Further Up and Further In
STGB June 2024 Update
It’s a big Summer for Study The Great Books! We continue to march forward towards our goal of completing a complete 7-12th grade fully integrated Humanities curriculum and we are making good progress. New Great Books study guides are being made available all the time and we are getting ever closer to our goal of having professional print editions. Lord willing, this time next year (or maybe sooner) we will have some print editions of individual study guides for sale in an online marketplace.
In the not too distant future thereafter we hope to begin publishing omnibus editions packaged together (with lots of extras) by grade level following the course of study we have laid out. The History omnibus will also include articles about the STGB timeline events, maps and geography, archaeology, and more. The Literature omnibus will include studies of fine art and classical architecture, poetry recitation and memorization, and study of the “great ideas” found in literature. When these are done parents, educators, and self-directed students alike will have a fully put together plan of study to help them learn or teach about Ancient, Medieval, and Modern history as well as the world’s greatest literature through studying the Great Books!
But you don’t have to wait for us to make it to the professionally printed curriculum to start benefitting immediately. Not only are there free resources for everyone on the site right now, but early beta editions of our study guides are available in PDF form to paid subscribers, making it even easier to access study question than it is with our more limited free online guides. In addition to what is offered through the free online study guides the PDFs include Vocabulary with definitions, Character lists, Geographical references, and Events that can be used to help aid students and teachers in their annotation of the great books. Here is a sample lesson from Dante’s Inferno (presently in development).1
Right now you can get full access to all the benefits of STGB for $4 a month with our Summer Sale! We are offering this discount through the end of July as we participate in three different conferences during June and July. Sign up now and that discount is good for life and will never increase on you.
Next week STGB will be in Atlanta at the Repairing The Ruins Conference, the annual meeting of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, meeting with close to 1400 like minded educators. In July STGB will be at the Arizona Families for Home Education conference making connections with amazing home school families. Also in July we will be partnering with Desert Palms Church (PCA) to put on a student apologetics conference for grades 7-12. All of these are great opportunities to get the word out about our curriculum project and the valuable resources that are available and already being used by Christian educators, families, and students all around the world.
STGB Artist Spotlight
I announced a while back that STGB is partnering with an artist to add life and beauty to our curriculum. Gabriella Rusev is now in the process of developing art for our curriculum. It is my pleasure to share a few pieces she has been working on for us recently:
Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
A Pfifiltrigg and a Hross, from C. S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet
Lord Peter Wimsey and his wife Harriet Vane, from The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy Sayers
We are very blessed to have connected with such a talented artist! If you are on Instagram please consider following Gabriella there!
Upcoming Developments
STGB Press: Study The Great Books is planning to officially incorporate this year. It is becoming less and less of a side gig and more and more of a major operation. It is our hope to launch STGB Press in the next calendar year. We plan not only to publish our curriculum but also great new works of fiction and nonfiction. From sci-fi and fantasy, to works on theology, philosophy, education, and more, we want there to be more great things to read in the world and we will be looking for authors with talent, intellect, and vision to join in defense of truth, goodness, and beauty. Let’s shape the minds and affections of a new generation with great stories and the power of the pen (or keyboard as it may be).
New Staff: In addition to our new artist, Gabriella Rusev, we also have the pleasure of Susan Allee joining the staff of Study The Great Books! Susan has an M.A. in Philosophy from Clarks Summit University. She is a veteran teacher both as a homeschool mom and as a teacher in ACCS schools. She will be working to produce even more content for STGB including a new podcast and study guides for younger readers and “family read aloud” books. These will be less intensive in nature than our main curriculum study guides, but certainly not less important, as they will offer an approach to learning to read good literature from early on and as a family. Susan is also a wiz when it comes to developing engaging projects in conjunction with the texts being studied (think “make your own map of Odysseus’ journey” and “build a ziggurat while learning about Gilgamesh”). This will be a huge addition to our continued work and a major value add to our paid content in the near future.
Your Help is Needed: Our desire is to make classical Christian education affordable and available to everyone. As our resources grow families will have the ability to ensure their kids have access to top notch classical Christian curriculum for a very low monthly subscription. To do this, however, we need your help. We need partners of various kinds. Here is how you can help:
You can pray for us. This comes first because it is most vital. Please pray that God would bless our work and that we would find more and new ways to help turn the tide of education in our nation (and world) towards the Lordship of Jesus Christ and all that is true, good, and beautiful. Please pray that we make all the right connections with families, educators, and investors so that we become an increasingly known entity and one that people are making use of in their homes and schools. Please also pray that the devil would be foiled (as he seeks to interfere in any kind of kingdom building work). Pray for our vision to stay focused, for our energy and productivity to stay on track and see through to the end the good work that has been started. Pray that the Lord Jesus would be glorified in us as we labor for him.
You can share STGB with others. Even if things are such that you cannot at this time commit to being a paid subscriber (we totally get that) you can be an avid supporter and promoter of STGB to your friends, family, church, school, and online community. Would you consider putting a weekly reminder in your calendar to share at least one STGB article or study guide link each week? You can do this on your social media accounts or directly through emailing articles to friends, family, coworkers, etc. who might be interested. By regularly reading and sharing you can make a huge difference for us (and all without spending a dime). Please consider becoming an intentional partner in sharing this work with others. Here are some of our most popular articles to get you started:
You can become a paid subscriber. Again, right now we have a sale going on that is good for life. You can sign up for just $4 a month and never pay more than that.
You will gain access to our ever growing list of study guides and forthcoming curriculums for Logic, Composition, and Rhetoric as well as other paid content coming down the pipeline. We plan to offer opportunities for live seminars on classical education, books discussions, and special podcast episodes with great Christian thinkers which will be exclusively available to paid subscribers. If you believe in our mission and are able, please consider partnering with us financially for just $4 a month. You can also give subscriptions as a gift to others who you think would benefit.
If you are an administrator in a school there are also multi-seat discounts for those who might want to set up their teachers with subscriptions.
If you want to do more, consider becoming a “Founding Member” and giving more financial support to the work as you are able. By becoming a paid subscriber you will be helping to put classical Christian education and associated resources into the hands of thousands of students, parents, and teachers!
You can become an Investor. There are some major plans and projects on the horizon which we are not able to discuss openly at the moment but which will require significant funding. If you, or someone you know, would be interested in investing capital in a project like ours we would ask that you reach out to us and schedule a time to learn more about our plans (and dreams). We know the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and we know that some of you manage some of those hills for our Lord. We would ask that you take time to learn more about us, look around this site, and reach out if you are interested in being a part of our future as an investing partner. We would ask any potential investors to be aware of our theological and cultural commitments and to understand that these are our guiding principles which are non-negotiable.
Any level that you are able to join in with supporting STGB would be greatly appreciated. STGB exists because we love the people of God and want them to know how to articulate the Christian faith with power and persuasion and to know who they are and what they believe and how to tackle the toughest questions. We are also doing this because we love our nation and want it to turn its face back to Lord and his blessings and believe education is a key element of every reformation. Together we can make a difference and raise up a new generation of powerful Christian thinkers who will be Christ centered moms and dads, pastors, plumbers, teachers, business men, and entrepreneurs. We are not content to just sit back and watch as darkness crawls over our land and creeps into the church. We are here to fight for truth, fight for goodness, and fight for beauty!
Jesus Christ is Lord!
-Jacob Allee
Founder of Study The Great Books
Please note that our available PDFs are all quite usable but not all of them are as complete as they will be in the end. Hence we are calling them “beta.”
Great work and very exciting stuff. I loved the pictures of the pfiffltrigg and the hross from OSP. I’m doing an OSP podcast right now so OSP on my mind 24/7.