by Oliver DeMille The Principle Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don’t. This is a great principle of life, and it applies to many things, from business and finance to relationships and fitness, from health and happiness to education and career. It also applies [...]
A Deeper Problem One day. One trip to Barnes and Noble. Two magazines. It was interesting to read the two articles within five minutes of each other. It really made me think. First came a piece in Psychology Today (April 2014) reviewing a groundbreaking new [...]
The New Problem Time magazine and The Economist recently ran articles on education and career, and how the changing economy has made the current conveyor-belt style of schooling almost entirely obsolete—for everything except low-paying jobs. The Atlantic ran a similar article showing that American workers [...]
Stand Up! I read somewhere, I forget where, that the only people who ever get a truly great education are those who just plain stand up and demand one. They do this in spite of schools, bureaucracies, and the educational system—not because of these things. [...]
Writing In Books is Vital to Real Learning “Are you kidding me?” I asked in amazement. “Are you serious?” The girl must have been surprised by my intensity, because she asked carefully, “Is something wrong?” “Are you seriously telling me that your parents don’t want [...]
by Oliver DeMille “As Father had taught him, he did not believe the first explanation his mind leapt to. ‘It will often be right, and as you get more experience of life is will usually be right. But it will never be reliably right, and [...]
by Oliver DeMille The Libraries of Great Men I recently read an interesting and fun article by Jeremy Anderberg entitled “The Libraries of Great Men: Theodore Roosevelt’s Reading List.” It’s an excellent read. For example, Anderberg wrote: “Reading books by your ‘mentors’—even if they’re long [...]
by Oliver DeMille Classics and Freedom I didn’t study freedom because I loved the classics. I studied classics because I loved freedom. I know other people have taken their own path, as they should. But for me Thomas Jefferson combines these two great traditions—classics and [...]
A recent TEdx talk was given by 11 year old homeschooler Logan LaPlante. He argues (among many, many other wonderful points) that "education" too often asks kids to define "what they want be when they grow up," without abilifying them to be happy. Logan likens [...]
By Oliver DeMille “How will math ever help me in real life?” Every math teacher and a lot of parents have heard this question—more than once! And what homeschooler hasn’t heard the familiar query: “But what about your kids’ social development?” A new question in [...]
