Jeffersons Views on Education

A detailed Summary of Jeffersons Views on Education

Thomas Jefferson believed that universal education would have to precede universal suffrage. The ignorant, he argued, were incapable of self-government. But he had profound faith in the reasonableness and teachableness of the masses and in their collective wisdom when taught. He believed that the schools should teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Also, the children should learn about Grecian, roman, English, and American History.

Jefferson believed the nation needed public schools scattered around, for all male citizens to receive free education. By 1789, the first law was passed in Massachusetts to reaffirm the colonial laws by which towns were obligated to support a school. This law was ignored. Private schools were opened only to those who could afford to pay them. In the middle states religious groups opened most schools. Not many schools or institutions were opened to the nonwealthy people. The women, blacks, and Indians were not able to go

The Connecticut school master and lawyer Noah Webster, said that the American schoolboy should be educated as a nationalist. "As soon as he opens his lips", Webster wrote, " he should rehearse the history of his own country". Every citizen was to be educated to some degree. For the less wealthy people, to also have some education. Jefferson believed that the nation really needed to have schools. He wanted for the poor and rich to have some kind of Education, not only for themselves, but also for the nation's future.

Jefferson strongly believed that the nation's future depended, in great part, on the nation's education. He said in 1782, "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree". He believed that in order for people to trust the people who are in charge of their government, they need to have some kind of education, to be

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Approximate Word count = 678
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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