About Scholars Online: Who We Are

Scholars Online has been offering exceptionally rigorous academic content to students around the world for decades. Some of our teachers were among the pioneers offering classical education in online courses in the mid-1990s. Our students have gone on to the most competitive colleges and universities in the world, and proven equal to both the academic and the human challenges of that encounter.

Genuine classical learning demands discipline and cultivates character. The material is tough and rich, and the habits built digesting rich, tough matters mold a person ready to live a serious and honest life. Such mental and spiritual metabolism cannot be achieved by shortcuts, or reduced to a formula.

We adopt new tools, from video conferencing to artificial intelligence, only insofar as they serve this honest pursuit — fostering genuine mastery, honoring the failures from which learning proceeds, and freeing teachers and students to focus on clarity of thought and expression.

We believe that Christian learning is rooted in a recognition of our God-given nature and in charity for all, even those with whom we most vehemently disagree. We believe that we can thereby mediate the love of Christ, and also model an alternative for a world that is being torn asunder by shallow and divisive discourse.

At the core of classical Christian education, therefore, lies the difficult task of understanding one another with both charity and critical acumen. It depends directly on the close interpretation and precise expression of words, arguments, and ideas. We are unabashedly logocentric — we prize the written word as the medium through which the most critical ideas have been conveyed throughout the generations. This underlies our approach to our source material and instructional media.

We have framed our academic community and named ourselves accordingly: we see ourselves — students and teachers alike — as scholars, engaged in a common and courteous exploration of ideas. We expect our students to respect and seriously engage the ideas of their teachers, of the sources they are studying, and of each other. We require our teachers to do the same. We will challenge, and we encourage our students to challenge, glib explanations or unsupported claims from any quarter. We do not ask students to accept any claim merely on our say-so; we expect every position, including our own, to be explained, examined, and defended or refuted with charity.

Our teachers, who come from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant backgrounds, all confess the Nicene Creed. We require no statement of faith from our students; we merely ask that they engage in our common enterprise honestly, with respect and the seriousness with which they themselves hope to be met. We welcome open and frank discussion of matters of faith when they arise in our courses, as we consider these questions of the highest importance, both now and into eternity. At the same time, we honor parents as the first teachers of their children in the faith: our aim is to support the formation students receive from their own families and religious leaders.

From 2009-2017, Scholars Online was fully accredited by NWAC and AdvanceED, the leading accrediting body in the world. We are now fully accredited with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. We have never had to change our course content to meet others’ standards. We continue to be accountable only to higher authorities for what we hold to be true.

We specialize in supporting college-bound students, but we welcome anyone who would like to achieve a better grasp of the essentials of a true liberal arts education, and are delighted to provide a classical education opportunity for adults as well as for younger learners. We offer a number of subjects that even many colleges do not routinely offer, and are eager to work with institutions of secondary or higher education to extend their curricula and provide courses for college credit to their students. We are willing whenever we can to adapt to students’ particular requirements. If you have questions, feel free to write us and ask.

Scholars Online History

Core Beliefs Guiding our Community

Goals for Scholars Online Graduates

Scholars Online is a nonprofit corporation registered in the State of Washington, operating under IRS Code 501(c)(3) as a tax-exempt public charity.

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Scholars Online is fully accredited through the Middle States Accreditation Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools.