Great Books Academy

Great Books Academy is the homeschool-enrollment arm of Angelicum Academy, a Catholic K-12 classical program built on Mortimer Adler's Paideia framework and Socratic-seminar discussion of the Western canon. Families enroll for the lesson plans, the discussion groups, and, at the high-school level, the Associate of Arts pathway that packages homeschool with accredited college credit.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical / Great Books / Socratic seminar
Worldview	Christian-Catholic (officially recognized under Canon 803 § 1)
Grades	K-12 (plus college-credit and Associate's tracks in grades 9-12+)
Formats	Digital lesson plans, print book lists, live online Socratic discussions
Cost tier	Premium
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	Yes (Arizona, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Utah listed on the enrollment page)
Accredited	Yes (Associate of Arts through Holy Apostles College partnership)
Established	2000 (per Angelicum Academy's recognition statement)
Website	greatbooksacademy.org

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Primary-text reading, Socratic discussion, genuine college-transferable work in the upper grades
Ease of teaching	4	Daily lesson plans and moderated discussion groups do most of the curriculum work for the parent
Content quality	5	Curated primary texts from the Western canon; Catholic intellectual tradition represented seriously
Flexibility	3	Discussion-group commitment creates a schedule dependency; book list is largely set
Value for money	4	High sticker price, but accredited college credit at $129-$350/month beats community-college prices
Worldview scope	2	Narrow: specifically Catholic classical with Thomistic emphasis
Visual/design	3	Functional institutional website; lesson plans are clear if not glossy
Support resources	4	Live discussion moderators, academic consultation, quarterly testing, transcript service

Who the publisher is

Great Books Academy is the homeschool enrollment and lesson-plan operation of Angelicum Academy, a Catholic classical K-12 program based in Divide, Colorado. Angelicum Academy was founded in 2000 and is officially recognized by the Catholic Church under Canon 803 § 1, the canonical section under which a school may describe itself as a "Catholic" school with the bishop's recognition. The institution takes its name from the Angelicum, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, signaling its Dominican and Thomistic intellectual orientation. The program's curricular design was developed in close consultation with Dr. Mortimer J. Adler's Paideia framework, which emphasizes primary-text reading and Socratic-seminar discussion as the core of liberal education.

The Great Books Program, available beginning in the upper-elementary grades and the distinctive feature of the high-school track, meets weekly online for two-hour Socratic discussions of assigned readings from the Western canon, moderated by Angelicum faculty. At the high-school level, students who complete the Great Books Program can earn an accredited Associate of Arts college degree by the end of twelfth grade through a partnership with Holy Apostles College and Seminary, a Catholic institution in Cromwell, Connecticut. This is a meaningful credential. A homeschool graduate who finishes the Angelicum Great Books track arrives at a four-year college with a transferable Associate's degree in hand.

The worldview is Catholic classical, and specifically Thomistic in its theological and philosophical register. The curriculum's handling of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics reflects the Dominican and Thomistic tradition that gives the Angelicum its name. Non-Catholic Christian families occasionally enroll and report the Catholic framing as unobtrusive in the lower grades, where the core work is Latin, math, grammar, and classic children's literature, but more prominent in the upper grades, where philosophy, theology, and primary-text readings from St. Thomas Aquinas become central to the curriculum. Non-Christian and secular families will find the Catholic framing fundamental rather than incidental.

The core pedagogy

Great Books Academy's pedagogy is classical Great Books: primary texts read directly, in age-appropriate selections, followed by Socratic discussion with a moderator. The elementary grades use a literature-rich booklist that includes classical children's works like Winnie the Pooh, The Secret Garden, and The Wind in the Willows, alongside the Story of Civilization series for history and a rotation of standard arithmetic (Saxon), grammar (Shurley), and handwriting (Abeka) texts. This eclectic assembly of third-party curricula for skills subjects, with Angelicum's own selection and schedule as the organizing layer, is a hallmark of the program.

Beginning around grade 3, students may participate in Socratic discussion groups tied to the literature readings. The discussion model intensifies through the middle grades and becomes the Great Books Program in grades 9 and up. At the high-school level, the Great Books Program replaces conventional literature, history, and philosophy courses with a single integrated seminar track: two-hour weekly online discussions of assigned primary texts, moderated by two Angelicum faculty, with expected preparation of 8-12 hours per week outside the seminar.

Signature mechanics: (1) Primary texts over textbooks, students read Homer rather than a textbook about Homer, read Aquinas rather than a summary of Thomism, read the Declaration of Independence rather than a paraphrase. (2) Socratic discussion as the core assessment, moderated online discussions in which students engage with each other under faculty guidance, rather than take multiple-choice tests. (3) Integrated skills subjects from third-party publishers. Saxon, Shurley, Abeka, and Harcourt Science fill out the subjects the Great Books program does not itself deliver. (4) Accredited Associate's degree pathway, the upper-grade Great Books track integrates with Holy Apostles College coursework to produce a transferable AA degree at high-school graduation. (5) Thomistic philosophical framework, the tradition of Thomas Aquinas structures the philosophical and theological content from the middle grades onward.

A day in the life

A fifth-grader enrolled in Great Books Academy's homeschool program begins the morning around 8:30 with daily Mass readings or a short Bible reading (10-15 minutes, family practice). Math follows. Saxon 5/4 or 6/5, depending on placement, for 40-45 minutes. Then language arts: Shurley English grammar lesson and practice (30 minutes), followed by a handwriting page from the Abeka cursive program (10 minutes). The day's Great Books reading comes next, a chapter from a literature selection or from the Story of Civilization, with narration or a short written response (30-45 minutes). Latin study at the elementary level uses Henle or Prima Latina (20-25 minutes). Science. Harcourt or a similar text, runs three to four days per week (30 minutes). History and geography often combine with the literature readings when the texts align. Total morning academic time: approximately 3-3.5 hours; parent involvement is moderate, the daily lesson plans do the curriculum work, and the parent's role is largely assigning, checking, and discussing.

A tenth-grader in the Great Books Program runs largely independently. The student reads the assigned primary texts. Plato's Republic over several weeks, Augustine's Confessions, selections from Aquinas, and so on, for 8-12 hours per week. Writing assignments are typically essays or discussion-preparation notes rather than short-answer work. The weekly two-hour online Socratic discussion is the central synchronous event. Skills subjects, math, science, foreign language, continue at a high-school level using Angelicum's assembled third-party curricula. The parent's role shifts to scheduler and credential-tracker, with most academic content handled by the discussion faculty.

What they do exceptionally well

The accredited Associate of Arts pathway. For families willing to commit to the Great Books Program at the high-school level, the ability to graduate high school with a transferable AA degree in hand is genuinely distinctive. At $350 per month for the Associate's track, five online Holy Apostles College courses are bundled with the high-school seminar work. A family spending approximately $4,200 per year for three to four years can produce a homeschool graduate with an AA and a solid primary-text foundation, a credential that typically costs $10,000-$20,000 through community college or dual-enrollment at regional state universities.

Socratic-seminar moderation. The live online discussion groups are moderated by two Angelicum faculty rather than left as unstructured peer conversation. This is what makes the seminar model work, a Socratic discussion without a trained moderator tends to drift, and it is the specific value Great Books Academy delivers that a family cannot easily reproduce with a booklist alone.

Primary-text commitment without dilution. Many programs claim to be classical or Great Books; fewer follow through to primary-text reading at grade-appropriate depth. Great Books Academy follows through. A graduate of the high-school program has genuinely read substantial portions of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Dante, and the canonical texts of Western philosophy, theology, and literature, not summaries, not excerpts, but the texts themselves.

What they do poorly

Worldview narrowness. Great Books Academy is Catholic classical, and specifically Thomistic. Non-Catholic Christian families, secular families, and non-Christian religious families will find the Catholic framing fundamental rather than adjustable. This is categorical and expected. Angelicum Academy is canonically recognized as a Catholic institution, but it bears stating plainly. Families looking for a Great Books program without Catholic theological commitment should consider secular or ecumenical alternatives.

Schedule dependency at the upper grades. The two-hour weekly synchronous Socratic discussion is an immovable commitment. Families whose schedules do not align with the discussion time slots, or who travel frequently, or whose children are not yet ready for live group discussion, will find the upper-grade track difficult to fit. The lower-grade homeschool program is schedule-flexible; the Great Books Program specifically is not.

Eclectic skills-subject stack. Because Great Books Academy assembles its skills curricula from third-party publishers (Saxon, Shurley, Abeka, Harcourt), families who do not like these specific publishers or who prefer a different math or language-arts approach must either accept the Academy's choices or substitute. This is a minor point for families comfortable with Saxon and Shurley, but a real friction for families committed to Singapore Math, All About Spelling, or other specific preferred publishers.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Great Books Academy if: you are a Catholic family who wants a Catholic classical K-12 program with genuine Thomistic intellectual depth; you want a moderated Socratic-seminar experience rather than solo reading; you are interested in the accredited AA pathway for a high-school graduate; you value primary-text reading over textbook summary; you have the schedule flexibility to accommodate weekly live discussion meetings; you want a program that delivers most of the curriculum work through its own staff rather than asking the parent to teach.

• Skip Great Books Academy if: you are not Catholic and the Catholic framing is a mismatch; you want a self-paced, fully asynchronous program; you prefer a curriculum you assemble yourself rather than enrolling in an institutional academy; your schedule cannot accommodate weekly two-hour live discussions; you want a secular or ecumenical Great Books approach; you object to the specific third-party skills curricula Great Books Academy uses (Saxon, Shurley, Abeka).

Cost honest assessment

As of April 2026, Great Books Academy homeschool enrollment runs approximately $300 per student per year for grades 1-12, with a 20 percent family discount on siblings after the first. The Great Books Program at the high-school level has three tuition tracks: $129 per month for the high-school-only track, $299 per month for the college-credit track, and $350 per month for the accredited Associate's track that includes five online Holy Apostles College courses (per industry reports of Great Books Program pricing). Annualized: approximately $1,548, $3,588, and $4,200 respectively.

A realistic all-in family budget for an elementary student in the homeschool program, enrollment plus the third-party skills curricula (Saxon, Shurley, Abeka, Harcourt) the program specifies, runs approximately $600-$900 annually. A high-schooler on the Great Books Associate's track runs approximately $4,500-$5,500 annually, including textbook costs for the skills subjects and Holy Apostles College course fees rolled into the $350/month figure. Compare to Kolbe Academy's Catholic classical enrollment ($500-$1,200 annually plus books) and Mother of Divine Grace's enrollment ($400-$900 annually plus books); Great Books Academy sits in the middle for lower grades and at the top for the upper-grade accredited track, where the AA credential drives the pricing premium.

ESA eligibility notes

Great Books Academy's enrollment page explicitly lists ESA support for Arizona, Arkansas, New Hampshire, and Utah, with the academy appearing directly on the Children's Scholarship Fund portal for New Hampshire. Because the program is Catholic-identified, states that restrict religious materials from ESA funds will typically not cover the religious-content portions of the curriculum; most ESA programs that permit religious curricula (including Arizona's ClassWallet and Utah's Utah Fits All) cover Great Books Academy enrollment without issue. The third-party skills curricula (Saxon, Shurley, Abeka) are separately purchased and separately subject to ESA rules, most of these textbooks are broadly ESA-eligible. Verify line-item eligibility in the specific state marketplace.

Alternatives

• Kolbe Academy, a Catholic classical family would pick Kolbe over Great Books Academy for a more settled institutional operation with lower tuition, a clearer homeschool-versus-correspondence distinction, and less dependency on live synchronous discussion.
• Mother of Divine Grace, a Catholic classical family would pick MODG over Great Books Academy for a Laura Berquist-designed program with detailed syllabi, strong saint-studies integration, and lower tuition.
• Classical Learning Resource Center (CLRC), a secular-accommodating classical family would pick CLRC over Great Books Academy for a Great Books seminar program with comparable Socratic-discussion pedagogy and without the Catholic theological framing.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Great Books Academy's website at greatbooksacademy.org and Angelicum Academy's related pages at angelicum.net in April 2026. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's review of Angelicum Academy Homeschool Program, Catholic World Report's coverage of the program, and the Classical Liberal Arts Academy comparison of Angelicum and comparable Catholic classical programs. Prices and program details verified April 2026.