Education in the 1700s was very different from the education we have now. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his ideas in educating kids to go against corruption. Jefferson planned to educate kids so they will become successful and go against corruption. Jefferson thought of many ideas to educate kids, like having a school every 5 to 6 miles, separating the smart ones from the others to teach them more, and teaching them not to make the same mistakes made by people from the past.
Jefferson’s idea of having a school every 5 to 6 miles was for convenience. He stated that “These schools to be under a visitor… of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools.” The schools are for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, then only 100 smart boys will be chosen to educate them further. People should learn even if they are poor, they will pay for them for three years, but if they want to continue learning after that, they would have to pay for it themselves.
Jefferson thought it was important to separate smart kids from groups. Jefferson stated that “By this means twenty of the best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually... At the end of six years instruction, one half are to be discontinued..., and the other half, who are to be chosen for the superiority of their parts and disposition, are to be sent and continued three years...” So, after six years of education, 20 smart boys will be separated in half, and the other boys will be discontinued. The smart ones will continue to study for three more years at William and Mary college to learn about science to extend the use of science.
Learning from past mistakes will always be a good thing. Jefferson said, “For this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future.” He said that the final result of this whole education would be teaching them to read - which was reading history. They would know the mistakes made before and not make the same mistakes again.
Jefferson planned to educated kids so that they will become good successful people that would not be corrupt. He planned to have schools every 5 to 6 miles, separating the smart ones from the others to educate them more, and teaching them not to make the same mistakes made in the past. So, Thomas Jefferson’s plan to educate kids to become successful could be beneficial and could be used worldwide.
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