September 5th, 2013

The readings this week talked a lot about Thomas Jefferson and how he created the idea of education for every one.

"Old Deluder Satan"
The Puritans thought that people must be literate so they can read the bible. It was believed that Satan himself would keep people from knowing the scriptures, that is why literacy was important to the Puritans.  Literacy was taught to the children by the family. Eventually it became that there were schools in each county and the teachers were paid by parents or masters of the children. The adults would pay as much as they could without "breaking the bank". All that was taught was reading and writing. That is all that was needed to be a faithful and good Puritan, but this literacy was considered state mandated.

"Jefferson"
I really liked Jefferson's quote: "The best forms of anything turn into tyranny". And this is as much true today as it was back in his time. This was a very long reading but I did take out some important ideas:

• 3 people were elected for Aldermen  (teachers? duh.)
• States would be divided into counties for school, every child would attend
• "Everyone has the same capacity to acquire knowledge"
• Poor or wealthy
• Female or male

"Thomas Jefferson on the Importance of Education"

I always think it is cool when people dress up and recreate famous people's accomplishments, speeches, or what they stood for. In this video I learned that North Carolina was the first University, and the University of Virginia was second. Thomas Jefferson wanted to create schools of Law & Policy, Medicine, Modern Language, and Literature. This was quite ambitious and his peers quickly disagreed and retaliated. Too create all these schools would cost way too much money, and this is still an argument even TODAY. Education was too difficult to make a priority BUT Thomas Jefferson made it his duty to make sure everyone from the poor to women to get to go to school.