by Oliver and Rachel DeMille Roses are red, violets are blue; getting a great education is fun for you. It… tastes like chicken. It… [fill in your favorite cliché here…] But seriously, some areas of success hinge on one set of skills or [...]
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 [...]
by Rachel DeMille Beginning Again A favorite movie has a scene where one of the characters has lost his way, and, following the counsel of a trusted advisor, he goes "back to the beginning." It is there, he knows, that he will find his guide [...]
A Student’s Paper by Oliver DeMille This week I want to share a paper turned in by one of my students. I’ve read a lot of commentary recently about The Hunger Games series, pros and cons of youth reading it. Some people lump it in [...]
by Oliver DeMille Inspire Recently our married daughter got involved in a discussion we were having online with some friends about the meaning of "Inspire". She commented that in her experience (and being raised in the heart of TJEd, she has a really unique and [...]
The longer Rachel and I apply the 7 Keys and other principles of TJEd, the clearer it becomes to us that modern society has made four dangerous mistakes. Since I prefer to emphasize the positive, I consider them four opportunities to do things better than [...]
Mortimer Adler, who assembled the Great Books of the Western World collection, wrote a great deal about education. One of his most important contributions is his discussion about the three kinds of teaching. Three Systems of Teaching 1) First is what he calls “Didactic Instruction.” [...]
by Oliver DeMille The subtitle to our book A Thomas Jefferson Education is: “Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century.” I really believe in this. It matters. The leaders of the 21st Century live in our homes. And we can truly help them [...]
By Oliver DeMille There is an excellent book by John F. Heath entitled, When Bright Kids Can’t Learn: How New Brain Research Can Help Your Child. I highly recommend it. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the book, at least for me, is the idea [...]
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 [...]
