A Thomas Jefferson Education

The Principles of Great Education Matter

ekdemille — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:18:09 +0000

Some things work, and some things don’t. If you are trying to help a young person, or any person, get a truly great education, you’d better allow him—or, even better, help him—to fall in love with learning.

And you’d better help him learn how to be a

Home School Q&A: Where do I begin?

Rachel DeMille — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:13:00 +0000

C.P.: I am wanting very much to teach my five year old and 2 year old at home and feel lost:) I was never taught to teach and so where should I start? I haven’t trained my mind well enough to come up with my own teachings each day.

What

Family Success 101

Rachel DeMille — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:40:08 +0000

The Power of the FEC! 

by Oliver and Rachel DeMille

Some of the most important parts of Thomas Jefferson Education include:

The three types of education (conveyor-belt education, professional training, and leadership education)
The Phases of Learning 
The 7 Keys of Great Teaching
The 5 Environments of Learning 
The genius

In Context: A Commentary on Scholarship

Oliver DeMille — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:02:47 +0000

I once read an article by two religious scholars who were very concerned about the qualified and credible scholarship of an individual with what they considered to be a competing religious worldview. It was intriguing to consider the controversy from the point of view of these intellectuals and the author

Home School Insights: The TJEd Conveyor Belt

Rachel DeMille — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:33:55 +0000

As Leadership Education grows and TJEd spreads, we have gotten more and more of a certain type of question that we think deserves a more public response.

It seems that a number of people who read the TJEd books and articles or attend seminars resonate with the idea of getting

Home School Insights: The Best Math Curriculum (A Theme Unit in 3 Lessons)

Oliver DeMille — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:07:39 +0000

Some American Indian tribes teach that when something in your life repeats itself three or four times, you need to pay attention. A few years ago one of my students called such a pattern a “theme unit”: a thought, idea or experience that presents itself repeatedly in different ways

Home School Insights: Unschooling Rules (Book Review)

Oliver DeMille — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:19:29 +0000

Once in a while a truly great book comes along that you just can’t wait to tell everyone else to read. Unschooling Rules by Clark Aldrich is that kind of book. I started reading in the afternoon and couldn’t put it down until I finished. My first thought when I

Home School Insights: Dare to Excel

Oliver DeMille — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:04:24 +0000

We take on a pretty big project when we set out to home school our children. What is your guiding philosophy? What risks will you take? What habits will you break? Of course we can’t progress much if we are addicted to the mediocre, the pedestrian and the uninspiring—lessons too

Home School Insights: Lost in Learning

Rachel DeMille — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:36:44 +0000

I have long believed and taught that the beginning of any great education is falling deeply in love with learning.

The other side of this same coin is that great teaching – whether in public, private or home school - is a matter of truly inspiring students to love what

Home School Insights: The Unschooling Myth

Oliver DeMille — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:27:49 +0000

A Big Myth

Every once in a while somebody asks why TJEd recommends lenient academics for children under age 12 and such rigorous standards for youth ages 12-18. This seems so different from the national system most of us experienced.

Sometimes our first instinct is to defend this point, to