A Broader Vision of Education: Jefferson’s Efforts to Reform Educational Philosophy

Thomas Jefferson reconceptualized the public education system and expanded its reach to many new individuals in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but the influences of citizenship, gender, race, and class constructed boundaries for this new system. A key contribution of Thomas Jefferson’s educational reforms is the way in which he linked education to ideas of citizenship and success in the new nation. He considered education as an avenue to freedom of intellectual thought and from tyrannical rule. He grappled with issues regarding the role of higher education within the system of a democratic republic and the tremendous impact education could have on the country’s success. Jefferson saw his endeavors into the creation of the University of Virginia as an opportunity to innovate within the system to strengthen this alignment. Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of education continue to influence future attitudes toward and expectations of education in the United States.