"Jefferson's Grand Experiment: Education and the Challenges of Citizenship"
Date
2010
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Haverford College. Department of History
CPGC: Student Research
CPGC: Student Research
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." As this quotation indicates, Jefferson viewed education as the cornerstone of a free and enduring democracy, for he conjectured that all citizens could receive an education in morality and critical thinking which prepared them for citizenship. He detailed duties for citizens, freedoms granted to citizens, and checks to limit the power of the government, based on an assumption of an educated citizen body using their education to participate in the democracy. For Jefferson, morality, reasoning, and education intertwined to influence his conception of democracy. In order to comprehend Jefferson's notion of democracy, therefore, one must also understand his educational plans and the connections between the two. Likewise, in order to appreciate Jefferson's educational plans, an awareness of the role those plans played in Jefferson's democracy is critical.