University of Virginia Library

Mr. Jefferson's
Academic Freedom

By Arnold Whitridge

Reprinted with permission
from The New York Times.

In these days when we hear so
much about campus troubles,
sweeping educational reforms, and
the reaffirmation of academic freedom,
it might be worth-while to
hark back to Thomas Jefferson,
who cared more about education
and gave more thought to it than
any other President of the United
States.

His theories on education should
commend themselves particularly
to the campus radical since no more
sincere believer in the doctrine of
equality ever lived. If the president
of the Young People's Socialist
League, Mr. Steven Kelman, really
believes that "snobbism and arrogance"
are rampant in our universities,
and if he and his followers are
now working to have these ugly
qualities "replaced with a genuine
idealism and genuine compassion
for the American people," then
Thomas Jefferson is their man.

Diffusing Knowledge

As they read his "Notes on
Virginia" they will surely nod with
approval over what he says about
the importance of diffusing knowledge
more generally: Only so, says
Jefferson, can we "make an opening
for the aristocracy of virtue and
talent . . . essential to a well-ordered
republic." The word "aristocracy"
may cause some uneasiness
among campus radicals, but the fact
is that though Jefferson refused to
consider wealth or social position as
a necessary passport to the academic
world, he was very much of a
stickler for brains and character.
The educational system that he
evolved was rigidly selective. Education
and free discussion, as he
wrote John Adams, were the antidotes
to "the disease of ignorance."
but it never occurred to him that
anybody and everybody should go
to college.

Education Plan

The plan that he drafted for
public education in the state of
Virginia was simple. The state was
marked out into six-mile squares, in
each of which a school was to be
established for teaching reading,
writing and arithmetic. Parents
were entitled "to send their
children three years gratis, and as
much longer as they please, paying
for it." Each year the best pupil in
each of these primary schools
should be sent to a grammar school,
of which there were to be twenty,
conveniently located in different
parts of the state. This highly
specialized group was to be taught
"Greek, Latin, Geography, and the
higher branches of numerical arithmetic."
They were to be kept there
one or two years and then dismissed,
except for "the best genius
of the whole," who would continue
for the full term of six years. "By
this means," wrote Jefferson,
"twenty of the best geniuses will be
raked from the rubbish annually."

The phrase is significant as
showing how far this great believer
in equality was from accepting the
doctrine of "open admission." But
that was not all. At the end of six
years the best ten out of the twenty
were to be sent to William and
Mary College for three years, while
the rest were to be turned adrift,
possibly to supply the grammar
schools with future masters.

Jefferson goes on to explain that
"the general objects of this law are
to provide an education adapted to
the years, to the capacity, and the
condition of everyone, and directed
to their freedom and happiness."

It is significant how often in his
writings Jefferson reverts to the
question of happiness. In a letter to
Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, he
talks about "the freedom and
happiness of man" as being the
"sole objects of all legitimate
government." We may well wonder
whether the spectacle of hordes of
young people, slipping effortlessly
through our schools and colleges,
would commend itself to him as
contributing anything substantial to
freedom and happiness.

If Mr. Hayakawa, president of
San Francisco College, is to be
believed, the present generation of
students is anything but happy. The
principal troublemakers on the
campus are bored, and "the bored
student," as Mr. Hayakawa says, "is
social dynamite."

Opened The Door

Today no one would think of
applying to education the terrific
selectivity proposed by Mr. Jefferson,
but it will be a great pity if we
ever lose the sight of the goal he set
himself. We are not likely to improve
upon it. He opened the door
to higher education without charge
to those who demonstrated their
ability to profit by it. Because the
standards he set were too high. It
seems foolish to jump to the conclusions
that there should be no
standards at all.