Teaching Formal Logic

This course is designed to equip you to teach formal logic to upper-school students as well as providing a thorough introduction to the elements of formal logic. In our view, every classical educator should be familiar with the main elements of formal logic and how they apply to all learning. This course will provide that skill and also familiarize educators with this fundamental liberal art. In addition, you will learn from a veteran logic teacher and author of two logic books: Joelle Hodge.

This course carefully follows the book The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic. We highly recommend purchasing the text for reference throughout the course.

[This course follows the organizational theme of the book The Discovery of Deduction. Corresponding readings from this text are listed within each lesson, as well as supplementary, recommended readings from Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft. We also recommend The Art of Argument for those not yet familiar with the informal fallacies.

Joelle Hodge holds a BA in history/political science from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Eastern University’s Templeton Honors College. She began her career as a staffer to United States Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) before finding her professional home in the world of classical education in 1999. She has 20 years of teaching experience—several of which were spent at a classical school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There she also developed much of their logic and rhetoric curricula. She has coauthored two logic books, The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Informal Fallacies and The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic, both published by Classical Academic Press (CAP), and continues to support various editorial projects at CAP, but her primary focus is on the growth and development of Scholé Academy, where she serves as the principal. Since the inception of Scholé Academy in 2014, Joelle has taught courses across a variety of disciplines, including math, logic, and rhetoric, as well as a course in student-skills development (How to Be a Student). She served as senior teacher for Scholé Academy before stepping into the role of academy principal in 2018. Additionally, Classical Academic Press hosts Joelle’s consultant offerings, where she engages with educators across the country, tailoring workshops for classical schools and co-ops that seek to train their teachers in the fundamentals of dialectic- and rhetoric-stage pedagogy.

To learn more about earning a certificate for this course, please visit “How do I Obtain a Course Certificate?” on our FAQ page. Our course certificates are valued by classical schools and co-ops worldwide, and you can also be on your way to obtaining an elective credit toward a Level 2 certificate with your completion of this course. Teachers certified with either ACSI or ACCS will see continuing education unit (CEU) credits listed on our course certificate for you to submit to either organization (with more information on certification credit here).