A Thomas Jefferson Education

I heard Oliver DeMille, president of George Wythe College speak, last night at a book signing at Barnes and Noble. Mr. DeMille is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education. I was surprised. He was much younger than I expected. I had heard about the "Thomas Jefferson approach" before but had not done any reading on it. From his book and talk, it was very clear that public education is not designed to build leadership skills and profound thinking. That kind of education must be done one on one or in small groups. Public assembly line education is designed to produce factory workers, fast food server, and other drone types.

I was happy to find that our family was already doing many of the things he suggested. I'm going to focus more on talking with my daughters about the books they are reading. I was also happy to see that I already read many of the classic books on his list (but not much recently).

The big point he made was that parents need to education themselves, read good books, reread good books, and talk about them. Children raised in homes with self-educated parents will likely follow that example.

I’m so glad my children are educated at home.

Janine