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A review by jenibo
A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century by Oliver DeMille
4.0
This is an extremely highly rated book, and quite difficult to obtain, I found after I decided to read it. I can see why it is so highly regarded, I think it is a fantastic tool for parents wondering about home schooling their children, or looking at alternatives to mass education, which it sounds like lots of US parents are starting to do (and the literacy and numeracy levels in mass education schools in the states makes this very understandable).
The last 50 or so pages of this small book consist of Appendices designed to get down to the nuts and bolts of what to teach, and how to teach, for those taking on this important task, and I think they are absolutely right in what they point out as important content and method. There would be a huge call for inspiring and practical tools such as this to encourage serious and thoughtful people to undertake the job, and a great deal of the mystique which surrounds what happens in schools and puts off those who want to provide an alternative is carefully stripped bare by this work, made understandable and thereby replicable or, more importantly, alterable.
The rest of the book is dedicated to an analysis of the Interests driving mass education content and its effects on its recipients, and the Philosophy of Education in the truest sense, and how this can be fulfilled in venues other than schoolyards and classrooms of 30 age matched students.
DeMille rightly (IMHO) identifies the industrialisation of the educational institution as having been the architect of its degradation, turning schools into job training factories, producing workers who look down at their feet and never forward; who have jettisoned initiative and leadership in favour of conformity and mediocrity, and who are depressed and disillusioned with their own lives and society.
And he also goes on to explain eloquently how inspiring children with great works of Literature, but also Philosophy, History, Art and Mathematics produces a happier and more thoughtful person of character and integrity. DeMille asserts that the far reaching, creatively inspired person, by virtue of the Liberal Arts Education he proposes, is so much better placed to leave society (or industry, or indeed wherever s/he may choose to operate) a richer and kinder and better place; to be happier, more inclined to be unselfish and to wish to make a valuable contribution to society. A good companion piece to Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education by John Taylor Gatto. Thanks, Amazon, for pairing them together for me.
The last 50 or so pages of this small book consist of Appendices designed to get down to the nuts and bolts of what to teach, and how to teach, for those taking on this important task, and I think they are absolutely right in what they point out as important content and method. There would be a huge call for inspiring and practical tools such as this to encourage serious and thoughtful people to undertake the job, and a great deal of the mystique which surrounds what happens in schools and puts off those who want to provide an alternative is carefully stripped bare by this work, made understandable and thereby replicable or, more importantly, alterable.
The rest of the book is dedicated to an analysis of the Interests driving mass education content and its effects on its recipients, and the Philosophy of Education in the truest sense, and how this can be fulfilled in venues other than schoolyards and classrooms of 30 age matched students.
DeMille rightly (IMHO) identifies the industrialisation of the educational institution as having been the architect of its degradation, turning schools into job training factories, producing workers who look down at their feet and never forward; who have jettisoned initiative and leadership in favour of conformity and mediocrity, and who are depressed and disillusioned with their own lives and society.
And he also goes on to explain eloquently how inspiring children with great works of Literature, but also Philosophy, History, Art and Mathematics produces a happier and more thoughtful person of character and integrity. DeMille asserts that the far reaching, creatively inspired person, by virtue of the Liberal Arts Education he proposes, is so much better placed to leave society (or industry, or indeed wherever s/he may choose to operate) a richer and kinder and better place; to be happier, more inclined to be unselfish and to wish to make a valuable contribution to society. A good companion piece to Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education by John Taylor Gatto. Thanks, Amazon, for pairing them together for me.