No Two Students Require Precisely the Same Course of Study

We build each program around the student’s age, reading level, writing ability, intellectual interests, and academic aims.

Test preparation, interview coaching, and digital fluency have their place. They are not, however, substitutes for the slower work of learning to read carefully, write lucidly, and think independently.

At Piraeus, we strive to develop life-long competencies:

  • Independence: the capacity to begin, sustain, and revise work without constant prompting.

  • Confidence: the willingness to articulate an interpretation and defend it with evidence.

  • Ambition: the habit of attempting work beyond minimum classroom requirements.

  • Piraeus Academy is a Humanities-exclusive program.

    Our principle focus is teaching literary competency. Our main pathway consists of Reading and Writing objectives. All lesson plans include mandatory weekly notebook exercises. However, all of our curricula are custom-fit to your family’s needs and goals, so no two lesson plans look alike.

    Content is adjusted for age-range and skill level, but all of our units are engineered to challenge and enrich your child’s education.

    Literary Curricula can include:

    • Essay Writing

    • Reading Works of Fiction and Nonfiction

    • Basic Grammar and Sentence Composition; Sentence Diagramming

    • Creative Writing

    • Poetry

    • Competition Preparation

  • Though all students will practice reading and writing skills, our tutors have a wide range of interests and expertise. Successful longstanding students can discuss expanding topics to include:

    • College Application Coaching

    • History

    • Cultural Criticism and Media Studies

    • History of Art and Architecture

    • Journalism

    • Russian Literature

    • French Language Studies and Literature

    • Women and Gender Studies

    • Civics and Government

  • Each of our tutors is assigned no more than 10 students at a given time. At Piraeus, we believe that each child is more than a name on a spreadsheet, or a contact in a calendar. Piraeus educators remember your child’s interests and incorporate them into assigned readings. Piraeus educators see personal experiences as opportunities to learn — family vacations, sports tournaments and movie nights become essays, poems and academic debates.

    This philosophy requires that we assign our tutors on an individual basis. Parents and guardians who are interested in working with Piraeus will fill out an entry survey about their child’s needs, goals and passions. Based on these responses, we will tentatively coordinate a “perfect fit” tutor and schedule a trial session to verify compatibility. Parents can review video footage of this initial lesson and discuss curricula with the tutor before scheduling additional sessions.

  • Every lesson is 1 hour long. Families can schedule up to 2 lessons per student per week.

    Rough Lesson Outline:

    5-10 mins: Catching up about life events in the past week. We believe mutual respect and understanding is key to building trust and confidence between student and mentor.

    10-15 mins: Discussing weekly notebook exercises. Think of this like stretching before a workout — critical fundamentals that strengthen and tone literary muscles.

    10-15 mins: Reviewing content from previous lessons, focusing on active recall. Active recall is a scientifically-backed approach to learning and studying that has proven to be one of the most effective techniques in education.

    20-30 mins: Learning new content.

    5 mins: Confirming homework expectations.

    After the meeting, we will share the recording of the lesson with students and families. Students can, and should, utilize past recordings as study aids if they feel stuck on an assignment. They can also always email their tutor for clarification!

  • No new “academic portal”, no nonsense. No learning curve for parents or students. We utilize Google Workspace for all of our scheduling, meetings and recordings. We communicate with families 100% via email and Google messenger. Students submit all of their typed work via Google Docs. We kindly ask that families do not ask for or use tutor phone numbers.

  • Students receive neither A-F grades, nor percentage-based grades, for completed assignments. Students do not hold any sort of GPA, or ranking, throughout their time with Piraeus.

    All full-length assignments will receive extensive written feedback. Each of our tutors is dedicated to our intensive, one-on-one approach and sees grading as of equal importance to instructional time. At Piraeus, we don’t believe in skimming an essay and deciding it’s “good enough” — even expert level work will be addressed with the full attention of our tutors and returned with constructive comments.

  • Different children come to Piraeus with different needs and goals. We believe that universal price structures do not account for our custom-built lesson plans, or for the diversity of our students.

    That being said, we use the following model for pricing:

    • An hourly rate between $80 and $120 for one-on-one virtual tutoring (this includes the cost of developing custom lesson plans)

    • An editing fee of $10 for long form pieces 2,000 words, or less. Please see “Our Grading Policy” for an explanation of this rate.

    CANCELLATION POLICY:

    At Piraeus, we understand that kids are busy and, sometimes, life gets in the way. That’s why at any time prior to a scheduled session, families can tell a member of our team that a child can’t make the call, and can request to reschedule at no cost.

    In a rush? Don’t worry about rescheduling just then: only communicate a desire to reschedule and we can sort it out at a time that is convenient for you.

    If, however, an absence is not communicated in advance of the scheduled start time, our tutors will wait for 30 minutes in the call. If the student does not join by the 30 minute mark, we will charge a fee of 50% the hourly rate and cancel that day’s session.