What Are Scholé Communities?
The Scholé Communities network promotes a more restful, contemplative learning approach, rooted in the classical tradition of scholé.
We were made for work and rest
Scholé Communities Started in 2014 to Renew Classical and Restful Education in homeschooling communities
There has been a renewal of classical education underway in the United States since 1980. In the first 20 years of the renewal, we emphasized the recovery of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, reading the great books, and rigorous teaching and learning. Since that time, we have discovered that an over-emphasis on rigor can produce anxiety and even lead to pride and despair in various children. We also learned that in the classical Christian tradition of education, there was a persistent theme of restful, contemplative learning often called scholé. The Greek word scholé meant undistracted time to study the things that are most worthwhile, with good friends, in a lovely place, often with food and drink. Ironically, scholé is the root for our word school. The Scholé Communities network seeks to bring scholé back to school.
“Scholé is undistracted time to study the things most worthwhile, with good friends, in a beautiful place, with good food and drink.”
Dr. Christopher Perrin
Founder
Homeschool as Scholé
Classical Learning that Is Supportive
The Scholé Communities Network is committed to a classical course of studies employing restful learning or scholé. Each community is part of a peer-to-peer network that connects, collaborates, and shares resources.
Each community has access to a rich resource library and no membership fees are required.
The Story
How It Began
Dr. Christopher Perrin, one of the founders of Classical Academic Press and ClassicalU.com has been researching the history and tradition of classical education for over 25 years. During that research, he was struck by a deep and abiding presence in the tradition which emphasized that wisdom was cultivated not just by active learning but also by the contemplative engagement of the true, good, and beautiful.
Part of the renewal of classical education in the first two decades (1980-2000) focused, with justification, on “raising the bar” and lifting the standards for what education should be by re-introducing grammar, logic, and rhetoric in our curriculum and also by re-introducing RIGOR into our teaching and learning.
While justified in light of how far standards had fallen, this rigorous approach sometimes overshadowed the tradition of deep and restful learning or scholé. Dr. Perrin perceived an imbalance of rigor over rest that he has sought to harmonize by advocating for a return to restful, contemplative learning that complements industrious academic work. Thus, he and others launched Scholé Communities (previously Scholé Groups) in 2014.
