The Path Ahead

The 10th Annual TJEd Online Convention

Shape your child’s education for the world they will inherit.

You are not preparing your children for your childhood. You are preparing them for their adulthood.

AI is rapidly changing how people learn, work, create, and find information. A new generational era is taking shape. Our children are growing toward a world that will look very different from the one in which we were raised.

What should education do differently now? What should never change? And how can we prepare young people not merely to keep up, but to think clearly, govern themselves, recognize their purpose, and contribute something meaningful?

The 2026 TJEd Online Convention brings these questions together in one rich, practical, on-demand experience for parents, mentors, educators, and lifelong learners.

What’s Included in the 2026 TJEd Online Convention

• Two timely keynotes from Oliver DeMille exploring great education in the AI era, the coming First Turning, and what families can do now to prepare children for the world ahead
• The Mentor’s Craft with Rachel DeMille—a keynote and four-part mini-course with real mentoring cases, downloadable Mentor’s Notebooks guided workshop, and thoughtful debrief conversations
• Five new presentations from Ian Cox on mentoring beneath the surface, awakening greatness, protecting imagination, honoring childhood, and preparing the rising generation to preserve freedom
• Three live, participatory workshops with Ian Cox exploring the Declaration of Independence, the TJEd Blank Page process, and the creation of a digital commonplace notebook
• Temporary access to the TJEd AI—a purpose-built Leadership Education companion for planning, brainstorming, reflection, and deeper exploration
• Practical guidance for using AI wisely—including learner readiness, protecting ownership and independent thought, and using AI to strengthen rather than replace real learning
• A rich on-demand presentation library covering classics, history, writing, geography, constitutional studies, math, science, generational change, educational trends, and more
• Supporting resources including Mentor Prompts, downloadable notebooks and worksheets, reading recommendations, and practical tools for continued study and application
• The freedom to learn at your own pace—watch from home, pause to reflect, share selected sessions with your household, and return to important ideas throughout the convention access period

One convention. A wealth of ideas, experiences, and practical support for the path ahead.

Get Convention Access >>

Want a closer look? Keep scrolling for featured presentations, live workshops, and more of what’s included.

Featured Presentations

How Is Great Education Different in the AI Era—and in the Coming First Turning?

Two enormous changes are reshaping education at once: artificial intelligence is transforming how information is found and used, while a new generational era is beginning to emerge.

Oliver DeMille explores what these changes mean for today’s children and youth, when AI helps or hinders genuine education, and which timeless principles will matter more than ever in the years ahead.

America’s Current Search: What We Really Want…

Beneath many of today’s educational, cultural, and political debates is a deeper search: What kind of life do we want—and what kind of families and communities can sustain it?

Oliver explores what has been lost, what Americans may be trying to recover, and the essential role of strong “Backbone Families” in rebuilding meaning, capability, and civilization.

The Mentor’s Craft

Your 7-year-old won’t do school without a fight. Your 13-year-old only wants to read fantasy novels. Your 10-year-old is afraid of making mistakes.

Should you push harder? Back off? Change your approach entirely?

Or perhaps, beneath all of these, is a quieter question:

Am I doing this right?

Rachel DeMille introduces a way of approaching difficult mentoring moments with greater clarity, patience, and wisdom.

The keynote is followed by a four-part mini-course in which real mentoring cases, downloadable Mentor’s Notebooks, and thoughtful debrief conversations help you examine your assumptions, consider different possibilities, and recognize your own emerging mentoring voice.

You are not learning mentoring moves to copy. You are developing the capacity to see more clearly and respond more wisely.

Mentoring, Imagination, Childhood, and Freedom

Ian Cox explores the quiet relational work at the heart of Leadership Education:

• If I Had Known: Mentoring Beneath the Surface
• See It, Say It, Do It: How Mentors Awaken Greatness
• Why Imagination Belongs at the Heart of Education
• Stop Rushing Childhood: How Great Souls Are Formed
• 250 Years of Freedom: Three Characteristics That Keep a People Free

These presentations invite us to look beneath behavior, recognize emerging gifts, honor the right work of each developmental phase, preserve imagination, and prepare the rising generation for self-government.

Try the TJEd AI During the Convention

Your convention registration includes temporary access to our purpose-built TJEd AI: a Leadership Education guide for planning, brainstorming, reflection, and deeper exploration.

Ask for help designing a Scholar Contract, finding phase-appropriate books and projects, preparing a discussion, exploring a classic, or thinking through an educational question.

This is not AI instead of mentoring—or a shortcut around learning. It is AI used in the service of better questions, clearer thinking, and more intentional mentoring.

You’ll also receive practical instruction on helping parents and youth use AI wisely, protect ownership, and recognize when this technology will strengthen learning—and when it may get in the way.

Plus: Live Workshops with Ian Cox

The convention is not entirely something you watch. Ian’s live workshops invite you to participate, ask questions, practice the process, and turn meaningful ideas into action.

The Declaration of Independence: Can We Still Make the Case for Freedom?
Read, annotate, question, and discuss the Declaration—not simply as a document from history, but as a citizen preparing to help preserve freedom for the next generation.

The Blank Page Workshop: Turn Reflection into Action
Bring a notebook and a question, challenge, or idea that matters to you. Ian will guide you through the TJEd Blank Page process so you can recognize your own insights and leave with greater clarity and a meaningful next step.

Build Your Digital Commonplace Notebook with Me
Follow along as Ian helps you build a practical digital system for capturing, connecting, and using ideas from books, classes, research, family education, and personal study.

And There’s Much More

The 2026 convention also includes presentations and workshops on:

• Free Access to the Foundations in Leadership Education Archive (See image)
• Education in the era of AI
• Preparing for the coming First Turning
• Classics and heroes for Crisis Eras
• Books that can prepare today’s children for the next decade
• Going deeper into the classics
• Mentoring writing
• Studying history in the age of AI
• Making geography more engaging
• The classics of math and science
• Constitutional studies and freedom
• The Declaration of Independence
• Building a digital commonplace notebook
• Turning reflection into meaningful action
• Important trends affecting families and education right now
• Oliver’s Top 8 books for 2026

Learn at the Pace of Real Life

Watch from home. Pause to think or take notes. Share meaningful presentations with your household. Begin with the question most alive in your family, and return to the sessions you want to explore more deeply.

You do not need more information for its own sake.

You need greater clarity about what is changing, confidence in what remains true, and better judgment for what comes next.

Shape your child’s education for the world they will inherit.