ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704220119
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD T. LA POINTE
JUDGING BY the epitaph he wrote, Thomas Jefferson valued his role as an educator more than his service as president of the United States.
He wanted to be remembered as author of the Declaration of Independence, writer of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom and father of the University of Virginia. Not so well known is Jefferson's role in advancing the idea of public education to American citizens.
Soon after writing the declaration, Jefferson returned to Virginia to help reform the state's antiquated laws. On the great issue of public education, all responsibility had been left to the individual states.
Tackling this problem in 1779, while the war for independence raged around him, Jefferson turned his attention to a legislative proposal that he considered his committee's most important work: "A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge."
The bill consisted of three parts. It would establish, at the elementary level in every ward of the state, a "free school for reading, writing, and common arithmetic." Next came provisions for "a higher degree of education at a district school" and finally, "a university where all the useful sciences should be taught."
Unfortunately, the General Assembly defeated the bill. Presumably, too many of those with means to educate their own children were resistant to the idea that they should support such opportunities for others.
It would take several years for the state to catch up with Jefferson's enlightened philosophy that universal education was both a right of citizens and a benefit to the country as a whole. Jefferson knew that in a democracy, it was imperative that the people, in whose hands the reins of government resided, should be educated and enlightened citizens.
Therefore, it was particularly fitting that Jefferson fought for the right to free education while his countrymen were fighting for the right of self-determination. As he wrote his old mentor George Wythe, "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness. ... Preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people."
The Age of Enlightenment was at this time in full bloom in Europe, where science and learning flourished - but principally among the elite classes. Jefferson saw the dangers in such an imbalance.
"It is safer to have a whole people respectably enlightened," he wrote, "than a few in a high state of science, and the many in ignorance."
Undaunted by his failure in the Virginia legislature, he went on in 1785 to propose - this time successfully - a plan with consequences extending far beyond those contained in his Virginia proposal. In that year, he chaired a committee that drafted the Land Ordinance of 1785, which established the policy of setting aside public lands for the support of schools and universities.
As president, Jefferson continued to display his zeal for education. He acted to create the Library of Congress, and in a magnificent gesture that showed both his commitment and his generosity, he donated his beloved personal library, one of the best in the nation, as the basis of a collection that would become the largest and richest national library in the world.
Finally, in 1817, eight years after Jefferson retired to private life, the Virginia legislature again considered his proposal for state education. While it rejected his plans for elementary and secondary schooling, the legislature did endorse the project of a public university.
Two years later, Jefferson was named the first rector of the University of Virginia, which received its first students in 1825. Jefferson would spend the rest of his life passionately devoted to making his university one of the finest in America.
All told, Jefferson labored nearly 50 years to establish and improve the law "for educating the common people." In 1829, three years after his death, Virginia finally passed the District Free School Act. This legislation gave counties authority to use public money to erect permanent schoolhouses for common use.
Although free public education for all was still some years away, Jefferson's influence and example had brought the country closer to his ideal.
RICHARD T. LA POINTE is Virginia's superintendent of public instruction.
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