Greats Honors Program Tuition is $79 per month for 12 months.
Greats Honors students will read one of the greatest books ever written, then discuss it live online for two hours each week with two, experienced Academy moderators and fellow students at regularly scheduled, Socratic discussions; at their convenience they will view The Great Courses™ lectures presented by many of the “World’s Greatest Teachers,” hailing from prestigious universities such as MIT, Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn State, Brown, Duke, Eastman School of Music and Oberlin. Students will submit a reasonable, modest amount of weekly written work or take weekly short tests, and occasional essays, to allow the Academy to assess where they may need further explanation or guidance, which is offered in several weekly, subject-area, live tutorials with experienced Academy tutors.
Our forefathers, once they learned the liberal, or learning, arts: grammar (including inflected languages) and basic math, logic and rhetoric, taught in part in Socratic discussions (dialectics), in primary school, began to apply them to the most excellent works of Western civilization, by reading them, listening to lectures about them and discussing them. In the 1930s Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins set forth the “Great Books” of Western civilization as central for a classical education curriculum.
In the Greats Honors Program, the study of the trivium and the classics is restored, including the modern version of the quadrivium (natural sciences, higher math, music and art)–as presented in the greatest works, by experienced Socratic moderators and in lectures by many great professors. Reading Great Books, Socratic discussions, lectures, writing and tutorials, are offered to all 9th graders (c. age 14) and up.
What about the students – do they have to begin the Greats Honors Program as excellent students, above average, or somehow gifted? No – it’s the materials, the books, the lectures, the teachers, that need to be the best, in order to bring out the best in all of our students. The educational culture in which students are immersed strongly influences their subsequent intellectual growth and development. This was Dr. Adler’s point in the quotation first cited above: the best education is for all students.
The Greats Honors Program also provides mentors for individualized educational consultation and advice online. Mentor sessions are individual-student-based, and are intended to assist students with individual learning difficulties, improving study habits, offering individual encouragement, support and occasional help with their studies, and with achieving individual educational goals.
The unique agreement between the Academy Great Books Program and The Great Courses™, brings together the finest elements of education in one, integrated educational program – the Greats Honors Program. We are enthused to be able to bring together and offer all of this to our students, high school level and up. Never before has such an educational opportunity been available, not just in one locality, but online worldwide.
Of the 120 credits in the Greats Honors Program, 60 have been reviewed and recommended for college-level credit by the American Council on Education (ACE CREDIT), and all are college-level, being prepared and taught by professors at many of the finest colleges and universities in the world.
We invite you to read Frequently Asked Questions about the Greats Honors Program (link in sidebar), and to view The Great Courses™ carefully selected for our students for a well-rounded, generalist education (at the Curriculum Charts sidebar link). After completing the Great Honors Program, we believe our students will be among the best educated anywhere and, if they so desire, ready to begin their specialization in professional or vocational studies.
Welcome to the Greats Honors Program!