2-week Semi-intensive - 1776: Ancient Greek and the American Mind

Summer 2026

This course has concluded. Visit our current catalog for upcoming offerings.

Course Description

Yes, but... what can you actually DO with a Classics degree? One answer: you can found the freest, mightiest, most successful republic in the history of the world! If we translate what the American Founders studied in college into contemporary categories, we would term them Classics majors. In this class we will translate and discuss great texts in Ancient Greek and English in 10 daily two-hour sessions. Sessions 1-4: Socrates' discussion with Thrasymachus about whether Justice = the interest of the stronger (aka, Might Makes Right) from Plato's Republic, Book I. Session 5: excerpts in English from Lincoln in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates covering the same question. Sessions 6-9: Ancient Greek text of Pericles' Funeral Oration. Session 10: English discussion of the Gettysburg Address through the lens of how hard it might be to translate it into Attic Greek. Come join the adventure of this intellectual ancestry search in time for America's 250th birthday!

Details

Semester: Summer 2026
Time: 1:00 PM ET
Duration: 60 minutes per session
Level: Intermediate-Advanced — Intermediate-advanced reading knowledge.
Subject: Greek
Textbook: Steadman's edition of Plato's Republic I. Instructor wii provide other materials.

Tuition

$1,000 per course

Availability

5 spots remaining out of 5

Cancellation Policy

Telepaideia tuition is non-refundable. However, if you need to cancel your enrollment or withdraw from your class, you may be eligible for a 50% credit to be used toward a future Telepaideia course. In order to be eligible for this credit, you must notify info@paideiainstitute.org of your withdrawal before the second class meeting has taken place.

Instructor

David Ring

David Ring teaches Latin and Ancient Greek as living languages by using an eclectic mix of methods, ranging from the insights of Renaissance Humanist pedagogy (especially the advice of Erasmus) to the Direct or Nature method to (first and foremost) Teaching with Comprehensible Input. Be it a discussion in Latin or Greek about a beautiful painting, or personal life conversation, or solving riddles, or paraphrasing poets into simpler prose, or storyboarding Lucian's True Stories -- David and his students aim to get lost in the joy of what they are doing, such that they forget they are speaking Latin or Ancient Greek. He believes that the purpose of liberal education is to help young people grow in self-knowledge -- both individual and cultural --, to help them form sharp intellects, wise judgment, and greatness of soul. He believes this is best done via direct encounters with the greatest minds and greatest stories of the last 3,000 years.