ACL Statement concerning the Paideia Institute

October 8, 2019
To the Board of Directors and Advisory Board of The Paideia Institute:
The Board of Governors of The American Classical League has authorized the release of the following statement.
The American Classical League expresses its deep concern in response to recent publications regarding the Paideia Institute. Coming from many different sources, they contain statements outlining institutional practices of racism, sexism, and discriminatory behaviors against various minority groups.
We look forward to a response from Paideia’s Board of Directors about concrete, specific, and visible steps to be taken by the organization to address these matters, as the response from the President of Paideia (emailed to its Friends on Oct. 2) is not adequate. That Paideia has run good programs in no way minimizes or counters the significant issues of discrimination and serious systemic problems that have been raised.
As an organization whose Core Values include the statement “We embrace all people who have an interest in the ancient world from all levels of instruction, stages of life, and backgrounds,” ACL cannot in good conscience continue to support Paideia and its programs before a full accounting has been made by Paideia and significant institutional change has been implemented.