Summary
Thomas Jefferson is the founding father most associated with education, because he wrote a lot on the subject and founded the University of Virginia. Jefferson is an interesting figure to study because he’s characterized so differently by historians. In Jefferson’s Vision For Education, Cameron Addis says it was “the mythological Jefferson” who inspired the establishment of public schools later, and that “he started off idealistic, then worked against his own vision” and accuses him of sacrificing the elementary and grammar schools in his education plan in order to ensure the success of the university.27 Jennings L. Wagoner writes a detailed account of how hard Jefferson did try, for seventeen years, to get his Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowledge passed, only to see it so edited by the legislature that it was useless in practice. In a report published just prior to the chartering of his university, Jefferson was still pointing out how important it would be for the success of the university to have a good system of primary schools.28 These two scholars published within a year of one another, making it difficult to discern which account got closer to the truth.
Ultimately, Mark Boonshoft’s interpretation feels the most accurate. In Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic, he looks at the bigger picture saying, “After a destructive revolution, amid economic and political uncertainty, and in the face of antitax sentiment, any bold policy faced long odds.”29 His book is the story of how education in America has been caught between two schools of thought since the beginning. Those who, like Horace Mann, believe it to be a “great equalizer”, and those who find it is the best tool by which a few can distinguish themselves from the many. Those who want to level the playing field, and those who want to climb the ladder. The founding fathers were on both sides of this argument, and it remains a source of intense debate.
When the American Revolution is taught in schools, the focus tends to be on the accomplishments of the founding fathers rather than on what inspired them. This is a lost opportunity in the education of future citizens, because Enlightenment philosophy is a kind of north-star for this country. The men who would become the political leaders of the Revolution did so in large part because they were explicitly taught to see themselves not only as individuals with natural rights, but also as parts of a greater whole to which they had a moral obligation. We return to Enlightenment principles again and again throughout the course of our history, correcting wrongs and oversights as we attempt to live up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
27 Addis, Cameron. Jefferson's Vision for Education, 1760-1845. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.
28 17 Wagoner, Jennings L. Jefferson and Education. [Charlottesville, Va.] : Chapel Hill, N.C.: Thomas Jefferson Foundation ; Distributed The University of North Carolina Press, 2004, p. 30-50,128.
29 Boonshoft, Mark. Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic. (The University of North Carolina Press, 2020), 2.