About Us

To explore with teachers — who will, in turn, teach students — ancient Greek ideals, including the efficacy of democracy and obligations of citizenship; the power of words and principled thinking and the power of the moral imagination; and such concepts as reverence for life and the ability to imagine ourselves in each other; and to answer the call to justice so vital to the survival of a humane global community. Our children are our guarantors. We cannot be indifferent.

In 1999, THE EXAMINED LIFE (ExL) Greek Studies in the Schools was established through the pathfinding efforts of Barbara Harrison and a small corps of educators with Brandeis University collaboration.  In 2013 for cost effective purposes, the program transitioned from the classroom to an online program to reach a greater geographic constituency in association with Framingham State University.  The program impacts hundreds of educators and thousands of students in schools across the nation.  During this period the operations of the program fell under the jurisdiction of the Newton Massachusetts Public Schools Grants Office. 

In 2018 ExL was incorporated in Massachusetts and received an 501(c)3 IRS non-profit designation.  During the same year Alpha Omega Council awarded ExL its first Philhellene Award to recognize, in a public setting, those individuals or organizations whose longstanding work has been to promote Hellenism and/or the ideals of Hellenism.  In addition to being the first awardee of this prestigious honor, over the years, ExL has received other awards including the Inaugural Outreach Award from the American Philological Association.  The program has been nominated numerous years for Sweden’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for its advocacy of children’s literature.

Through graduate course readings, lectures, and a study tour to Greece, the program continues to encourage teachers and students to think deeply about the moral and ethical landscape of ancient Greek philosophy, history, literature – and to foster the skills of argument and debate, to explore such concepts as relevant today as sophrosyne, hubris, aidos, and, in short, to nurture the search for wisdom and the ultimate power of principled thinking—“an odyssey of understanding.” 

The Examined Life is committed to recruiting and elevating a diverse group of ExL Fellows, reflecting the importance of equity and inclusion in our schools, for our students, and those who teach. We recognize that we are all strengthened when people of all backgrounds and experiences are part of the conversation, particularly those who have traditionally been excluded in the past. We are actively seeking to support participants who will enrich the field of education with regard to diversity of race, gender and gender expression, sexuality, social class, age, learning or physical abilities, religion, or national origin.

We know that the world of the ancient Greeks, and their legacy, is one that reflects a multicultural, interconnected system of exchange. We also acknowledge that historically the field of Classical Studies has marginalized people of color. The Examined Life stands against systemic racism and seeks to open the legacy of the ancient Greeks to all scholars, students, and teachers. We believe that the ideals of democracy, citizenship, art, literature, theater, and philosophy, and Socrates’s exhortation to live an ‘examined life’ are the inheritance of all of us and that our program should take strength in the human diversity of our modern world.