A Message from The Paideia Institute’s President and Co-Founder
2020 has been a year of intense self-reflection for our society, as we grapple with how we could be more equitable and more just. The discipline of Classics has also been engaged in this process, and necessarily so, since our field has a history of exclusivity and the examples of Greece and Rome have been used to perpetuate racist or other hateful practices or ideologies. 2020 is a significant year for the Paideia Institute as well, as it marks ten years since our foundation. It’s hard to believe that what started as a welcome distraction from writing my dissertation has grown into a major institution devoted to the teaching of Latin and Greek. But it has, and as such, the Paideia Institute has a responsibility to do its part to ensure that the discipline of Classics is the best it can be. Over the past year, our staff and board have worked together to take a hard look at ourselves as an organization, thinking about how we can live up to this responsibility. We have scrutinized our organizational culture and tried to identify ways to improve it, paying particular attention to making sure that all staff and students feel welcome and included in our offices and on our programs.
One thing that emerged from our self-study was the realization that Paideia as an organization has tried to do too much, too fast. As we grew, we did not sufficiently prioritize the creation of policies and structures to support that growth and the well-being of the hard-working individuals that made it possible. Lacking were robust HR policies and structures, clear avenues for communication of these policies to our staff, transparent and formal hiring and compensation practices, a clear articulation of our institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion, and opportunities for staff and students to offer feedback to management. We also identified many instances when leadership, myself included, should have done better. These failures on our part caused some students and staff members to feel excluded, exploited, and otherwise unwelcome at Paideia. Luckily, these members of our community spoke up and brought these problems to our attention, as this was the starting point for needed change.
We are more than an organization that provides opportunities for travel and educational resources. We are a steward of Classics. As such we need to do better — not just for those involved in Paideia, but for the field more broadly and those who encounter Classics in other contexts. We have spent the last year addressing our deficiencies and building an infrastructure to support cultural change. We have invested in HR, drafted and promulgated policies and procedures designed to prevent harassment and discrimination, promoted several deserving female employees to management roles, and diversified our staff and board. Though this work is ongoing, these policies and structural changes have made the Paideia Institute a stronger and more equitable organization. These improvements, however, do not undo our past failures, so I would like to take this opportunity to apologize, both personally, and on behalf of the organization, to those who have felt excluded or otherwise disrespected at Paideia in the past.
It is a challenging time for those who have devoted their professional lives to the study and promotion of the languages and culture of the ancient world. Current events will continue to highlight the complicated and often problematic history of the study of the classics, and call into question their relevance to the future of humanistic education. We are committed to ongoing improvement as we work to meet these challenges, and in doing so, work to build a more sustainable future for the study of the languages and cultures of the past.
Jason Pedicone is president of the Paideia Institute.
