Paideia Academics is devoted to making the classical liberal arts tradition accessible to all who want it. For parents looking for restful and classical courses for their students, we offer an online academy for students in 7th -12th grades. For schools and teachers (at home and school) looking for support with teacher training and educational leadership, we offer coaching, consulting, custom curriculum, and communications support.
For all, we offer a variety of free events throughout the year, including our free Paideia Nights Classical Educators Reading group and our free 101 Classical Teaching Workshop Series. Learn more about the reading group here and join the mailing list to be notified of upcoming events here.
At Paideia Academics, we seek to provide a space where all who enter know they belong here. We don’t care so much about being “classical” enough, in the ivory tower sense; come as you are. We have learned that classical doesn’t have to look buttoned-up to be authentic and transformative. Rather, being classical is, first and foremost, a way of being, a mindset, and a disposition toward your students, what you teach, and your own teaching practice. From there, the particulars follow quite easily. If you want to master the art of classical teaching, join us. Beginning is easier than you may think.
Services
Whether you are an individual teacher looking to master your craft of classical teaching or a school looking for support with classical teacher training, we can help.
Learn about our services, coaching, and consulting solutions here.
If you are looking for our free monthly Classical Educators reading group, find more information here: Join the Paideia Nights Reading Group
Custom Consulting & Speaking
Custom Consulting Options:
- Speaking at your event, conference, or retreat.
- Immersive lectures and workshops.
- Year-long teacher training at your school or online.
- Classical liberal arts learning modules, available 24/7.
- Classical Teaching Resources, available 24/7.
Schedule a free consultation to find out how we can help your community flourish.
The Fellowship: A Classical Teacher Coaching Program
The Fellowship is a year-long coaching program for classical teachers at home and school.
The Paideia Fellowship Homeschool Academy
The Paideia Fellowship Online Homeschool Academy offers a thorough and restful classical humanities program taught by skilled and loving teachers so you can breathe easy knowing your child is learning, completing their courses, and growing in wisdom and virtue… all while at home. The online program integrates history, literature, rhetoric, writing, logic, oratory, and philosophy into one complete and cohesive program.
Core Values
Honor & Dignity
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5
Honor over shame, every day of the week. We believe that each person has innate dignity and is filled with divine light. We seek to love our neighbors by noticing and respecting the light in them while also allowing others to see the light in us. Because we each have this light, we know truth, goodness, and beauty may be found in any book, culture, or person, whether it be an ancient liturgy, a child, a tribal story, an old poet, or a modern-day musician. Seek to understand. Invite rather than impose.
Form & Tradition
We celebrate tradition and form. At Paideia Academics, we honor this reality by aligning ourselves with forms that have stood the test of time and honor the dignity of every student, teacher, and subject/content area we teach. We acknowledge that we are all communal beings that find nourishment in coming together around the classics, the questions, and the ideas that speak deeply to what it means to be human.
Inclusive & Ecumenical
We deeply value an inclusive and ecumenical atmosphere. All are welcome. Our community comprises people from many nations, cultures, religious traditions, backgrounds, and lifestyles. We believe the classical liberating arts are a space of common ground and dignity for every human soul, and no one group or culture owns it. We enjoy learning from literature, art, and ideas across the globe and among many nations, groups, and people.
As an organization, we believe that Christ is the incarnate true, good, and beautiful One and seek to be open to Him in all we learn. We aspire to live in a community marked by charity and hospitality, as described in 1 Corinthians 13 and 2 Peter 1:5-7.
Hospitality
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Hospitality is the act of loving and giving healing space to our neighbors, all of our neighbors, including ourselves. Hospitality is an embodiment of the belief that each person has innate dignity and is worthy of honor.
Hospitality makes a classical liberal arts education and its end goal come to pass. We make space for each person through hospitality to learn, heal, not-know, wrestle, experience victory and failure, discuss, and connect. It includes a lot of mess and mystery, beauty, form and freedom, courage, humility, and openness. Hospitality is the foundation for the trust required to experience real learning, freedom, and healing. It is woven throughout every experience at Paideia Academics.
Jennifer-Ruth Patterson
Founder/Executive Director
Jennifer Patterson is a classical teacher, consultant, and artist. Jennifer has completed the CiRCE Apprenticeship as a CiRCE certified Classical Teacher, is currently pursuing her masters in the liberal arts, and has taught humanities, logic, rhetoric, and the fine arts since 2009. She is the founder and director of Paideia Academics, an organization devoted to training new classical educators how to teach the classical liberal arts.
Jennifer’s published works and podcast appearances can be seen across the web. Jennifer was a contributing author for The Lost Tools of Writing Level 1, published by The CiRCE Institute, and former co-host of The Classical Homeschool Podcast. Jennifer has spoken at dozens of events across the nation on how to encounter human flourishing through the classical liberal arts. Currently, Jennifer is writing her first book about the journey of becoming a classical teacher. Her research interests include classical rhetoric, classical pedagogy, world mythology, the intersection between education and healing, and how we find belonging on this side of eternity.
Jennifer, an Orthodox Christian, lives in North Carolina with her daughter. She enjoys spoken word poetry, trying her hand at fancy French food, collecting more books than she’ll ever read, and sauntering about in nature.
Read Jennifer’s complete bio here, including links to lectures and free resources.