CiRCE Institute

From Christian Holmes.

"As a new teacher, I had to learn to replace the idea of management with discernment. Not every conversation is the same, just as every class and lesson varies. Conversation, just like silence, must be judged by its end."

Good Noise and Bad Silence | CiRCE Institute In my first year teaching, I knew that I would have to do one single thing in order to succeed: have strong classroom management. Every person, teacher or not, has heard horror stories about wild classroom behavior or the feebleness of a new teacher falling prey to the jungle of the classroom. As I....

Let There Be Play: A Classical Guide to Joyful Discovery

Foreword by Heidi White

https://circeinstitute.org/product/let-there-be-play/

Pre-order is now open!

Classical education has recovered much in recent decades. And yet, something essential remains missing.

Students grow older, but they do not always grow wiser.
They complete their work, but they are not always formed in virtue. Learning can feel mechanical, and joy, so central to true education, often seems absent.

In Let There Be Play, Rachel Woodham argues that this absence is not incidental but foundational.

The problem is not a lack of rigor, nor a failure of curriculum, nor even a deficiency in pedagogy. The problem is that we have forgotten the role of play.

In modern education, play is often treated as a distraction from serious work, a break from learning rather than a means of it. Woodham challenges this assumption at its root, contending that play is not opposed to formation but is, in fact, one of its primary instruments.

Drawing on the classical tradition as well as experience in the classroom and the home, Woodham argues that play is the natural means by which virtue, knowledge, and imagination are formed.

From Nate Weiland.

The Luck of an Hour: Fate and the Moral Order | CiRCE Institute 202 B.C. – The climax of the “most memorable war in history” brought the collision of two titans of the ancient world at a place called Zama, in what is now the north African country of Tunisia.[1] The Carthaginian Hannibal Barca swore to his father at nine years old to be forever the enemy of...

From Isaiah Nixon.

"Knowledge is dangerous. Classical education is dangerous. Freedom of thought brings uncertainty, and if unguided, may mislead. We have known men armed with knowledge who are no better for what they possess.

But they are not discerning men.

They are not guided men.

And I wonder: Do we close the door of inquiry out of fear? Must we allow the dangers of education to overcome us? Do we shirk from the sight of foreign knowledge? Do we dare enter the profaned temples and lend an ear to the futile and vapid, to varied perspectives, sacred and secular?"

A Reminder: Education is Dangerous | CiRCE Institute Dillon raised his hand and stood up. It was a mid-winter’s high school symposium, and he was about to be presented with great ideas, sacred and secular. His question was courageous and displayed a willingness to engage that afternoon. His ask was of genuine and well-placed fear, for he was about t...

In these thirty-three incisive essays, Mark A. Signorelli challenges educators, parents, and students to recover the true purpose of classical education. With clarity, conviction, and occasional provocation, he confronts the assumptions, slogans, and blind spots that often shape modern classical schooling.

From the formation of young men and women to the teaching of poetry, from seminar leadership to the rise of artificial intelligence, Signorelli explores what it means to educate human beings for wisdom, virtue, and freedom.

Whether you are a veteran classical educator or newly discovering the liberal arts tradition, this book offers both a welcome and a challenge: to think more deeply, teach more faithfully, and recover the full vision of classical education.

Featuring essays on:

• The meaning of “classical” education
• Child development and formation
• The future of classical schools
• Writing and literature instruction
• Masculinity, culture, and modernity
• AI, war, and the changing social order
• Seminar teaching, poetry, and pedagogy

Sharp, thoughtful, and unapologetically honest, this is a book for anyone serious about the renewal of education.

Things Glorious and Ruinous: Considering Classical Education Amidst Cultural Decay | CiRCE Institute These thirty-three short essays on classical education both challenge the experienced classical educator and welcome the new classical educator into the classical renewal. With topics ranging from true masculinity to how to teach poetry, Mark A. Signorelli speaks with wit and wisdom—and his gloves...

From Daniel Lee.

"Our age is one of instant gratification. Our creature comforts, our access to information, and everything else besides are just an internet search or AI chatbot away. But this robs us of the joy won through the struggle of learning and the eureka moments that nothing along the way could substitute. The wonder born of ignorance is nothing of which we ought to be ashamed. It is the first step toward knowledge and wisdom, and a far cry from the self-deception of that hubris which stagnates the mind."

Wonder Born of Ignorance | CiRCE Institute The Origins of Knowledge in Plato’s Meno and Aristotle’s Metaphysics “All men by nature desire to know,” remarks Aristotle at the outset of his Metaphysics. Simply called “The Philosopher” by his medieval commentators and “The master of those who know” by Dante, there were perhaps no...

From Matthew Bianco.

"To study Latin rightly is to immerse oneself in speech: stories told, prayers offered, arguments made, histories remembered. It is to read letters as letters, prayers as prayers, poems as poems—not merely as specimens for analysis but as acts of communication."

Learning Latin and Loving Our Distant Neighbors | CiRCE Institute Loving Our Distant Neighbors: Language, Memory, and the Democracy of the Dead Charlotte Mason is sometimes remembered for what she opposed—dry lessons, utilitarian schooling, education reduced to the transfer of information. What is less often remembered is the moral breadth of her vision. Educati...

"Here is what happened after my daughter's first tapestry lesson.

I did the sample lesson with her, and this is after she narrated back the Tortoise and the Hare, and I did the dictation.

We started talking about nouns.

She found the noun in the dictation sentence. Then she started naming animals in our yard as nouns, and I helped her spell them.

Then she wanted to name body parts, and she found an anatomy book and looked for the longest words she could find.

It was hilarious. She normally has no desire to write at all.

I had to cut it off at external oblique." - Wendy

The Tapestry | CiRCE Institute Looking for resources to help you write better? Currently offering three levels, The Lost Tools of Writing is the ideal composition curriculum for students.

Tomorrow!

Join us for this free Dwell Webinar with Dr. Matthew Bianco on teaching language in the elementary years.

As he recently wrote in an article on our website, “Narration…is an act of attention. And attention, rightly understood, is an act of love.” The same could be said of dictation.

Whether you are new to narration and dictation or have been using them in your homeschool already, you will be inspired and encouraged by Dr. Bianco’s insights, enthusiasm, and practical tips for teaching these two practices, essential to classical education.

There will be time for practicing some exercises together and for Dr. Bianco to answer your questions.

Join us for this special two-hour webinar!

The Keys to Teaching Language in the Elementary Years: Narration and Dictation | CiRCE Institute This webinar is brought to you by The Tapestry. Click here to learn more! — When: Friday, May 22, 2026, 2-4pm ET Join us for this free Dwell Webinar with Dr. Matthew Bianco on teaching language in the elementary years. As he recently wrote in an article on our website, “Narration…is an act of ...