When I was a young parent with lots of aspirations, apprehensions, and ambitions, I wrote a review of The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer on Amazon.com, titled “World-Class Education at Your Fingertip.”
Since then, life and society have evolved dramatically—both locally and globally. Over the years, the book has seen four updated editions. In that same time, I’ve completed multiple postgraduate degrees culminating with a PhD, expanded my family, and most profoundly, relocated across cultures, histories, continents, and careers.
As life evolved and the idea of home educating my children became more nostalgic than practical, I settled into a simple, sustainable approach: augmenting the education my children receive in their state-funded school in England using concepts from The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM).
How I’ve Adapted the Book’s Wisdom
It’s important to emphasise that education is less about the resources you have and more about how you use them. As a practice, we—I and my wife—combine our children’s formal education with structured Islamic education and foster a culture of independent reading at home—with varying levels of enthusiasm from the children, supported by book reviews and guided reading—at times. A practical example is when we ran a summer camp in 2023 with some families in our neighbourhood and explored our local park as a curriculum and pedagogical space. You can read about the summer camp experience here: Setting up a Summer Camp Programme.
Recently, I revisited my old review—and what struck me was how little needed changing. Much of it still holds true. However, if I were to update the review today, I would add one major component:
In today’s world, every child (and indeed, every adult) needs to have a basic understanding of AI and the ability to code in at least one major programming language, like Python. These are no longer niche skills but essential literacies for life, work, and informed citizenship.
With that in mind, here’s the original review that still forms the foundation of my endorsement.
Original Review of The Well-Trained Mind
- I was a young parent based in Lagos, Nigeria, concerned about the quality of education in my immediate environment. I wanted a world-class education for our children—and then I found The Well-Trained Mind on Amazon. I bought it, read it, consult it regularly, and recommend it to friends.
- The book offers a roadmap to educate your child from birth to adulthood using a classical education approach. The methodology is borderless, and many of the recommended literary works are easily accessible—even in Lagos—for as little as $1.
- For my family, this book has delivered foundational educational insights:
- Rote learning is most effective between ages 0 and 10.
- Short, consistent classes of 15–45 minutes daily or weekly are enough to master any subject over 12 years.
- It introduced us to The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease—an absolute gem for developing young readers.
- The authors maintain a very active online forum for the TWTM community.
- The authors are highly responsive—even from Lagos, I received thoughtful guidance from them on a specific challenge I faced.
- For those who feel the system is rigid: don’t worry. You are not required to adhere strictly to the method. Adapt it to your family’s needs. If you find it too language- or history-heavy, pair it with science-focused materials like Bernard Nebel’s curriculum books.
- While the book is undeniably Eurocentric, it’s also adaptable. I replaced many of the recommended texts with literature and educational materials that reflect diverse perspectives.
- Our faith tradition, with classic Islamic books for religious education
- Our heritage, using the African Writers Series by Heinemann
- Our languages, choosing Arabic and Yoruba over Greek and Latin
Final Thoughts
CAVEAT: TWTM won’t raise your children to be scholars only. Case in point—Jessie’s own children grew into diverse paths: one became a software architect, another a professor of literature and writing, and a third, a police officer.
So, if you’re looking for a qualitative and quantitative education approach that blends structure with flexibility, I can’t recommend this “treasure of a book” enough.
The review has been lightly edited, mainly for grammatical purposes.
Bonus: Resources for Modern Parents
- 🧠 The Well-Trained Mind official website
- 💻 Learn to Code – Free resources on freecodecamp.org
- 📚 The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
- 🌍 Heinemann African Writers Series
