Meet the Speaker: Leigh Bortins

{EDITOR’S NOTE: The following post is the first in a series dedicated to introducing to the readers of Quddity the men and women who will speaking at this summer’s CiRCE Conference: A Contemplation of Liberty. Up first is Leigh Bortins, of Classical Conversations.}

BIOGRAPHY:
Leigh Bortins is a nationally acclaimed educator, perhaps best known for her ability to demystify the fundamental tools of learning. As a teacher, author and commentator, Leigh is credited with helping to launch the “home-centered learning” education movement.

After earning a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, Leigh worked in the aerospace industry before beginning her work as an educator. In teaching study skills for almost 20 years to children and adults, she has written several books including The Foundations Program: A Classical Curriculum (a teaching guide) and The Essentials of English Language Guide (a teaching guide for language arts from the classical perspective). She has authored complete K-12 curriculum guides for program directors, teachers, and tutors all across the country.

Leigh is the founder and CEO of Classical Conversations Inc., an organization that models the home-centered learning approach to empower learners of all ages. She trains facilitators dedicated to duplicating her methods, and is thereby transforming education and improving the quality of family and community life. Classical Conversations is nearly doubling in size and scope each year.

Leigh is currently working on developing The Home-Centered Education Institute where anyone interested in combining the classical model with technological advances in delivering education can be trained in effective methods. She believes that individualized methods and new technologies will continue to make the modern approach to classroom education obsolete, and is excited about preparing the next generation of teachers to help students learn from home, the office, the field, or wherever life might take them. She is presently enrolled in the Doctoral program in Global Education at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston, where she is further developing her thinking and writing on this subject.

Leigh’s emphasis on the time-tested enjoyment of learning and the fundamentals of education and critical thinking skills grew out of her own experiences in homeschooling her four boys with her husband Robert. They live in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

LINKS OF INTEREST

** You can read Leigh’s blog, One Smart Mama, here.
** Check out Leigh’s radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Leigh at Lunch, by clicking here.
** Order Leigh’s book, Echo in Celebration: A Call To Home-Centered Education, here.

CiRCE CONFERENCE
For more information on the 2010 CiRCE Conference (A Contemplation of Liberty: Because Free People Rule Themselves) click here.