Restoring America's Heritage

Welcome to John Academy Academy! We are a campus of three "brick-and-mortar" charter schools in northern California and two online schools; one that is a worldwide private school, the other which is affiliated with our three charter schools. Together, these five schools make up John Adams Academy.

John Adams Academy, Inc. is now in its 13th year of successful and growing operation. 

Starting in Fall 2025, JAA-Online will be available to any family, anywhere, in the world through either the tuition-free public charter option or the private school option.

Why John Adams?

Dr. Dean Forman and Linda Forman founded John Adams Academy with the help of pioneering volunteers, parents and scholars. What started as an idea to provide freedom and liberty in education within a local community has led to John Adams Academy - Online, the reality of providing freedom and liberty in education to all.

Experience the difference of this life-changing program.

Born out of the highly successful John Adams Academy Vision and Mission of Restoring America’s Heritage by Developing Servant-Leaders®, John Adams Academy-Online was created to empower families by giving them new and convenient ways of accessing our American Classical Leadership Education®.

Our program offers the flexibility, support, freedom and community that is hard to find elsewhere. Each year, hundreds of scholars have enrolled in this program, and enjoy the benefits and success that Online provides.

Over the years, John Adams Academy has realized that great mentors are essential in order for scholars to experience success within a program. As such the Academy has dedicated significant time and resources to not only attract amazing mentors to teach and serve in the Online program, but dedicated purposefully into their professional development so that our online scholars and families receive the full benefit.  

Taking you from where you are, to where you want to be!

Vision & Mission

John Adams Academy is restoring America’s heritage by developing servant-leaders who are keepers and defenders of the principles of freedom for which our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

Restoring America's Heritage

America’s heritage is a tradition of self-governing, virtuous citizens who unite in pursuit of unalienable, certain, and universal principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. This free society is grounded in the principles of liberty and freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. These principles include:

  • individuals are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights
  • the existence of objective truth and natural law which govern all humanity
  • governments are instituted to secure the inalienable rights of the governed and derive their just power from the consent of the governed
  • good governments are inherently limited in the form of a republic with checks and balances and separation of powers
  • the inseparability of individual liberty and personal responsibility
  • justice under the law for all people

Developing Servant Leaders

A servant leader is a self-governing citizen who is dedicated to causes greater than self; in particular, the cultivation, propagation, and defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for self and others.

A servant leader pursues these high causes by courageously applying truth, wisdom, and virtue as he or she leads others through service.

A servant leader is driven by an inner compass of virtues and core values, with a natural desire to serve and empower others. This is not about being subservient but about the sincere desire to help others. A servant leader has the vision to see what is and what could be, and has the will and abilities needed to move self and others toward the ideal. A servant leader has the courage to apply the virtues even at their testing point.

Founder's Statement

It has been more than twenty years since we listened to a speaker at a “Face to Face with Greatness” event. The epiphanies we experienced that day sunk deep into our souls. As the speaker shared stories of the founding fathers of America, our passion and patriotism were set on fire. The books he later suggested, including A Thomas Jefferson Education and The 5,000 Year Leap, revealed to us that the history of freedom has been largely lost to our current educational system—and the rising generation.

The desire for our own “Thomas Jefferson Education” that sparked in us that day grew into years of reading, thinking, public service, and acting. As we studied and served, we came to realize that this education was meant for everyone. Adams said, “Children must be educated in the principles of freedom.” This means all children. We also recognized that in a Democratic Republic such as the United States, all citizens have a part in government, and so, every citizen, college-bound or not, should receive the type of education that will develop greatness in mind and character to become servant leaders of integrity and sound judgment.

We realized the need for a uniquely American form of education patterned after the education that produced the great servant leaders that founded our nation. With this mission in mind, we witnessed the hand of Providence working through us and others in the establishment of John Adams Academy. 


This institution is perhaps the most unique charter school in America today, because it promotes American Classical Leadership Education®. This type of education teaches and inspires thinkers, leaders, inventors, citizens, entrepreneurs, and statesmen. It trains individuals “how to think” and teaches them why it is important. Robert Hutchins said classical education is “the education of free men in the knowledge and skills that are needed to remain free.” Because leaders select the goals of a nation and the methods of achieving those goals, the education of tomorrow’s leaders determines the level of freedom, prosperity, and integrity of the next generation.

As founders, leaders, teachers, scholars and families we come together as academic entrepreneurs to restore not only America’s heritage, but a philosophy and system of education that has produced the greatest leaders, statesmen, and thinkers of the past 2000 years. The result of applying these principles in a school setting has been a resounding success. What began as a small yet passionate group of families in 2010 has grown to include thousands of scholars across multiple campuses. But most importantly, this success is measured in terms of a culture of virtue, inspired learning, and servant leaders.

An American Classical Leadership Education® as offered by John Adams Academy is the best prevention and the only hope that a “nation conceived in liberty…shall not perish from the earth.”[1]

Dr. and Mrs. L. Dean Forman

Founders, John Adams Academies

 

[1] Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address,” November 19, 1863.