Thomas Jefferson and the Ideology of Democratic Schooling

I challenge the traditional argument that Jefferson’s educational plans for Virginia were built on modern democratic understandings. While containing some democratic features, especially for the founding decades, Jefferson’s concern was narrowly political, designed to ensure the survival of the new republic. The significance of this piece is to add to the more accurate portrayal of Jefferson’s impact on American institutions. Submit your own response to this article Submit online at democracyeducationjournal.org/home Read responses to this article online http://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol21/iss2/5 Few historical figures have undergone as much scrutiny in the last two decades as has Thomas Jefferson. His relationship with Sally Hemings, his views on Native Americans, his expansionist ideology and his suppression of individual liberties are just some of the areas of Jefferson’s life and thinking that historians and others have reexamined (Finkelman, 1995; GordonReed, 1997; Kaplan, 1998). But his views on education have been unchallenged. While his reputation as a founding father of the American republic has been subject to revision, his reputation as a founding father of public education has not. He is still remembered uncritically for his ardent support for an educated public as a bastion against the encroachment of an overzealous government. He is still praised universally for his dedication to the creation and success of the University of Virginia. His inclusion of the founding of this university as one of the three achievements listed in his tombstone epitaph is well known, as is his admonition that “not a word more” be added (Peterson, 1984, p. 706). He continues to be recognized for being as adamant about the value of educating citizens near the end of his life in 1825 as he was in 1779 when he first proposed to create a system of publiclysupported schools for the children in Virginia. This emphasis he placed on public education has contributed to no less an intellectual figure than John Dewey (1940) to call Jefferson “our first great democrat” (pp. 23). Dumas Malone (1948), in his exhaustive biography of Jefferson, called him “the foremost advocate of public education in the early United States” (p. 280). Heslep (1969) has suggested that Jefferson provided “a general statement on education in republican, or democratic society” (p. 113), without distinguishing between the two. Others have opted specifically to connect his ideas to being democratic. Williams (1967) argued that Jefferson’s impact on our schools is pronounced because “democracy and education are interdependent” and therefore with “education being necessary to its [democracy’s] success, a successful democracy must provide it” (p. 266, 286). James B. Conant (1940) wrote that Jefferson believed that universal educational opportunities would create “a more equitable distribution of opportunity for all the children of the land” (p. 598). And a more recent biographer posits that “the law [Jefferson] considered the most important to the success of all others” was that “to establish a democratic system of education” (Randall, 1993, p. 306). James Carpenter is an associate professor of social studies education at Binghamton University. He is coordinator of social studies adolescent education programs and the doctoral program in educational theory and practice. Acknowledgments: My thanks to professor Adam Laats for his helpful comments and suggestions for improving this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their important recommendations.