One of my all-time favorite books about self-education and reading the classics!
My review: https://www.greatbookstudy.com/2019/05/a-thomas-jefferson-education-by-oliver.html

**Update**
Re-reading to help a friend with an assignment for a class she's taking. We'll see if I like it any better this time around...

Well, I can't say I like it any better - the 2-star rating isn't changing - but the discussion was productive and I enjoyed hearing from others on their perspectives. It also seems to me that those who put TJEd into practice actually address several of my concerns and objections by customizing their education (or their children's education) to not include those aspects. This, however, is a review of the book itself, which I find lacking, rather than the whole educational approach, which I think has promise.

First, the good: I find the basis of classical education - classics and mentors - very appealing. I used that framework while I was homeschooling my son, continue using it for supplementing his current public school education, and will most likely use it should we ever homeschool again. I like the emphasis on primary sources ("read the originals, draw your own conclusions and encourage your students to do likewise," Mr. DeMille says). The focus on language skills of reading, writing, and speaking/debating clearly is vital. And I appreciate the approach's almost infinite ability to be customized for individuals. However, I have to note that none of that is unique to TJEd.

Compared to, say, Susan Wise Bauer's A Well-Trained Mind, this book provides very little that is actionable and useful on a day-to-day basis. There are an awful lot of sweeping statements reflecting DeMille's worldview, geared toward persuading you to agree with his ideology, but aside from some lists in the appendices (which have their own issues), there's really not much to get a hold of. Until you go buy some of his other books or attend his seminars or classes, that is. Using A Thomas Jefferson Education as a "hook" to reach your target audience is a great marketing strategy, but I don't find the book in and of itself to be helpful on an applicable level.

I found the alarmist rhetoric throughout A Thomas Jefferson Education very off-putting. My eyes rolled involuntarily at the overly dramatic vignettes. The enthusiastic five-year-old who has all the creativity crushed out of him by the end of kindergarten, while it may be representative of some experiences, was frankly insulting to the many wonderful kindergarten teachers I know. And the scene towards the end where Mr. DeMille describes his vision of some dark day in the future was just about the straw that broke this camel's back. A vote is being taken on the floor of Congress - some terrible bill is about to be passed that will mean the end of liberty as we know it - "how could this happen?" the viewer laments! And then a lone voice of reason in the personage of a young Congressman in the back, quietly, but firmly, says "No" and then passionately, single-handedly, persuades all of Congress to reverse their votes to maintain which ever liberty was on the brink of being lost. Um...congressional procedure doesn't really work that way... And since I am a fairly skeptical person by nature, such questionable rhetoric clearly designed to prey on my emotions - particularly fear - tends to make me even more skeptical of your point of view. Treat me like an adult, please. Present your case on the merits and I'll evaluate it logically. Don't try to sway me with scare tactics or fear-mongering; it just weakens your argument.

(Sidenote: Any list of 100 classics that includes three books by Cleon Skousen can generously be described as skewed. Seriously, the only other authors with three books on the list were Aristotle and C.S. Lewis - unless you count the complete works of Shakespeare. Skousen may be an articulate defender of a certain worldview, but Aristotle, he is not!)

On to the Seven Keys... Mr. DeMille sets up an "either-or" scenario with each of these keys, with the first option being the superior one. You can have Classics OR Textbooks. You can Inspire OR Require. You can Structure Time OR Content. I disagree. It seems to me that there is a place for both classics and quality textbooks in a good, well-rounded education. While it is, of course, important to inspire students to learn on their own, it's impossible to truly gauge that learning is taking place without requiring something of the students. Interestingly, though the book seems to set up a strict "either-or" dichotomy, those I spoke with last night who are using this approach in their homeschooling mostly use a combination rather than an all-or-nothing approach. For example, one mother described how they have a set time for "school" each day, and the kids can choose what they want to study during that time...as long as they spend at least 45 minutes on math. One could argue that that is Mr. DeMille's intent, but I found the book to be unclear on that, providing a stark "black-and-white" description rather than allowing for any gray or nuance.

Finally, I think it odd that this 140-page book has less than four full pages of endnotes. As I mentioned earlier, not much here is brand-spankin'-new, but there is little attribution to others. And I was more than a bit surprised that he used Fawn Brodie as a source at one point; most LDS have a fairly low opinion of her work in light of her unflattering biography on Joseph Smith. Overall, I simply find the lack of documentation puzzling and inconsistent with his stated philosophy, especially in light of his focus on classics and primary sources.

To sum up my objections to the book, I find A Thomas Jefferson Education too vague to be of practical use and too alarmist and overly dramatic (with an ultraconservative undertone) to maintain credibility with me. It also seems to set up what I consider to be false dichotomies with its Seven Keys. The book doesn't really provide much that's "new" in the sense of advocating for a classical education, but is remarkably short on endnotes and documention.

**End Update**

(April 2011 - first reading)
I'm afraid that I was less than impressed with Mr. DeMille's book. Since we started on this homeschooling adventure a few months ago, I've read dozens of books about the philosophy of education, different methods of homeschooling, and classical education in particular. Mr. DeMille doesn't come up with much that's new. He slightly reframes the discussion in a way that is obviously heavily influenced by his mentor Cleon Skousen and tips over into the melodramatic a bit too frequently for my tastes.

The emphasis on using the classics as the basis for education and relying on mentors to help direct the student's learning is solid, as is his assertion that students need to be inspired so they will be motivated to study without compulsion. But there are hoops that do need to be jumped through in order to have credibility in our society, regardless of how complete and thorough one's (self-)education may be.

Quite a few questionable statements are made with no backup documentation. The fuzziness of his educational credentials give me pause, as well. And I find his reticence to be forthcoming about his LDS faith a bit disingenuous.

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I'm not totally sold on this, but the whole concept intrigues me. I completely agree with his viewpoint that kids need to learn how to educate themselves. And his idea that kids should sit around a table with a mentor and have discussions would have really scared me as a student, because it is way harder than just listening to a teacher lecture. Therefore, I agree with the whole idea that it would get kids to actually think and learn to reason.

I'm glad I read this and will definitely start to incorporate classics into my reading more.

I have a Classics-based education and I felt that while the aim of this book may be commendable, it was both too self-serving (e.g. the number of times the author brought up George Wythe college) yet too lacking in detail for most people who would be looking read it (e.g. parents considering a classics based homeschooling or people interested in a classic liberal arts education for themselves). The two tips I thought this book offered that you don’t see too much in other books on the same subject were: 1) there are classics in every subject (some other books feel like they skip a bit over math and science and don’t really touch at all on subjects like psychology or business, leaving them to “higher” education); 2) to learn a foreign language by reading that language’s classics in the actual language — to a certain extent this would have to be done with more “modern” classics to be of true help (think of how difficult it would be trying to learn English through Shakespeare or Chaucer as opposed to a writer from the last century or so), however, I think the idea itself is interesting and not really dealt with at all in many similar books.