Mentoring in the Classics- A most inspiring subscription

      Oliver and Rachel Demille have been urging families to get a great education for many years. Oliver founded the George Wythe College, and while that school has ended, I find it interesting that they are now mentoring even more people through online classes/conferences in their Thomas Jefferson or Leadership Education theory/lifestyle. *Disclaimer: I have to say that when I was younger I thought the college was a little cookey and never went (thought I did take an ASL class there which was excellent), and I also worked with the Demille family in their home and knew them on a personal level, but I never looked in depth at their educational philosophies, until now.* Now that I'm a mom myself, I've discovered that I want to be cookey like them! I want to learn and grow, I want to study classics and be well read. I want to have something to give to my children, in an example of study and diligence. Mainly I want enough beauty in my mind that I will have something to contribute to my family and the world. In TJEd the way to get an "education to match your mission," is to study CLASSICS with mentors. Classics are anything that can be studied over and over, gaining more insight each time a work is gone over. They can be in any area of study: literature, math, science, music, etc. Have you ever studied from the masters themselves instead of dull textbooks? I have to say it is much more thrilling and insightful to read the books themselves than the textbooks I spent years studying.

     With that said, I looked into the Demilles' subscription class called, "Mentoring in the Classics," and liked what I saw. MIC is for adults who want more depth in their personal learning journey (and for me it was wanting something more to talk about than potty training!), and need a mentor to guide them on that path. I have to ask, who doesn't need a mentor? This is a completely different way of learning than I've experienced before. About a year ago I was all ready to pay for the subscription but when I went to pay for it, I felt like it wasn't the right time. I was frustrated, but I figured I'd get there eventually. In the mean time, I used their reading list and started a study/discussion group to go over the books once a month. It has been a lot of fun and each discussion has brought more to my mind than I ever found on my own. I thought I was doing pretty well; I was reading classics that I had always meant to read but never really got around to, and discussing it with some pretty amazing and insightful women (and one husband who comes once in awhile, but thinks more men should join!). After a year of this, I finally felt like I was ready for going to the next level. I subscribed to the official MIC, and I'm already blown away!
     This is what I posted on my homeschool instagram account:

My own learning journey: One thing I love about TJEd/Leadership Education is the emphasis on parents learning and growing along with their children. While studying next to a kid who likes to crinkle paper isn't ideal (page pictured) I hope they are seeing a good example as I seek learning myself (this gives a reason for doing a scholar phase in your teens, before family responsibilities make it harder to study).
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I've come to the point where I feel the need for more depth as I study the classics with my discussion group, so I subscribed to the Mentoring In the Classics (MIC) class with the Demilles. So far I am impressed with the enthusiasm they have for the Classics! It's contagious, because I'm still excited to learn more as I read this poem "The Present Crisis" line by line for the fourth time! I had no idea what the lines with "oracular" and "delphic cave" meant so I took the time to look it up. When did a grade ever inspire you to do something like that? I got good grades in school, but I'm learning how different that is from being truly educated. I now appreciate the goal of BECOMING something, learning for the sake of learning, and feeling my mind stretch. I'm learning so much and loving every bit of it, even though I don't quite understand it all yet.

The poem- I like seeing the underlining, circles, and writing. 

      The subscription is for a suggested monthly book with a study guide and before/after podcast discussions with the Demilles and their kids (and friends? I'm not sure who one person's voice is, though I recognize the others in the podcast for this month). I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the poem The Present Crisis, but actually listening to the discussions and reading through the guides throughout the month really did take it to a new level. Thank you Demilles for providing us with such great insight, knowledge, and information. I'm not sure what gave you the idea to do this, but it really is the most inspiring thing I've done since I went to Benjamin Franklin Academy in high school. It only took 22 years to find something that inspired me to reach and grow intellectually like I did back then. While I'm sad about the "wasted" years, I'm grateful for the chance to be in that space again. Now if I could only figure out how to study/listen to podcasts with kids all around! It's like a phone call, when you want them to be quiet so you can hear, they suddenly have to throng you with loud neediness... we'll figure it out, but in the meantime, check out my next post for my thoughts on "The Present Crisis," a poem that seemed impossible to understand after the first read. At the same time I'm also reading this in prep for November,

want to join me?