5 Pillar Testimonial

Are you thinking about joining a 5 pillar group, but aren't quite sure? Here is a great post by someone who completed the class and her thoughts about it...

I can't say enough good about the 5 Pillar tutorial. It is absolutely essential for a successful TJED home to have parent's who are immersed in "You not Them" and while there are many ways this could happen, it usually doesn't. :) The 5 Pillar Tutorial is put together at a practice scholar level (or apprentice for those who take it more seriously) so it isn't scary and intimidating so much as it is a fun way to dive into scholar phase with other like minded people. The support of others is an essential component to scholar phase. We need someone to discuss what we are thinking with. It's like having a little GWC pod in your home town. Oration skills are developed in group discussion as well as courage, diplomacy and humility. There is so much to be learned and practiced in the group discussion that cannot be obtained independently.Some of us are a little envious of the scholar classes our youth get to take and the 5 Pillar Tutorial is the chance to dive in ourselves. It is set up to meet on a weekly basis with assigned reading and sometimes lectures given by the mentor leading the class. The experience of reading great books, discussing them with other people and expressing thought through writing is extremely valuable. Most importantly, we need to experience this ourselves so that we know what it looks like. If we know what it looks like than we can start creating it in our homes with our children. This is the process they will be experiencing in scholar phase, but there's not reason it can't start long before that. I would like to see 5 Pillar used as an outreach tool in our communities. What better thing can we do to help our world on a community level than raise the educational level of other adults in our communities.? When there is a crisis I want to know that many people in my community, not just a few, know HOW to think, not just what to think. Reading, writing about and discussing classics is the way this process begins. Last of all, I must say that the experience of being the mentor who went to training and then lead the class has changed me as a person forever. I went into it with a great desire to pursue my own education and to serve my community. I came out of it a leader. During training last summer I recall catching a vision of what this experience was going to do for me as a person and it was so awesome! Now I can look back after my first year and take for granted that personal growth. I am a different person, now, a better person. Anyone with the opportunity to lead this class should know that it is absolutely worth every minute of it. Do it! Catch the vision of educational change in your personal life, your home and your community.

Anna Gilmore