Exploring the Legacy of Frederick Douglass through Children and Literature

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My guest today is Jesse McCarthy Founder of MontessoriEducation.com

Jesse McCarthy began his career as a young assistant at a small private school in California, and now 15+ years later he leads an organization that helps parents and teachers around the world to achieve inevitable success with children — happily and without stress.

We discussed The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. 

This book is described as a “dramatic autobiography,” and as Jesse and Kirk discuss, it is exactly that. It is not a long text. It can be read in a few hours. But it is an emotionally challenging text.

Jesse and Kirk discuss Douglass’ story, his courage and character as told within the narrative. 

There are some ideas in this book that may be very challenging for people today to confront. Not in terms of slavery, everyone correctly abhors slavery, but rather some of the values and virtues that Douglass held as essential to the building of a good character. 

Jesse and Kirk discussed:

• the concept of “self-creation” as Douglass meant it. 
• Slave Mentality
• Slave-holders mentality
• Fighting a system of ideas
• The education of Douglass
• How to educate children
• Importance of reading
• Different levels of reading
• And much much more.