483 | The Joy of Reading in Community with Jennifer Dow (Janice Campbell)

Jul 1, 2025

Jennifer Dow, a classical teacher and founder of the Paideia Fellowship, discusses the transformative power of reading in community. She shares insights on leading book groups and creating welcoming spaces for discussion. Listeners learn how literature fosters healing and personal growth, challenging false beliefs while deepening connections with others. Dow emphasizes nurturing curiosity through meaningful texts and the joy of shared reading experiences, encouraging a supportive atmosphere where relationships and learning blossom.

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ANECDOTE

Early Books That Shaped Faith

Jennifer Dow recounts how Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness drew her into Christian mystery as a teen.
Those books captured her imagination and helped her choose faith at a crucial time.

ANECDOTE

Silent Protest In A Tale Of Two Cities

Jennifer tells how reading A Tale of Two Cities later in life revealed the power of 'silent protest' in living witness.
The scene of patient presence changed her approach to persuasion and apologetics.

ADVICE

Run A 'Book In A Day' Gathering

Try hosting a 'book in a day' event where you read aloud a short work together and share food.
This format removes reading-beforehand pressure and welcomes people who struggle to keep up.

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Reading in community can take you more deeply into a book, and more deeply into the heart of friendship, too. If you’ve ever wanted to start a book group or wondered how to lead a class discussion on a classic work of literature, Jennifer Dow’s wise counsel can help you do both. You don’t have to know everything about a book in order to do this. Jennifer suggests that “If the goal is community and the hospitality that leads to healing, we must provide free space with clear, helpful boundaries. We must meet people where they are, at the same time offer or invite others to a vision of what can be, together, shoulder to shoulder. This expresses itself in the environment we curate, the content we behold, and the way we teach or read.” Join us to learn more about how to cultivate a reading atmosphere that leads to learning, growth, and relationship.

About Jennifer

Jennifer Dow is a classical teacher, speaker, and writer. Jennifer has completed the CiRCE Apprenticeship as a CiRCE certified Classical Teacher and has taught humanities, logic, rhetoric, and the fine arts since 2009. She is the founder of the Paideia Fellowship, an organization devoted to helping teachers and leaders, at home and school, teach the classical liberal arts.

Jennifer’s published works can be seen around the web, was a contributing author for The Lost Tools of Writing Level 1, published by The CiRCE Institute.

Jennifer has spoken across the nation on how to teach and encounter the classical liberal arts and hosted The Classical Homeschool Podcast, been featured on Your Morning Basket Podcast with Pam Barnhill and The Commons with Brian Phillips. Currently, Jennifer is writing her first book about the journey of classical learning and teaching, serving as the Director of the Paideia Fellowship, and researching how parents, leaders, and teachers can provide an authentic and healing classical education to all.

Jennifer, an Orthodox Christian, lives in North Carolina with her three children and enjoys spoken word poetry, trying her hand at fancy cuisine, collecting more books than she’ll ever read, and the occasional Netflix binge.

About Janice

Janice Campbell, a lifelong reader and writer, loves to introduce students to great books and beautiful writing. She holds an English degree from Mary Baldwin College, and is the graduated homeschool mom of four sons. You’ll find more about reading, writing, planning, and education from a Charlotte Mason/Classical perspective at her websites, EverydayEducation.com, Excellence-in-Literature.com, and DoingWhatMatters.com.

Resources

Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry

Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness & Beauty by Dr. Steve Turley

Norms and Nobility: A Treatise On Education by David Hicks

If you could choose any three books to give to a new homeschool mom, what would they be?

Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, by Henri Nouwen

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse

The Liberal Arts Tradition, by Clark & Jain

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View full show notes on the blog.