Thomas Jefferson's views on education

Jefferson Education

The Influence of Personal Biography on National Policy: The Life of Thomas Jefferson and His Views on Education

Thomas Jefferson is most famously remembered for his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence, a document that was essential in the foundation of the United States of America. This is somewhat ironic because this document did not, in fact, establish any national government but rather abolished the one (that of the British Crown) that existed in the colonies during the warfare that became the American Revolution. This Declaration was eventually ratified unanimously by the delegations of the thirteen colonies in the First Continental Congress, and had this been the limit of Jefferson's contributions to the founding of the United States his place in this nation's history books would certainly have been secured.

The authoring of the Declaration of Independence was, however, only one milestone in the long career of policy formation, leadership, and outspoken political philosophy that Jefferson made for himself. Serving as Secretary of State, Vice President, and President during the first three administrations following 1789's Constitutional Convention, Jefferson remained intimately involved in the shaping and the running of the United States' federal government for the majority of his adult life. There was one area of social policy that was of great importance to the leader that he was not able to work as directly towards, yet an examination of his writings and of his more direct views on policy demonstrates his passion for this area.

Education and the methods of its provision were hugely important to Jefferson, and though his official positions in the early government of the United States did not really provide a direct avenue for him to direct or achieve his policies in this area as desired, his thoughts on the subject have continued to shape educational policy in some ways and remain highly relevant today. Jefferson was concerned with many social policy issues that he saw alternatively as a necessity for decent government, and yet something that the federal government should not necessarily involve itself in directly and with abundant regulation and definition. His views on the issue of education and its provision in the United States -- or indeed, in any nation -- were thus quite complex, and it can be difficult to summarize these views in a way that treats them comprehensively and does justice to the thought processes and the brilliant mind that lay behind their formation and their eventual promulgation.

In some writings, Jefferson asserts that there can be no true political freedom without education -- that it is necessary for a person and a people to be educated before they can reasonably expect to shape their government in a way that provides them both the securities and the liberties to which they are entitled by natural right. At the same time, he stresses elsewhere the importance of keeping education out of the fundamental structures of government itself, as this would defeat the purpose of a free education able to question the powers of that government. While this might seem contradictory at first, Jefferson's desired educational policy in fact walks a fine balance between ensuring opportunity without defining goals.

This paper will examine the influence that Jefferson's own experiences throughout the various stages of his life had on his views of education. Through his own childhood in the colony of Virginia, his young adulthood as a member of the colonies' aristocracy, his time spent in Europe as a diplomat with varying titles and responsibilities, and finally in his direct role in American politics and policy formation, his ideas on a wide variety of subjects -- including education -- continued to be shaped and to solidify. The connection between his life events and his writings on education cannot always be tied together in an entirely direct and concrete manner, yet an overall view and analysis of these periods in his life and the social and intellectual forces he encountered in them provides a clear general idea of the influences on his views on education and the manner and timing of the way they developed.

Childhood

Though the eldest son of a quite well-off family in the colony of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson did not exactly have the plush and favored childhood that would be expected of a member of the aristocracy. His first memory, at the age of two years old, was of a fifty-mile journey from the home in which he was born on his parent's estate to the house of one of his father's friends, which was to become the new home for the entire Jefferson family as this friend had recently died and left his children orphans. Jefferson's father was keeping a promise by managing the estate and parental duties and Jefferson found himself in the position of being the youngest son in a home that was not truly his own (Brodie 1974, pp. 47-8).

Despite the bullying that he almost experienced at the hands of his new "brother" Thomas Mann Randolph, who was several years Thomas Jefferson's senior and would have been a most unusual child had he managed to survive the deaths of both of his parents and the intrusion of this new family into his house without some level of aggression. It is certain the two Thomases had a rather adversarial relationship in their adulthood, and this could be an indicator of the type of relationship they had during their childhood, as well (Brodie 1974, pp. 48). The early part of Jefferson's childhood, then, was one in which the issues of power and its physical aspects, as well as concepts of fairness and of rationalization (a tool commonly employed by bullies in getting away with their exploits) were rendered in sharp relief (Brodie 1974; Hayes 2008). This was not the most formative relationship of which Jefferson was a part at this time, however, despite its certain impact on his thought and character.

Peter Jefferson, Thomas' father, was by all accounts an imposing figure both in terms of his physical and his intellectual prowess (Hayes 2008; Monsell & Wagner 1989; Parton 1874; Schouler 2005). He was also a very benevolent force in his young son's life, taking a great deal of care and time to ensure that his son received the attention and the education that he saw as necessary to the lad's development -- more than he had received in his own childhood, it is certain (Monsell & Wagner 1989, pp. 54-5). Though Peter died relatively young at the age of fifty, when Thomas Jefferson was only fourteen years old, much of the adolescent's education and character formation had already been molded by this man (Schouler 2005, pp. 21-2).

This is clearly evidenced in Thomas Jefferson's own later recollections of both his father's own educational and intellectual achievements and the ways in which his father made great efforts to transfer this knowledge to Thomas. In his 1821 autobiography, Jefferson makes mention of his father having been selected for making the first map of Virginia and the fact that he was only the third or fourth settler to arrive in the area of Virginia which the Jefferson family continued to occupy, and the success that came of these ventures despite his father's lack of true schooling and overall limited education (Jefferson 1821, par. 3). Also mentioned is the fact that Jefferson himself was made to commence formal schooling at the age of five with an English grammar school, moving to Latin at the age of nine under the tutelage of a Scottish-born clergyman, Mr. Douglas, who was expressly chosen by Peter Jefferson (Jefferson 1821, par. 3). This early introduction to formal education was coupled by an obvious love for learning in the Jefferson household, where Shakespeare was held in great reverence and the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to all of the Jefferson children at a very young age (Schouler 2005).

The young Thomas Jefferson was also instructed in areas of the arts from a young age, learning how to play the "fiddle" (Parton 1874, pp. 13). This massive emphasis on learning of all sorts undoubtedly had an impact on Jefferson's views on education throughout the rest of his life, and not least because of the clarity with which his father's lack of schooling was made explicit (Monsell & Wagner 1989). Education was important for all, as it determined future successes especially for people without the natural faculties possessed by Peter Jefferson.

Jefferson's democratic impulses towards education and learning can be easily observed in even a vague detail of his life -- the manner in which he marked his books as his own. At a time when books were relatively scarce and highly valuable commodities, especially in the still-developing New World, many of the gentry in Jefferson's circle ordered specially made engraved plates for each of their books to denote the books' belonging to their personal library. While it seems that Jefferson considered this and could certainly have afforded it, he eschewed this in favor of simply marking his books with his initials surreptitiously placed alongside publisher's markings on the collections of leaves that formed books in his day (Hayes 2008, pp. 5-8). This demonstrates that while Jefferson highly prized his collection of books and his ownership of them, he also did not see education and access to it as a luxury afforded to the rich, or as a means of demonstrating wealth.

Early Adulthood

Following the death of his father, Thomas Jefferson was left the large estate on which he was born, and would eventually build his famous house Monticello on the same grounds (Hayes 2008; Schouler 2005; Malone 1986, pp. 11). There was a lot of life he had ahead of him before his grand estate was completed, however, and a great deal of education ahead of him as well. His upbringing to this point had provided him with a solid grounding as well as the beginnings of the philosophy towards education that would continue to develop and come to light for the rest of his life; the next stage in his life would solidify this philosophy.

Immediately following the death of his father, Thomas Jefferson ended his tutelage with the Scottish-born Mr. Douglas, who was not a "correct classical scholar" in the young man's estimation, and he took up studies with a Mr. Maury to perfect his Latin and truly learn Greek, as well as engage in the study of various other topics of interest (Jefferson 1821, par. 3). He continued his studies with Mr. Maury for two more years, and in the spring of 1760, after a holiday season spent rather frivolously travelling to various friend's homes -- a time when he first met Patrick Henry, who like Jefferson would grow into a famed Virginian statesman and an impassioned and radical orator on the topic of American independence -- he entered William and Mary College where he would study for another two years (Jefferson 1821, par. 3; Parton 1874, pp. 13). This marked the completion of Jefferson's formal schooling, which would have been quite considerably more than the standard education received in the required years of education in today's world, and was hugely more than the average person and even many of the higher classes received in Jefferson's own day.

Unfortunately, a fire in 1770 destroyed Jefferson's library at the Shadwell home where he was born and where he and other family members still made their home at the time, and any correspondence that had been saved by Jefferson from this period was either destroyed in this fire or deliberately destructed at another time (Brodie 1974, pp. 51). For this reason, very few details are known about Jefferson or the formative events of his life in this period. It is safe to assume that he did well in his studies, however, and he certainly wasted little time putting his education to use.

Immediately after leaving William and Mary College, he began an apprenticeship with George Wythe, a Virginian jurist that had been one of Jefferson's teachers and a key mentor of the young man during his time at the college (Bordie 1974, pp. 61). Though his formal education was finished, this was a time of intensive learning for Jefferson, and in fact he studied law under his mentor for five years -- far longer than most peopled studied law in those days (Brodie 1974, pp. 61). It is during this period that Jefferson and others that knew him recalled his voracious appetite for reading developing, and while he did not really express a great deal of enjoyment for either the study or the practice of law at any point in his life -- though he would work as a lawyer for seven years after completing his apprenticeship before giving up his practice to become a politician and statesman -- he certainly developed an appreciation for having a great quantity of books at his disposal, and from this point onward he was seldom anywhere without several in his immediate possession (McLaughin 1988, pp. 47; Malone 1986). Along with gardening and music, reading of any sort so long as the material were of a certain caliber became Jefferson's great passion (Brodie 1974).

The breadth of his interests and the voracity with which he approached them all gives very clear insight into Jefferson's views on education. For him personally, the ability to go on learning was as essential as air, yet he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, music, and problems of engineering and the sciences with a zeal equal to his direct book learning (Hayes 2008). Jefferson was the true Renaissance man of the Revolution.

The importance of this variety of activities and areas of learning in Jefferson's personal life would extend to his philosophies on education during his years as a statesman, and though they would not all directly be noted in his educational policies they certainly influenced his philosophy on the subject. Even more important, perhaps, was the availability of this breadth of learning and knowledge; Jefferson could not have escaped the fact that he was extraordinarily privileged to have access to the amount of books, the quality of instructor, and the sheer time involved in his pursuit of learning when compared to the average man of his day. While there are no writings from the time to confirm this conjecture, it seems quite likely that given his position of advantage and his evidenced need for learning that he quickly came to abhor the notion that such learning was not possible at all levels of society, and that many with minds as eager as his must be suffocated by practical restraints against their pursuit of education and learning in a similar fashion.

Political Career: Part I

Though only working as a lawyer for a relatively brief period, Thomas Jefferson's knowledge of the law and the workings of the legal system were never in any question due both to his years of study and the expertise and aptitude he demonstrated while practicing (Malone 1986). This reputation, not to mention his family's high standing amongst Virginian gentry and the fact that he was friends and/or relatives with the majority of the other aristocratic families, made it easy for him to transition into politics while still in his early thirties.

Before the American Revolution and the idea of a national government had even really been fully conceived, Jefferson began his political career in the only place that such a career could really exist: in the various positions that existed in the government of the colony of Virginia. He served as the first governor of the colony after it had gained its independence along with the other colonies that had been party to the Revolutionary War, but during the years that intervened between his election to the governorship in 1779 and the end of his legal practice in 1774 (and actually starting somewhat before he officially took down his shingle as a practicing lawyer) he served as a magistrate in his home region of Virginia, a county supervisor in the same region, and as a member in the House of Burgesses -- Virginia's legislature -- also representing his home community (Malone 1986). Jefferson is one of very few Americans, even in his day and age, that could boast of having been born, lived most of his life, and eventually died on the same basic piece of property (Parton 1874, pp. 3).

Though little direct action was taken by Jefferson in regards to instituting a system of public education in the colony of Virginia during his various pre-Revolutionary positions there -- such action was not really under the purview of the offices he held -- there is evidence of his views on education in certain documents published later. His "Notes on the State of Virginia," for example, though published in 1781-2, demonstrate that his ruminations on education in this state began when it was still a colony. There is obvious dismay in his tone when he notes the William and Mary College is the only institution of higher learning in the state, and that its service to schoolchildren in Latin and Greek rendered it undesirable to many older students hoping to attend programs in mathematics or the sciences (Jefferson 1781-2).

Jefferson published this at a time when the newly independent State of Virginia was actually capable of instituting a system of public education, and he quite explicitly argues for at least an expansion of the educational offerings at William and Mary College. Yet although he did not push for this expansion in surviving writings until his service as governor of the state had commenced, this document clearly implies that his thoughts regarding the lack of available education in the state began to form in his own years of attendance at the college and even more so during his time in the government of the colony (Jefferson 1781-2). William and Mary College still primarily (if not exclusively) served the aristocratic families of Virginia, however, and thus his argument for an expansion of the number of professorships at the institution does not reflect more of Jefferson's philosophy of education other than a desire that it should be increased so as to become more effective.

There is one other detail in his notes on Virginia's education opportunities, however, that belies the democratic nature of Jefferson's views on education. He notes that one of the professorships that was part of William and Mary College's original endowment was established for the purpose of Christianizing and educating the local Indian tribes. He maintains that while the education of native populations in the tenets of Christianity must continue "as the founder requires, [the other object] should be to collect their traditions, laws, customs, languages, and other circumstances which might lead to a discovery of their relation with one another, or descent from other nations" (Jefferson 1781-2). It is clear that Jefferson saw value in learning from all sources available, and of extending learning to all peoples as well. This is a duality that is not always seen in other theories of education, and particularly in those that preceded Jefferson in the state and colony of Virginia. That is, educating the native tribes had been seen primarily as a measure of Christian duty, having more to do with "saving the heathens" than with any sort of principled attempt to provide them with broader learning and greater opportunities through education. Jefferson sought not only to expand the efforts made in truly educating these tribes, but also to learn everything that could be learned about them before their customs were eradicated by the encroachment of the society developing in their regions of the New World. In addition to the rather astound level of prescience that this demonstrates on Jefferson's part, it also shows the truly democratic leanings of Jefferson in areas of education and learning.

Political Career: Part II

It was in the various positions that Thomas Jefferson held in the changing national governments of the collective colonies and eventually in the United States of America that his views on the need for public education truly solidified and became known. Through many of his letters, especially, Jefferson made it clear that he considered education a cornerstone of any truly free and democratic society. By the time he served in the offices of Secretary of State, Vice President, and President, Jefferson's views on education had already likely solidified, as evidence by the above-quoted document, but his statements regarding these views became far more explicit and direct once he was recognized on a national level.

In a latter to John Tyler written in 1810, only a year after Jefferson's second term of the post-Constitution United States of America had ended, he stated, "I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it" (Jefferson 1810). This is one of the most explicit statements made by Thomas Jefferson regarding the place of education in a free and democratic society, showing quite clearly that he believed a full and proper education to be a necessity for the betterment of the voting public and even demonstrating some level of concern that this education should be provided for all at the public expense in his wish to see the country divided into small enough areas so that this education could be provided.