead us through David Hicks’ seminal work on classical education. We will engage in a close read of Norms & Nobility and discuss what it means for us as classical educators. If you have not yet read this text, you should. If you have already read this text, you can attest to the fact one read is not enough. This profound work helps us better understand why pursuing a classical education is worth the effort, both for ourselves and for our students. It helps us identify and comprehend that ache in our souls, that burning need pushing us to do the hard work.

Read About Tonya's Class

“[T]he supreme task of education [is] the cultivation of the human spirit: to teach the young to know what is good, to serve it above self, to reproduce it, and to recognize that in knowledge lies this responsibility.” (Norms, p. 13)

Norms & Nobility is considered by many to be one of the foundational texts in the classical education renewal. Educator and author David Hicks states the question shaping today’s education system is, “What can be done?” when it should instead be, “What ought to be done?” But what specifically does this mean and how can we effectively teach in light of this? Other such questions prompted by this book include: Does this impact the curriculum I use? If so, how? What “ideal type” should be our focus? Why do we even need an ideal type? This book helps us understand the difference between knowing and doing while also explaining why one cannot be taught without the other.

Our Focus – Dig into the Text

In this Atrium course, CiRCE Online Instructor, CiRCE Workshop Leader, and Certified Master Teacher, Tonya Rozelle will lead us through David Hicks’ seminal work on classical education. We will engage in a close read of Norms & Nobility and discuss what it means for us as classical educators. If you have not yet read this text, you should. If you have already read this text, you can attest to the fact one read is not enough. This profound work helps us better understand why pursuing a classical education is worth the effort, both for ourselves and for our students. It helps us identify and comprehend that ache in our souls, that burning need pushing us to do the hard work.

The Format – Understanding then Application

We will meet twice a month to discuss each chapter. The first time we meet on a specific chapter, we will focus on understanding what Hicks is saying to us. The second time will be geared toward the more practical aspects of the material, in other words, what it looks like in practice. While examining Norms, students will also further their understanding of classical pedagogy. Instructor Tonya Rozelle will lead each session modeling both mimetic and Socratic instruction in order to facilitate robust discussions on this rich material.

Intended Audience - You

Whether you are a teacher in a traditional school setting or a homeschooling parent, if you are trying to lead your students in a classical education, this course is for you. If you just love this text and are always looking for others eager to discuss its finer points, this course is for you. If you are completely new to classical education, and are not really sure what it all means, this course is for you. If you want to better understand how to develop a classical curriculum, this course is for you. If you wish to better understand the benefits of classical education for all levels of society, this course is for you.

Required Text - Norms & Nobility

To participate in this course, you will need a copy of Norms & Nobility by David V. Hicks. There is a preface written for the 1990 edition that is excellent and worthy of much marginalia in its own right. Since we will dedicate time to this preface, I strongly suggest you purchase a copy that includes it. Do not be put off by the price of the book. It is worth its weight in gold. Join us in the 2023-2024 Atrium year, and together we learn why, "[t]he sublime premise of a classical education asserts that right thinking will lead to right, if not righteous, acting." (Norms, Preface, p. vi)

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Plato's Dialogues with Marc Hays

In this Atrium offering, Marc Hays will lead us through an overview of Plato and a close read of his most foundational dialogues: Alcibiades I, Gorgias, Phaedo, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Phaedrus, Symposium, and Philebus. It is this course that was used by the ancients and the early medievals as the course of understanding required to read and understand the rest of Plato’s dialogues, but more importantly, to know and understand ourselves and the world we live in.

Read More About Marc's Class

"The arts have the power to awaken the best part of the soul and lead it upward to the study of the best among the things that are” (Republic, VII.532c). 

The great Greek philosopher, Plato, has been one of the biggest influences on classical education, even Christian classical education. Many have wondered what makes him so special, so influential. To understand Plato, people have turned to specific dialogues to try to get a grasp of what his project really was. In some cases, they have turned to a specific dialogue, like the Republic. In other cases, they have turned to a few shorter dialogues, like the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. The CiRCE Institute’s Master Teacher Apprenticeship program uses Gorgias, Meno, and Phaedrus.  

What We Will Do – Follow the ancient course 

In this Atrium offering, Marc Hays will lead us through an overview of Plato and a close read of his most foundational dialogues: Alcibiades I, Gorgias, Phaedo, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Phaedrus, Symposium, and Philebus. It is this course that was used by the ancients and the early medievals as the course of understanding required to read and understand the rest of Plato’s dialogues, but more importantly, to know and understand ourselves and the world we live in.  

Each dialogue is linked to a realm of understanding. In order, Plato, in these dialogues, is trying to help us understand the self, justice and the use of rhetoric, the soul, the nature of language, the nature of knowledge, the false pursuit of knowledge, leadership, love and beauty in the physical realm, love and beauty in the spiritual realm, and the nature of the Good, respectively. 

How We Will Do It – What do we already know? What is Plato showing us?

In the first call of each month, we will discuss the idea to be addressed in the upcoming dialogue. The goal of the first call is to discover what we know and believe about the idea before hearing from Plato. The second call for each dialogue will discuss the entirety of the dialogue, trying to understand what Plato is saying about the idea. The goal of the second call is simply to hear Plato clearly.

Who Should Do It - You 

If you are a homeschooling parent or a brick-and-mortar school teacher that is teaching or will be teaching Plato, this is the perfect course for you. If you are the kind of person that just loves philosophy or the ancient world or Socrates and Plato, then this is the perfect course for you. If you are completely new to the ancients or philosophy or theology and just know that Plato is important but don't know why, then this is the perfect course for you. If you're not sure why you are reading this description right now, then this is the perfect course for you. 

What You Will Need - Plato 

To make sure you get all of the dialogues, and if you want the same translations with the same section numbering, it is recommended that you purchase Plato: Complete Works edited by John M. Cooper.  

Join us in the 2022-2023 Atrium year, and together we can try to understand what being educated "in this way" means so that we too can welcome the truth when it comes. 

Apply Now!

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Shakespeare with Heidi White

 In this Atrium course, teacher and podcaster Heidi White provides an engaging classical experience with Shakespeare’s rich and varied body of work. Over the course of nine months, class participants will read and discuss three representative plays and nine influential sonnets, cultivating both a broad understanding and a concentrated insight into Shakespeare’s poetry and plays. Throughout the course, Heidi provides guidance and modeling of classical pedagogy, providing a practical and accessible roadmap for teaching Shakespeare with confidence and excellence.

Read More About Heidi's Class

Universally regarded as one of the premier contributors to world literature and culture, Shakespeare was a prolific and versatile playwright, poet, actor, and entrepreneur. Over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote an astounding 38 plays and 150 sonnets, most of which are literary masterpieces. Shakespeare’s canon is vast and his influence unparalleled. Classical educators want to do Shakespeare justice in our homes and classrooms, but how? In this Atrium course, teacher and podcaster Heidi White provides an engaging classical experience with Shakespeare’s rich and varied body of work. Over the course of nine months, class participants will read and discuss three representative plays and nine influential sonnets, cultivating both a broad understanding and a concentrated insight into Shakespeare’s poetry and plays. Throughout the course, Heidi provides guidance and modeling of classical pedagogy, providing a practical and accessible roadmap for teaching Shakespeare with confidence and excellence.

This class is for:

●Homeschoolers and classroom teachers developing skills for Shakespeare classically.
●Classical education professionals and/or enthusiasts who are increasing their familiarity with Shakespeare.
●Thoughtful readers who are interested in reading and discussing Shakespeare in a community of enthusiastic learners.

Course Specifics:

This course provides an immersive classical learning experience with Shakespeare’s poetry and plays, including:

1.Direct instruction on literary, historical, and performance elements of Shakespearean poetry and plays.

2.Interactive Socratic discussion on nine sonnets and three representative plays - one comedy, one tragedy, and one history,

3.Guidance/modeling of classical pedagogy for teaching Shakespeare at home and in the classroom.

In each class, we will read and discuss an important Shakespearean sonnet. Additionally, the course is divided into three units of six classes each. Over the course of each unit, class participants learn historical, literary, and performance characteristics of Shakespearean comedy, tragedy, and history as they read, watch, study, and discuss one representative play from each genre. The instructor intentionally models and teaches classical pedagogy through Socratic discussion, mimetic teaching, and direct instruction.

Fall Block - Sept, Oct, Nov - Comedy - Midsummer Night's Dream
Winter Block - Dec, Jan, Feb - History - Henry IV
Spring Block - March, April, May - Tragedy - Romeo and Juliet

Required class materials:
(1) Norton or Riverside Shakespeare OR Folgers Midsummer, Henry IV, and Romeo and Juliet
(2) Notebook and writing utensil
(3) Internet Access

Suggested Participation: Read one play every three months, Watch at least one performance of each assigned play, Attend class live or access class recordings

About the Instructor:

Heidi White, M.A., is a teacher, editor, podcaster, and author. She teaches Humanities at St. Hild School in Colorado Springs and is the author of the forthcoming The Divided Soul: Reuniting Duty and Desire in Literature and Life. She is a contributing author, speaker, consultant, and Atrium instructor at the Circe Institute and a weekly contributor on fiction, poetry, and Shakespeare on the Close Reads Podcast Network. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Anselm Society and the Academic Advisory Board for the Classical Learning Test. She writes fiction, poetry, and essays, and she speaks about literature, education, and the Christian imagination. She lives in Black Forest, Colorado with her husband and children

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The Divine Comedy with Kristen Rudd

In this Atrium, CiRCE-certified Master Teacher Kristen Rudd will serve to also guide us through the entire Comedy, beginning with pilgrim Dante’s descent into Hell to his eventual ascent into the highest Heaven. Students will learn about classical virtue ethics, the seven deadly sins (and their corresponding virtues), and get an introduction to the Medieval view of the cosmos. 

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Dante’s Divine Comedy is arguably the greatest epic poem ever written. Taking its reader on a journey through the rings of Hell, through the terraces of the Mountain of Purgatory, and through the celestial spheres of Heaven, Dante’s groundbreaking work displays an unparalleled imaginative vision of the Christian afterlife and the human soul. 

What We Will Do 

Dante did not travel through the afterlife alone—he always had a guide. In this Atrium, CiRCE-certified Master Teacher Kristen Rudd will guide us through the entire Comedy, beginning with pilgrim Dante’s descent into Hell to his eventual ascent into the highest Heaven. Students will learn about classical virtue ethics, the seven deadly sins (and their corresponding virtues), and get an introduction to the Medieval view of the cosmos.  

Dante did not write his astounding work in a vacuum, and we will not read it in one, either. We will also read selections from the Bible, Vergil, Ovid, Statius, Lucan, and others when relevant to bring deeper understanding to the Comedy.  

How We Will Do It 

We will read the Comedy straight through from beginning to end. Before each of our nineteen sessions, students will read cantos from the Comedy as well as any related stories from other sources. Class will be a combination of both lecture and Socratic discussion. Between sessions, students can ask questions and continue the conversation with each other through guided online discussion boards. We will meet from 7–8:45 p.m. EST every other Tuesday. 

Who Should Do It 

This class is for those who have read Dante countless times, for those who only read Inferno that one time in college, and for those who have never had Dante waved in their direction. This class is for those who love Dante, who hate Dante, who are meh about Dante, and especially for those who are absolutely terrified of reading Dante. I see you. This class is for teachers, for homeschooling parents, for students, for all you academic types, and for all you non-academics out there.  

In short? This class is for you. Classics are better when they’re read in community. What are you waiting for?  

What You Will Need 

Kristen will provide excerpts from some of the texts. You will need the following books: 

  • Dante Alighieri, Inferno, translated by Anthony Esolen 
  • Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, translated by Anthony Esolen 
  • Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, translated by Anthony Esolen 
  • Vergil, Aeneid, translated by Sarah Ruden 
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Rolfe Humphries 
  • The Holy Bible  

About Kristen Rudd 

Kristen Rudd successfully homeschooled her two children for 15 years. They have both graduated and gone on to other amazing adventures. Kristen teaches online literature and writing classes for both high schoolers and adults. She writes articles for the CiRCE Institute, for the Center for Lit, and for Fathom Mag; runs the Independent Classical Educator Fellowship, a convivial group for entrepreneuring classical educators; and speaks regularly on literature and classical education.  

Kristen is a CiRCE-certified master classical teacher and has an M.A.T. in Classical Education through the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University. She wrote her master’s thesis on the Divine Comedy. Kristen lives in Cary, North Carolina. 

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The Great Ideas with Jonathan Councell

This unique atrium fittingly takes its format from the Socratic tradition and is designed with opportunities for participants to choose the texts they want to study while discussing six selected “great ideas;” courage, love, education, beauty, fortune, and justice.  This course is structured to embody and invite engagement with what the classical tradition means by the terms conversation, dialogue, and participation in order to clarify and enrich our capacity to learn liberally and to educate humanely.  Join us as we enter the Great Conversation around the ideas that undergirds communication and community by means of some of the great books and conversation. 

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A Conversational Journey Through the Great Ideas of Western Civilization 

"But if [concerning the idea], as we were doing just now, we examine the question based on things we agree with each other about, we ourselves will be jurors and advocates at the same time” (Republic, I.348B).  

In her book Paradoxes of Education in a Republic, Eva Braun argues that an enlightened Republic is best sustained and preserved by citizens properly educated in what she calls “inquiry.”  David Hicks, Mortimer J. Adler, Benjamin Franklin, and Plato’s Socrates–to name of few–all promote this claim.  A lively engagement with the great norming ideas found in classic texts is the substance of what it means to be liberally educated and civilized.  The love of learning is not cultivated by becoming informed with what is traditionally known about books, authors, ideas, or historical periods; nor in becoming proficient in analytical or abstract modes of thinking; nor is it in being trained in skills that makes one useful. Rather, it is the very human co-creative act of reading the great works that have come into the present in order to join The Great Conversation that gives to each and all the joy and riches that Wisdom offers.  This Atrium embodies and models some of the ways in which this tradition can be extended to permeate our homes, schools, and communities. 

What We Will Do – Read what you will, discuss you must  

 CiRCE Master Teacher Jonathan Councell will model, guide, and facilitate a seminar that, through agreement and disagreement between these great works, will enable each participant to contribute to the discussion from voluntarily chosen readings.   Participants will read two books for each idea from a list of great books selected for that great idea.  By giving three sessions to each idea this Atrium demonstrates a way of creating and forming a  community that has advanced its understanding of that idea as it exists between free minds and between great books.     

How We Will Do It  

We will spend three sessions with each idea and the works associated with them.  The first session introduces the idea and establishes the limits of our existing knowledge and understanding surrounding it.  The next two sessions observe the great conversation between the selected works about this idea. We do this in a normative and syntopical mode of educational inquiry into the great ideas of human civilization. The goals of this Atrium are to: increase understanding of the great ideas and their norming influence upon our actions and lives, grow in knowledge about an inquiry focused education and pedagogical practices, and participate in syntopical reading and socratic/dialectical discussion.  

Who Should Do It  

Adults who want a liberal education. 

Educators that want practical experience in dialectical discussion. 

Individuals that are hungry for intellectual community and conversation. 

Readers that want to try their hand at syntopical reading. 

Those who wish for an educational experience more in line with the following educational programs: 

  • The CiRCE Institutes Master Teacher Apprenticeship Program 
  • The Aspen Conferences as Mortimer J. Adler described them in How to Speak and How to Listen 
  • St. John’s College tutorial structure 
  • University of Chicago’s Great Books Seminar and Program 
  • The Humane Letters Tradition   
  • Plato’s Academy 
  • Jesus and his disciples 
  • “The Teachers Seminar” as envisioned by David Hicks in Norms and Nobility 

What You Will Need - A choice of works 

For the purposes of this course you will select and read two works for each idea.  The works recommended for each idea are listed below.  After selecting these works you will submit your reading list to the Atrium leader and will then ensure that you have these works.  As you will be reading on your own, any translation or edition or format will be acceptable.     

The Idea of Courage (Only Choose Two)

  • Homer’s The Iliad 
  • Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations 
  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Philosophy of Right 
  • David Hick’s The Lawgivers: The Parallel lives of Numa Pompilius and Lycurgus of Sparta 
  • Virgil’s The Aeneid 
  • Shakespeare’s Coriolanus  
  • Shakespeare’s  Henry V 
  • Tolstoy’s War and Peace 
  • Aristotle’s Ethics 
  • Plato’s Apology  
  • Plato’s Laches 
  • Joshua and Judges 

The Idea of Love  (Only Choose Two)

  • Bernard of Claireveux On the Love of God 
  • Milton’s Paradise Lost 
  • Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 
  • Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, or (preference) Paradiso 
  • Augustine Confessions 
  • Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida 
  • Virgil’s The Aeneid  
  • Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 
  • Homer’s The Iliad  
  • Plato’s Phaedrus 
  • Song of Solomon and the Psalms 

 The Idea of Beauty (Only Choose Two)

  • St. Augustine’s Confessions 
  • Edmund Burke’s A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful 
  • Milton’s Paradise Lost 
  • Plotinus’s The Enneads 
  • Plato’s The Republic 
  • Hegel’s Philosophy of History 
  • Kant’s Judgment 
  • Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales specifically “the Physician’s Tale” 
  • Aristotle’s The Parts of Animals 
  • Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations 
  • Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 
  • Goethe’s Faust 
  • Plato’s Greater Hippias (or Hippias Major, both names for the same dialogue) 
  • The Psalms 

The Idea of Fortune/Chance (Only Choose Two)

  • Shakespeare’s Hamlet 
  • Shakespeare’s King Lear 
  • Tolstoy’s War and Peace 
  • Beothius’ Consolation of Philosophy 
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince 
  • Aristotle’s Politics 
  • Thucydides The Peloponnesian War  
  • Lucretius The Nature of Things 
  • Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov 
  • Melville’s Moby Dick 
  • Job and Ecclesiastes  
  • Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex 

The Idea of Education (Only Choose Two)

  • Plato’s Gorgias 
  • Plato’s The Republic 
  • Shakespeare’s The Tempest 
  • Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew 
  • Lucretius’