Back to School with the Idler Academy

Tom Hodgkinson invites you to experience the pure joy of learning

It was many moons ago, when Victoria and I were living in a crumbling farmhouse on the coast of North Devon with three small children, that we had the idea for a school for idlers.

I’d been reading about the Trivium and the Quadrivium, the learning systems developed by the Greeks and Romans and taken up by the educational institutions of medieval Europe. Today we’d use the term “liberal arts” for their approach, that is, they taught the arts suitable for a free person.

The Trivium was what you learned at primary school and consisted of three subjects: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Grammar was about learning the basic rules of your language. Logic was about developing your thinking skills. And rhetoric was all about communication: oratory and writing.

Then came the Quadrivium which offered four subjects: pure maths, geometry, music and astrology. The idea was first to develop the tools of thought and expression, and then go on to study the world around you.

Victoria and I invented our own curriculum, the three pillars of which are philosophy, husbandry and merriment. We wanted to include the practical element of husbandry at our school, because we felt that many of us have become a bit useless when it comes to household management.

We launched the idea with a tent at the Port Eliot Festival and a crest designed by Alice Smith. Our motto is “libertas per cultum” which means “freedom through cultivation”. I dressed up as a psychedelic headmaster. We ran classes in needlework, poetry, dancing, ukulele and grammar, and so the didactic wing of the Idler was born.

As the years went on, we programed some extraordinary events. A woodwork class with Bill Drummond and an astrology lecture from Dr Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson are just two that spring to mind. We then opened a shop in London and ran courses. It had quite an impact. None other than Liz Truss came along to our lecture on the medieval Trivium, though I’m afraid we were clearly unsuccessful in converting her to the idling cause.

We also started our online course project where we invited our favourite teachers, writers and thinkers to record lectures for us, and that flowered into the Idler Academy of today, a rich resource for the Idler community to study interesting subjects with brilliant people, all for the pure fun of learning, and the pursuit of happiness, and not because we think it will help you get a job.

So please check out The Idler Academy if you’ve not already done so. We now offer over 70 courses and we add six new ones every year. To join, you can do one of the following:If you’re a Print subscriber, you can upgrade your subscription to Academy by emailing subs@webscribe.co.uk with your name and address. They’ll let you know how it works.If you’re a basic Digital Subscriber, you can upgrade by emailing mail@idler.co.uk.And if you have not yet subscribed (why not?!), then you can join the Digital Academy for £69.95 a year or the Full Academy (that’s the one where we send you the print magazine) for £95 in UK (a bit more elsewhere, because of postage costs). Click here to see our four subscription options.

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