I've now finished reading
A Thomas Jefferson Education, and I must say that it was worthwhile. I agreed with much of it, disagreed with some, but overall found it well-written and thought-provoking. I'm planning to read the
TJED Home Companion next to try to get some more details on homeschooling with this method.
Things I loved about this book:
1. Inspirational quotes to begin each chapter. For example, leading into the chapter about statesmanship and changing society we have a quote from Ghandi, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." I love that one :-)
2. Accurate portrayal of the problems with most schools. He says most schools are in the "conveyor belt system" - just pushing kids along to get them to a minimal level of achievement. It's better than nothing - better to have basically literate kids from the conveyor belt system than to have completely uneducated citizens. However, we really should be demanding better for our children.
He also talks about giving more power to the TEACHERS in the schools. This is what I've always thought. Every time there is a new initiative to change American education, it comes with restrictions on teachers. They need more education, better training, need tenure linked to their students' test scores, more detailed curriculum, more yearly requirements...more, more, more hoops through which to jump. Children need to be inspired to learn, and it's pretty hard to be an inspirational teacher when your principal is breathing down your neck about test scores, you have to pass yet another test to keep your credential, and you can't get a raise unless you get 3 more continuing education units this summer! Who has time to inspire a child? The whole system is broken, IMO.
Wonder why private schools are often so much better? They are exempt from most of these requirements! (In California, anyway) They don't even have to hire credentialed teachers - they can hire anyone with subject matter knowledge who might be able to inspire the students. OK, that's probably an oversimplification - not all private schools are better and the lack of requirements is not ALWAYS good, but still....
Off my soapbox and on to #3
3. This whole theory hinges on reading classics with your children. So we BOTH read The Secret Garden, or Little Women, or Romeo and Juliet, and then discuss it. Read historical fiction and real historical documents for history. Read Galileo and Copernicus for science. View classic paintings and listen to classical music for art. Write about all of these for writing. The key to all of these is doing it TOGETHER. Parents model this study of the classics for their children.
4. There is a great list of classics for various ages at the back of the book, along with sample questions to begin a discussion. Nice resource.
#3 and 4 lead me to my first point of disagreement...
Things I disliked about this book:
1. The assertion that EVERYTHING can be learned through the reading of classic literature. I'm looking forward to reading the Home Companion for more details on this. I'm hoping for a better explanation than I found in this book. For example, he says that to learn a foreign language, you should read a classic in that language and study it line by line, and that will give you a more thorough fluency in a shorter time period than other methods. For example "If you want to learn Russian, read War and Peace in Russian." Really... he said this method would be quickest! I wonder how he means to learn what the uniquely Russian characters stand for? Do you think he really means to read the Tao Te Ching to study Chinese? Good grief. I'm all for reading great literature in the original language, but you need to know at least the basic rules of the language before you try to read something so difficult.
Math - Again, he wants children to learn math through the classics. He specifically mentions Euclid. OK, that's cool for a teen learning geometry. But how does this work for younger children? He says to read Gulliver's Travels with them and stop at the "math bits" to work them out with pencil and paper. It's been awhile since I read Gulliver's Travels, but I don't remember much math to work out. Could that really be the core of a math curriculum? Again, I'm looking forward to reading the Home Companion to see if there is more info on this topic.
OK, so that was ONE thing I disliked ;-) It really was an interesting book, and I think I'm going to start trying to read more classics WITH K. (We usually read our own books side by side instead.) I'm also inspired to look into more learning through literature resources, like
http://livingmath.net. For the future, I definitely plan to have her read primary source documents for history, and more classic historical fiction.
