Anybody out there familiar with the Thomas Jefferson Education model?  I am studying some books and lectures regarding it.  Supposedly, this is not a method but principles that can be applied to just about any homeschool method. 

Here is what I have picked up so far...

1. I have been taught via a conveyor belt education.  This means that as a child reaches a specified age, certain pre-determined abilities are to be mastered.  As a child grows more components are added to the child's repetoire.

2. This type of education is great if you are one of the masses and you just want to get a job and keep that job.  It has served the US well in educating many, many people so that they can be a part of the national workforce.

3.Actually, my education went farther than enabling me to obtain a job. I continued to the "professional" stage of the conveyor belt when I attended college. Once I earned my degree from a university I now had the skills to know what to think in a certain realm of the professional world. (All this according to TJEd)

4.Leaders (statesmen as they are called in TJEd) are not educated that way.  They are led along by mentors who help them educate themselves. They may simply obtain a job and keep it or they may become professionals or they may change the world.  The difference is that they can do any of the above and will certainly have an impact on a certain segment of society if not the whole world.

I am still getting my mind around the practical side of this model, the daily teaching that is required.  Wait, I used the wrong word; according to TJEd I don't teach, I educate myself and mentor my children. Anybody have thoughts on any of this?