About Us – Scholé Communities

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

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.

Our Team

Here are four people who are engaged in helping deepen and extend the Scholé Communities network.

Our Directors

"I am so grateful for the Scholé Communities--now I have the resources to bring restful learning to our homeschool community! "

Lisa Mayeux Community Director

"Our community has been transformed by implementing the scholé approach in our instruction and family life."

Rebecca Richard Community Director

“I want you to know how much we appreciate all of the new resources! The symposium is amazing! We were planning something similar this summer, but I thought I would have to do it all. It is just exactly what I wanted...Thank you and thank you to Christopher Perrin and everyone at ClassicalU, etc. Our Scholé group has been incredible and we appreciate the support so much.”

Megan Engstrom Director-Scholé of Northern Utah

Testimonial title

Scholé Communities has provided amazing resources that made my first year directing a Scholé Group much less intimidating. The Live Learning Events are inspiring and the Director’s Facebook group is a source of encouragement. I’m so thankful for the support Scholé Communities offers!

Hayley Croft Director- Grace and Truth Classical Cooperative: A Scholé Group

When we started our community, our desire was to have a community with a Schole mentality. This concept was new to us, and we needed guidance. We needed a roadmap, some directions, and some assistance to boost our knowledge of Schole. We found that and more with Schole Communities. ClassicalU has been beneficial as we are all on the journey together, none of us within our community has arrived, nor are we experts. Having muses and qualified teachers and administrators guide our team through training courses has been a tool we could not do without.

Christine Hart, Director, Lumine Academy- A Scholé Community