Thomas Jefferson’s ideas on education greatly contrast to those of his time. He emphasizes on the importance of not putting too much concentration on authoritarianism and believed that it should not impose political values or mold the virtuous republican citizen (pg 55). He believed that education should provide each person with the necessary tools so that the student will be able to make educated decisions on obtaining information and furthermore doing something with that information. I completely agree with this innovative way of introducing education to the masses. Students shouldn’t be molded to become a particular kind of citizen. With a proper education and common moral upbringings one should be able to decide for themselves the type of person they want to be.
As we go through our scholastic lives we might ask ourselves, how does our government establish what the proper basic curriculum is at, both, an elementary and collegial level? How do they establish what subjects are more important without leaving out things that may be important to some or most individuals?
