Jeffrey Alexander Martin

As you look through the history of education and autobiographies you find an interesting connection between parents who wanted their children to be the best, and their children that became the best. It has been done better and worse by different people, but it has been done and documented quite a number of times. The philosopher James Mill raised his son John Stuart Mill to be a genius, and he became one. Laszlo Polgar wanted to prove that most children could be raised to become a genius if done correctly, and all three of his daughters became chess champions. There are similarities in sports: Tiger Woods and his father Earl in golf, Serena and Venus Williams and their father Richard in tennis, Wayne Gretzky and his father Walter in hockey. There is also the family through generations before and after Marie Curie in science, and multiple families that built business or political dynasties. There is something to it. Educating the Exceptional Child: Parental Educational Theory, Practice,...

For a long time I've known that modern education isn't any better than ancient Rome. This is obvious for two reasons: one, their educational texts ranging from Quintilian on rhetoric to Cato the Elder on agriculture to Vitruvius on architecture and more; two, their results in all of these fields of study and industry that we still have evidence for today. Then, you think about ancient Greece before that and come to a similar conclusion. Then you start thinking, "How far does this go?" Now, most of history is lost to us, but we can go back to ancient Sumer about 5,000 years ago. And guess what? We have educational and school records from ancient Sumer. It's amazing how similar learning and schools from 5,000 years ago are to today, because humans and learning work the same way even though technology has changed significantly. Basic PhD Proposal Working Title The Development, Transmission, and Transformation of Educational Techniques for Literacy, Oracy, and Numerac...

I like autobiographies, and I like education, and I like self-education. I've been thinking about doing a PhD and combining those subjects in some way. I came up with five autobiographies of Americans who largely taught themselves in advanced literacy and oracy. I went back and forth with an AI to see what that research and writing might look like. This is what I came up with. Basic PhD Research Proposal Working Title Making Themselves in Words: Autodidactic Education and the Self-Explanation of Self-Formation in American Autobiography Possible subtitle: Literacy, Oracy, and Self-Directed Education from Benjamin Franklin to Louis L'Amour Proposed Field The project could be situated within History of Education, American Studies, Intellectual/Cultural History, or Education, and is particularly suitable for a cumulative PhD or PhD by publication. Research Topic This project examines how prominent American autodidacts explained their own education and self-formation in autobiograph...

It's difficult to write a letter about someone you've only known for a year, for them to read many years later, especially because you're a baby but I'm writing to you as an adult. Yet, this is exactly what I shall do. You are an oddly happy baby. I've spent half of your life so far being away on trips to Central and South America by myself, and to Alaska and Europe with your grandmother. Even now I'm preparing to leave in a week for China. Yet, each time I return you still like me. This is probably the most interesting story I have with you so far. After you had started to crawl, but before you started to walk, you had been getting over to the stairs but couldn't get up them. I've taught all of your siblings how to climb stairs at granny's house because it's a good spot with just two carpeted stairs between walls. Most people were outside this particular day. I was sitting on the couch. Your mother handed you to me as she headed out as well. You...

In this article we'll see the differences and similarities between medieval and modern concerns in education from Charlemagne and King Alfred, to Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Hannah Arendt. 'Admonitio Generalis' by Charlemagne 789 AD Charles the Great, King of the Franks, was the first ruler to conquer and unite much of Europe as the Carolingian Empire after the fall of the Roman Empire 300 years earlier. He worked on sorting out problems in the church, including dealing with education. The 'Admonitio Generalis' reforms helped spur the first medieval renaissance, called the Carolingian Renaissance. It consists of 82 chapters. Many of the chapters are only one sentence each, and deal with what priests can and cannot do. Chapters 71 through 74 are about education: "Capitulum 71 That bishops and abbots carefully correct the canonical and catholic books, and that the priests read and understand them and preach according to their meaning. Capitulum 72 Let s...