The Pelican Society
Est. 2015
Immerse your family in the joy of good stories and rich conversations.
Ready to move your book discussions well beyond “did you like it?” Find support and encouragement here for the journey, from Kindergarten to High School and beyond.
The Pelican Society exists to encourage its members in their noble work as teachers, to rejoice with them in the privilege of training the young, and to equip them as readers to join the Great Conversation.
Everything in The Pelican Society is intentionally designed to fulfill one of three purposes:
1. To equip parents and teachers with the tools they need to feel confident in their ability to lead students into a love and understanding of literature.
2. To lighten the burden of a busy teacher or homeschooling parent by providing teaching resources for literary study.
3. To provide an honest community for parents, teachers, and readers. Modern society is structured to encourage us to retreat into loneliness or put up a pretense of success. There’s no need for that here. If there’s any theme more prominent than others throughout the Great Books, it is the idea that strength comes from relationship founded on common weakness and failure. In reading and conversing together, may we find that true friendship described by C.S. Lewis: “What? You too? I thought I was the only one!”
Standard Membership Benefits
Members receive access to our complete and growing teacher guide library – including all titles published in our Ready Readers series, as well as some that remain unpublished. Teacher Guides are 20 to 30-page booklets with in-depth notes on a classic story that fully prepare a teacher for Socratic discussion. Some of our most recent titles include:
The Iliad of Homer
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Our Quick Card library contains bullet-style summaries of the elements of fiction for classic stories. These can be used by the teacher as a quick reference for important points during a Socratic discussion. We currently have over 100 titles, with more added all the time (download a sample).
Enjoy our vast library of videos covering practical topics for the homeschooling parent or classroom teacher in the trenches! Adam and Missy Andrews offer insights gleaned from over 20 years of homeschooling experience on topics including educational philosophy, literature study, and curricular organization.
View a sample webinar on “How to Design Your Own Literature Class” here.
Take a little time to feed your own soul and enjoy a thriving bookish community! Pelicans are invited to enjoy our exclusive Pelican Book Club, a live, bi-weekly webinar where members chat with CenterForLit staff about the current title being discussed.
Members also receive access to our library of previous Book Club discussions that reaches all the way back to 2015!
Watch a past discussion here!
Members get access to our complete “Radio Read Along” library, featuring complete recordings performed by CenterForLit staff of public domain titles from authors like Charles Dickens, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mark Twain. Enjoy listening to a book together as a family and then discuss it afterwards!
Get connected to a large community of literary enthusiasts, ask questions, and share tips with fellow parents and teachers in the trenches.
Members receive a 10% discount on all of our print materials and resources, as well as on all online courses.
