what is the beyond program?
As a classical school, SLOCA is serious about Great Books—texts that have stood the test of time, whose ideas have trickled down into our current culture and continue to lend their wisdom to thinkers across the West and the world.
Many of these great books are included in the SLOCA curriculum—read in whole or in selections at the high school and middle school and as adaptations in the lower grades—but we wanted more than just our students to experience the wonder of these texts! What better way to invite our community into reading these Great Books together than a reading challenge with free prizes?
After months and months of debating which books to include in our Great Books reading challenge and months and months of designing custom stickers for each of those selected books, we officially rolled out the “Beyond: A Great Books Adventure” program in January 2026.
We chose the name “Beyond” in honor of Mortimer Adler’s reflection on reading challenging books:
“You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.”
Since the program’s launch less than a year ago, we have celebrated 253 sign ups:
- 67 staff members
- 73 parents + grandparents
- 85 High School + UMS students
- 20 SLOCAHS alumni
- 8 community members
These are 253 people who are committed to the (lifelong!) journey of practicing humility and learning from those who have lived, thought, and written in a different time.
Fun Fact: Since the program’s release in January 2026, 69 different SLOCA community members have read a total of 218 books from the Beyond list!
one parent’s journey
SLOCA students (and even SLOCA staff) are naturally reading many of these Great Books through their classes, but the rest of the SLOCA community have no formal obligation to read these texts in full. So, anytime a parent signs up for the Beyond program or lets us know that they read a new Beyond book, we get more than a little excited.
And when a parent is consistently reading Beyond books and telling us he loves them, we can’t help but take notice. After we received more than a few form submissions for newly completed Beyond books, we reached out to SLOCA parent Lucas Pierce to hear more about his experience with the Beyond program.
Having a career background in software development and analytics engineering, Pierce began our interview by sharing how he is naturally drawn to more “technical” books. “I’ve always read a lot,” Pierce admitted, “I mostly read non-fiction—more like I read a lot of textbooks and papers and things like that. And then I would alternate. I would read a textbook, and then I would slot in often a history or philosophy book, and that would be my ‘fun.’”
The Beyond reading list contains a wide range of genres, from philosophy to theology to epics from the 7th century BCE. Pierce had already read a handful of the titles from his own education, with a natural gravitation towards political philosophy like Machiavelli’s The Prince and Plato’s Republic, but the Beyond books he was choosing to read after signing up had a different flavor.
All of a sudden, Pierce was exploring Russian novels and 19th century English literature, far from his comfort zone of academic papers. “It attracted me to do something that I haven’t done before,” Pierce shared, “to read a different style of book that I wouldn’t ever read.”
In the last several months, Pierce has tackled Les Misérables, The Eumenides, The Brothers Karamazov, No Exit, and Crime and Punishment, several of which are our longest books on the list. Rather than starting with shorter, more “approachable” books, Pierce reflected that tackling the lengthier reads is what “makes it more interesting. Like going on the bigger rollercoaster or something. That’s what makes it fun.”
Presently, he’s in the thick of Jane Eyre, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, and Middlemarch. Initially, he found these books to be less to his taste than his first reads, but, in reading them in close succession, he was delighted to find that these books often felt like they were “in conversation with [each other].” Each book helped him unlock ideas and characters of the next book. Pierce was naturally discovering the joy of reading Great Books: most of these authors read each other and were informed by the great ideas contained in each other’s books. Together, their body of work has become an ever-living conversation that we, even today, get to be a part of.
Another part of Pierce’s delight with these texts was that they were challenging. While that may be the very thing that intimidates readers, Pierce shared, “I think a lot of it is your attitude towards it. Because it’s not like I’m reading it and just casually thinking, ‘Oh, this makes perfect sense!’ You know, I’m struggling with it, but I think it’s kind of your approach to the books… The thing that I get enjoyment out of is that they are like puzzles—there are things I don’t understand here, so how can I understand this?” Even though he ultimately came to love Middlemarch, it wasn’t until his third attempt to pick it up that it finally began to click. For Pierce, the struggle—and the discipline to keep trying—is an important part of the journey.
After having read several of the Beyond books, Pierce compared books that are productive for the short term (like the technical books he frequently reads) and those that are productive for life. Perhaps Crime and Punishment isn’t going to teach Pierce how to write a certain piece of computer code, but it certainly asks fundamental questions like, “What does it mean to live a good life or be a good person?” For Pierce, this type of investment of his time and energy is well worth it. And, more importantly, it’s an investment that’s best done in community.
“[Discussing a book in a group] kind of helps you with your blind spots in reading the book and looking at it from a different perspective,” Pierce reflected. “I think it’s also helpful when you try to articulate your own thoughts to other people because you often end up even figuring out what you want to say and it helps clarify your own thinking.” This Beyond journey is not meant to be a solitary experience!
ready to join?
These books may show you how to be or how not to be, they might challenge you or delight you, they may even confuse or frustrate you, but they will all teach you something about what it means to be human. And as we humans wend our way toward goodness, truth, and beauty—in other words, a life of flourishing—these 125 books can be our guides!
Are you ready to join? Check out our website to sign up or learn more about this life-changing adventure.
Already signed up? Comment below what your favorite Beyond book is! Which book(s) are you reading now?
