Jeremy Wagner

I was raised as a pastor's kid in a small-town New England church community. My first experience of classical languages was when my father taught me Latin and Greek roots in my fifth-grade homeschool, but it wasn't until after I had graduated from Gordon College in 2009, that I discovered the Christian classical renewal and began to dive into Latin in earnest. That initial interest grew into an obsession and eventually a calling.

I began teaching Latin in 2012, I became a CiRCE Certified Master Teacher in 2017, and I completed the CiRCE Tirocinium (i.e. the Latin Apprenticeship) in 2022. I had begun studying Latin textbooks on my own, but thanks to Andrew Kern and Buck Holler, I was now equipped to teach it in an active and dynamic way. That was when I started teaching online classes for the CiRCE Institute Online Academy.

I am a servant of God, a husband, a father of five, and a classical educator with well over a decade of experience as a full-time classroom teacher. Few things bring me so much enjoyment as reading, studying, and teaching Latin.

Teaching Philosophy

To paraphrase Andrew Kern, classical education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue in the soul through training in the Seven Liberal Arts. The first of those arts is Grammar, which has traditionally meant learning Latin or Greek. Latin, like any other language, is best learned per se, that is in through itself, directly, rather than through the medium of English translation. Rather than memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar charts, my students learn Latin words and grammar in context, encountering them in stories and using them in conversation. Repeated exposure to essential vocabulary and grammatical forms through a written narrative and oral instruction are complemented by an active use of the language that develops the student's skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

What does this have to do with wisdom and virtue? The direct method of language instruction cultivates careful listening and attention to detail, thus exercises the soul’s powers of perception. It also trains the mind of the student to draw out a principle from a multiplicity of examples and to test it by further application (inductive reasoning). Expressing oneself in another language inherently expands the possibilities of thought, and when the target language is an ancient one, beginning to think in that language draws us closer to the wisdom and thought patterns of the ancient forefathers of Western civilization, and does this in a way that nothing else can.

Statement of Faith

I and my family attend St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Wichita, KS, a parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. We are under the spiritual care of the Patriarch of Antioch, the ancient Syrian city where the followers of the Way were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). I adhere to all of the teachings of the Orthodox Church, summarized in the Nicene Creed and the Definition of Chalcedon. These include the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the virgin birth, the death and resurrection of Christ, and His coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. All glory to our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ!