About

The Trusted Talent Network for Classical Education

Classical Commons is a digital platform connecting local K-12 schools to the essential resources needed for promoting classical liberal arts education. The platform provides an ecosystem that includes people from K-12 schools, colleges & universities, homeschool groups, career placement offices, veterans’ associations, retirement organizations, etc.

Torres Martin Center article
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Classical education is the pursuit of wisdom and virtue by means of a rich and ordered course of study grounded in the liberal arts tradition.

How does it work

How Does it Work?

We built a platform to provide parents, teachers, and school leaders with what they need to pursue excellence in their school communities.

Parents

Parents want to understand how the classical model works and how to effectively support their schools.

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Teachers want to grow as professionals and become increasingly masterful at the craft of teaching.

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School administrators are looking for talent and training that will generate consistent, effective instruction within a school culture of excellence.

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Ancient music and historical recordings from Classical Commons by the Ancient Language Institute.

Our Team

Meet our team

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.

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Founding Partner

Robert L. Jackson

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.

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Partner

Phillip Kilgore​

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Advisory Council

Our expert advisors are artists, practitioners, scholars, authors, and entrepreneurs — and all leaders who are deeply committed to the renewal of liberal arts education in America.

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Artist & Educator

Juliette Aristides

Aristides is the founder of the Classical Atelier at the Gage Academy of Fine Art in Seattle, WA and instructed there for over two decades. Vice President and Cofounder of the Da Vinci Initiative, Aristides provides artistic training to public school educators nationally.

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Philosopher & Professor

Christine J. Boor

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.

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Poet & Critic

Dana Gioia

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.

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Historian & Scholar

James Hankins

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.

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Theologian & Author

Junius Johnson

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Policy Expert & Author

Robert Pondiscio

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Musician & Professor

Carol Reynolds

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Mathematician & Scholar

James Tanton

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Philosopher & Professor

Brian A. Williams

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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Anthropologist & Critic

Peter Wood

We’re committed to guiding growth, sharing knowledge, and inspiring success every step of the way.
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FAQ

Questions & Answers

Browse our FAQs to learn more about how Classical Commons connects talent with top classical schools, how our application process works, and how schools can get involved.

What is Classical Commons?

Classical Commons is a platform connecting talented educators with classical schools across the country. We help schools find qualified teachers who understand and embrace the classical model, while helping educators discover meaningful teaching opportunities in the classical education movement.

Classical Commons serves two groups: aspiring and experienced teachers seeking positions at classical schools (Talent), and classical schools looking to hire passionate educators (Schools).

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Choose the path that's right for you

Whether you’re an educator seeking your calling in classical education, a school building an exceptional faculty, or a parent and supporter invested in the movement, Classical Commons is here to connect you with our community. Join us in strengthening classical education for the next generation.
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Robert L. Jackson

For 25 years, Dr. Jackson has promoted liberal education through teaching, scholarship, and administrative activities. He began as a professor of English and education, then worked as chief academic officer at Great Hearts, where he founded the GH Institute. Currently, Jackson serves as the executive director of the Florida Institute for Classical Learning. He also serves as a senior fellow for Flagler College and the Chesterton Schools Network, while contributing as an associate editor for Principia journal. Jackson has received teaching awards from Florida State University and The King’s College, and was the 2021 recipient of the Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship.

Phillip Kilgore

Mr. Kilgore is an experienced business developer and leader of organizations and teams in government, industry, and non-profits. He focuses on organizational growth and effectiveness, mission and strategy execution, and talent development. For a decade, Phil served as the founding director of the Barney Charter School Initiative, supporting 25 classical charter schools in 11 states (13,000 K-12 students served). His team offered consultations, training, and curriculum support that propelled those schools to the top ranks in each state. Phil graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, is a native of Texas, and has lived and worked in six states, Europe, and Asia.

Juliette Aristides

Juliette Aristides is a Seattle based painter who seeks to understand and convey the human spirit through art. Juliette teaches workshops both nationally and internationally, and founded the Aristides Atelier online through Terracotta. Author of several books on classical drawing and painting, Aristides is the founder of the Classical Atelier at the Gage Academy of Fine Art in Seattle, WA and instructed there for over two decades. As Vice President and Cofounder of the Da Vinci Initiative, Aristides provides artistic training to public school educators nationally. She is a frequent contributor to Artist & Illustrators and Artists Magazine. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, American Artist, and Gulf Connoisseur Magazine. She exhibits in one person and group shows nationally.

Christine J. Boor

The inaugural holder of The Vilma György Pallos Endowed Chair in Classical and Liberal Education, Dr. Boor is an alumna of Belmont Abbey College (BA 2011) and Baylor University (PhD, political science, 2017). She is also an Associate Professor in the  Honors College at Belmont Abbey. As holder of Belmont Abbey’s first endowed chair, she oversees the development of Belmont Abbey’s Master of Arts in Classical and Liberal Education (MACLE) program, which aims to provide students with a profound understanding of classical pedagogy, the Great Books, the liberal arts, and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Former California Poet Laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent. The first person in his family to attend college, he received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. For fifteen years he worked as a businessman before quitting at forty-one to become a full-time writer.

His surname is pronounced Joy-a.

James Hankins

James Hankins is a historian of the Italian Renaissance and a powerful voice in the movement to reform American education. 2025 marks his fortieth year of teaching at Harvard University, where he has focused on the classical tradition, political thought, the movement of humanism, and late medieval, Renaissance, and early modern European history. He is the general editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library and the associate editor of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum.
 
In 2012, he was honored with the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award of the Renaissance Society of America.

Junius Johnson

Junius Johnson is an independent scholar, teacher, musician, and writer. He is the executive director of Junius Johnson Academics, through which he offers innovative classes for both children and adults that aim to marry the sense of wonder with intellectual rigor. An avid devotee of story, he is especially drawn to fantasy, science fiction, and young adult novels. He performs professionally on the french horn and electric bass. He holds a BA from Oral Roberts University (English Lit), an MAR from Yale Divinity School (Historical Theology), and an MA, two MPhils, and a PhD (Philosophical Theology) from Yale University. He is the author of five books, including The Father of Lights: A Theology of Beauty and On Teaching Fairy Stories.
 
He is a prolific writer, an engaging speaker, an inspiring teacher, and a passionate musician.

Robert Pondiscio

Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies, where he focuses on K–12 education, curriculum, teaching, school choice, and charter schooling. Pondiscio has also served as a policy analyst and education reform expert at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute; worked with the Core Knowledge Foundation; and advised and taught at Democracy Prep Public Schools. 

Mr. Pondiscio became interested in education policy issues when he started teaching fifth grade at a struggling South Bronx public school in 2002. Before that, he worked in journalism for 20 years, including in senior positions at Time and BusinessWeek.

Mr. Pondiscio is the author of many books and has been published extensively in the popular press, including in The Atlantic, Education Next, the New York Daily News, and The Wall Street Journal. As a frequent speaker, he is often interviewed on radio and television to discuss education issues. His appearances include CNN, Fox News Channel, and hundreds of local TV and radio programs.

Carol Reynolds

After a long career as professor of musical history at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Dr. Carol Reynolds continues to design fine arts curricula and advocate for art education, weaving history, humor, and energy into everything she does. Her research interests include German Romanticism and the musical court of Frederick the Great, and she has lived and taught in Germany many times since 1981. She founded and directed SMU’s Study-in-Germany program and is fluent in German and Russian.

Carol’s unprecedented textbook Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture (2009) has reached students across the world, and in 2011 she released a cross-discipline course called Exploring America’s Musical Heritage. Her other publications include Early Sacred Music and a classic family songbook called Hurrah and Hallelujah.

A popular speaker and a passionate traveler, Carol gives lectures at educational conferences and arts institutions across the U.S. She and her husband Hank now live in North Carolina and maintain a home in Weimar—the home of J.S. Bach, Liszt, Goethe, and Schiller.

James Tanton

James Tanton earned his PhD in mathematics from Princeton University. He is an author, a consultant, and ambassador for the Mathematical Association of America in Washington D.C., and a founder of the Global Math Project, an initiative to transform the entire world’s perception of what mathematics can, and should, be. This program has now reached over 7 million students and teachers across the planet. James has taught mathematics both at university and high-school institutions. He advises on curriculum, consults with teachers, and gives demonstration classes, lectures, and professional development sessions across the globe.

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Brian A. Williams

Brian A. Williams is Dean of the Templeton Honors College, Associate Professor of Ethics and Liberal Studies, and Co-Director of Templeton’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). Before coming to Eastern, he was Lecturer in Theology and Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford and Director of Oxford Conversations.

He holds an MPhil and DPhil in Christian Ethics from the University of Oxford, where he was a Clarendon Scholar; an MA and ThM in Systematic and Historical Theology from Regent College; and a BA in Biblical Studies from Ozark Christian College.

His current research examines the tradition of Christian Liberal Arts Education, focusing on the works of Hugh of St. Victor, Philip Melanchthon, John Henry Newman, and others. Dr. Williams’ broader academic interests include virtue ethics, Christian and Muslim political thought, Karl Barth’s theology and politics, contemporary classical education, and Dante Alighieri’s Commedia. He is the author of The Potter’s Rib: The History, Theology, and Practice of Mentoring for Pastoral Formation; co-editor of Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life; and General Editor of Principia: A Journal of Classical Education.

Dr. Williams is a National Alcuin Fellow, a member of the Academic Board of Advisors for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), and an Advisory Board Member for the Classic Liberal Education Network (CLEN).

Peter W. Wood

Peter W. Wood is President of the National Association of Scholars. Wood was previously tenured at Boston University as a professor of anthropology, where he served as Associate Provost and Chief of Staff to the President. He later held the position of Provost at The King’s College in New York. 

Wood’s long-term anthropological lens and his experiences at the various levels of academia have informed his multiple published books, several edited and co-authored collections, and several hundred articles examining the origins and consequences of issues ranging Common Core to the radicalization of college campuses.

Wood has been published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The National Review, Minding the Campus, and Partisan Review, among others journals, and he is a frequent public voice on mainstream news stations in conversations surrounding academia. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of Academic Questions. 

For his work in bringing to national attention the political prejudices, curricular censorship, administrative bloat, and suppression of freedom and speech and thought that characterize all too many institutions of higher education he received the Jeane Kirkpatrick Prize in 2019.