How to Get More out of What You Read
March 13th, 2013 // 11:37 am @ Oliver DeMille
Two Books Reviewed by Oliver DeMille
People often ask me if I’m going to write a book called Thomas Jefferson Education for Adults.
They usually say this after reading my books A Thomas Jefferson Education or A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens, or both.
They get excited about getting a truly great education, not settling for anything less than the highest quality of learning for themselves and their children, and they wonder how to really get that kind of education themselves.
My answer is always, “Start reading the classics.”
When people follow this suggestion, many of them soon realize they’re not getting as much out of their reading as some people seem to.
When they ask how they can get more from their reading, I frequently tell them to study the logical fallacies.
Too many classrooms and schools today teach students what to think rather than how to think, and even many professional and graduate schools focus on when to think.
Teaching students how to think (deeply, broadly, creatively, innovatively, etc.) seems to be a lost art in too much of our modern educational system.
Two books on fallacies are an excellent response: The Art of Argument by Aaron Larsen, Joelle Hodge, and Chris Perrin, and Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm by David Grant.
Read these books together, since the first is an excellent workshop on how to think and the second is a fun story that will pull in younger students.
These books not only teach readers how to think, they inspire them to engage thinking.
In short, to think.
A lot.
Specifically, these two books teach a number of fallacies of thinking—in an interesting and effective way.
I highly recommend them for any youth, parent and teacher who wants to boost their students’ thinking ability.
In fact, both books are a great read for any adult.
When people know the fallacies, they automatically start thinking more deeply and they get a lot more out of everything they read—especially the classics.
So if you’re reading important books and want to significantly increase your rate of learning from them, check out these two books.
It’ll make a huge difference for your students and, even more importantly, for you.
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Oliver DeMille is the chairman of the Center for Social Leadership and co-creator of Thomas Jefferson Education.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Blog &Book Reviews &Education &Featured
Shakespeare Goes to School?
August 13th, 2012 // 1:41 pm @ Oliver DeMille
David Brooks wondered (The New York Times, July 5, 2012), what would Shakespeare’s Henry V have become as a leader if he had attended a current typical American school?
He wouldn’t be trained to fulfill the potential of his natural leadership abilities, he’d be cited for safety violations, suspended and labeled.
Whatever the label, he’d almost certainly be herded into a specific group and kept there year after year.
Brooks wrote:
“The education system has become culturally cohesive, rewarding and encouraging a certain sort of person: one who is nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious.”
In short, the kind of student who would make the most zealous Tiger Mom proud, the kind student who will grow into what C.S. Lewis called “Men Without Chests” and spending their lives on what author Sandra Tsing-Loh called “high-class drone work.”
In fact, such drone work has become the most widespread new definition of success in the corporate world.
We shouldn’t be surprised with this result.
After all, our education system in the Western world are perfectly aligned with this goal:
“Achieve, but don’t stand out too much. Succeed, but don’t alienate those around you. Fit in, be a team player, don’t rock the boat, impress the adults and you’ll get accolades, scholarships, and career success.”
The fact that in the new economy such attitudes are more likely to get Johnny or Mary a pink slip than a corner office is ignored by many parents and teachers.
And the reality that entrepreneurial success has a much higher probability of propelling Tommy or Sally to a higher standard of living than his or her parents, and in fact that this is the only thing likely to do so, is virtually never taught—except by two groups, parents who are successful entrepreneurs in their own right, and parents who are successful professionals.
Many such professionals now see that the medical, legal and other historically top-earning sectors are changing in ways that will end their run as upper-middle-class bastions of upward social mobility.
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Oliver DeMille is the chairman of the Center for Social Leadership and co-creator of Thomas Jefferson Education.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Blog &Culture &Current Events &Education &Family &Leadership
The Education Event of the Summer
August 1st, 2012 // 12:09 pm @ ekdemille
Featuring Oliver DeMille presenting:
The New Approach to Leadership Education for the Decade Ahead
Click here to register now, or scroll down for more details…
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How TJEd is different in the 4th Turning
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The 7 Steps of TJEd (totally different than the 7 Keys)
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Using the Trivium and Quadrivium to take TJEd to the next level
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New directions for college and career in the newly emerging economy
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…and much more!
Expand the vision, scope and application of Leadership Education in your home and in your mission, with this groundbreaking first-run seminar. This workshop is appropriate for seasoned and new TJEders, and everyone in between — as well as those educating in eclectic styles.
Bonus Gifts
To help you prepare for the coming school year, all registrants will receive the following free downloads* in addition to the webinar (all newly-produced especially for registrants of this event):
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“A 2012 Update to the Foundations of TJEd”: mp3 audio presentation by Oliver DeMille
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“The 1-Step Guide to Great Mentoring (How to Double the Quality of Your Mentoring in 2 Hours)”: mp3 audio presentation by Oliver DeMille
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“A Guide to Family Reading”: e-book compiled by Rachel DeMille
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An mp3 audio download of the entire Webinar for future listening
*These bonus gifts will be emailed to you with the link for the recording of the webinar after the date of the presentation.
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Webinar Details
Held Thursday, August 9, 2012
Event Time by Region:
- 3-5 p.m. Hawaii
- 5-7 p.m. Alaska
- 6-8 p.m. Pacific
- 7-9 p.m. Mountain
- 8-10 p.m. Central
- 9-11 p.m. Eastern
$19 per registrant (immediate family free on a shared computer)
Category : Blog &Education &Entrepreneurship &event &Family
The French Way
June 16th, 2012 // 5:45 pm @ Oliver DeMille
Many people around the world are discovering the principles of great education that those using TJEd are already applying.
The conveyor belt approach to learning has two big competitors in this second decade of the twenty-first century.
The first can be summed up as, “Don’t just participate in the conveyor belt, excel at it!”
This is the idea widely popularized in the Tiger Mom book and debate which swept through American education circles during the past two years.
The second approach, the one adopted by Montessori, TJEd, and several other highly-effective educational viewpoints recently gained another proponent.
In the enjoyable book, Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman, we learn about the core principles of parenting used by French parents.
Those familiar with TJEd will find many old friends among the French techniques, and all of us can learn from these ideas.
For example, according to Druckerman, here are some of the “secrets” of effective parenting widely utilized in the French culture:
- A focus on parenting as a pleasure rather than a chore or grind
- An emphasis on helping children experience growing up as a joy rather than a job
- Taking it slow and enjoying the journey rather than rushing to stay ahead of the neighbors’ kids or meet standards set by unnamed experts
- “Establishing firm but gentle authority…”
- “Favoring creative play over lots of lessons…”
- “Never letting a child become the center of your existence”
- Realizing that children aren’t “projects for their parents to perfect. They are separate and capable, with their own tastes…”
“French parents just don’t seem so anxious for their kids to get head starts,” Druckerman tells us, but rather help them experience quality in growing up and learning.
The focus is more on the current goal of being happy children and the end goal of becoming well-adjusted adults than on striving for adult goals as toddlers and young children.
Throughout the book, those using TJEd will find familiar themes couched in an interesting European experience.
The following ideas show up repeatedly and in new and interesting ways: classics; mentors; structure time, not content; you, not them; simple, not complex; quality, not conformity; secure, not stressed; teach to the appropriate phase, not one-size-fits-all education; personalize, instead of joining the conveyor belt.
Above all, Druckerman emphasizes the French emphasis on wisdom (rather than grades, gold stars, or other external accolades) as the central purpose of learning, and for that matter of family and life.
The fact that Druckerman is an American who learned these principles while living in France adds to the book—it is practical in the American way while being idealistic and even artistic in the French way.
In short, it’s a great read, even if you don’t use TJEd but especially if you do!
Category : Blog &Book Reviews &Education &Family &Featured
The One Thing That Really Annoys Me
June 13th, 2012 // 2:54 pm @ Oliver DeMille
I think I’ve heard every side of the education debate over the past two decades, including different theories of education, the pros and cons of each new educational fad and curriculum, and the opinions of those who support the typical education system versus the many differing views from those who don’t.
I find most of this discussion healthy and intriguing—after all, all the passion shows that many people care deeply about the education of our children.
But there is one thing that really annoys me.
I read it again just this week.
An otherwise stellar writer and usually wise thought-leader said it, and though I’ve heard it before I still cringe whenever it comes up.
It’s the one thing you can’t really say about fixing education, because it is just plain wrong.
This frustrating argument goes something like this: American education needs serious reforming, there are a lot of good ideas on how to do this, but if the changes depend on parents it just isn’t going to work—the experts, in public and/or private schools, are the only ones who can lead this.
My response? This idea is totally false.
Moreover, it’s downright dangerous to a free nation. Those who promote this idea either don’t know what they are talking about or have some dark agenda.
The Bible says those who hurt our little ones should have a millstone put around their neck and be thrown in the ocean.
Okay, that’s not exactly what the Bible says. And clearly I’m putting too much angst into this. Many of the writers are probably good, well-intentioned people.
I need to calm down. Breathe. Live in the now. Zen.
But, as you can probably tell, this topic really gets my ire up.
I think one of the reasons it is so frustrating is that at first glance it sounds quite reasonable. Many people hear this and nod their heads reflexively.
That’s how much we’ve come to trust experts in modern times. “Give me an expert. Any expert…”
The truth is something quite different.
If parents don’t buy in, no educational reform is going to work, no matter how many experts, think tanks, studies, politicians and Presidents support the change.
More to the point, significant and lasting change will only occur when parents truly lead out.
Parents are the indispensable individuals in reforming education.
Certainly there are exceptions to this, examples of students with little parental support who succeed anyway, but the overall direction of education in society is led by a nation’s parents.
It’s time we admit this and approach education reform accordingly.
The future of our society doesn’t depend on Harvard, it depends on our dinner tables.
Current proposals to fix America’s education system are divided into roughly two categories: (1) those that recommend top-down reforms by experts, and (2) those that suggest changes by parents and students.
Both can help, of course.
With that said, there are very few of the second type, and these are given very little credence by the educational elite.
For example, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, homeschooling and other such bottom-up approaches are seen by the education bureaucracy as perhaps useful for a few children and families but not legitimate systems for widespread improvement of education.
This is the old mistake of aristocracies and meritocracies, where innovators become leaders and then their posterity, from their perch at the top of society, routinely discounts the validity of rising innovations.
An executive at 3M once told me that the company was founded by creative and innovative entrepreneurs, but that today none of them could even get an interview at 3M—their resumes just wouldn’t be enough to get through the door with the new-fangled HR guidelines.
Actually, some of the expert proposals for educational reform are quite good, even innovative.
But the attempt to apply them from the top-down, with expert educational theorists training school managers, is doomed from the start because parents are almost entirely left out of the formula.
The future of our educational system—and, by extension, nation—depends on the values of innovation, initiative, creativity, individualism and entrepreneurialism.
These are hardly the natural lessons of our school environments or curricula, nor are they the example set by most of our current cadre of teachers.
Indeed, with all due respect, emulating many of our modern educators or applying the universal lessons of our typical school environments and textbooks is as close to the opposite of innovation, creativity, initiative, individualism and entrepreneurialism as possible.
This irony is central to our education problem.
The system is widely institutionalized, bureaucratic, anti-innovation and conveyor-belt oriented.
Only innovators can really teach innovation, but innovation is by nature risky and therefore seldom a point of career advancement in our teaching system.
The opposite is true, of course, in the growing non-traditional education sector, which is the source of nearly all proposals of the second type.
Many parents face significant criticism when they choose alternative educational paths for their children, but it is exactly such courageous initiative which trains students to be innovative and creative.
On the one hand, prestige and credibility in education are headed in the direction of more of the same, even while the experts give lip-service to innovation but refuse to actually innovate in major ways.
On the other hand, one generation’s innovators are the next generation’s leaders.
Such non-traditional education may appear strange, or even arrogant and indulgent, today, but it is better to be risky than stagnant.
One cliché remains demonstrably true about history: Change happens, and those who try to achieve progress by refusing to innovate are always disappointed.
Homeschooling is profound precisely because it is led by parents. Indeed, the people who make this choice are, by definition, innovative, creative and courageous—or will become so if they stick to it. The same holds true of many other non-traditional educational choices.
The truth is, many professional educators already know this.
For example, I grew up in the home of two teachers.
My father taught fourth grade at the local public elementary school, and later taught third grade and served as a vice-principal before he retired.
His entire career was spent in public schools.
My mother’s career was similar. She taught high-school English and spent a few years teaching English at the local community college before returning to teach high school.
Both of them repeated the following mantra so many times that I grew up assuming everyone knew it: Most of the students who excel in public school are those whose parents are deeply involved with their education.
Homeschooling, Montessori, unschooling, and other non-traditional educational models may not be for everyone in our complex modern nations, but one fact remains a verifiable law of educational reform: Any reform that doesn’t engage and involve the nation’s parents will fail.
Write it in stone.
Parents are the indispensable individuals in society’s educational success.
If you want to influence the future of education, get the parents to lead it.
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Oliver DeMille is the co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of Thomas Jefferson Education.
He is the co-author of New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller LeaderShift, and author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Blog &Culture &Education &Entrepreneurship &Family &Featured &Leadership &Liberty
