Trying to combine TJE and LCC ...

[Luanne]

I was wondering if anyone has tried to combine A Thomas Jefferson Education with Latin Centered Curriculum. I know that A Thomas Jefferson Education is just a method, but I'm having a bit of difficulty pulling these two together and making sense of it. I really like the concept of both ideas and I guess I wonder if this is even doable.

[Mama Lynx]

It sounds very doable to me.

TJE is all about going easy at the beginning, with delight-directe schooling. LCC's early recommendations do *not* take a lot of time (thinking history, science and literature here). So in the early years you'd do your math, your Latin, your writing, and have time to be delight-directed everywhere else.

In the later years, TJE is all about reading great books, and discussing them with a mentor. LCC's curriculum is packed with Great Books, especially in the high school years.

Admittedly, I haven't read TJE in years. But it does seem to me like it would not be hard to merge the two philosophies. Some one who's read it more recently will correct me if I'm wrong ... :)

[Athena]

Hi Luanne,

I don't have a lot to offer but I did like the TJE and I use LCC for most of my hs. Are you a part of the LCC yahoo group? There was a long thread about these two. I came away from it with a few things, one being the idea inspire and require. I require a basic amount of work ('choosing the best' concept from LCC) but I want to inspire my kids to work along with me ('inspire' from TJE).
I always try to let me kids see me doing educational things to better myself. For example reading classic works, working through Henle, learning basic Greek, practicing math. And I will say when I got new bookshelves, I did arrange the books going up by difficulty!

I know there is a lot more to it then just that but I wanted to encourage you this morning!

Blessings,
Christy

[Plaid Dad]

What I took away from TJE was the importance of mentoring, specifically of parents discussing Great Books with their children. That much is certainly compatible with LCC.

I should say that I have some problems with TJE, mostly on a philosophical level. The author has picked up on one aspect of Thos. Jefferson's own education - mentoring - while studiously ignoring the content of that education, which was thoroughly classical (in the Latin-and-Greek sense). Iirc, he also doesn't deal with Jefferson's own educational proposals, which again would have at least some children receive a thorough grounding in the classics. (Specifics of his proposals can be found here (http://historyofideas.org/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=14&division=div1) - scroll down to 271-275.) Finally, the author's suggestions for learning a modern foreign language are flat out ridiculous.

If the author had called his book "Mentoring in the Homeschool" instead of TJE, I probably wouldn't have blinked. But I find it very strange that he invokes Jefferson, only to ignore the most important aspects of TJ's own education and ideas. I also suspect that the visions of "an educated person" put forth by LCC and TJE are quite different. But in practice, it should certainly be possible to blend to two at least to a limited extent.

[Beth in SW WA]

I should say that I have some problems with TJE, mostly on a philosophical level. The author has picked up on one aspect of Thos. Jefferson's own education - mentoring - while studiously ignoring the content of that education, which was thoroughly classical (in the Latin-and-Greek sense). .


I absolutely agree w/ Drew. I also felt the book was a strong pitch/ad for his college that he founded. I think he mentioned the name of his college like 25+ times in the book.

The TJE book was inspiring, but TWTM & LCC gave me nuts and bolts to work w/.

[GVA]

I had read enough of Thomas Jefferson's life to know how wrongly the book was titled, and I questioned the poor presenter about that very concern to the point that she pretty much told me to "move on." She was promoting their very expensive seminars for homeschoolers too, which made me wonder about the whole thing.

Anyway, I've always been one to borrow what I can and make my own way!

[Luanne]

Hi Luanne,

I don't have a lot to offer but I did like the TJE and I use LCC for most of my hs. Are you a part of the LCC yahoo group? There was a long thread about these two. I came away from it with a few things, one being the idea inspire and require. I require a basic amount of work ('choosing the best' concept from LCC) but I want to inspire my kids to work along with me ('inspire' from TJE).
I always try to let me kids see me doing educational things to better myself. For example reading classic works, working through Henle, learning basic Greek, practicing math. And I will say when I got new bookshelves, I did arrange the books going up by difficulty!

I know there is a lot more to it then just that but I wanted to encourage you this morning!

Blessings,
Christy

I am on the LCC yahoo group. Thanks for the suggestion about the bookshelves and having them go up in difficulty. I hadn't thought of that.

Luanne :)