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Professional Development » Harvard Classics Challenge

Harvard Classics Challenge

     Dr. Charles W. Eliot for forty years President of Harvard University and one of America’s greatest scholars and educators compiled and edited “The Five Foot Shelf” known as the Harvard Classics, first published in 1909. His purpose was to provide what was essential to develop a cultivated mind, a good substitute for a liberal education to anyone who would read them with commitment.  He said, “A great mind needs acquaintance with the prodigious store of recorded discoveries, experiences, and reflections which humanity in its intermittent and irregular progress from barbarism to civilization has acquired and laid up.”

The Harvard Classics touch every facet of human interest: romance, poetry, adventure, exploration, drama, mystery, political theory, law and philosophy. The fifty volumes give a picture of the progress of the human race within historical times, to record the stream of the world’s thought that the observant reader’s mind shall be enriched, refined and fertilized.

There are about 23,000 pages in the fifty volumes.  Reading ten pages per day an aspiring scholar could read all fifty volumes in their middle and high school years and some works included in these volumes will already be read as part of the JAA curriculum.

This invitation is for the scholar that desires a greater challenge and a deeper dive into scholarship.  Included in the set is a reading guide that invites those that can commit to reading 15 minutes a day to accelerate the journey of becoming a well-educated man or woman.  Each day write down discoveries from your reading in your common place book and share those thoughts with your family, friends and mentor.  Read, write, discuss!

Why take the Harvard Classics challenge?  “They take you out of the rut of life……They offer you companionship of the most interesting and influential men and women who have ever lived; they make it possible for you to travel without leaving home, and to have vacations without taking time from your work” (Eliot).  The classics included in this compilation are the finest writings of the greatest creative minds of the world.  They offer you education and the means of making your life what you want it to be. 

How do you begin?  Complete sets of the Harvard Classics are often available on eBay, Amazon, in used bookstores, and in some libraries. They are also available to all on a digital platform.

Take the challenge! Just begin!

Dr. Dean and Linda Forman

Founders, John Adams Academy