1. Liberty and Literacy in Jeffersonian America
Chapter TWO
Liberty and Literacy in Jeffersonian America

2. Classical Liberal Ideology
Thomas Jefferson’s vision for education was predicated on classical liberal ideology:
Faith in Reason
Natural Law
Republican Virtue
Progress
Nationalism
Freedom

3. Classical Liberal Ideology
Faith in Reason
A better guide than tradition, custom, or religious dogma
The mind is a “blank slate” (tabula rasa)
Humankind is capable of great feats
Galileo
Copernicus
Newton

4. Classical Liberal Ideology
Faith in Reason
Is reason always a better guide than custom, tradition, religious dogma? Why?

5. Classical Liberal Ideology
Natural Law
Universe as a “machine”
God as “clockmaker”
Understanding yields control and mastery
Science replaces theology as guide to action

6. Classical Liberal Ideology
Natural Law
Has the emphasis on “control” and “mastery” of nature had negative consequences?

7. Classical Liberal Ideology
Republican Virtue
The “perfectibility” of man
Duties to God and to nature = Moral Goodness & Piety
The “protestant” work ethic
Men’s virtues = Success in the Public Sphere
Women’s Virtues = Child rearing and Caring for Home

8. Classical Liberal Ideology
Republican Virtue
Is “Man” perfectible? Why or why not?
Should men and women reflect different virtues?

9. Classical Liberal Ideology
Progress
Continual individual/societal progress toward perfection
Conforming the world to what it ought to be
When governments overstep, revolution is an option
Social meliorism: “improving society through education”

10. Classical Liberal Ideology
Nationalism
Emphasis on national identity
Preservation of culture
An allegiance to a nation not a state
The American revolution contributed to nationalism

11. Classical Liberal Ideology
Freedom
Negative Freedom: freedom from interference
Intellectual: Freedom from coercion from church / state
Political: Representative government
Civic: To live as one pleases AND Bill of Rights
Economic: “Laissez-faire” economy / self-regulation of markets

12. Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation”
He writes:
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.”

13. Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation”
Has the separation of church and state been a largely negative or positive? Why?
What are some ways that teachers might find this separation challenging?

14. Jefferson on “newspapers”
He writes:
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I would not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter...But I should mean that every man shall receive these papers and be capable of reading them.”

15. Jefferson’s (failed) Plans for Education
Proposed to divide Virginia into wards of 5 to 6 sq miles (sound familiar?)
Each ward would serve a dual purpose:
Local unit of government (decentralization)
Provide an “elementary” school
Education would consist of 4 tiers: elementary, grammar, university, and lifelong self-education

16. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 1: Elementary School (ages )
3 years free of cost to “all free children, male and female”
$$$ after 3 years
An “overseer” would manage roughly 10 schools
Could hire/fire teachers
Supervise curriculum
Examine students
Teach the 3 Rs, Greek, Roman, English & American History

17. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 1: Elementary School (ages )
Would serve to “screen” for the best and brightest (boys)
The overseer would, according to Jefferson, ‘[select] the boy of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools’ at the public’s expense. After the first year at the grammar school, the scholarship boys would be examined and the bottom third dismissed. At the end of the second year, the best scholarship student in each grammar school would be chosen to continue and the remainder dismissed. As Jefferson put it in his Notes on the State of Virginia, ‘By this means twenty of the best geniuses will be raked annually from the rubbish (!!!), and instructed, at public expense, so far as the grammar schools go.’

18. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 2: Grammar School (ages )
Were to be boarding schools
20 established across the state
Take 1 scholarship student from each elementary school

19. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 2: Grammar School (ages )
Curriculum would focus on:
Languages (Greek, Latin, & English)
Advance arithmetic
Geometry
Navigation
Geography
Local leader would be drawn from grammar schools (even teachers!)

20. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 3: University Education (ages 16+)
Rejected the Harvard model (prescribed course of study)
Supported free choice of electives
Designed with the “natural aristocracy” in mind
Graduates would become:
Jurists
Political leaders
Scientists

21. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 3: University Education (ages 16+)
Jefferson added following requirement for all graduates:
“But no diploma shall be given to anyone who has not passed an examination in the Latin language as shall have proved him able to read the highest classics in that language with ease, thorough understanding and just quality; and if he be also proficient in Greek, let that, too, be stated in his diploma”
Have we watered university down?
Should it still be this tough to complete (and get into?)

22. Jefferson’s Plan for Education
Tier 4: Self-education & Lifelong Learning
Schooling would instill a lifelong love of learning
Jefferson made provisions for public libraries
“Knowledge is power; Knowledge is safety; Knowledge is happiness”