A Crisis of Culture

Hardly anyone truly does Scholar Phase in today’s educational environment. Really: Almost nobody. Most students in public, private and charter schools avoid Scholar Phase and instead focus on the central elements of modern schooling—getting good grades, scoring well on tests, qualifying for scholarships and college entrance. Scholar Phase isn’t even a priority for most parents, teachers, or students.

The same is often true for homeschoolers, and even many of those who do TJEd. And while test-taking, achieving good grades, and preparing for nationalized exams are good skills to have, they don’t even come close to the real goal of teen education: getting a true, quality, Thomas Jefferson-level Scholar Phase.

The reason most schooling emphasizes grades, credits and test scores is that these have become the markers of conveyor-belt education. But Scholar Phase is the real need, because it prepares a young person to fully excel in a unique, powerful life mission. This is what education is meant to accomplish. Anything less is a letdown.

And let’s be clear: Youth who get a truly great education do so because they fall in love with learning, and eventually with study. They love to study because they feel a deep inner passion for learning, so they voluntarily seek to learn, learn, learn and study, study, study. This only happens when a teen feels truly inspired about learning.

Why TJEd High!?

TJEd High! is focused on helping young people ages 13-18 find and increase their inspiration to learn and study with voluntary excitement, interest, and passion. Great education comes when a student passionately and voluntarily studies for many hours a day—seeking to learn, grow, and increase his or her knowledge, understanding and skills. Of course, beginners do less, and learn to build up to this level, while more advanced students commonly study 8-14 hours per day. That’s not a typo.

TJEd’s main goal is to help students feel and keep feeling a desire to sit down and read, study, learn. Day after day. Week after week.

Historical vs. Contemporary Models

While most schools emphasize the Lecture-Information/Test-Memory approach to education (based on the conveyor-belt schooling system designed by Horace Mann, John Dewey and others) TJEd instead employs the historical Oxford approach, as used by most of the American founding generation.

In the Oxford model, instead of hearing lectures meant to transfer information and then taking tests on such information, young people focus their studies on Reading, Thinking, and Discussing. This model drastically increases both the speed and depth with which most people learn, and the large of majority of learners find it more interesting, exciting, and enjoyable.

As mentioned above: The goal of TJEd High! is to help each young person become truly inspired to study, study, study and learn, learn, learn. The mentoring content, schedule, and assignments focus on helping each teen stay inspired and passionately learning.

Students will know they are on target when they are voluntarily studying day after day because they love it, and because they can’t wait to read and study the next thing. Where most schooling falls short of truly Thomas Jefferson-level learning because youth are taught to depend on adults for their education, Leadership Education has an entirely different approach—truly helping teens realize that they will get the best education when they are themselves directing their own education, passionately seeking for more knowledge, deeper wisdom, and higher levels of excellence and quality in their studies.

Only student-driven self-learning, with the guidance and counsel of a seasoned mentor, ever reaches the highest levels of great education, yet most students only experience such Scholar Phase learning, if at all, during college or later in life when they get excited about some topic and give their heart and soul to pursuing great learning. What is needed is for a lot more young people to do this earlier, during their teen years, so they can get the most out of their educational opportunities. This is what TJEd High is all about.

What TJEd High! is Not

TJEd High! is not a mainstream, accredited institution. It does not answer to local or national regulatory bodies for its instructional design, and does not depend on government funding for operations. It is a mentoring service, made up of a group of Mentors helping young people pursue great education. This is a program for homeschool students and other youth who want to add more excitement, passion and quality to their education.

The entire focus is on helping each teen get more and more inspired to voluntarily study, learn, think, and increase in knowledge, understanding, and skills. Mentors at TJEd High! have all experienced a truly great Scholar Phase, and they know how to help teens do the same—without bureaucratic checklists or arbitrary policies that too often get in the way of truly great learning.

Who Should Consider TJEd High?

This opportunity is for teens ages 13-18 who want to truly love studying, and to seek a great, Thomas Jefferson level education. Students who are enrolled in public school, online high school, private or charter schools, Commonwealth schools, homeschooling co-ops, or other structured programs can add TJEd High! mentoring to become more inspired, study more passionately and effectively, and gain increased depth and skills to their other studies.

On the other hand, TJEd High! also offers a Super-Charged extra/honors track of learning for those who want to put all of their effort into this program.

This flexibility allows each parent and all students to personalize their program to best meet individual needs and schedules.

What Will Participants Need in Addition to TJEd High?

Each teen who takes part in TJEd High! classes will need:

  • Access to his/her own books and reading materials (many are available at libraries or online, and as audio books
  • Internet access to receive and interact with TJEd High! video, audio, and online discussion content on our secure learning platform

What Will TJEd High! Participants Get in the Mentoring Content?

Topics covered include English, literature, history, science, math, social studies, entrepreneurship, leadership, current events, technology, etc.—all with an emphasis on increasing student inspiration and passion to learn and study more and better. Mentors will also coach participants through many of the great classics, and also teach them numerous learning and study skills.

Again, the focus of TJEd High! is different than most learning environments. Where modern schools generally emphasize the transfer of information through lecture and testing, based on the public school system, TJEd High! has a different focus. Built from the ground up specifically for homeschoolers and others who see the higher potential of self-learning, TJEd High! emphasizes not the rules of schooling but rather what leads to truly great learning—the kind of learning achieved by Thomas Jefferson and others in the American founding era.

The Objective

Specifically, TJEd begins with the end in mind, to cite one of Stephen Covey’s famous 7 Habits. The goal is 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds who voluntarily study very hard and pursue the best education because they love learning and want to learn so much more—in all important fields of learning and also with areas of focus in topics they passionately love and enjoy.

With very few exceptions, truly great education is always great self-education. Teens who aren’t great self-learners seldom do really quality education in the long-term. (This is true in public, private, charter and home schools, and it is also true of college students and other adults.) The whole focus of TJEd High! is to help teens who aren’t yet superb self-learners to become excellent self-learners, and to provide those who are great self-learners with the inspiration and input to truly leverage their efforts to higher levels of success. While young people can start at almost any level of academic skills, TJEd High! is designed to quickly help them improve these skills and embrace quality self-learning.

After a year or more in this program, dedicated participants will have drastically improved skills and self-learning ability—eventually becoming the kind of Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln learners who know how to get a truly superb education and don’t let anything stop them in this quest.

The TJEd High! program is designed with all the elements of a true Leadership Education at the Scholar Phase/youth level.