Part Thirty--Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land 2002-2003

Sometime around the year 2000 Karen, Deena and I read the book, A Thomas Jefferson Education. We also attended Face to Face with Greatness seminars sponsored by those associated with George Wythe College. After some reflection we decided to scrap our EPIC Adventures in order to experiment with A Thomas Jefferson Education principles. We were drawn to these because, for the most part, we were already incorporating many of the same learning ideals in our homes.

Instead of writing an EPIC Adventure, we prepared an opening day kickoff to introduce our children to this way of learning.

We put together a slideshow with an inspirational script about the education of some of the founding fathers, accompanied by Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Karen's friend came as Thomas Jefferson, and our three families and Symbria Patterson's family came as well.  I'm not sure which other families were there, though I remember that the room was pretty full. 

Our family with Thomas Jefferson, (and Captain Moroni with the Title of Liberty)

Hal, Amber (who was at home at that time), Giselle, Chase, Autumn Heather, Hal IV

 Deena, Karen, TJ, and me

  

The Patterson's always bring the best desserts, and they did that night too.

  

At home Chase, Autumn Heather, and Giselle sign

a Declaration of Scholarly Independence, signifying their new way of learning.

Though we did not write an EPIC Adventure together, I still wanted to have a loose theme as a joint learning experience for all of us. Since we focused on the learning of the founding fathers I decided it was time for the younger children to learn a little more about them and their struggle for liberty.

I put together a theme based on Leviticus 25:10, the same scripture found on the Liberty Bell, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land." The names of the components are phrases from the songs My Country 'Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, and The Star-Spangled Banner.

The four components:

Sweet Land of Liberty

Thy Liberty in Law

Heav'n Rescued Land

Heroes Proved 

In the past, when I wrote EPIC Adventures with Karen, she drew our year mind map,

but this year I wrote the year myself, so I drew the mind map too--

 

I didn't write a school theme song, but we sang all the patriotic songs that year for the opening of school each day and we adopted I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy as our year song.

The year began with a direction but not with a full adventure. I mostly worked with Chase, Autumn Heather, and Giselle, as they were very little during the most recent American revolution school year--A Noble Birthright: Defenders of the Title of Liberty.

Our school corner: hornbooks, Benjamin Franklin, and a timeline made by the children.



Autumn Heather wear's Amber's colonial dress from the Noble Birthright year--

Autumn Heather's matching doll (I don't remember who sewed this doll's dress)

  

Giselle wears Jasmyn's dress from the Colonial Escapade school year--

trying out a 'macaroni'

Chase and Autumn Heather's macaronis--

I didn't keep track of all the books I read to the children during our school years,

but we read Johnny Tremain again this year

The children and I have used these pocket Constitutions many years as well

 Autumn Heather and Giselle made patchwork quilts

 Mike Vlk reprised his role from our Noble Birthright year,

as Benjamin Franklin, (Nadine Crosby stands by Autumn Heather)

Hal IV looks on as Ben shares some electrical experiments

  

Our tea afterwards--

Giselle showed Mr. Franklin the portrait she drew of him

When Jasmyn came home for the summer break

she visited us as Dolly Madison 

She holds up finger puppets of the signers of the Constitution 

Our tea at the end of Dolly's visit

Autumn Heather was a visitor also, but I don't remember who she was

We played Constitution Jeopardy during her visit

(We still have this Constitution game and have played it several times

through the years for school and Independence Day Family Home Evenings)

The scoreboard looks like it was Ladies versus Gentlemen

 

Thomas Jefferson Education

I enjoyed this year with our children, but I was disappointed with the TJ Education model. I was completely dedicated to making it work from the start, and my children were not strangers to choosing their own paths of study, but the year was not what we hoped for.

We were taught to let the children investigate and learn whatever they wanted during the day, then have them write at least one page daily on it and turn it in. That was it. This was supposed to be a freeing educational utopia, but it turned into a flop for us. Autumn Heather was ten years old and she later told me that this was her worst year ever. Sometime ago I wrote down her thoughts about it. She didn't like the idea of writing down what she learned because she didn't always know what to write about it, which I now understand is completely contrary to the trivium model of learning, (which just happens to be the natural way to learn anything). There is too much to put here, so I suppose I will want to write about the trivium and medieval learning another time.

The idea of this kind of education sounded good, but since then I've learned why child-directed learning is not ideal. Teenage-directed learning, with a mentor is fine, but having a child direct his own learning and then have to write about it all on the same day is not natural. 

Since then I've heard that the TJEd model has been changed to include more structure and instruction.

I'm grateful that I had put together a little bit of our own structure, otherwise we might have completely forgotten what we did that year.

As Karen says, "The theme was a framework for our lives' memories." 

It's true. When our children were growing up, and even now, they say, "Remember during the Frugal Frigate year when we...?"  The theme gives us a natural way to divide up our memories so that the years don't run into each other and muddle our remembrances.

A little before this school year started we took a trip back East and

visited Monticello and other revolutionary historical sites. 

  

Thomas Jefferson's grave

  

Independence Hall

I'm grateful that we had a chance this year to learn about our founding fathers and the principles of liberty. No year is wasted, even if it doesn't happen like I plan. We still gained much from what we did learn, and we still experienced many good things together.