Abstract
Thomas Jefferson reconceptualized the public education system and expanded its reach to many new individuals in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but the influences of citizenship, gender, race, and class constructed boundaries for this new system. A key contribution of Thomas Jefferson’s educational reforms is the way in which he linked education to ideas of citizenship and success in the new nation. He considered education as an avenue to freedom of intellectual thought and from tyrannical rule. He grappled with issues regarding the role of higher education within the system of a democratic republic and the tremendous impact education could have on the country’s success. Jefferson saw his endeavors into the creation of the University of Virginia as an opportunity to innovate within the system to strengthen this alignment. Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of education continue to influence future attitudes toward and expectations of education in the United States.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Addis, C. (2003). Jefferson’s vision for education, 1760–1845.
Dalton, D. C., & Hunt, T. C. (1979). Thomas Jefferson’s theories on education as revealed through a textual reading of several of his letters. Journal of Thought, 263–271.
De Lisle, C. (2021, June). W&M launches bray school lab to research legacy of 18th-century school for free and enslaved children. William & Mary. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2021/wm-launches-bray-school-lab-to-research-legacy-of-18th-century-school-for-free-and-enslaved-children.php
Department of Education. (2021, June). The Federal role in education. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html
Dewey, J. (1903). Democracy in education. The Elementary School Teacher, 4(4), 193–204. https://doi.org/10.1086/453309
Hellenbrand, H. (1990). The unfinished revolution: Education and politics in the thought of Thomas Jefferson. Associated University Presse.
Holowchak, M. A. (2014). Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy of education: A utopian dream. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315766508
Holowchak, M. A. (2018). A system of education, not just a university: Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy of education. History of Education, 47(4), 488–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2017.1411531
Jefferson, T. (1779, June 18). A bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge. Committee of the Assembly of Virginia. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0079
Jefferson, T. (1786, August 13). Letter to George Whythe. Library of Congress.
Jefferson, T. (1787, February 1). Notes on the state of Virginia. Printed for John Stockdale. Opposite Burlington-House, Picadilly, 1787. https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj1.006_1140_1140/
Jefferson, T. (1816, January 6). Letter to Charles Yancey. January 6, 1816. Library of Congress. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib022264/
Jefferson, T. (1818, August 4). Report of the Board of Commissioners for the University of Virginia to the Virginia General Assembly. August 4, 1818. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-01-02-0289
Jewett, T. O. (1997). Thomas Jefferson and the purposes of education. In The educational forum (61, 2, pp. 110–113). Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131729709335239
Kammerer, E. (2017). Uplift in schools and the church: Abolitionist approaches to free black education in early National Philadelphia. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 42(1 (159)), 299–319.
Kliebard, H. M. (2002). Changing course: American curriculum reform in the 20th century (Vol. 8). Teachers College Press.
McDonald, R. M. (Ed.). (2012). Light and liberty: Thomas Jefferson and the power of knowledge. University of Virginia Press.
Meyers, T. L. (2019). Jefferson on black education. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 32(3), 161–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769X.2018.1505480
Morrill Act of 1890: 1890 is Our History, Too! (1890) Alabama A&M University. Retrieved March, 2022, from https://www.aamu.edu/about/our-history/morril-act-1890.html
O’Shaughnessy, A. J. (2021). The illimitable freedom of the human mind: Thomas Jefferson’s idea of a university. University of Virginia Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1tfw07b.
Polgar, P. J. (2019). Standard-bearers of equality: America’s first abolition movement. UNC Press Books. https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469653938.001.0001
Schlereth, E. R. (2013). An age of infidels: The politics of religious controversy in the early United States. University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208252
Sheridan, E. R. (1999). Liberty and virtue: Religion and republicanism in Jeffersonian thought. Thomas Jefferson and the education of a citizen (pp. 242–263). University Press of the Pacific.
Sundquist, C. (2016). Positive education federalism. Mercer Law Rev, 68(1), 2015–2016.
Ulrich, L. T. (1982). Good wives: Image and reality in the lives of women in northern New England, 1650–1750. Oxford University Press.
Watson, H. L. (1990). Liberty and power: The politics of Jacksonian America. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Wenger, M. R. (1995). Thomas Jefferson, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia. Virginia Magazine History Biography, 103(3), 339–374.
Wilson, L. (2011). Ye heart of a man: The domestic life of men in colonial New England. Yale University Press.
Zagarri, R. (1992). Morals, manners, and the republican mother. American Quarterly, 44(2), 192–215. https://doi.org/10.2307/2713040
Zagarri, R. (2007). Revolutionary backlash: Women and politics in the early American Republic. University of Pennsylvania Press https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205558
Additional Reading
Clagett, M. (2022). A spark of revolution: William small, Thomas Jefferson and James watt: The curious connection between the American revolution and the industrial revolution. Clyde Hill Publishing.
Conant, J. B. (2021). Thomas Jefferson and the development of American public education. University of California Press.
Henderson, J. C. (1890). Thomas Jefferson’s views on public education. New York and London, GP Putnam’s sons.
Park, R. (1998). Jefferson’s children: Education and the promise of American culture. Change, 30(3), 58.
Taylor, A. (2019). Thomas Jefferson’s education. WW Norton & Company.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Govain Leffel, K., McGeever, C. (2023). A Broader Vision of Education: Jefferson’s Efforts to Reform Educational Philosophy. In: Geier, B.A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_48-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_48-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education