A Thomas Jefferson Education

Leadership Education for the Twenty-first Century

Jun 24, 2009 Leigh Vozzella

Are today's youth prepared to be the leaders of tomorrow or is the American education system simply delivering mediocrity?

"Almost everyone agrees that modern American education needs to be improved, but almost nobody agrees on what the 'fixes' should be or how they should be implemented." These are the words of Oliver DeMille in his revolutionary book A Thomas Jefferson Education [George Wythe College Press, 2006]. DeMille draws a distinct difference between education and teaching and says "Teaching, and not educating, should be our focus, because great teaching inspires students to educate themselves." According to DeMille "teachers teach and students educate".

Three Educational Categories

In DeMille's book, he categorizes "schooling" in three ways: Conveyor Belt education, Professional education and Leadership education. DeMille explains that a conveyor belt education prepares the student for a job by teaching them what to think and he places most public schools in this category.

A professional education, according to DeMille, is one that is received through apprenticeship, trade school, law school or medical school, creating specialists and teaching a student when to think.

DeMille's final category is what he calls Leadership education or Thomas Jefferson Education which teaches students how to think, thus preparing them to be leaders, entrepreneurs and statesmen. DeMille does an excellent job of not only presenting the reader with a thorough history of education but also in analyzing the historical data in a clear and concise manner.

The Key to Leadership Education

According to the author the " fundamental difference between leadership education and the other types of learning, is that the leadership curriculum is individualized". DeMille's opinion is that in order to provide an individualized education to the student, teachers must first understand the developmental stages and process which accompany a great education. In A Thomas Jefferson Education, these four developmental stages are called the Phases of Learning: Core Phase (approx. 0-8 years old), Love of Learning Phase (approx. 8-12 years old), Scholar Phase (approx. 12-16 years old) and Depth Phase (approx. 16-22 years old).

The Key Elements

Great men and women throughout history studied other great men and women. Throughout the book, DeMille states "find a great leader in history, and you will nearly always find two central elements of their education – classics and mentors". DeMille describes a Thomas Jefferson education as including the following seven key elements:

• Classics, Not Textbooks
• Mentors, Not Professors
• Inspire, Not Require
• Structure Time, Not Content
• Quality, Not Conformity
• Simplicity, Not Complexity
• You, Not Them

Leadership Education

The great leaders of history, both men and women, were educated in the manner that author Oliver DeMille proposes in his book A Thomas Jefferson Education. According to DeMille to achieve greatness and leadership “all it takes are classics, mentors and hard work”. The author includes a list of 100 classics as well as a list of classics for youth and children. Also included in the appendix are sample discussion questions, where to find the classics, recommended readings and an appendix titled "Putting Thomas Jefferson Education to Work". The author has written a second book titled A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion [George Wythe College Press, 2006] which guides parents through the process of implementing this educational philosophy at home.

Thomas Jefferson said "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be". The American educational system and it's "conveyor belt" method have proven to be inadequate in preparing its students to be the leaders of tomorrow. The key elements of a Thomas Jefferson, or Leadership, education can be implemented in public, private, charter and homeschools alike, however the home and family are always the key elements to any education. For more information visit TJEd Online.

The copyright of the article A Thomas Jefferson Education in Homeschooling is owned by Leigh Vozzella. Permission to republish A Thomas Jefferson Education in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

A Thomas Jefferson Education

A Home Companion