When we think about the development of public education, and particularly the development of schools, schools really come and begin to take shape in a more meaningful way following the American Revolution. And so roughly between 1770 and 1820, we see that there is a major push for public education in United States, but it's not one in a national sense. Again, each respective colony that now will become a state will begin the process of adopting and adapting its current structures and systems into a system of public schools. Some do it better than others as we saw with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in relation to Virginia, and North Carolina, and South Carolina. But it's here that we begin to see this massive push as it plays itself out. Just as we would see our nation being born out of the fires of revolution, we also begin to see that this generation, those patriots in that time period sought to create a uniquely American form of education. A number of important personalities in this time of the early republic, that really shouted out the call for public education and saw it as foundational to American progress, were individuals such as Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush, and Noah Webster, and many others who would argue that in order for this nation to be great, it needed to have an educated citizenry. Now the issues were complex when we think about it, because we know at the exact same time, this revolutionary generation was drafting not only the Declaration of Independence but the U.S. Constitution. They also did not include education or schooling within the constitution. And so the push that we would see, this real challenge that we would see, is coming from select individuals who just firmly believe that education was fundamental to the progress of the American republic. There are some ironies that are attached to this. So here we have, for example, a copy of the Declaration of Independence. You're free to click on the link to go to it in its entirety. And we know that kind of immortal declaration, right? That all men are created equal. But it didn't necessarily translate that all men or women would be treated equally. So what we would see is kind of multiple interpretations of what that meant, or dare one say multiple democracies that would coexist in the United States. So democracy for women would be defined and exercised differently than that for men. And freedom for whites would be applied differently than that for people of color. And equality for native-born persons of European ancestry will be carried out with greater weight than for those who were foreign-born and of European ancestry. And some groups are privileged because of their race, or their gender, or their nationality, or their wealth, or their region, or birth. And then there are others that were disadvantaged for the very same attributes. And so what we're seeing is, just as how we began to interact with each other in society, as schools came into play, schools carried forward those same kinds of divisions and advantages. And they played out in these expectations and outcomes. I believe none argued for the right for everyone to go to school more than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson in 1779, in three interconnected bills but most notably the bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge, argued to the Virginia legislature that the state of Virginia should develop a three-tier system of education. Now, there is a fourth tier that's attached to it, and that would be the public library and what he called lifelong education, and you saw that interconnected within those three bills. But Virginia in itself never really took Thomas Jefferson serious at all. Matter of fact, none of his bills ever passed. And twice, Jefferson would attempt to pass his school bills, again in 1779, and once again in 1817. And none of them passed. The only thing that ever came from Jefferson's proposals with regards to public education was the development of the University of Virginia and that's what happened after his death. Now, Virginia wasn't alone when it pretty much refused to establish schools at the state's expense. Most other states that I already said, had never established a system of education in any meaningful way for its youth until after the Civil War. And there were some exceptions, North Carolina would be one of them. But even then, that was kind of late in the game. So when you think of Jefferson, Jefferson was one of those who espoused a belief that education was the cornerstone for the perpetuation and growth of American society and progress. But he very much was in the minority in this category. So Jefferson proposed a four-tier education system. The first tier was the elementary schools, and all free children will receive three years of education at the state of Virginia's expense. The second tier was the grammar school, and it was here that children who went beyond the elementary grades, they would attend the grammar school. The third tier was the state-sponsored university which would eventually become the University of Virginia. But it was here that those who advanced beyond the grammar school would move forward to the university. And everyone else who wanted to advance their learning, and they wanted to seek some form of lifelong learning, the fourth tier would be the public library system, and that would be developed and maintained at the state's expense. Jefferson believed these four tiers of education will be the foundation for creating a self-sufficient society. And he firmly believed that if you started with the base, that all free children at the elementary grades could attend school at the state's expense, what this would do is create an educated citizenry who would be educated enough to serve for example, pay your taxes, and read the newspaper. And this meant that all boys and girls who were not enslaved, the word free is very purposeful in Jefferson's language here, they would be allowed to attend school at the state's expense. And here they would learn a little bit of American history. They would be introduced to Grecian, and Roman, English, and American history. They would learn to read and write. And a school would be developed within pretty much every five square miles of the state of Virginia. And so he thought of these things as districts. So if you had 100 districts then you would have 100 elementary schools. In Jefferson's mind, three years of general education was enough to begin the process of educating everyone to understand the bare-bone basics of what it would mean to be an informed citizen in the United States. But more importantly, it was a great space to begin to identify the children that would be deemed the best and brightest future leaders. Those who performed highest on their examinations, those who were the best students in these respective districts or elementary schools, were deemed to be the future leaders. And they were the ones that were going to be given a scholarship, in Jefferson's mind, to move on to the next tier of education, the grammar school. The grammar school was the second tier in Jefferson's education plan. And it was here, it was similar to a boarding school in so many ways. It's hard to say, because again Jefferson proposed these things, we never instituted anything that he had to say with regards to education. But they were to be scattered as well throughout Virginia. Is this where girls could not move on into the grammar school. They are only expected to get three years of schooling. But all boys who could either afford to pay the tuition for going to grammar school, or those who performed the highest in their respective district elementary school and received a scholarship, would move on to the grammar school. At best, we're talking about 10-15 students when it was all said and done. Now, the grammar schools are seen as preparation schools for the university. And for those that didn't move on to the university, it gave them enough knowledge for them to go back to their own respective districts and be a leader within their own district. They could become a school teacher, or they may become one of the lead officials within this district or county. Jefferson believed that if you could identify at least 20 individuals who could move into this capacity, you'd be moving Virginia into a more progressive state. That you'd be using education and knowledge as the foundation as to who should be the leadership in the country. He had this phrase, "We need to rake a few geniuses from the rubbish." Unfortunately, referring to poor people everyday people as the rubbish here. And so, but he figured that there was genius in every category of life, and this would be one aspect that he would find them. The third tier was the university, and it was here that Jefferson was proposing that this is where those few geniuses that were raked from the rubbish would go and continue their education. Those who graduated from university were expected to run a state, become national leaders, maybe even be a president of the United States themselves. And so it's here you see him kind of propose the University of Virginia, when it was all said and done. It would be no different than the college he graduated from, William and Mary. It would have professors in different departments that would emphasize all of the ideologies and findings that were growing out of the enlightenment era of his time period. Jefferson felt that between these three tiers, the elementary school, the grammar school, and the university, that he could produce what he called a natural aristocracy, a leadership produced not by birthright or wealth but by identified in intelligence and abilities. And this would be produced in the United States. It would be so distinctively different than what was happening in England, in other spaces in European countries. Whereas you would have a monarchy, or you'd have an oligarchy, or you'd have a handful of individuals because of their birthrights and their wealth, they would be the leaders of those respective countries. But it was here through intellect, that in the United States, we would identify those who go and be the natural aristocracy, the next generation of leaders in this country. It's a unique concept. And it's something that Jefferson produced, and he thought it would be most beneficial for us in the United States. Now the library, the library was at fourth tier, and the final tier Jefferson proposed. And it's here that you see individuals who wanted to continue to advance their learning, they could do so. And they could do it on their next level. Jefferson believed that lifelong learning pursuit, just no different than that preamble that we have in order to form a more perfect union, the belief that one could become more perfect through more knowledge. And so it was here that he wanted to ensure, that at the state's expense, that libraries would not only be built but they would be maintained. And so how one would gain access into those life opportunities is the most important and crucial aspect. And it was here that, of all his bills that he proposed, he felt the library was the one that was going to make that difference. So why go into such great detail about Jefferson's tiered education system? Because it's here that we begin to see the making of the natural aristocracy. Whereas at the base of this pyramid, you see three years of elementary school and access to the libraries. In the middle, you see the grammar schools that produces the leaders and the teachers at the county level who will best serve the needs of the everyday Virginian. And at the very top of the pyramid, you see the university produces the leaders of the state of the nation. He saw schools could produce a self-sufficient society, in attempting to form that more perfect union that we were just talking about. And the only way that this could be done, in any reproducing way, was to do it through a system of public schools, a system of education. So, Jefferson didn't believe that everyone could be the full beneficiaries of his educational proposals. Women, for example. As the video, School: The Story of American Public Schools, once articulated, Jefferson never really envisioned women as being geniuses. So he didn't really propose for them to attend school beyond elementary grades at the state's level. He was very consistent with his beliefs and, of his time, that women were not to play any significant role in the public sphere. And therefore, he thought it would be a waste of institutional resources, of national resources to educate them for something that was beyond the scope of where society envisioned women being. So there was that shortsightedness, that we would say on our end, on his part. But yet at the same time, we see how he's pushing and prodding against the challenges of his own society. The interesting thing is, Jefferson's own contemporaries such as Abigail Adams or Mary Wollstonecraft would argue very differently. Both of them would lead their own education systems. Both of them would advocate for women to have equal rights as men in this time period. So it's not as if everyone thought the way that Jefferson thought, it's just that he was catering to the popular thoughts and beliefs of his time. The same is true with Native Americans. Jefferson believed that native Americans should be educated, but almost in isolation to the general masses in what he would call civilization schools, or what would later become called boarding schools in this time period. The same is true of African-Americans. Jefferson afforded no schooling opportunities for enslaved African-Americans in educational proposals, even though he kind of carried almost 600 slaves in his own profile throughout his life. And another thing is, he's unsure about free blacks. Even though free-born African-Americans existed and lived in Virginia, it was unclear whether they would have been afforded schooling opportunities because of their race. And so it's hard to say because it was only a proposal on the part of Jefferson. So honestly, the historian will tell you, it could have went either way. The emphasis under free would allow them to go to school no different than that of a child who would be deemed white or European ancestry. But yet at the same time, the emphasis on the expansion of slavery in Virginia, may have precluded free blacks from ever having these opportunities. Notwithstanding, there is one letter that Jefferson provides that gives us some understanding of what he was willing to do for the instruction of slaves. And I've noted that letter in a link in the PowerPoint.
