| | |  | Curricula | Home » » A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century | | | | | | | Description: | | Is American education preparing the future leaders our nation needs, or merely struggling to teach basic literacy and job skills? Without leadership education, are we settling for an inadequate system that delivers educational, industrial, governmental and societal mediocrity? In A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, Oliver DeMille presents a new educational vision based on proven methods that really work! Teachers, students, parents, educators, legislators, leaders and everyone who cares about America's future must read this compelling book. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Oliver Van DeMille | | Hardcover:
| 195 pages | | Publisher:
| George Wythe College Press | | Publication Date:
| January 01, 2006 | | ISBN:
| 096712462X | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.0 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 50 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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62 of 72 found the following review helpful:
 Even better than the first!Apr 08, 2006
By Senora Gose
I received this book just this weekend - and have already devoured the new chapters - all very good additions. I noted that many of the little errors have been corrected, and the book is just beautiful - hardback, with a lovely dust jacket - and a nice black bookmark! Classic! All that said, my review still stands from the first edition:
I can give the education of our patriots to our children!
My theories, hopes, expectations, and dreams for homeschooling our children are all laid out in this book. It has classic book lists in the back divided by age range (Dr. Seuss is on the list!), step-by-step instructions for how to become an effective mentor to your child or classroom, and succinctly and interestingly describes the current failures of "traditional" classroom methodology. (I'm a former public school teacher, and I agree from experience!)
The only place I disagree with the author is in learning a foreign language - he states we should read a classic in the target language and discuss it. Reading don Quijote in Spanish to anyone who doesn't already know Spanish, will sound like gibberish...So to get a head start on your young one knowing a second language try Workbook and CD like Flip Flop Spanish instead.
Otherwise, this book is quick and extremely informational to read, - a new way of thinking for me, for sure! - and in another year, I look forward to testing its theories in our daily practical lives!
Sra. Gose
Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Extremely valid perspective on the condition of education....Jul 13, 2009
By Math Mom
For the record, DeMille CLEARLY and REPEATEDLY states that it is irrelevant where your child sits [whether it is at public, private or home school] to get the inspiration & fundamental tools of learning; and that TRUE education is not teaching WHAT to think (teaching to a test) or WHEN to think ("professional" training), but HOW to think. That is exactly what our young people need to learn! What a valid and refreshing objective in the current environment where "feelings" are taught to over-rule thought.
"Conveyor belt learning" for instance, is a mindset first followed by the approach that has led to the decline in literacy rates & rankings. As such, DeMille does not attribute the dysfunction only to government schools as LDS has asserted. Rather, he outlined/demonstrated the pros & cons of all learning environments and how all can fall under that category.
If LDS has indeed read this book and/or is a home school dad who did due diligence before deciding to home school (which looks doubtful after his review), then he would admit & understand this. Anyone can pick paragraphs here & there (out of context), make assertions/assumptions and then criticize for pete's sake. Perhaps he should read it again...this time slower.
Whereas I think DeMille's emphasis on the "classics" was a bit beyond what we work on with our children, his points were no less valid and his solutions were proven & attainable for ANY parent [again] regardless of their child's official learning environment.
I believe this is a must read for anyone looking to explore and/or apply different educational approaches based on the needs of their child(ren).
35 of 41 found the following review helpful:
Positive solutions - FINALLY!Apr 22, 2007
By A. Taylor
"TJEd Mom"
Where do I begin? Incredible book, well written, easy read, inspiring on every level, LIFE CHANGING - you won't want to put it down once you open it!
If you have kids you need to read this book before they are schooled another day. If you don't have kids and you have accomplished any level of education (GED to PhD) this book is a must read. If you are a teacher or educator of any kind - again, a must read. You're life will never be the same!
2 years ago, I personally heard Dr. DeMille speak at a conference in CA and as he spoke it was as if someone had turned the lights on and I could finally see my kid's education AND my own clearly. I went out and bought the book (the first edition) as soon as he walked off the stage. As soon as the 2nd edition (this one) came out about a year ago, I bought 4 copies - one for our house, one for my parents and 2 to loan out.
"I've got a college degree but never liked school all growing up" - heard someone say that before? We all know there is something wrong with the current education system, but it's difficult to put a finger on just what it is. Everyone points blame in a different direction and at the end of the day nothing has been resolved and we're asked to throw more tax money at the problem we can't define.
This book is refreshing! It's positive, optimistic and finally explains where the breakdown occurred and continues to occur. It gives SOLUTIONS - hallelujah! Its premise is brilliant and simple all at the same time. After reading it you will want more for yourself, more for your life, more for your children and more for our country. You'll have hope again.
That's what it did for us. After reading this book, my husband and I decided to implement a Leadership Education in our own home and it's been exciting to watch our children respond and get excited about learning. Even if you can't homeschool your children, you can learn from the philosophies in this book and make their education the kind you only dreamed about growing up.
If I had the money, I'd buy a copy for everyone I know, every college student and every parent walking aimlessly around at homeschool fairs. Enrich your life and your grandchildren's...leave the legacy you want to leave...BUY THIS BOOK!
30 of 35 found the following review helpful:
The direction I would advise all homeschools to go.Jul 22, 2006
By T. Patrick
Before adopting this theory of education, I hoped that pulling my daughter out of school and home schooling her would give her a hope of graduating from high school, and with some part of her self esteem intact. Collage was something I had given up on.
After about 6 months, we are still struggling to follow the path set forth in the book. It is, after all, a complete lifestyle change as well as an education. (It is me who struggles, not my child.) Now I wonder how far she could go. Collage is not only a possibility, but a sure thing, if that is what she chooses. I see no limits to the possibilities.
If you have read "Dumbing Us Down", and you should, you know that "school" is not "education". This book tells you what education is.
140 of 178 found the following review helpful:
 Fundamentally flawed. False claimsSep 25, 2008
By LDS Homeschool Dad
In this book Oliver DeMille sells a promise and a hope to parents that are dissatisfied with public education. DeMille argues that we need great leaders like Thomas Jefferson to be able to meet the problems of the 21st century, and the way we get those leaders is that we give them an education like what Thomas Jefferson had. DeMille claims to have discovered what nearly all great leaders in the past have had:
"Find a great leader in history, and you will nearly always find two central elements of their education - classics and mentors. From Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington to Ghandi, Newton and John Locke, to Abigail Adams, Mother Theresa and Joan of Arc - great men and women of history studied other great men and women." p. 37
This is the basis for everything else he espouses in the book. However, Joan of Arc most likely couldn't read. George Washington was not familiar with the classics and it was something that he was a little self-conscious about. In fact, if you look at leaders of the past, including the ones DeMille lists as examples, virtually none of them were particularly well-versed in any classics and had any significant mentoring, if any at all. But this is the proof DeMille attempts to use to convince the reader that what he will describe is not only what great leaders in the past have done, but what we must do now.
Reading the classics is fine and anyone would benefit from reading them. But DeMille isn't even consistent with what he considers a "classic." For Thomas Jefferson, it was Homer and Livy, for parents now, it's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and books by Cleon Skousen.
Part of the Thomas Jefferson Education approach is that there are six "Phases of Learning." DeMille claims to have discovered them after researching the life of Thomas Jefferson:
"These Phases were first noted and identified in our research of the education of Thomas Jefferson, and were later seen to be a pattern of many luminaries in history who lived exemplary lives and changed the world for good." p. 31
What he fails to mention is that these "Phases" started with Freud's psychosexual stages, which were then modified by Erik Erikson to be social more than sexual and to extend past childhood into adulthood, which were then also modified by Jean Piaget, until coming into their final form by DeMille (his other book, Leadership Education explains this). These phases are not something DeMille discovered when researching Thomas Jefferson, but rather more likely something he discovered from studying modern cognitive development theorists and child psychologists.
DeMille also claims to have discovered 7 Keys of Great Learning (he later added an eighth about not being stressed). One Key is to only inspire your child, never require them to do anything academically. Another Key is that you should only focus on yourself. If you are having problems with his methods, the problem is most likely that you either aren't inspiring enough or you need to stop fussing over your child and focus more on yourself. In fact, DeMille gives and example of what happens in seminars when people say they are having trouble getting their child to do math. DeMille just simply asks the parent when the last time she (the parent) has read a "math classic" (Euclid, Archimedes, Newton), and when she answers that she hasn't, then DeMille says that's the problem right there. If you read it, then the child will observe your love to learn and will be inspired to discuss what you are learning with you and somehow either learn that way, or be motivated to go learn math through self-instruction (which should only be done through "math classics").
DeMille also advises parents and students to learn a foreign language through a "classic" in that foreign language. He recommends that in order to learn Spanish, you should pick up a copy of Don Quixote in the original Spanish in one hand, and English translation of it in the other. I highly doubt anyone could learn through that method. Regardless, the Spanish in Don Quixote is older and difficult, like Shakespeare is to English speakers now.
DeMille claims that we need leaders to secure our liberties and that only through such leaders will we be saved as a country. And these leaders will only come through TJEd:
"The leaders of the future will come from the schools, homes, colleges, universities and organizations where classics, mentors, and the other elements of Thomas Jefferson Education are cherished and seriously perused." p113
"Where are the new American Founders of the Twenty-first Century? None of us know who those statesmen will be. But this I do know-the great statesmen and stateswomen of the future will be prepared through the Five Pillars of Statesmenship." p133
He also repeatedly claims that the "conveyor-belt" education (public schools) cannot produce the needed leaders and results in unsatisfactory lives and jobs:
"Which one do you want for your children? If you want to be low-income, production, service, government jobs, you ought to be in a conveyor belt school; because that's what it will prepare you for, and will do it effectively...But if you want more, you'd better get into another system." p117
This book is big on promise, but low on details, and the details supplied are fatally flawed and insufficient for any education. The claim that virtually all leaders had an education of classics and mentors is not true (search around on the internet to find more on this claim, there are some good posts evaluating this), and there's no evidence that what he describes as a "leadership education" is at all what leaders in the past have had. He leaves out crucial aspects of Thomas Jefferson's life that probably were influential in his becoming a leader, like learning Latin and Greek at age 9, and graduating college before getting his "mentor" George Wythe when he was a law clerk, let alone Jefferson's natural intellect. I think this book appeals to parents who do want something better for their child, but are not able to properly evaluate the claims and promises DeMille makes.
Before anyone decides to do this approach, ask a few questions about the claims. Use some critical thinking skills. Don't be so quick to accept everything as gospel just because the author started off talking about how the classics were important.
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