Follow-Up on Thomas Jefferson Education

[Julie in Austin]

http://news.gw.edu/?p=393

 

As much as I have always been opposed to the methodology, I'm kind of sad to learn what had been going on behind the scenes.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Thanks, Julie. Nothing surprising here, but still it's very sad for those who have been fooled.

[Spy Car]

Totally unsurprising, DeMille is a con-man who claimed multiple phony degrees from diploma mills, and later—incredulously—claimed not to be aware the degrees were bogus when he was caught-out. Then he set up his own diploma mill when he saw it was a way to make money.

 

His role in home education is a tragedy for those families he has duped into using his highly dubious program.

 

Sad, not not unexpected.

 

Bill

[DianeW88]

Yep, the man's a quack. Sadly, too many people have been duped by his philosophy and methodology...especially around here. Not to mention the outright lies he told with regard to his credentials. As I've always told anyone who's asked me about TJ-Ed, "Run away, run away, run away!" And yes, you have to say that the same way they did in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". :D

[Jennifer3141]

Who would be surprised by this??

[dangermom]

Wow. Big stuff there. It's too bad that that kind of fraud was going on. I can't say I'm surprised, though. I hope that GWU will become more like a real university, and TJEd'ers will back away from their cult of personality and improve methods. IMO TJEd has been poisoning people for years.

[Veritaserum]

I'm glad someone is bringing this all to light. I would love TJEd to fade into distant memory. It's still popular where I am, but it doesn't seem as prominent as it was. Charlotte Mason and WTM have a good showing now, too.

[Veritaserum]

From the link:

 

"For many, their first encounter with the standard mentoring models of this kind of education happened to occur through GWU, DeMille or Brooks. Consequently, most of these students and their families had innocently and erroneously assumed that the Socratic seminar and the elements borrowed from the Oxford tutorial model (using classics and mentors) were not available elsewhere. Through this sheltered introduction, a loyalty to personalities had formed among thousands of people."

 

The bolded is very true. TJEd is like a religion to some people.

 

I cut myself out of TJEd loops when I renounced it as the One True Homeschooling Philosophy, but now I'm curious what kind of buzz this has caused. Apparently DeMille isn't a great leader despite his Leadership or Freedomship or whatever-they're-calling-it-now Education.

[linguistmama]

 

I cut myself out of TJEd loops when I renounced it as the One True Homeschooling Philosophy, but now I'm curious what kind of buzz this has caused. Apparently DeMille isn't a great leader despite his Leadership or Freedomship or whatever-they're-calling-it-now Education.

 

 

I'm curious too! His website says he will be publishing several new books and proudly proclaims that he helped found GWU.

[Veritaserum]

So I snooped. :p I don't see any talk of it on TJEd lists. I'm guessing those folks are all so committed to DeMille that they give him a pass on his diploma mill shenanigans.

 

I'm curious about how people view Diann Jeppson. She's a neat lady that I did a few educational things with when we lived in Salt Lake County. She co-authored a book with DeMille and was friends with DeMille's wife. I imagine that relationship must have cooled since she took the position of chair and DeMille was removed from the board. My hardcore TJEd friends were also good friends with Diann. I'm trying to think of a way to ask one of them for the inside scoop, but they all know that I'm not a fan of TJEd. :p

[linguistmama]

I was wondering what people would think of her now. I heard her speak once and she seemed really neat, very real instead MLM like :)

[dangermom]

Veritaserum, you should also check back several months if you can--note that the GWU post was put up last October. Please let us know if you find anything; I'm very interested!

 

I hope Shanon Brooks fades away too. It burns me to think that he's still out there hawking that Monticello University. I met him a couple of years ago at a conference and he gives me the screaming meemies.

[Veritaserum]

Diann's Family Builder Program is a more developed version of a class I took from her years ago. It's a good resource for more unschooly types. I like TWTM better. She does a conference every year. It used to be called the Thomas Jefferson Education Family Forum. Now it's the Family Forum and Family Centered Education.

 

I checked October postings, but I didn't see anything. DeMille didn't stop claiming his diploma mill credentials until there was a public stink, so I wouldn't expect him to be forthright.

[Veritaserum]

The Face to Face with Greatness seminars seem to be an offering of Monticello College now instead of George Wythe. I went to one of those. It was taught by DeMille himself. I was underwhelmed.

[NotSoObvious]

Ugh. That was huge in Utah. I always thought it was weird. Figures.

[dangermom]

Veritaserum, what was that like? What content was there in the seminar? I've never really been able to imagine what they could say, besides "Mentor your kids and inspire them by reading great books!"

[Veritaserum]

Veritaserum, what was that like? What content was there in the seminar? I've never really been able to imagine what they could say, besides "Mentor your kids and inspire them by reading great books!"

 

I went to the math one. He said some interesting things about numbers having symbolic meanings (like in the Bible). At one point I got irritated because he was going on and on about one not equaling one. He said something about Plato and a fish to illustrate that one doesn't equal one (a fish doesn't equal an army I think is the example he gave). I asked what his point was and how he expected us to teach math if one doesn't equal one. He said it was simple and wrote this on the board: Let 1 = 1. Ooooh. Ahhhh. Later he started using really complicated terms and gave definitions for them. At that point I asked if those terms were his or if they were recognized by mathematicians at large. He said they were recognized terms. I don't remember what any of them were now. The seminar was eight or nine years ago.

 

The stupidest part was the math classics. We were told to read about mathematicians and works that they wrote. Also, whenever you get to numbers in regular literature, stop and work it out. He mentioned Chaim Potok's The Chosen as a math classic.

 

It was an all day class. It might have even been two full days. I don't really remember.

[dangermom]

You're a math person, right, so that must have bugged you. I told my husband once that TJEd recommends reading Newton to learn calculus and he thought it was the worst idea ever. I think they actually dropped that idea, since it didn't work at all...

[PollyOR]

Thanks for posting this.