Oliver DeMille has become good friends with both Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. His understanding of today's educational challenges fit right in with the mission of the LIFE Founders. Oliver's book Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED) has seven keys for great teaching that he discusses in the book. He wrote an article on the seven keys that I will review in the next several blog post. In Orrin's book RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE, he shares the importance of a person discovering his purpose and TJED helps the process along. Here's Part I:
There are seven principles of successful education; when they are applied, learning occurs. When they are ignored or rejected, the quantity and quality of education decreases. Whatever the student’s individual interests or learning styles, these principles apply.
And whatever your role in education—home, public, private, higher education or corporate training—the application of any and eventually all of the Seven Keys will significantly improve your effectiveness and success.
1. Classics, not Textbooks
No one can deny the value of a great idea well-communicated. The inspiration, innovation and ingenuity inherent in great ideas elevate those who study them.
Great ideas are most effectively learned directly from the greatest thinkers, historians, artists, philosophers and prophets, and their original works. Great works inspire greatness, just as mediocre or poor works usually inspire mediocre and poor achievement.
The great accomplishments of humanity are the key to quality education.
This first key means that in pursuit of a transformational education, in preference to second- or third-generation interpretations, we study original sources — the intellectual and creative works of the world’s great thinkers, artists, scientists, etc., in the form they were produced.
2. Mentors, not Professors
The professor/expert tells the students, invites them to conform to certain ideas and standards, and grades or otherwise rewards/punishes them for their various levels of conformity.
In contrast, the mentor finds out the student’s goals, interests, talents, weaknesses, strengths and purpose, and then helps him develop and carry out a plan to prepare for his unique mission.
Various types of mentors are present at different levels of a person’s progress and in different stages of life.
In education, the value of a liberal arts mentor cannot be overstated. Parents and teachers who apply the Seven Keys can be an effective part of the mentoring of a student in the early phases of learning, and help prepare the individual to fully take advantage of the influence of later mentors that will be formative for continued development and achievement.
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