I’ve been learning a lot about education theories, leadership education/TJED being one. It’s used by many local homeschoolers and a charter school nearby and I’m intrigued. I wish I would have had a better liberal arts education and a personal mentor as part of my education, but the good news is it’s never too late to start and supplement. And my kids have many opportunities that I now know better how to cultivate.

I found this book difficult to read because of the way it is organized. Perhaps it was written before TJED was completely developed. It’s hard to glean the most important tidbits out, but I’ve found talking to others very helpful to truly understand these concepts and how they work.

Oct 2017- The first few chapters were slightly boring to revisit, but the rest of the book is great. I needed the review and learned more the second time through.

2016- This theory of education summarizes so much of what I already believe and describes things in a way I never thought to. I believe that we focus too much on testing and getting a piece of paper saying we are educated. The purpose of education should be to actually be educated and to love learning. I think the greatest lesson any teacher or parent can teach is the love of learning. To inspire life long learners. DeMille calls this Leadership Education because well educated people who are constantly learning are the ones who make the best leaders. We live in a world of "experts" but not leaders. My experience at Chapman University is what really solidified this opinion for me. I have always loved reading and wanted to learn everything I can. But high school began to knock that out of me. I was a good student, but started to hate reading because I was told exactly what to read and when. I was taught math in a way that didn't make sense. I thought I was bad at it. Then I went to Chapman and was inspired to do more. My calculus teacher taught in a very clear manner and helped us understand WHY. She took time to inspire us individually. I had an English teacher that had expectations, but gave us more freedom in our reading timelines and really made discussions fun. Both of these women changed my view of education. Reading this book put into words my experience. As I read the next book, there are things I don't completely agree with, but overall, I'm glad someone described my view, so that I could better understand it. I was looking for guidance in helping my kids get more out of life and education and am glad that this has helped start my exploration.

The concept of leadership education and encouragement of mentoring discussion make the book a worthy read.

I came from a conveyor belt public school system, went through professional education in universities, exposed occasionally and explored hungrily the leadership education later in life. I believe the education system can do better educating, not just teaching. TJed reminds us the approaches to early stage leadership education that are true and tested through the history.

Not just read the book, but do what is reasonable to you.
-Education is a privilege that you have to want it by yourself, do it yourself.
-Read classics, find mentors that can be parents and great teachers, discuss.
-Think how to learn, not (just) what to learn.

A few years ago I picked this up and fell in love with this philosophy of education - classics and mentors. I wish I'd had more mentors and known to search them out in my primary education years. I wasn't really exposed to classics with a mentor in the education system until I took an AP history class as a junior in high school. I hungered for classics and mentors but didn't know what they were, I was very much on the conveyor belt. This book did help me clarify what I think education should be for my kids and planted the seed of wanting to homeschool them. It provided my husband and I good points to discuss about our own and our children's education and our part in it. Next year I'll begin homeschooling my oldest who is ten while keeping my 8 and 5 yr old in their international school because it is a good fit for them right now and a great opportunity to be a part of that community where we live overseas. I'm lucky enough to have a handful of friends using this TJED philosophy in their home schools and I've sought their mentorship.

I'd have truly rated this as 4 1/2 stars only because sometimes I felt bogged down by the author's very western Christian dogma even though those are my roots and pretty foundational to my own beliefs. Overall I really do believe this philosophy put in practice will indeed prepare solid-founded future leaders who know how to think and lead.

I thought this was going to be a "How to" book, but it really ended up being more of a "Why you should" book. He kept almost getting to the "how," but he rarely gave practical examples, which I found very frustrating. I guess if I had expected this book to be inspiration for teaching, instead of a guide for teaching, it might have been less frustrating. Also, most of the book was focused on a high school and college experience, which I wouldn't have minded so much if that had been obvious from the outset.

Things I liked:

A "grading" system composed of "good job" or "do it again," seems very useful.

Allowing students to actually express if they liked the classics or not and then explain their opinions.

The division of classics into "bent"(shouldn't be read), "broken" (read as a warning), "whole" read for inspiration, and "healing," (a combo of the previous two that speaks to you.)

In math, teaching the lives of the people who developed the theorems and how they came to their conclusions. This does seem likely to spark more interest in the concepts than just having more numbers thrown at you.

A lot of DeMille's board ideas seemed reasonable.

Things I didn't like:

DeMille redefined the terms "education" and "classics" and then seemed surprised that no one was on the same page. He did explain his definition of education early on, but didn't explain classics until halfway through.

His tone felt condescending, as if anyone who doesn't agree with him, or can't afford to adopt his methods, is lower class and deserves to stay there.

Maybe this one is me reading too much into it, but this felt like a book written by a man, to men, about other men. There were some token references to women, and he occasionally used inclusive terminology (men and women), but he mostly defaulted to "he" for everyone, which may be an older style of writing, but in combo with the inclusive terminology, just seemed like he wasn't thinking about women doing the great things he was talking about. It was especially jarring when he suddenly switched from "statesmen," which he used the whole book, to "statesmen and stateswomen" in the last chapter. Then again, that might also have been me just getting more and more annoyed with his tone the further I got into the book.

All in all, some useful ideas, but the author thoroughly annoyed me, and I won't be reading this book again.

Some good perspectives on education here. Love the fact that he bases most of his "theory" on the reading of the Great Books. Worth a read for anyone wanting more ideas on how homeschooling can benefit anyone.

Save yourselfI'm going to stretch myself and give this an extra star because I do agree with the overall premise of the book: you cannot force anyone to learn; they have to choose to learn. I also agree with using primary sources as a learning tool which is what most of the classics are. If nothing else, this book inspired me to read more of the truly great works of literature. That's it for my positive. So my first issue with Demille is listing Covey's 7 Habits as a classic. Seriously?! Dr. Zhivago is a classic. Covey is a self help book.

My overall opinion? The book seemed poorly researched, poorly organized, and I'm sorry to say, poorly written. At first I got into it, the homeschooling bug in me was awakened. "yeah! I want to read classic books with my kids!" Then Demille had a few small historical inaccuracies (which really bugged me. You'd think he'd take the time to check his facts!) and began contradicting himself and I started to look at the book more critically. It's heavy on the pathos, but low on the evidence. He ends the book by giving his "college" a three page endorsement, which I found shady.
I also have to add, look at a lot of the books he lists as classics for adults. It bothers me that he includes many books written by members of his church (I'm also a member, no bias here) and doesn't even have Frederick Douglas or Steinbeck. Obviously no one's "classics" are the same, but I would think they would all be actual classics. This book is fine for a generalized approach to education, but not a complete methodology.

As a home educator to my own children and teacher in small group settings, I was challenged to think more deeply about quality education and it’s purposes by this author. It reinforced my love for charlotte Mason style learning (observation skills, oral narrative, nature based, experience learning, quality literature) but also challenged me to think about incorporating more Socratic methods, particularly as my oldest is on the verge of moving from kid to young adult. Highly recommend! It is NOT a bash on public education or educators, but does offer some simple, yet hard methods that would bring about great improvement in our current, very broken system. A great read for parents, teachers, and administrators.

This is a great educational philosophy. However, I am somewhat disenchanted with the idea that everything traditional education is "conveyor belt." I agree that a lot of public schools do just push the students through - especially since "No Child Left Behind" has come into place. But, that doesn't mean that all schools or curricula were created equal.

Also, I don't like the idea that many who practice TJEd believe that you shouldn't let your children who are in Core phase (roughly 0 to 8 yrs old) know they are learning. That is completely ludicrous! It's okay to let your children know they are learning as long as they are enjoying it and their love of learning remains intact.

Every parent needs to read this book. It will change the way you see education, and almost every other "government" institution.

it gets 4 stars, not 5, because I don’t believe in rating anything the top rating. Everything has room for improvement. I found this book at the library in the homeschool section. I’ve been researching homeschool in order to homeschool my children. I like to be prepared. I knew that I did not want to send my kids to public school and I also knew I didn’t want to teach them in the conventional way that public school or any other school teaches children. I knew teaching in the same way is automatically better because there are less students for me to focus on, but I knew there had to be a better way. I had found so called Unschooling, which was probably closest to what I was planning on doing with my kids but it really just seemed like the exact same thing as public school just not in an organized fashion. I still didn’t understand how to teach my kids the things they don’t want to learn. So when I found this book, I was instantly intrigued by the title because I want my kids to know civics and our constitutional and American history. The majority of Americans can’t name all three branches of government. Then, as I read on, it thought, yes, absolutely, this is how I am going to teach my kids. I love the idea that teachers teach and students educate because it resonated with how I am now, and even as a teenager. I love to learn, but I only like to learn the things that I want to learn. I kept reading, and then it became, no longer about educating my children, but leading by example and educating myself first, so that I can be a better teacher, and a mentor. This book has absolutely changed my life for the better, and will change my life even more, as I have moved on to step one and step two at the end of the book of my own education. And I think I’ve also been blessed to find this book while my children are still young. I have already ordered the next book A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens.

First read in 2008, re-reading for TJEd seminar... I still disagree that all education can be gleened from the pages of literary classics, even when they include great biographies and treatis on science or mathematics. There is still place for practical application/practice, and there is need for current readings (in both non-fiction and literature). AND I disagree with the Erickson-based age ranges, as it is obvious to me that this is as variable to the individual as all gifts, talents, and interests are. BUT, much of the philosophy behind the Thomas Jefferson/Leadership Education I DO agree with and practice.