A Thomas Jefferson Education Quotes

“Thinking is like exercise, it requires consistency and rigor. Like barbells in a weightlifting room, the classics force us to either put them down or exert our minds. They require us to think.”
― Oliver Van DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“Since the purpose of reading, of education, is to become good, our most important task is to choose the right books. Our personal set of stories, our canon, shapes our lives. I believe it is a law of the universe that we will not rise above our canon. Our canon is part of us, deeply, subconsciously. And the characters and teachings in our canon shape our characters--good, evil, mediocre, or great.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The liberal arts are the arts of communication and thinking. ‘They are the arts indispensable to further learning, for they are the arts of reading, writing, speaking, listening, figuring,”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The solution to American's educational dilemma is to get students to voluntarily and passionately study hard, because it is what they choose. The only way to get such students is to give great teachers the freedom to excel and inspire.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“Find a model of great education in history and you will find a great teacher who inspired students to make the hard choice to study. Wherever you find such a teacher, you will also find self-motivated students who study hard. When students study hard, learning occurs. We will never have high-quality education until students study hard, really hard, day in and day out. Let me be absolutely clear about this: When students don't study, no funding, program, policy, law, philanthropic donation, presidential mandate, or anything else will provide quality education. When students freely and voluntarily choose to study hard, then education improves. And over time, it achieves excellence.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The only person who can fix education is the student.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The fundamental root cause of American educational failure is the myth that it is possible for one human being to educate another. It's not. Every human being learns exactly as much as he or she chooses to learn. We can increase opportunity, incentive, motivation, and improve the environment, the materials, the resources - but ultimately students must choose to learn, or they won't. The role of the teacher is to inspire.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The key to good writing: students must be reading good writers.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“The mentor who shares her love for learning and willingness to submit to the labor that is the process of acquiring mastery, will communicate the value of persevering through difficulties and trusting that ignorance and confusion must ultimately give way to knowledge and understanding. In fact, education is very simple. Teachers set the example by reading, pondering, writing, and discussing the classics, sharing their loves, interests and ideas with students. Students get inspired, go to work, find the study difficult, and go back to the teacher for encouragement. When they get it, they return to the difficult process of learning. Learning is difficult, but the process is not complex.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“To achieve truly excellent education, keep it simple: Read, Write, do Projects, and Discuss. The more complex our national curriculum has become, the less educated our society.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“Take the greatest ideas of humanity and apply them to self and society. Question, probe, ponder, think, discuss, write, apply. Push yourself as a mentor, so that you can push your students. This is the key to great mentoring - lead out by pushing yourself even harder than you push them And push them by requiring quality work, just like Wythe did with Jefferson.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“When scholars (12+) do an assignment, either say "great work" or "do it again." You can help them, but have them do most of the work and never accept a low quality submission or performance.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“Someone who approaches twenty students with identical curriculum, methodology, goals, and plans is not acting as a mentor. The mentor helps each student identify where he or she is, and then says, "Okay, let's develop a program for you. What do you want to become? What do you want to create? What do you want to learn?" Once the mentor gets the answer from the student, he helps the student develop a personal plan to achieve it. You can't train leaders on a conveyor belt; if you want to teach students how to think, their studies must be personalized.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

“Application of knowledge to the real world is essential; no education is complete, or even particularly valuable, unless the student uses what he or she has learned to serve the community, family, society, and God.”
― Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century