Patti's Homeschool Mentoring

Of the Three Types of Education Which Will You Choose?

Conveyor Belt Education  

The modern public school system was set up about the same time as the industrial revolution with the intent to educate the poor so that they could get a job, and thereby support their families.

Each person who travels through the conveyor belt receives a stamp of approval at the end (diploma), and comes out into the world as a “finished product,” ready to be marketed to the highest bidder for employment. And like a factory, conveyor belt institutions test and grade all students on the same scales regardless of individual needs or interests.

The Conveyor Belt does precisely what it was designed to do. It produces a relatively literate workforce for the general populace. It is not designed, however, to produce independently thinking leaders.

Conveyor Belt education can be found in public schools, private or charter schools, and even in home schools. It is sometimes referred to as the “soviet conveyor belt,” because standards and grade levels are set low enough to ensure that nearly everyone can make it through the educational assembly line.

Conveyor Belt Education has as its objective to prepare everyone for a job, any job, by teaching them what to think. This includes rudimentary skills to help them function in society. In general, compulsory schools are set up on the conveyor belt model, although most of us can cite wonderful examples of many excellent teachers in the public system who use leadership methods.

 

…Conveyor Belts have an important place in society, but it is essential that they don’t become a monopoly and that professional and leadership training schools are maintained.

Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education, 2nd Edition, pages 21-22

Goals:

• Educate the Masses and Lower Classes
• Teach What to Think
• Get a Job

Curriculum:

• 85% Social
• 15% Textbooks

Method:

• “Soviet” Conveyor Belt—Schools look and run like factories
• Individual intiative and innovation from students (non-conformity) is discouraged
• Individual initiative and innovation from educators is discouraged

Careers: (According to age)

• 0-12 Study
• 12-18 Play
• 18-24 College Major/Job
• 24-68 Work/Job
• 68+ Retire or Volunteer

Most of us can point to exceptions to the rule: teachers or students who stood out and excelled within the compulsory system; the fact remains that the system per se is not designed to produce such anomalies, and does not, in general, encourage or reward such outcomes.

 

Professional Education

Professional education systems create specialists by teaching their students when to think. This model has been used much longer than the soviet conveyor belt, since it arose from the tradition of apprenticeship, where the student was systematically taught what his master knew before venturing out on his own.

Each professional, whether a mechanic, a lawyer, a doctor, or a financial adviser, is trained to meet a certain set of standards and to think creatively within his field of expertise. However, outside of that narrow scope of knowledge, he tends to rely on the understanding of other experts. A complex society such as modern day America reinforces this.

Professional education is also known as the “competitive conveyor belt,” since the methods used are the same as the soviet conveyor belt, but the standards are set much higher—the top 10-15%.

 

The professional system does what it’s designed to do—create expertise. And if you need a doctor, a lawyer, or a manager for your business, you are glad they are well prepared. The professional system has been very effective in achieving its goals, but it is not a substitute for leadership training.

Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education, 2nd Edition, page 23

Goals:

• Train Experts
• Teach When to Think

Curriculum:

• 50% Case Studies
• 50% Ethics

Method:

• Competitive Conveyor Belt—Students Compete

Careers: (According to age)

• 0-18 Play
• 18-22 College Major
• 22-26 Professional Training
• 26-65 Career
• 65+ Retire or Volunteer

 

 

Leadership Education

 Leadership Education has three primary goals.

First, to train thinkers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and statesmen—those with understanding and competence to lead society (do things right) and the moral character to act with integrity in the areas they lead in (do the right thing).

Second, to perpetuate freedom by helping people understand what freedom is and what must be done to maintain it, and inspiring them to actually do the difficult things required to make it happen.

Third, teach students how to think, which is how the first two goals must be accomplished. Those who know how to think are able to lead effectively and help a society remain free and prosperous, while those who know only when or what to think will be unable to do so.

The method for training leaders is as old as humanity—classics and mentors. The student studies the greatest works ever created, and submits to the guidance of great mentors, who customize the education for the student’s mission in life.

This is the simplest, though arguably the most challenging of the educational paths.

 

“Leadership Education, which I call ‘Thomas Jefferson Education,’ teaches students how to think and prepares them to be leaders in their homes and communities, entrepreneurs in business, and statesmen in government.

“…What happens when a society does not prepare leaders? We get managers and professionals leading in areas they have no training for, such as government, and we get a nation of followers who see no problem with that because they have no experience with anything else. …This was the legacy of Germany in the 1930s—a highly trained but uneducated people easily swayed by Hitler.”

Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education, 2nd Edition, pages 21, 27

Goals:

• Raise Great Souls
• Cultivate Leaders
• Teach How to Think

Curriculum:

• Classics (any works that inspire greatness and are worth revisiting time and time again)

Method:

• Mentors that Design a Custom Education for Each Student

Careers: (According to age)

• 0-12 Play/Family Work
• 12-16 Scholar Phase
• 16-20 Superb Education
• 20-24 Depth Phase (Liberal Arts College)
• 24-50 Build Two Towers (a Family and an Organization)
• 50+ Impact the World (Statesmanship)

From:  http://www.tjed.org/about-tjed/

What is TJEd?

Discovered and organized by Oliver and Rachel DeMille,Thomas Jefferson Education, or “TJEd,” is an educational philosophy and a methodology by which great individuals throughout history were educated.

 Thousands of families and professional educators are applying those same principles today, with amazing success.

 

The Student Whisperer, Inspiring Genius--Locals Our Books Have Arrived!!!

Like a master gardener, a great mentor, a Student Whisperer, knows how to set the stage for transformational experiences—as often as they are needed. She knows how to create the environment where such feelings & experiences are frequent, how to use such experiences to help us discover & improve ourselves, & even how to repeat & reinforce such feelings so that our motivation & efforts are sustained.

"A classic! It will apply to the businessman, teacher and mom alike."

The wait is finally over! The Student Whisperer by Oliver DeMille and Tiffany Rhoades Earl is now available in paperback. Reader response is the best ever. See for yourself:

• “My ‘epiphanal rate’ was off the charts.”

• “I was moved beyond words.”
  

• “…a guide book for all who want to truly mentor well and make a difference in the world.”

• “…no matter what I say it would be an understatement.”

Click on the link for: 

 Description

• Chapter Outline

• Reader Reviews

• Sample Download

• About the Authors

http://www.tjed.org/purchase/books/student-whisperer/

• • 
    

     A great mentor cares- and she is effective! 

    
    

    Hey locals, our books have arrived at the discounted cost of $10.00 each! 

     All I can say so far is WoW, so well done, a truly inspiring story and guide book!!! Another homeschooling classic that should be in every families resource library!

    TJEd MomSchool participants your books are by the front door. 

    Others, contact me to make arrangements to pick them up.

     
  • Enhance your experience with The Student Whisperer by downloading your free Student Whisperer Journal: 

    Click on the link below for: A free pdf download of The Student Whisperer Journal, a 176-page 8 1/2″ by 11″ binder insert designed to complement The Student Whisperer and enhance your experiences with the workshops and exercises it outlines.

    
    A free pdf download of the List of Inspiring Archetypes, from The Student Whisperer
    
    

    A free pdf download, “What is Thomas Jefferson Education?”
    
    

    Periodic updates, articles and downloads to assist you in your mentoring
    
    

    Notification of upcoming Leadership Education and LEMI events such as seminars, forums, online classes and webinars, etc.
    
    

    Access to special pricing on webinars, podcasts and new releases
    
    

    The monthly TJEd newsletter, “Inspire!”

     

     http://www.tjed.org/resources/student-whisperer/
    
    

 

On This Day in 1879 Albert Einstein was Born: From TJEd- This Week in History & The World As I See It by, A. Einstein

Have you ever seen TJED's This Week In History?  This wonderful resource is a constant in our home school!  We look forward to seeing all that has happend in our world and really apprectate the effort and research that goes into each weeks post.  It's a history curriculum all to itself!

 

 

This Week in History  is not only a great value, but a time saver and a worry eliminator, it...

• relieves fear, stress and burnout
• energizes your kidschool
• fills in the gaps
• cultivates cultural literacy
• facilitates state or provincial compliance
• correlates resources for co-ops, classrooms and family learning
• harnesses the power of technology in a classical leadership education
• harmonizes with Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Trivium/Quadrivium, IEW, eclectic, etc.
• delivers new ideas and areas of learning to you and your child
• instigates discussions and projects that expand wisdom and understanding
• connects the subject areas--from music to math, from geography to world religions, from hobbies to science projects, etc.
• motivates you and your students to greater excellence
• delivers Face to Face with Greatness
• empowers you to mentor your students in the classics
•  enlivens the 7 Keys of Great Teaching
• activates Phases of Learning

...so you can "Inspire, not Require"

For less than 35 cents a day, you have the world at your fingertips.

 And, so worth the subscription!! http://www.tjedonline.com/day-in-history.php?id=182 

 

1879: Birth Date of Albert Einstein.

  Albert Einstein was the physicist who formulated the theory of relativity that broadened understanding of space, time, and motion. He formulated his relativity theory in 1905 when he was 26 years old, and in 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was forced to leave his homeland in 1933 when his German citizenship was taken away by the Nazis because he was Jewish.

He was the scientist who delved into theoretical physics; using a pencil, paper, and mathematical logic, he expanded our knowledge of matter, energy, heat, light, and atomic structure. His findings contributed to the development of such complex devices as the electric eye, sound movies, and television.

He also developed an idea that provided the basic principles for making the atomic bomb and other nuclear devices. Einstein's work on conversion of matter into energy helped bring the world into the atomic age.

 

Resources:

 

• History
• Who Was Albert Einstein? Brallier
• Albert Einstein: Young Thinker (The Childhood of Famous Americans Series), Hammontree
• Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein, Brown

CHECK THIS STUFF OUT:

• A boatload of Einstein resources for kids and classrooms!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/

Who was smarter Newton or Einstein? 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/genius/index.html

http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/

http://www.kidsnet.org/sfkc/sfkc20030117-1.html

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ein.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/think.

 

 

 The World As I See It 

                                                             An essay by Albert Einstein

 

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

 "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..." "My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Source: TJEd This Week In History: [Source: http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm]

 

 Fun Einstein Quotes: 

 ********************************

[Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.]

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." 

• * "Imagination is more important than knowledge." 

• * "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

• * "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details." 

• * "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." 

• * "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." 

• * "The only real valuable thing is intuition." 

• * "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself." 

• * "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice." 

• * "God is subtle but he is not malicious." 

• * "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." 

• * "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." 

• * "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." 

• * "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." 

• * "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." 

• * "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." 

• * "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." 

• * "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." 

• * "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." 

• * "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it." 

• * "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." 

• * "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." 

• * "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically." 

• * "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." 

• * "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." 

• * "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." 

• * "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." 

• * "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." 

• * "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." 

• * "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." 

• * "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." 

• * "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." 

• * "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." 

• * "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." 

• * "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." 

• * "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." 

• * "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." 

• * "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." 

• * "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead." 

• * "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves." 

• * "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

• * "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?" 

• * "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." 

• * "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever." 

• * "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." 

• * "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." 

• * "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." 

• * "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrain

• ed by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." 

• * "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge." 

• * "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." 

• * "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." 

• * "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year." 

• * "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought." 

• * "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." 

• * "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

• * "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton) 

Source TJEd This Week In History & Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)

[Source: http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html]

 

 

 

Science Curriculum Used at Home or in A Home School Co-op

 When thinking about Science Curriculum in your home school or to use in a co-op there is one that always comes to the forefront on the home school grape vine and it's Apologia.  Although a Non-Secular curriculum, Secular home schoolers use it as well, omitting the religion.  

 

 

Popular critiques: Easy to read, interesting, memorable, unit style, easy to adapt to multiple ages, you can do as much or as little as you like, older children can work on their own.  In a multiple age setting older children can do the lap book suppliment on their own, the younger enjoy the discussion and activities.  

 

In our home school we use Apologia as well for all the reasons above!!  Our teen is able to self study using it.  She is pretty much unschooled and is use to getting her learning from the classics, cologuiums and writing, so she thought it was a little too text book'y but she continues using it.    

 

It also works well for a Science Co-op and students can get high school credits from a certidfied evaluator using it.  

It also works well for a Science Co-op and students can get high school credits from a certidfied 

 

 

 

I  hired a science tutor for our home school co-op and invited middle and high school ages to attend the class.  We started with Apologia's first high school year curriculum and all of the families that participated each paid $5.00 per week to cover the tutors cost, plus $1.00 each to cover the park where we met, community room rental.   We also had a one time lab fee and the tutor purchased all the supplies in the beginning of the year.  

 Each family studied and did the lesson work at home and the tutor did the labs with the kids and was available to answer any questions.   Families could do as much or as little as they wanted with the curriculum at home so it fit into the different home school approaches found in our group.  We also used it in a secular way, since we were a mixed crowd, allowing families to add the religion or not during their home study.  

 

 

We met once a week on Friday mornings at a local park before our home school support groups park day. The younger siblings got to play or there were times when another mom hosted a different learning opportunity for the younger ages.  The second year we met every other week for a longer period of time and the tutor did more than onelab/lesson with the group.  

 

 

 

 

Why Classics? By A Thomas Jefferson Education

      Why Classics?

#1: The Classics Teach Us Human Nature. The classics give us a glimpse into each of these basic human instincts. In fact, the thing which makes a classic great is glaring insight into basic human nature. Ultimately, as you study the classics, you learn about your own personal nature.  Learning through experience is good, but it is often better to learn from someone else's experiences and build on them. We hope a baby will learn from his parents not to touch a hot stove, even though the actual experience would certainly have impact.  If we will let them, the classics can teach us lessons without the pain of repeating certain mistakes ourselves. They can show us correct choices which will get us where we want to go.  At a deeper level, knowing how others think, feel and act allows us to predict behavior and lead accordingly. We can develop empathy, compassion, wisdom and self-discipline without subjecting our relationships to a more painful learning curve.  This is invaluable to the entrepreneur, parent, community leader or statesman. People with experience have been through certain patterns many times and know what to anticipate. The classics can provide us with many such experiences.  ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 62

#2: The Classics bring us face-to-face with greatness. The purpose of studying literature is to become better. As we read, we experience despair, heartache, tragedy--and we learn to recognize what causes them and avoid it or cope with it in our own lives. As we study the characters, real or fictional, in the classics, we are inspired by greatness, which is the first step to becoming great ourselves. Greatness is the first goal of leadership education.    In the classics we come face-to-face with Moses on Sinai, Buddha leaving the castle, Christ at Gethsemane, Mohammad's cave (and Plato's), Paul on Mars Hill, Adam's finger outstretched on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Washington at Valley Forge, Hamlet, Lear, Shylock, Othello, Macbeth, MacDuff, Hector, Penelope and Jane Eyre. Who we are changes as we set higher and higher standards of what life is about and what we are here to accomplish.  ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 63

 

 

#3: The Classics take us to the frontier to be conquered. Previous generations have had geographical frontiers to conquer. We don't. Without a frontier we cannot become what the Founders, the explorers and the pioneers became in their extremities.   Our challenges define us, our reactions to them mold and shape us. As Thucydides said over three thousand years ago, and as I used to tell my students at George Wythe College: "There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much one from another: but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school."   Human beings need a frontier in order to progress.  Fortunately, we do have one frontier left--and it is in fact the hardest one. It is the frontier within. In all of history, this frontier has not been fully conquered. The most challenging struggles of life are internal--and the classics can help. ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 63

  Think.

#4: They Force us to Think.  At first reading the classics can be a chore, an assignment. If we persist, it eventually becomes leisure and even entertainment. Then one day (after a few weeks for some, perhaps years for another) something clicks; all the exposure to greatness reaches critical mass, and you, the reader, awaken. Your exposure to greatness changes you: your ideas are bigger, your dreams wilder, your plans more challenging, your faith more powerful. The classics can be hard work, and that is exactly what is needed to learn to think. Thinking is hard; deep thinking is not entertaining or easy.   Thinking is like exercise, it requires consistency and rigor. Like barbells in a weightlifting room, the classics force us to either put them down or exert our minds.   They require us to think. Not just in a rote memory way, either. The classics make us struggle, search, ponder, seek, analyze, discover, decide, and reconsider.   As with physical exercise, the exertion leads to pleasing results as we metamorphose and experience the pleasure of doing something wholesome and difficult that changes us for the better.     ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 64-65

 

#5: The Classics connect us to our stories. Each culture is different because it has different shared stories. Different stories define each family, each religion, each nation. And members of each connect themselves with the stories--they make the stories part of their personal story. Can you imagine the Jews without the stories of Moses, the Maccabees, or the Holocaust? Or Americans without stories of Paul Revere, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln? Learn the stories of a culture, and you will come to understand that culture.   That is why I think it is such a tragedy that the current generation of American youth are mostly growing up without the stories of the Declaration of Independence, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Patrick Henry, Sitting Bull or Daniel Webster. The classics are the ark, the preserver, of stories which unite the cultures and the generations.   In addition to cultural, national and family stories, we each have individual stories. We all have a personal canon, a set of stories which we hang onto and believe in and base our lives around; and great classics are the best canon. A canon is the set of books we consider to be the standard of truth. Since the purpose of reading, of gaining education, is to become good, our most important task is to choose the right books.    Our personal set of stories, our canon, shapes our lives. I believe it is a law of the universe that we will not rise above our canon. Our canon is part of us, deeply, subconsciously. And the characters and teachings in our canon shape our characters--good, evil, mediocre, or great. ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 65

 

#6: Our Canon Becomes our Plot. If you were evacuated to another planet and could only take one book, upon which to base the  teaching of your family and establishing right and wrong for your community, what would it be? Your answer is a good indication of what your national book might be. Are your companion books through life in line with your national book? What about your definitions of good and evil? Look at your life; is it in keeping with your canon?   These questions can be powerful as you analyze where to take the education of your children, your students, yourself. Perhaps the most important thing we can do to remain free and prosperous is to clarify a national book and live by it.   From the Founding through the end of World War II, the Bible and the Declaration were the U.S.'s national books. Even the great revolutions which occurred after 1945, such as increased freedom for minorities, were fueled by these two national books. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches center around them and quote them extensively.   America was based on them and became what it did because of them. Take them away, and America will become something very, very different.   The place to start is with yourself. Establish a clear canon and spend time in it every day. Become an expert on it, ponder it, put your life in line with it. Teach it to your family and then others. If you are a teacher, take it into your classroom.   If your faith doesn't include the Bible, use the Declaration or something of equal magnitude. Then broaden your knowledge to the other classics which support that central classic. Each nation is what it is due to its national books, and the choices you make now regarding books will have tremendous impact on what America will be twenty, forty and even sixty years from now.  ~A Thomas Jefferson Education, p. 67

  
 Stop by A Thomas Jefferson Education's Facebook Page at: http://www.facebook.com/Thomas.Jefferson.Education

Straight to College: Homeschoolers Skipping High School

What If You Don't Do High School OR Get a GED?

 

More and more homeschoolers are skipping the high school option - including the GED or Graduate Equivalency Diploma - and heading straight to college ... community college, that is! No, I'm not talking about dual enrollment either. Just pure old college credits!

 

College INSTEAD of High School? 

Is it okay to skip high school?

 

Some homeschool families are choosing to not choose high school, but to bypass it altogether. No high school transcript, no dual enrollment, no GED (high school graduate equivalency diploma). Instead, they just begin acquiring college credits from community college sometime around age 14 to 16, ending with a smooth transfer of credits to a four-year college or university at some later time. With 60 hours of college credit from a junior college or community college, a high school transcript is not even requested when one transfers to another college! (Note that community college may be available at different ages in different states.)

 

 

Albert Einstein

Einstein dropped out of college and tested into the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and of course went on to become a Nobel-prize winning physicist.

 

 

The Teenage Liberation Handbook 

How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

 

Here is the original teenage manifesto from Grace Llewellyn. Teens are not older children, they are young adults, and are capable and smart enough to be charting their own path without recourse to a cookie cutter education. Not limited to homeschoolers, Llewellyn urges teens everywhere to quit school and start living their real lives.

 

 

 

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

 

by: Grace Llewellyn

 

Amazon Price: (as of 02/24/2011)

This is a very dangerous book. It contradicts all the conventional wisdom about dropouts and the importance of a formal education. It is funny and inspiring. Do not, under any circumstances, share this book with a bright, frustrated high-schooler being ground into mind fudge by the school system. This writer cannot be responsible for the happiness and sense of personal responsibility that might result. ~ Bloomsbury Review

 

 Is High School Necessary? 

Or is it just busywork to keep our young adults off the streets?

 

Are high school classes just a waste of time on things that could be better learned in college or college at home?

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ U.S. Presidents

 

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

Martin Van Buren

Andrew Jackson

Zachary Taylor

Millard Fillmore

Grover Cleveland

 

also:

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Paine

 

Who Skips High School? 

And why would anyone want to?

 

I met a girl who told me she had not graduated from high school nor taken the GED, and yet here she was, taking university classes. She had not been homeschooled, but did her junior year of high school as a transfer student to New Zealand. When she came back to the States, her school board decided they were not interested in figuring out how her credits should be transferred to her high school transcript. Instead, they wanted her to just redo her junior year during what should have been her senior year. Instead she dropped out of high school and worked as a nanny for a year, since her state did not allow her to enroll as a full-time student in community college until age 18. At 18, she enrolled in community college and acquired 60 hours of credits; then transferred directly to a university in another state. No one ever asked to see her high school transcript.

 

Immediately, this became my plan for my own children, I already knew I would homeschoo). Now that I homeschool, I am becoming aware that many of my homeschooling friends with children older than mine already know about this exciting option and are taking advantage of it - and doing incredibly well!

 

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ Millionaires & Billionaires

 

Thomas Edison

John D. Rockefeller Sr.

Andrew Carnegie

Henry Ford

Walt Disney

Dave Thomas (Wendy's)

Ray Kroc (McDonald's)

Harlan Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

George Eastman (Kodak)

Amadeo Peter Giannini (Bank of America)

Frederick Royce (Rolls Royce)

Jim Clark (Netscape)

Jimmy Dean (Jimmy Dean Foods)

Kemmons Wilson (Holiday Inn)

 

College Without High School 

A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College

 

 

Blake Boles shares what homeschoolers have known for decades: teens are thriving everywhere without attending school! Blake will inspire you to seize the day and live well now, with every bit of confidence that the doors to college will be wide open to you. I am thrilled to have another messenger trumpet the truth that school is optional. I recommend all parents and educators to acquaint themselves with this information.

~ Kenneth Danforth, North Star Self-Directed Learning for Teens

 

 

 College Without High School: A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College

 

by: Blake Boles

 

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 02/24/2011)

It is possible to pursue your dreams and gain admission to any college of your choice. The guidebook shows how to fulfill college admission requirements by proving five preparatory results: intellectual passion, leadership, logical reasoning, background knowledge, and the capacity for structured learning. The author, who leads teenage unschoolers on educational adventures, offers several suggestions for life-changing, confidence-building activities that will demonstrate those results. Students begin by defining their goals and dreams and then pursue them through a combination of meaningful and engaging adventures. ~ book description

 

How Do They Do It? 

How does it work?

 

Of course there are teens, and even younger, who enroll full-time in college or university. That is not exactly what we're talking about here. This discussion is about the teen who, while living at home, begins to take community college classes one or two at a time. Often they will begin with a class of high interest, whether it will count properly toward a degree or not, in order to get used to the college atmosphere without the added pressure of a stressful class. Moving from art or clay or language into literature and math and science, the student begins to accumulate college credits that will eventually count toward a degree. There is no rush to "finish" anything by age 18; neither a high school transcript nor a transfer to a full university.

 

Many homeschoolers choose the option of dual enrollment. This is where a high school student attends community college and gets dual credit, for both high school and college credits. If this is the only option available, okay ... but I'm not sure I see the point. If one is getting college credit for a class, what is the point of getting high school credit too? It seems like a total redundancy to me.

 

 

What Do You Think? 

Is it okay for homeschooled kids to skip high school altogether?

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ Artists & Musicians

 

George Gershwin

John Philip Sousa

Claude Monet

Irving Berlin

Ansel Adams

Duke Ellington

Jack Benny

Count Basie

Louis Armstrong

 

Required Reading in the Liberal Arts: The Great Books of The Western World

Finally, I found a great price for the 54 volume set of The Great Books of the Western World!

 I bought them used on Amazon for less than $200.00! They retail at $995.00.  

 

Then, I decided to take an Introducation to the Great Books class at Montecillio College

 

 

https://www.monticellocollege.org/ 

to learn how to " learn" from them!

 

All I need now is better deodorant, LOL...  The natural stuff is failing me.  I was a nervous wreck doing the beginning readings, during the class discussions and when I had to write the first paper!  The masters program in liberal arts education is a breeze compared to this thinking.  But, I know it will get better and better and by the end of today, I was really enjoying Aristotle's Ethics.  

 

And we're off... the goal is for me to read them all, some in classes like the one at Monticello, some on my own and to inspire my teen daughter to do the same!

 

 When used with a classical liberal arts education, this set is the epitome of learning from the greatest minds known to man. I am so excited!   

 

The only problem, where to put them?

 They are hanging out on the dining room server,what happens to them at the next dinner party?  

They need a forever home.  

 

 

These books, more or less form what Mortimer Adler and his editorial team believed were the core of Western learning and culture.  Virtually every book in this collection is required reading in the Liberal Arts, and the ideas and issues discussed by these authors still dominates and influences debate today. Here we see the finest works of Art, Science, Philosophy, Poetry, Prose and History from the time of the Greeks until the early 20th century.

 

 

Some have equated the knowledge in these books as equal to "a bachelor's, a master's, and two graduate degrees".

 

But you don't have to attend a class or school to acquire the knowledge! 

 

The Great Ideas Program at The Center for The Study of The Great Books:http://www.thegreatideas.org/gip.htm  is an outline of readings over a 10 year period to finish most of the knowledge in these books.

 

The CENTER has two primary missions:

 

From The Center for The Study of The Great Ideas web site: 

 

To help awaken citizens from their moral and intellectual slumbers and to help them understand why philosophy is everybody's business: the possibility of finding sound and practical answers to questions about the good life and good society. And philosophy's ability to answer the most basic normative questions, WHAT OUGHT WE SEEK IN LIFE? And HOW OUGHT WE SEEK IT?

 

Two, to promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler's lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics. To continue functioning as THE resource for, access to, and the on-going interpretation of his work

 

Do Teens Need More Attention or Are They Ready for Less?

  The Busy Homeschool Mom asks: We've seen so many hurting teenagers  these past few years. Many times, teens get parented less and less as they grow from 13-18?  She responds, I think they need more love and attention through the teen years!

I agree!  

What have you learned about parenting and homeschooling teens?

 

Teens do need more creative attention, more than even toddlers do some say!  I learned years ago in my child development and parenting classes that the teen years are a time for tremendous growth, not only for the teens, but especially, and more importantly, for their parents.  Although our teens need to venture outside of our family units, to test the waters, it's more important than ever that we parents are in tune with these young adults and are still a big part of their lives!  

Piaget talks often about how nature intends for the parent to rise up and meet the challenges of the young adults in their lives. There is actual neurological change in the brain of a person raising a teen, this in turn prepares parents for their own, next season of life's journey. "Become the change you want to see", comes to mind.

Some say we have a population of adults that are "teen like", So many parents have stopped growing by the time their children became teens. Taking the path of least resistance is easy to do and is conditioned in our current world.  A successful family has parents who rise to the challenge and make their biggest growth spurt while they have teens.

I have a problem with societies made up idea and label of "teen", there are children and there are young adults, and these young people should be treated accordingly, in my opinion.  

The foundation of character building, things like family work,values, routines and responsibility, all surrounding a family purpose, does not stop when a child hits double digits.  

It's strange to me that society has it backwards, encouraging play and low expectations, where the norm for a young adult is to separate from family. Instead of what nature intends for young adults as they go through this major growth spurt, which is scholarship of the world's body of knowledge, family connectedness and purpose of mission.

The best advise the child development specialists give to parents of young adults is, to become the change we want to see in the world and model what we want for our children.  To know this stage well, and to honor that the teen will be a child one moment and a young adult the next.  The creative parent rises to surf the waves of this stage with heartfelt attention to the details.   

Here's a delightful resource  for inspiring our young adults.  It is a tool we parents can also use to help guide us in giving our teens the attention they need and deserve.

  
Our fourteen year old is reading TJEd for Teens, so are her parents!  Together we are designing her young adult journey.

This is a wonderful family read & discussion book! 

 
I highly recommend this book to everyone who is on the cusp of - or has teens. Even those young adults out in the world would get much inspiration from it!  There is big buzz about this book on the home school message boards, parents are saying things like:  reading the book has been like a self help course for them, it changed our whole idea of what a teen is and inspired my teen to fall in love with learning!

It is written by two popular fathers in our home school world, who have large families with teens and young adults in them. They speak directly to our teens in a language they recognize, with respect and their expectations are in alignment with these young peoples souls... the book is full of unabashed high expectations!

Their message is inspiring and leads a teen down the path to falling in love with learning, self reliance, deep scholarly studies and the finding and cultivating of our young adults true mission in life...

I am watching a few teens be inspired by this book, what a gift it is!!! A much needed message in the world for young people, wouldn't you say!

As the parent of grown son and a daughter who is entering the young adult stage of life,  I can assure we are still growing and our parenting is changed by the times and souls we find ourselves attached to.  

We find we are parenting in an even more creative and attentive manner.

And, more change in awareness is on the horizon, we are entering in to the grandparent stage 
and nature's plan for a new growth spurt is upon us once again!  

"This parenting thing is a forever journey of growth, 

love and light my friends!" ~~psc    

       

Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens by Oliver DeMille & Shanon Brooks  

"You were born with a great mission and purpose in this life. The future of the world depends upon your generation finding its genius..." - TJEd for Teens, page 11

Why Home School Teens Need Learning Groups, Extended Community & Other Mentors

 
  
When high school- home schoolers reach the teen years they have a natural need for extended community! Our high schoolers have a tendency to become very lonely in the home school world because they are busy studying and expressing their individual interests, a wonderful -quite intentional thing, but at times a lonely life.

You see,  around puberty children experience an actual physiological change that metaphorically turns a light on in them and they need to develop friendships outside of the family that reinforce the culture in the home.

“They crave to be different “, says Keith Olsen author of Why Teenagers Act The Way They Do. But they also crave to see others in their age group who are into studying, theorizing, discussing and debating like they are. This is the time when they should be given the opportunity for extended community, a community beyond their own family that shares similar values and language. Our teens are looking for and need to see mirrors of themselves out in the world. The break from family is also essential to avoid co-dependence!

As parents of teenagers know, they just want, and need, to be with others, they have no choice- being in community is exactly what nature intends for our young adults during the high school years!

But unfortunately, our home school world and society at large doesn’t necessarily nurture this community based education and the life skills needed to grow into self reliant adults.  

Our Thomas Jefferson Education (TEd)  -Classical Liberal Arts Study Groups were created to fulfill this need! These groups are for teens who want to study, are self directed and who love to learn! It is a place for our teens to find and use other mentors who will inspire them by the sharing of their passions. It is for young adults who want to socialize with different and same ages. TJEd is a place where teens can discuss what is on their mind, where they can practice and challenge themselves without being criticized, where they can grow in their missions in a safe and wholesome environment.

We practice the following formula in our study groups:

Classics as Mentors... Inspire not Require....

Read it, think it, write it, discuss it and present it by teaching it, then you own it! 

Also, Do Hard Things for Long Periods of Time!

To learn more about TJEd go to

www.TJEdOnline.com

Read: Leadership Education and The Student Whisperer by Dr. Oliver DeMille

Stop by my Facebook Page at: Patti’s Homeschool Mentoring and join in on the conversation.

Here's a recent post (2010) on the local home schooling message boards announcing openings in our local TJEd KidSchool Scholar Phase (teen) Study Groups.

TJEd Thursday's has openings in the Transition to Scholar & Scholar Phases Study Groups

For teens ages 12 and up.

Preliminary TJEd KidSchool schedule for Love of Learners (ages 11 and under) and Transition to and Scholar Phase (ages 12 and up) Home Schoolers

For the 2010-2011 school year:

11am Math pre Algebra through Algebra 2 for ages 12 and up

with a possible literature based, finger play, movement circle time if there are younger kids in the house.

12 lunch

12:30pm group walk

1pm Logic and Reasoning ages 12 and up

1pm Classic Book/Language Arts for ages 11 and under

we'll finish Despereaux then pick back up with the Little House Series

2pm Art for all ages

3pm Constitutional/American History Study group ages 12 and up

3pm Possible Science/Geography/First Language Lessons/handwork or whatever the group is interested in for ages 11 and under

4pm Latin all ages we may have two separate groups.

4:30 Social/play time

Pot Luck Dinner
6pm Family Book Read Colloquium

6pm Monthly Mentor Lecture