Join us live if you can! Doesn't fit your schedule? The class is already full? No worries, you can watch it later. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the asynchronous Plutarch where I can do the heavy-lifting to make Plutarch profitable in your homeschool.
What does each class look like?
The biggest difference between taking this course live versus watching the videos later is the in-class discussion and the commentary I give on each weekly narration. When turned in on time (24 hours before class begins), I will read and aggregate my comments on student narrations so the students can improve as writers and thinkers. The only narration that on which I give individual written feedback, though, is the exam narration.
I will read a section of Plutarch and then call on one of the students to give an oral narration immediately after the reading. Students can follow along with the text at home (or on the screen), but our texts are closed for the narration.
Before I point anything out to the students, I open the floor for questions, additions, and clarifications. This means that the points I bring up or draw the students' attention to are often driven by student interest and engagement.
I encourage all the students to apply Plutarch's lessons to citizenship in their own context, learning more about God, Nature, and Man in the process!
Oral and written narrations every week. Written feedback given on exam narration.
Class size capped at 14 to keep discussion lively, engaging, and accessible.
Text length of individual points can be shorter or longer depending on your needs
“As a homeschooling parent, I enrolled in one of Mr. Cox's Plutarch classes because I was struggling to lead my kids through Plutarch. In spite of a bachelor's degree (and being a homeschool K-12 graduate myself), I'd never encountered Plutarch before. I was often lost in the maze of names, battles, places, and dates, and our Plutarch sessions often felt like the blind leading the blind. We frequently paused mid-reading so I could frantically look up who a person was, or where a place was, or struggle to frame a more abstract question in such a way that the mysterious Google search bar gods would understand what it was I wanted to know--why was Battle X significant? Why was it bad for A when B did XYZ? It felt kind of like drinking from a fire hose. We knew water was good for us, and some days we enjoyed getting drenched, but other days it felt useless (at best) or like a waste of time (at worst). Often, it was like reading a bunch of stuff about people and places and things we didn't know how to connect to one other--let alone connect to OUR lives in any meaningful way. Enter Tom Cox's Plutarch classes. I enrolled myself in Cato the Younger as an asynchronous student, to see if it was worth the money to enroll my kids. To say I was blown away is a paltry understatement. In a relatively short class period, Tom manages to not only read the week's Plutarch section, ask for narrations, and answer questions; he does with such obvious delight, enthusiasm, and knowledge of the subject matter, and such interest and empathy for his students, that Plutarch became fascinating. To ME, a fortysomething homeschool mom of 5!
He knows who all the characters are and can tell you right away when you ask. He knows the location of Battle X and will draw you a quick little map so you know where it is, too. He'll draw a diagram of a galley and explain complex relationships. HE KNOWS HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE NAMES. He knows the history of this time period, so he can tell you who comes before and after this person, and why this person is important, without consulting the Google search bar gods. He cares about this stuff--like, a lot--and his passion is infectious, birthing interest and care in the hearts and minds and memories of his students. He makes Plutarch interesting and relevant to students in the 2020s, which is more than I have been able to accomplish in spite of my sincerest efforts.
To sum up: Is a Tom Cox class worth the money? Yes, a thousand times yes! ”
Nikki in WA
Get access to these videos or any of the past Plutarch's Lives I've taught!
Featured Courses, Plutarch, Recorded
Get asynchronous access to the current Term's course and to all the past Plutarch classes and resources. You're not only learning from the prince of biographers, but also supporting the Plutarch Podcast and the free resources as well!
$20 / month
