Today I want to focus on some interesting things I’ve been discussing and thinking about in relation to the way we ‘get educated’ as Americans. I am going to be posting a series on this topic. A fantastic writer has spurred on these thoughts by the name of Oliver DeMille, founder of George Wythe University. I am currently reading his book: A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century. I highly recommend this to you if you consider yourself a humble student at all times and lifelong learner. If you are interested in both educating yourself properly and educating others who are interested in educating themselves, this book is for you.
By the way, do you want to know how I found out about the book? Well, if you do, I’ll let you in on it!: This summer, I received it in the mail as a part of The Team’s Leadership Development training system package. The Team is, globally, the best and most comprehensive leadership development organization out there and best at building communities. If that confuses you and if you want to know more about that, email me, at WilliamJohanning@mac.com, because I’d rather talk to you in person to get to know you better, rather than explain it here on the web! Anyways, back to our subject matter:
To give you an overview of what I am reading and thinking about, and to get you up-to-speed on Oliver DeMille’s argument, the book’s back cover reads:
“Is American education preparing the future leaders our nation needs, or merely struggling to teach basic literacy and job skills? Without leadership education, are we settling for an inadequate system that delivers educational, industrial, governmental and societal mediocrity? In A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, Oliver DeMille presents a new educational vision based on proven methods that really work! Teachers, students, parents, educators, legislators, leaders and everyone who cares about America’s future must read this compelling book.”
The motivation for me to write this post came this morning when my sister and I were having an informed, civil discussion on the merits of a good education. My sister is studying at Carroll University to become an elementary school teacher. It was a funny discussion, because we were talking about the way of writing that we grew up learning. We were taught to imitate a font by the name of D’Nealian. I laughed, and somewhat scoffed, at the fact that we were instructed to learn D’Nealian as youngsters, because ultimately, I believe, everyone basically conforms to their own style of handwriting as they get older. D’Nealian felt, to me, like a very restrictive form of writing that was, in reality, neither good nor bad. When taught as the only way to write, it can be an unfortunate lesson for young people.
The same goes for education in general: As Oliver DeMille says,
“Education can’t be fixed as long as we believe this basic myth:
The myth is that it is possible for one human being to educate another.
The fact is that the only person who can fix education is the student. The more popular options—increased funding, bigger schools, vouchers, the proliferation of private or charter schools, more homeschooling, a new initiative by a U.S. President, tougher mandates by Congress—will not and cannot fix education. They may improve it, perhaps even significantly, but only to the extent that individual students determine to educate themselves and then follow through.” (12)
He then goes on later with,
“There are two types of great teachers which consistently motivate student-driven education: Mentors and Classics. Mentors meet face-to-face with the student, inspiring through the transfer of knowledge, the force of personality, and individual attention. Classics were created by other great teachers to be experienced in books, art, music and other media.
Any system of education which attempts to separate the student from these teachers, classics and mentors, will be less inspiring and therefore less effective—fewer students will choose to seek an education; and those who do will be less likely to follow through.” (13)
I will be posting more on this later, because I am passionate about seeking to both educate myself and helping others better educate themselves.
