The Heart of Wisdom approach recommends immersing your children in living books or classical literature. We believe you should read the greatest classic—the Bible—the only real, literal, living book, daily, and attempt to read several classics throughout the year.

What is a Classic?

What is a classic book? The answer depends on who you ask. A classic to a Christian can be quite different from the world’s definition. In a broad sense, the term classic is applied to anything accepted either as a model of excellence or as a work of enduring cultural relevance and value. The differences between Heart of Wisdom’s classical list and the classics included in classical secular education are the book lists.

Classics According to Classical Education

Encarta defines classical education as the study of Greek and Roman literature, one of the oldest forms of education known.  In classical education, a classic is any ancient Greek or Roman literary work of the first or highest quality.

The modern classical approach focuses on the Great Books of the Western World (GBBWW). Virtually every book in this collection is required reading in a liberal arts curriculum, and includes works of art, science, philosophy, poetry, prose and history from the time of the Greeks until the early 20th century. Plato, Herodotus, Virgil, and Aristotle are some of the main authors. This list was developed by Mortimer J. Adler and Britannica Editors. They believed these books were the core of Western learning and culture. Most of the books on this list were written by non-Christians, men like Aeschylus, Apollonius, Aquinas, Dewey, Euclid, Euripides, Freud, Hippocrates, Homer, Marx, Plato, Ptolemy, Muhammad (the Quran or Koran), Thoreau, etc.

Classics According to Heart of Wisdom

Heart of Wisdom’s suggested books lists include models of excellence or  works of enduring cultural relevance and value, and do not include mythology nor books by the ancient Greek philosophers.

Free: Choosing and Using Resources

Free Choosing and Using Resources Booklet (31 pages PDF)
Includes Classics by Grade Level

Download a 31 page PDF
to view classics we recommend by grade level.

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