1 Wang Jefferson and Confucian Education

Virginia Review of Asian Studies: 20 (2018) 1-33
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Wang: Jefferson and Confucian Education
CONFUCIAN EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES: THE ORIGIN OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Dave Wang1
Director. Academy of Confucianism in the World
Northwestern University Modern College at Xian China
Confucius is regarded as one of the greatest teachers in Chinese history, one whose
educational principles have influenced schools and pupils over many centuries across the
world. With this paper, I will examine how these Confucian principles were introduced to
the United States and subsequently aided the development of the country’s modern school
system. Thomas Jefferson, one of the nation’s Founding Fathers and earliest presidents,
was at the forefront of this Confucius-led transformation. Jefferson sought to apply two of
Confucius’ core educational principles, meritocracy and universal education, to what was,
in his time, an unstandardized and European-centric school system emphasizing the
Classics.
Jefferson espoused the concept of universal education as early as 1779 in his Bill for More
General Diffusion of Knowledge. Jefferson was ahead of his time, but his vision would
eventually be achieved by the twentieth century as the nation approached a universal education
system. In recognition of his pioneering efforts, Jefferson would become regarded as both “a
founding father of public education” 2 and the “founding father of democratic education.”3
Dr. Dave Wang is Manager of Queens Library at Laurelton, New York and an Adjunct Professor of St. Johns
University. Since 1998 he hasfocused on the study of cultural relations between the United States and China.
He has been invited to deliver lectures and speeches on the topic worldwide, including, Beijing, Changchun,
Lisbon, London, New York, Rome, Singapore, Tokyo and Xian. He is the author of over 30 articles on the
influence of traditional Chinese culture on the founders of the United States. His most recent publication is “A
Journey of Adopting the Confucian Merit System: From Benjamin Franklin to the Pendleton Act of 1883,
Virginia Review of Asian Studies vol.19, 2017 pp.28-62
2
James Carpenter, Thomas Jefferson and the Ideology of Democratic Schooling, Democracy & Education, vol 21,
no- 2, 2013, p.1.
3
Johann Neem, Is Jefferson a Founding father of Democratic Education? Democracy & Education, Vol 22,,No. 2,
2013, p.1.
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This paper aims to discuss the process through which Jefferson introduced Confucian ideals to
the United States following the American Revolution. It begins with a survey of Confucian
educational principles, then examines how Jefferson was influenced by such principles.
Confucius Education Principles
Confucius (551–478 BCE) was a teacher and philosopher during a tumultuous period of Chinese
history known as the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476/403 BCE)4. This period was marked
by a series of political, economic, and educational transformations as the country developed from
a slave-ownership to feudal society. Three aristocratic families fought for control of Confucius’
native state, a territory named Lu on the Shandong peninsula in eastern China, was a product of
the "Spring and Autumn Period. In the context of this instability, Confucius began to appreciate
the role of education in building a stable society; as such, he labored to use education as a tool to
restore peace and prosperity.
Education is priority for a nation
Confucius believed that education should be one of a nation’s foremost priorities: effective
political governance should rely on not only strong laws and moral leaders, but also a cultivated
constituency. He cautioned that the former techniques might allow a ruler to garner a favorable
reputation, but would be ineffective. The leaders who wished to improve society and build
lasting culture must instead “start from the lessons of the school.”5
4
The Spring and Autumn period (春秋时代) was from approximately 771 to 476 BC. The period's name derives
from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of Chinese history between 722 and 479 BC, which tradition
associates with Confucius.
5
Friedrich Max Müller, The Sacred Books of the East: Volume 28, Part 4 Clarendon Press, January 1, 1885
P.82.
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Confucius viewed moral education as the means through which one could improve one’s life and
contribute to society.6 He believed that one of the primary functions of education was instilling
culture and virtue in future statesmen and government officials. Through preparing righteous
leaders and citizens, a strong education system would lead to peace and prosperity: as Confucius
alludes, “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”7
Confucius’ view of education was likely inspired by the tumultuous era in which he lived, one
marked by conflict and disorder.
Confucius considered educational quality to be important not only at the individual level, but
also at the familial and national level. He states in Great Learning 《大学》, one of his four
Classics, that good education fortifies self-cultivation, harmony within a family, prosperity of the
nation, and development of the world.8 His educational principles, edited into Analects by his
disciples emphasized the importance of obtaining a moral education; in his canonical《诗经》
6
子路曰。衞君待子而爲政、子將奚先子曰。必也正名乎。子路曰。有是哉。子之迂也奚其正子曰。野哉、由也
君子於其所不知、蓋闕如也。名不正、則言不訓。言不訓、則事不成。事不成、則禮樂不興。禮樂不興、則刑罰
不中。刑罰不中、則民無所措手足。故君子名之必可言也、言之必可行也。君子於其言、無所苟而已矣。Zi Lu
said: “The ruler of Wei is anticipating your assistance in the administration of his state. What will be your top
priority?” Confucius said, “There must be a correction of terminology.”
Zi Lu said, “Are you serious? Why is this so important?” Confucius said, “You are really simple, aren't you? A
noble man is cautious about jumping to conclusions about that which he does not know.”
“If terminology is not corrected, then what is said cannot be followed. If what is said cannot be followed, then work
cannot be accomplished. If work cannot be accomplished, then ritual and music cannot be developed. If ritual and
music cannot be developed, then criminal punishments will not be appropriate. If criminal punishments are not
appropriate, the people cannot make a move. Therefore, the noble man needs to have his terminology applicable to
real language, and his speech must accord with his actions. The speech of the noble man cannot be indefinite.”
7
知者不惑，仁者不忧，勇者不惧。(Confucian Analects, Translated by James Legge ,1893, chapter 19)
8
古之欲明明德于天下者，先治其国；欲治其国者，先齐其家；欲齐其家者，先修其身；欲修其身者，先正
其心；欲正其心者，先诚其意；欲诚其意者，先致其知，致知在格物。物格而后知至，知至而后意诚，意
诚而后心正，心正而后身修，身修而后家齐，家齐而后国治，国治而后天下平。 “From ancient times, those
who want to promote great virtue to the world, first need to govern their states; in order to govern their states, they
need to first manage their family; in order to manage their family, they need to first improve themselves; in order to
improve oneself, they need to regulate their mind; in order to regulate their mind, one needs to maintain sincere
intention; in order to maintain sincere intention, one needs to exhaust one's knowledge; in order to exhaust one's
knowledge, one needs to study the essence of the physical world. Study the physical world, learn everything you can
learn, be sincere with your intentions and regulate your mind; with your mind at the right place, you'll be able to
improve yourself. After you improve yourself, you can manage your family, after your family is managed, you can
govern your states and bring justice and virtue to the World.”
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Book of Songs, the first and perhaps most revered of his texts, Confucius discusses the process of
cultivating strong moral character.9
Universal Education: The First Principle of Confucian Education
For most of Chinese history prior to Confucius, education had been restricted to the aristocratic
elite. For example, under the Zhou Dynasty (1046-250 BCE)10, only politically distinguished
families could afford schools located in government offices and taught by officials. General
education was a privilege for the nobility rather than a right for the commoner, and few teachers
existed outside of bureaucratic circles.
Confucius rejected the ruling class’ monopoly on education by proposing that it be transformed
into a public good. He emphasized the importance of educational equity in individual and
societal development; such a system represented a radical shift from the political ideology, which
held education as an aristocratic privilege. Confucius took a democratic approach to education,
believing that effective teaching should address the differences in individual talents and
abilities.11
Although there would be significant barriers to implementing such a system on a broader scale,
Confucius set an important precedent when he declared his teaching “open to everyone, without
distinction.”12 It is of great significance in the world education for it opened the path for common
people to receive education.
9
The Classic of Poetry, also Shijing translated variously as the Book of Songs, Book of Odes, or simply known as
the Odes or Poetry ( 詩) is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the
11th to 7th centuries BC. It is one of the "Five Classics" compiled by Confucius.
10
The Zhou Dynasty (周朝 ) was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin
dynasty. The Zhou dynasty was the longest dynasty in Chinese history.
11
Marsha Elaine Covington, Great teachers on teaching adults : comparison of philosophy and practice from
antiquity to the present, A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Education, Montana State University, © Copyright by Marsha Elaine Covington (1997)
12
Colin Power, The Power of Education: Education for All, Development, Globalisation and UNESCO (Education
in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects), Springer 2014, p.185.
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Meritocracy: The Second Principle of Confucian

Education
One of the earliest examples of administrative meritocracy can

be traced to the Ancient Chinese civil service examination
system.13 The Chinese civil service examination system was
used in imperial China to select candidates for the state
bureaucracy. Confucius had advocated for the use of these
examinations because they enabled the selection of statesmen
based on merit rather than inheritance,14 thereby cementing
Han dynasty stone tablet dated 175AD,
originally displayed at the Imperial Confucian education as the key for social mobility.15 The civil service
Academy at Luoyang. It contains the text of
one of the books of the Confucian canon. examination system became institutionalized during the Qin
Dynasty (221-207BC) as a way for the government to
maintain power over a large, sprawling empire overseen by a complex network of officials.16
The following Han Dynasty (206 BC-220AD) adopted Confucianism as the basis of its political
philosophy. The Han Dynasty expanded upon their Qin predecessors by further dividing the civil
service exams into three levels: local, provincial, and national. To prepare for these exams,
young men rigorously studied music, archery, horsemanship, arithmetic, and rituals; these
disciplines would later also encompass military strategy, law, taxation, geography, and the
Confucian classics.
13
Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards and Adam Rothman, The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History
Volume 2. Princeton University Press, 2010, p.142. One of the oldest examples of a merit-based civil service system
existed in the imperial bureaucracy of China. Chung Tan and Yinzheng Geng, India and China: twenty centuries of
civilization interaction and vibrations, University of Michigan Press, 2005, p. 128. China not only produced the
world's first "bureaucracy", but also the world's first "meritocracy." Melvin Konner, Unsettled: anthropology of the
Jews, Viking Compass, 2003, p. 217. China is the world's oldest meritocracy. Konner, Melvin, Unsettled:
anthropology of the Jews, Viking Compass, 2003, p. 217.
14
Thomas J Sienkewicz, Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, Salem Press, 2003, p. 434
15
Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 51.
16
Ibid.
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The ideals embodied by the civil service exam spread from China to British India during the
seventeenth century, before eventually venturing into continental Europe and the United States.17
The British East India Company was the first European institution that used civil service-style
exams to promote its employees. The concept of meritocracy, which reached intellectuals in the
West during the Enlightenment, offered an attractive alternative to the traditional European
aristocratic regime. Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the great leaders of the Enlightenment, and
Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) wrote favorably of the idea; Quesnay advocated for an economic
and political system modeled after that of the Chinese, and Voltaire even went so far as to claim
that the Chinese had “perfected moral science.”18
Confucian Curriculum
The Confucian curriculum was well-structured and progressive to facilitate the synthesis of a
variety of subjects. The curriculum was broad and holistic, integrating six skills consisting of Li
(礼, Rites), Yue (乐, Music), She (射, Archery), Yu (御, chariot driving), Shu (书, Calligraphy),
and Shu (数, Mathematics). Confucius considered these arts to be interconnected, mutually
reinforcing, and practice-oriented, and imparted them through a nine-year program that
“systematically introduced students to a values-centered, rounded, and comprehensive
curriculum.” According to the program, students would first train their “learning aspirations” and
ability to analyze texts, before developing the ability to work effectively with others. In later
years, students would engage in ongoing dialogues with teachers and peers.19
Education in Colonial North America
In American colonies during the eighteenth century, the education patterns followed the
examples set by British tradition. Children were primarily educated in their homes, though some
towns might have also offered “dame schools provided by a woman of the town.” Formal
17
Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards and Adam Rothman,, The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political
History Volume 2. Princeton University Press, 2010 p.142.
18
Schwarz, Bill, The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History. Psychology Pres, 1996, p.229
19
Charlene Tan, Confucianism and Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educational Theories and Philosophies,
Online Publication, Nov 2017
http://education.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-226
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schools, while uncommon, were not unheard of—the Boston Latin School was founded in 1635,
while the Mather School opened in Massachusetts in 1639.20 These academies, typically
supported by wealthy parents, would often teach the classics in Greek and Latin. The goal of
most education was to provide basic literacy, especially for the purpose of reading the Bible.
In the New England colonies, it was commonplace for wealthy colonists to hire tutors for their
sons. Alternatively, such boys might have been sent to regional schools for the social elite.21 The
Southern colonies followed similar patterns, whereby families assumed the responsibilities of
educating their own children and sometimes collaborated to set up communal “field schools.”
There were only about ten grammar schools in Georgia by 1770, most of which were taught by
ministers; local newspapers also showed advertisements for private teachers.22
The colonial education system often drew from British influences. Most schoolbooks from the
period were either imported from England or based on English texts: for example, The New
England Primer, one of the most widespread educational texts, was reprinted from the English
Protestant Tutor. Furthermore, pupils who continued formal education would typically attend
Latin Grammar Schools, which were described as “direct copies” of their European
counterparts.23
Thomas Jefferson’s Educational Revolution
Thomas Jefferson had long been unsatisfied with the state of the colonial education system. He
would often lament to his fellow Founding Father, John Adams, that the post-revolutionary
youths “acquired all learning in their mothers’ wombs.” 24 The current system was inadequate at
imparting upon youths the foundation necessary for serious academic and intellectual pursuits.
Jefferson saw a preponderance of petty academics sprouting upon across the nation, “where one
20
The Mather School is marking 375 years of public education; NYPD's Bratton, an alumnus, to speak at assembly |
Dorchester Reporter". www.dotnews.com. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
21
Kevein R. G. Gutzman, Thomas Jefferson Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America, St. Martin’s
Press, New York, 2017, p.198.
22
Arthur, Linda L. (2000). "A New Look at Schooling and Literacy: The Colony of Georgia". Georgia Historical
Quarterly, 84 (4): 563–588.
23
John E. Wise, The History of Education: An Analysis Survey From the Age of Homer to the Present, Sheed and
Ward, New York, 1964, P.346
24
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, July 5, 1814.
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or two men, possessing Latin, and sometimes Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six
books of Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of science.”25
Jefferson believed that the independence won through the American Revolution would be short-
lived unless the citizens of the new nation could be “enlightened to a certain degree” such that
they could be “safe depositories of their own [liberties].” 26 As such, Jefferson believed that
educational reform was necessary; he committed to transforming the schooling system within his
home state of Virginia, and eventually the entire nation. However, any proposals for improving
education were daunting, especially for a fledgling nation in the wake of a prolonged domestic
war for independence. The diversity of the new nation from both a cultural and geographical
perspective compounded the difficulties of establishing an effective and unified school system.27
Jefferson began to develop his thoughts on the American education system when he served in the
Virginia legislature in 1779. By 1820, he had formulated his views through four bills proposed to
the General Assembly of Virginia (1779); a Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education
(1817); his Rockfish Gap Report (1818); and in a series of letters to correspondents that included
Peter Carr, John Banister and John Adams. The consistent theme of all of Jefferson’s works and
musings was to promote educational equality and improve quality across the nation.
In 1779, Jefferson submitted the Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge to the Virginia
State Legislature. This bill proposed a novel education system that would provide three years of
general education for all “free children,” regardless of gender. In 1781, Jefferson further
documented his educational plan in the Notes on the State of Virginia, in which he expressed his
belief that all children should receive an education. Some scholars have noted that these notes
were “the most important scientific and political book written by an American before 1785.” 28
Jefferson’s proposals typically followed several key themes. In particular, he believed that basic
education should be available for all; that the talented should be able to pursue higher education
through public support; and that education was critical for the individual and public good.
Below, we consider Jefferson’s principles in greater depth.
25
Ibid.
26
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805
27
Benjamin Justice, A Window to the Past: What an Easy Contest Reveals about Early American Education,
American Educator, Summer 2015, p.33.
28
Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London,
1974, P.151.
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Education: the Vehicle for Instilling or Strengthening Virtue

Like Confucius, Jefferson viewed education as a vehicle for instilling and strengthening moral
character.29 Jefferson sought to reduce the role of the national government in its citizens’ lives,
but an effective system of limited governance would require an educational system that
cultivated positive virtues and character. The education system would effectively replace the
government’s role in establishing order by imparting the knowledge and moral aptitude
necessary for self-governance. Jefferson stressed the importance of education in cultivating
moral virtues and protecting against the “germ of corruption.”30
As Jefferson noted in his Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, education
enabled citizens “to form…habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of
virtue to others and of happiness within themselves”: 31
"[In a republic, according to Montesquieu in Spirit of the Laws, IV, ch.5,] 'virtue may be defined
as the love of the laws and of our country. As such love requires a constant preference of public
to private interest, it is the source of all private virtue; for they are nothing more than this very
preference itself... Now a government is like everything else: to preserve it we must love it...
Everything, therefore, depends on establishing this love in a republic; and to inspire it ought to be
the principal business of education; but the surest way of instilling it into children is for parents to
set them an example.'32".
Jefferson Promoted Universal Education and Merit System

From 1779 until his death in 1826, Jefferson would repeatedly emphasize the importance of
universal education and meritocracy. He maintained that all citizens, regardless of wealth, should
have the same right to basic general education. To provide education to the poor and uneducated,
Jefferson proposed a system of public schools subsidized through tax revenues. He believed that
such a system would provide each citizen with “an education proportioned to the conditions and
29
James Carpenter, The Complexity of Thomas Jefferson A Response to “’The Diffusion of Light’: Jefferson’s
Philosophy of Education” in Democracy & Education, vol 22,2014 no- 1
30
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia. Edited by William Peden, Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1954.
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 1, Chapter 18, Document 16
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s16.html
The University of Chicago Press
31
G. C. Lee, ed., Crusade against ignorance: Thomas Jefferson on education (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Teachers
College Press., 1967, p.118
32
Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book
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pursuits of his life.”33 Basic learning would be important in

allowing each man to judge and vote intelligently on
matters of regional and national importance.34
During Jefferson’s stay in Paris between 1781 and 1785, he

corresponded with George Washington about his first
education bill, which had made limited progress in the
Virginia legislature since its ''Notes on The State of Virginia'', published by Wilson & introduction in
1779. Jefferson would repeatedly Blackwell: Trenton: 1803. express the
importance of a universal education system, once telling Washington, “It is an axiom in my mind
that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the
people with a certain degree of instruction.”35
The general objective of Jefferson's educational scheme was to provide instruction adapted to
each student’s skills and ability to learn. Most students would receive a practical education that
provides basic literacy and understanding of society. This basic system of education would
ensure that citizens were educated enough to fulfill their needs and be sufficient for political
participation. After graduating from general education, students would be expected to pursue
vocations: girls would learn homemaking from their mothers, while boys would learn trade skills
from their fathers or through apprenticeships.36
For pupils who demonstrated evidence of belonging to the “learned class,” however, elementary
education would serve as the foundation for further study. These boys, to whom “nature
endowed with genius and virtue," would require more advanced preparation to qualify them for
their varied pursuits and duties in a republican society.37 Jefferson expressed his desire for a
merit system in which the “highest degrees of education” would be “given to the [highest]
degrees of genius.”38 A secondary education system would be implemented to ensure that the
33
Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 7 September 1814 http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-
0462
34
Thomas Jefferson to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805.
35
Thomas Jefferson, To George Washington, Paris Jan. 4. 1785
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-09-02-0135
36
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia with Related Documents ed.by Davide Waldstreicher,
Bedford/St. Martin’s Boston and New York, 2002, p.182-185.
37
Jeff Sparagana, The Educational Theory of Thomas Jefferson,
http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Jefferson.html
38
Thomas Jefferson, From Thomas Jefferson to Mann Page, 30 August 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives,
last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-28-02-0347. [Original source:
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talented and virtuous, and not simply the wealthy and wellborn, would have opportunities to
become statesmen. Jefferson summarized this part of his plan in his Notes on the State of
Virginia, written in 1781:
"By... [selecting] the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to
avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the
rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated."39
In the early 1800s, Jefferson discussed a more elaborate educational proposal with John Adams.
Jefferson described three tiers of students within his proposed scheme: the first consisted of
students who developed basic literacy and arithmetic skills, the second of pupils who would
receive higher education at the public expense, and the third of the brightest pupils who would
learn “all the useful sciences” in universities.40 Jefferson expanded his idea further in A Bill for
the More General Diffusion of Knowledge:
And whereas it is generally true that that people will be happiest whose laws are best, and are best
administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as
those who form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for
promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and
virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred
deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that
charge without regard to wealth, birth or other accidental condition or circumstance; but the
indigence of the greater number disabling them from so educating, at their own expence, those of
their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instruments for the
public, it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expence of all, than
that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak or wicked:41
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 28, 1 January 1794 – 29 February 1796, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2000, pp. 440–441.]
39
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, p.182.
40
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 28 Oct. 1813, The Founders' Constitution Volume 1, Chapter 15, Document 61.
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John
Adams. Edited by Lester J. Cappon. 2 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early
American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1959 .
41
A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, last
modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0079. [Original
source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, 1777 – 18 June 1779, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1950, pp. 526–535.]
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Jefferson ultimately hoped to replace the aristocracy of wealth with a “natural aristocracy” based
on virtue and talent. In his autobiography, Jefferson charged that the former brought “more harm
and danger than benefit to society,” and reasoned that the latter was “essential to a well-ordered
republic.”42 He believed that replacing the monopoly of education opportunities was crucial for
the “development of…a free society for people to have open minds,” and sought to establish an
accompanying merit system that rewarded intellectual ability rather than birthright.43
Jefferson wanted to replace the heritage aristocracies that had existed in the European tradition
with the natural aristocracies that would form out of ability. On the one hand, he introduced a
universal education system, and on other hand, he planned to choose students according to their
talents. Jefferson rather than advocated universal K-12 education, but sought to identify the best
students at several levels and provides additional education to just the "most promising
subjects."44 Jefferson believed that merit would surface unless it was stifled by a system of class
and privilege upheld by law.45
Jefferson’s Curriculum: European Classics, History, Modern Language and

Science
Jefferson recommended a curriculum with specific focus on Roman and Greek literature, which
likely reflected his affinity for the subjects stemming from his own childhood education. Many
of Jefferson’s contemporaries would have begun learning the classical languages by age eight;
Jefferson himself started school when he was five, and was studying Latin, Greek, and French
42
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in The Founders' Constitution, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Document 20
The Works of Thomas Jefferson. Collected and edited by Paul Leicester Ford. Federal Edition. 12 vols. New York
and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904--5.
43
Dustin Hornbeck, Seeking Civic Virtue: Two Views of the Philosophy and History of Federalism in U.S.
Education, in Journal of Thought, Fall-Winter 2017 P.62.
44
. National Park Service, Thomas Jefferson's Plan for the University of Virginia: Lessons from the Lawn, "Reading
1: Education as the Keystone to the New Democracy,"
www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/92uva/92facts1.htm (last checked February 20, 2006)
45
Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life, A John Macrace Boook, Henry Holt and Company, New York,
1993, P.288.
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around age nine. He would later continue his studies of history, science, and philosophy at The
College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.
Drawing from his own experiences, Jefferson further prescribed a curriculum emphasizing
science, history, and other practical skillsets. He also proposed that public school students learn
the secular sciences rather than the Bible. While seemingly controversial, this suggestion was not
unique: during this time, Benjamin Franklin had also expressed a desire to transform the
“narrow, humanistic-religious-philosophical” American educational system into a modern
structure focused on languages and sciences.46
Jefferson found value in providing the strongest students with a generalist education before
having them specialize in any particular field. He noted that the subjects of American education
should further include “classical knowledge, modern languages, chiefly French, Spanish, and
Italian; Mathematics, Natural philosophy, Natural history, Civil history, and Ethics.”47 He
explained his rationale for developing such a broad knowledge base to his friend, W.C. Rives:
"Nothing can be sounder than your view of the importance of laying a broad foundation in other
branches of knowledge whereon to raise the superstructure of any particular science... Science is
more important in a republic than in any other government.”48
Jefferson’s ideal curriculum incorporated European classical influences while simultaneously

emphasizing the development of modern skills necessary to foster the development of the
fledgling nation.
Jefferson’s Educational Reform were based on Confucian Educational

Principles
46
William K. Medlin, The History of Educational Ideas in the West, The Center for Applied Research in Education,
Inc, New York, 1964, P.108.
47
Thomas Jefferson to John Banister, Jr., 15 October 1785,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified
February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0499. [Original source: The Papers of
Thomas Jefferson, vol. 8, 25 February–31 October 1785, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1953, pp. 635–638.]
48
Robert A. Gross, Mary Kelley ed., A history of the book in America. Volume 2, An extensive republic: print,
culture, and society in the new nation, 1790-1840, Chapel Hill : published in association with the American
Antiquarian Society by The University of North Carolina Press, ©2010, p. 250
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In developing his educational principles, Jefferson was significantly influenced by the

“experience of other ages and countries”; in his mind, ideas were “like fire…not to be confined
in one country or on one continent.”49 Although he was influenced by his own European
upbringing, Jefferson recognized the flaws of the old system and opposed sending promising
American youth to study overseas. Jefferson perceived a European education as detrimental to
one’s knowledge, morals, health, habits, and happiness.50 He stated:
Let us view the disadvantages of sending a youth to Europe. To enumerate them all would require
a volume. I will select a few. If he goes to England he learns drinking, horse-racing and boxing.
These are the peculiarities of English education. The following circumstances are common to
education in that and the other countries of Europe. He acquires a fondness for European luxury
and dissipation and a contempt for the simplicity of his own country; he is fascinated with the
privileges of the European aristocrats, and sees with abhorrence the lovely equality which the
poor enjoys with the rich in his own country: he contracts a partiality for aristocracy or monarchy;
he forms foreign friendships which will never be useful to him, and loses the season of life for
forming in his own country those friendships which of all others are the most faithful and
permanent: he is led by the strongest of all the human passions into a spirit for female intrigue
destructive of his own and others happiness, or a passion for whores destructive of his health, and
in both cases learns to consider fidelity to the marriage bed as an ungentlemanly practice and
inconsistent with happiness: he recollects the voluptuary dress and arts of the European women
and pities and despises the chaste affections and simplicity of those of his own country; he retains
thro’ life a fond recollection and a hankering after those places which were the scenes of his first
pleasures and of his first connections; he returns to his own country, a foreigner, unacquainted
with the practices of domestic œconomy necessary to preserve him from ruin; speaking and
writing his native tongue as a foreigner, and therefore unqualified to obtain those distinctions
which eloquence of the pen and tongue ensures in a free country;51
49
D. H. Myer, The Uniqueness of the American Enlightenment, in American Quarterly, Vol.28, No. 2, Summer
1976, p.23.
50
From Thomas Jefferson to John Banister, Jr., 15 October 1785, Founders Online, National Archives, last modified
February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0499. [Original source: The Papers of
Thomas Jefferson, vol. 8, 25 February–31 October 1785, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1953, pp. 635–638.]
51
Ibid.
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Several other Founding Fathers corroborated Jefferson’s distaste of the European system. For
instance, Franklin also scorned European luxury52 and claimed that a European upbringing
would make an American “suspect to [his] own people.”53
Although China was physically remote to the fledgling nation, Chinese cultural forces loomed
large in the minds of the Founding Fathers. It is likely that Jefferson sought some guidance from
the principles of Confucian education when he considered reforms to the American system. Like
Confucius, Jefferson sought to distinguish between laborers and the learned aristocracy by merit
rather than birth or inherited wealth.54 Also similar to Confucius, Jefferson believed that an
ignorant citizenry would eventually succumb to tyranny. Jefferson proposed a democratic, merit-
based system in which education was provided equitably based on an individual talent; by
creating an educational system with high standards, Jefferson hoped to strengthen the
foundations of democracy within his new nation. Scholars have identified similarities between
Jefferson’s proposed system and the Chinese civil service examinations, describing the former as
the “keystone of the arch of our government.” 55
Jefferson was also inspired by Enlightenment philosophies, which were themselves influenced
by Confucianism. For example, during the Enlightenment period, European scholars discovered
that the Chinese had already virtually abolished hereditary aristocracy. French and British anti-
monarchists would draw from this precedent in their own quest to abolish hereditary privilege,
thereby leveraging Confucianism to promote the rebirth of European democracy.56
Jefferson served as an American diplomat in Paris from 1785 to 1789, which represented one of
the centers of the Enlightenment during a period in which it was in full force. Jefferson agreed
with the prevailing admiration of Confucius by several leading European intellectuals, including
Voltaire. Jefferson was especially drawn to Voltaire and Confucianism; in 1814, Jefferson’s
52
D. H. Myer, The Uniqueness of the American Enlightenment, in American Quarterly, Vol.28, No. 2, Summer
1976, p.173.
53
Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to Present,
HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000, P.408
54
American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1959.
55
Herrlee Glessner Creel, Confucius: The Man and the Myth, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1951, p.5.
56
Ibid., p.98.
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personal library contained a set of Voltaire’s complete works, as well as 8 books related to
China.57
In a letter to Adams, Jefferson conveyed his admiration for a meritocratic government system:
I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. the grounds of this are virtue &
talents. formerly bodily powers gave place among the aristoi. but since the invention of
gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death, bodily strength, like
beauty, good humor, politeness and other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground
of distinction. there is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either
virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. the natural aristocracy I consider
as the most precious gift of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. and
indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and
not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. 58
The impact of Confucian educational principles was also evident through Jefferson’s praise of
Chinese government for its ability to provide “the most effectually for a pure selection of these
natural aristoi into the offices of government.”59 Jefferson’s sentiment echoed those of
Enlightenment intellectuals, who admired how the Chinese government was managed by a
“group of highly educated scholars” rather than by an inefficient feudal aristocracy.60 These
intellectuals were further impressed by what they perceived as checks and balances within the
Chinese government, wherein the Chinese emperor was “limited by [the Confucian] political
philosophy that the people are the most important element in the state, the sovereign [the
least].”61
The late Professor Herrlee G. Creel (1905-1994), a distinguished scholar on Confucius,

compared the thoughts of Thomas Jefferson with those of Confucius. According to Dr. Creel,
both men "were alike in their impatience with metaphysics, in their concern for the poor as
57
Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson https://www.loc.gov/item/52060000/
58
American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1959.
59
Ibid.
60
Derk Bodde, CHINESE IDEAS IN THE WEST Prepared by Professor for the Committee on Asiatic Studies in
American Education Reprinted with permission in China: A Teaching Workbook, Asia for Educators, Columbia
University, http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/state/ideas.pdf
61
孟子, 盡心章句下（十四）孟子曰：民為貴，社稷次之，君為輕。
The Works of Mencius, Book 7, Part 2 http://nothingistic.org/library/mencius/mencius54.html
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against the rich, in their insistence on basic human equality, in their belief in the essential
decency of all men (including savages), and in their appeal not to authority by to 'the head and
heart of every honest man."62 Dr. Creel also pointed out, "Jefferson's statement that 'the whole art
of government consists in the art of being honest' is amazingly like Analects 12.17, and other such
examples could be cited."63
Jefferson’s approval of Confucian educational principles was also based on his knowledge about
China, as demonstrated through the various Chinese influences within his life. In addition to
owning several books on Chinese culture at a time when China remained a distant entity,
Jefferson had also drawn from Chinese architecture when designing the grounds of his Virginian
home, Monticello. Jefferson had also once included a poem from the Confucian classics in his
journal, demonstrating his familiarity with the scholarly works. Therefore, although limited
direct records exist of the extent to which Jefferson studied Confucianism, there is enough
piecemeal evidence to indicate that he was influenced by Chinese cultural works.”64
As Jefferson worked to refine his educational plan, he also searched for manuscripts on China in
numerous Paris bookstores. He also sent James Madison a copy of Conquista de la China por el
Tartaro por Palafox,65 a book describing topics such as Chinese culture, religion, and
mannerisms. Jefferson’s gift to Madison provides further evidence that the former had significant
familiarity with China.
62
Herrlee G. Creel, Confucius: The Man and the Myth, John Day, 1949, p.98.
63
Edward L. Shaughnessy, Confucius and the University of Chicago: Of Myths and Men, June 2010
http://cccp.uchicago.edu/downloads/Confucius_and_the_University_of_Chicago.pdf
64
“In the Book of Poetry, it is said, “Profound was king Wen. With how bright and unceasing a feeling of reverence
did he regard his resting places!” As a sovereign, he rested in benevolence. As a minister, he rested in reverence. As
a son, he rested in filial piety. As a father, he rested in kindness. In communication with his subjects, he rested in
good faith. 《詩》云：“瞻彼淇澳，菉竹猗猗。有斐君子，如切如磋，如琢如磨。瑟兮僩兮，赫兮喧兮。有
斐君子，終不可諠兮！
65
Douglas L. Wilson and Lucia Stanton ed., Jefferson Abroad, The Modern Library, New York, 1999,
P.27.Jefferson bought was 1732 French edition. The book was written in Spanish by Juan de Palafox y
Mendoza (June 26, 1600 – October 1, 1659), a Spanish politician, administrator, and Catholic clergyman in 17th
century Spain and viceregal Mexico. His Historia de la conquista de la China por el Tartaro (History of the
Conquest of China by the Tartars) reported on the conquest of the Ming China by the Manchus, based on reports
that reached Mexico by the way of the Philippines. The work was first published in Spanish in Paris in 1670; a
French translation appeared the same year. An English translation, whose full title was The History of the Conquest
of China by the Tartars together with an Account of Several Remarkable things, Concerning the Religion, Manners,
and Customs of Both Nation's, but especially the Latter, appeared in London in 1676. Palafox's work, based on
hearsay, was generally less informed than De bello tartarico, an eyewitness account by the Chinese-speaking
Jesuit Martino Martini
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Jefferson must have found that the Manchu, who occupied China, expressed their respect for
Chinese merit system and the officials selected by the system recorded by the book, the Manchu
(Tartars) “kept up the Dignity of Calao* and Mandorin; but none at∣tain thereto, but by Merit and
Electi∣on; and these ought all to be persons of high Reputation and Merit, of which
the Tartars would be first well satisfied and informed.”66
In the meantime, the Chinese intellectual power must be left very deep impression on Jefferson
when he pushed his educational revolution. In the book he read that in 1647 “there were above
three hundred Scholars who took the degree of Doctor, in the City of Nanking, as heretofore they
did at Peking; and above 600. Others were admitted as Licentiates, besides a great number of
those who took the degree of Bachelor. It is not in Europe only, that there is such store of
Doctors and Bachelors.”67
Summary
Jefferson’s educational revolution was ultimately idealistic for its time; Confucian educational
principles were not widely acknowledged or accepted within the fledgling nation, and several of
Jefferson’s contemporaries considered him part of “the dissenting tradition in American
education.” 68 Jefferson was regarded as a “visionary and a dreamer,” 69 and his 1779 Bill for the
More General Diffusion of Knowledge was deemed too foreign for the Virginia House of
Delegates.
Jefferson dreamed of creating an “aristocracy of worth and genius” 70 through a merit system that
would replace the European monarchial tradition. He believed that only a well-educated
populace would be able to maintain the hard-won independence that he had helped achieve from
66
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, The history of the conquest of China by the Tartars together with an account of
several remarkable things concerning the religion, manners, and customes of both nations, but especially the latter
1600-1659, p.482. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A54677.0001.001/1:4?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
67
Ibid, pp.503-504.
68
Perry L. Glanzer, The Dissenting Tradition in American Education, in American Educational History Journal,
Vol. 35, Number 2, 2008, p.393..
69
Richard Hofstadter, “About the Anti-Intellectualism in American Life”, in Heinz-D. Fischer, ed., The Puliter
Prize Archive, Part C: Nonfiction Literature Vol. 9, General Nonfiction Award 1962 – 1993, January 1, 1995,
P.27.
70
Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. MW 1:54.
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England. In thinking about the curricula of his education system, Jefferson designed holistic
syllabi that drew from Roman and Greek classics, history, and science; he believed that by
combining the Confucian educational principles with traditional European literature and modern
scientific knowledge, he could cultivate productive future generations of United States citizens.
While Jefferson himself experienced little success to show for his efforts, his vision for
American education eventually became a reality in the 1850s. Jefferson was influential as the
starting point of this gradual movement, and later generations would build upon the foundation
he set. For example, scholars, such as Dustin Hornbeck, have acknowledged the role of Horace
Mann, the first superintendent of public schools in Massachusetts, in carrying on Jefferson’s
efforts to transform American education.71
However, although Jefferson’s specific vision of education was ahead of its time, his general
sentiments were consistent with the political and ideological climate within America. Many of
the new nation’s intellectual elite rejected the “luxury and corruption” of the Old World and
sought to drive “rapid improvement in all of the arts that embellish human nature.” 72
Jefferson’s educational principles were part of a broader ideological shift that replaced the
historic Western emphasis on birthright with systems of merit-based succession. His efforts
contributed the emergence of a “[distinct] American character with new sets of values,”73 one
that was further removed from its European roots and was prepared to craft its own national
identity.
71
Dustin Hornbeck, Seeking Civic Virtue: Two Views of the Philosophy and History of Federalism in U.S.
Education, in Journal of Thought, Fall-Winter 2017 p.62.
72
Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, Oxford University Press, New
York, 2009, p.545
73
John E. Wise, The History of Education: An Analysis Survey From the Age of Homer to the Present, Sheed and
Ward, New York, 1964, P.350,
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Appendix One
A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others
to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time
themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the
best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into
tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to
illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give
them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the
experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its
shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes; And whereas it is
generally true that that people will be happiest whose laws are best, and are best administered,
and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form
and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting the
publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should
be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the
rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without
regard to wealth, birth or other accidental condition or circumstance; but the indigence of the
greater number disabling them from so educating, at their own expence, those of their children
whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instruments for the public, it is
better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expence of all, than that the
happiness of all should be confided to the weak or wicked:
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that in every county within this
commonwealth, there shall be chosen annually, by the electors qualified to vote for Delegates,
three of the most honest and able men of their county, to be called the Aldermen of the county;
and that the election of the said Aldermen shall be held at the same time and place, before the
same persons, and notified and conducted in the same manner as by law is directed for the annual
election of Delegates for the county.
The person before whom such election is holden shall certify to the court of the said county the
names of the Aldermen chosen, in order that the same may be entered of record, and shall give
notice of their election to the said Aldermen within a fortnight after such election.
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The said Aldermen on the first Monday in October, if it be fair, and if not, then on the next fair
day, excluding Sunday, shall meet at the court-house of their county, and proceed to divide their
said county into hundreds, bounding the same by water courses, mountains, or limits, to be run
and marked, if they think necessary, by the county surveyor, and at the county expence,
regulating the size of the said hundreds, according to the best of their discretion, so as that they
may contain a convenient number of children to make up a school, and be of such convenient
size that all the children within each hundred may daily attend the school to be established
therein, distinguishing each hundred by a particular name; which division, with the names of the
several hundreds, shall be returned to the court of the county and be entered of record, and shall
remain unaltered until the increase or decrease of inhabitants shall render an alteration necessary,
in the opinion of any succeeding Aldermen, and also in the opinion of the court of the county.
The electors aforesaid residing within every hundred shall meet on the third Monday in October
after the first election of Aldermen, at such place, within their hundred, as the said Aldermen
shall direct, notice thereof being previously given to them by such person residing within the
hundred as the said Aldermen shall require who is hereby enjoined to obey such requisition, on
pain of being punished by amercement and imprisonment. The electors being so assembled shall
choose the most convenient place within their hundred for building a school-house. If two or
more places, having a greater number of votes than any others, shall yet be equal between
themselves, the Aldermen, or such of them as are not of the same hundred, on information
thereof, shall decide between them. The said Aldermen shall forthwith proceed to have a school-
house built at the said place, and shall see that the same be kept in repair, and, when necessary,
that it be rebuilt; but whenever they shall think necessary that it be rebuilt, they shall give notice
as before directed, to the electors of the hundred to meet at the said school-house, on such day as
they shall appoint, to determine by vote, in the manner before directed, whether it shall be rebuilt
at the same, or what other place in the hundred.
At every of these schools shall be taught reading, writing, and common arithmetick, and the
books which shall be used therein for instructing the children to read shall be such as will at the
same time make them acquainted with Græcian, Roman, English, and American history. At these
schools all the free children, male and female, resident within the respective hundred, shall be
intitled to receive tuition gratis, for the term of three years, and as much longer, at their private
expence, as their parents, guardians or friends, shall think proper.
Over every ten of these schools (or such other number nearest thereto, as the number of hundreds
in the county will admit, without fractional divisions) an overseer shall be appointed annually by
the Aldermen at their first meeting, eminent for his learning, integrity, and fidelity to the
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commonwealth, whose business and duty it shall be, from time to time, to appoint a teacher to
each school, who shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth, and to remove him as he
shall see cause; to visit every school once in every half year at the least; to examine the schollars;
see that any general plan of reading and instruction recommended by the visiters of William and
Mary College shall be observed; and to superintend the conduct of the teacher in every thing
relative to his school.
Every teacher shall receive a salary of by the year, which, with the expences of building and
repairing the schoolhouses, shall be provided in such manner as other county expences are by
law directed to be provided and shall also have his diet, lodging, and washing found him, to be
levied in like manner, save only that such levy shall be on the inhabitants of each hundred for the
board of their own teacher only.
And in order that grammar schools may be rendered convenient to the youth in every part of the
commonwealth, Be it farther enacted, that on the first Monday in November, after the first
appointment of overseers for the hundred schools, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day,
excluding Sunday, after the hour of one in the afternoon, the said overseers appointed for the
schools in the counties of Princess Ann, Norfolk, Nansemond and Isle-of-Wight, shall meet at
Nansemond court house; those for the counties of Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Prince
George, shall meet at Sussex court-house; those for the counties of Brunswick, Mecklenburg and
Lunenburg, shall meet at Lunenburg court-house; those for the counties of Dinwiddie, Amelia
and Chesterfield, shall meet at Chesterfield court-house; those for the counties of Powhatan,
Cumberland, Goochland, Henrico and Hanover, shall meet at Henrico court-house; those for the
counties of Prince Edward, Charlotte and Halifax, shall meet at Charlotte court-house; those for
the counties of Henry, Pittsylvania and Bedford, shall meet at Pittsylvania court-house; those for
the counties of Buckingham, Amherst, Albemarle and Fluvanna, shall meet at Albemarle
courthouse; those for the counties of Botetourt, Rockbridge, Montgomery, Washington and
Kentucky, shall meet at Botetourt courthouse; those for the counties of Augusta, Rockingham
and Greenbrier, shall meet at Augusta court-house; those for the counties of Accomack and
Northampton, shall meet at Accomack court-house; those for the counties of Elizabeth City,
Warwick, York, Gloucester, James City, Charles City and New-Kent, shall meet at James City
court-house; those for the counties of Middlesex, Essex, King and Queen, King William and
Caroline, shall meet at King and Queen court-house; those for the counties of Lancaster,
Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland, shall meet at Richmond court-house; those for
the counties of King George, Stafford, Spot-sylvania, Prince William and Fairfax, shall meet at
Spotsylvania court-house; those for the counties of Loudoun and Fauquier, shall meet at
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Loudoun court-house; those for the counties of Culpeper, Orange and Louisa, shall meet at
Orange court-house; those for the counties of Shenandoah and Frederick, shall meet at Frederick
court-house; those for the counties of Hampshire and Berkeley, shall meet at Berkeley court-
house; and those for the counties of Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio, shall meet at Monongalia
courthouse; and shall fix on such place in some one of the counties in their district as shall be
most proper for situating a grammar school-house, endeavouring that the situation be as central
as may be to the inhabitants of the said counties, that it be furnished with good water, convenient
to plentiful supplies of provision and fuel, and more than all things that it be healthy. And if a
majority of the overseers present should not concur in their choice of any one place proposed, the
method of determining shall be as follows: If two places only were proposed, and the votes be
divided, they shall decide between them by fair and equal lot; if more than two places were
proposed, the question shall be put on those two which on the first division had the greater
number of votes; or if no two places had a greater number of votes than the others, as where the
votes shall have been equal between one or both of them and some other or others, then it shall
be decided by fair and equal lot (unless it can be agreed by a majority of votes) which of the
places having equal numbers shall be thrown out of the competition, so that the question shall be
put on the remaining two, and if on this ultimate question the votes shall be equally divided, it
shall then be decided finally by lot.
The said overseers having determined the place at which the grammar school for their district
shall be built, shall forthwith (unless they can otherwise agree with the proprietors of the
circumjacent lands as to location and price) make application to the clerk of the county in which
the said house is to be situated, who shall thereupon issue a writ, in the nature of a writ of ad
quod damnum, directed to the sheriff of the said county commanding him to summon and
impannel twelve fit persons to meet at the place, so destined for the grammar school house, on a
certain day, to be named in the said writ, not less than five, nor more than ten, days from the date
thereof; and also to give notice of the same to the proprietors and tenants of the lands to be
viewed, if they be to be found within the county, and if not, then to their agents therein if any
they have. Which freeholders shall be charged by the said sheriff impartially, and to the best of
their skill and judgment to view the lands round about the said place, and to locate and
circumscribe, by certain metes and bounds, one hundred acres thereof, having regard therein
principally to the benefit and convenience of the said school, but respecting in some measure
also the convenience of the said proprietors, and to value and appraise the same in so many
several and distinct parcels as shall be owned or held by several and distinct owners or tenants,
and according to their respective interests and estates therein. And after such location and
appraisement so made, the said sheriff shall forthwith return the same under the hands and seals
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of the said jurors, together with the writ, to the clerk’s office of the said county and the right and
property of the said proprietors and tenants in the said lands so circumscribed shall be
immediately devested and be transferred to the commonwealth for the use of the said grammar
school, in full and absolute dominion, any want of consent or disability to consent in the said
owners or tenants notwithstanding. But it shall not be lawful for the said overseers so to situate
the said grammar schoolhouse, nor to the said jurors so to locate the said lands, as to include the
mansion-house of the proprietor of the lands, nor the offices, curtilage, or garden, thereunto
immediately belonging.
The said overseers shall forthwith proceed to have a house of brick or stone, for the said
grammar school, with necessary offices, built on the said lands, which grammar school-house
shall contain a room for the school, a hall to dine in, four rooms for a master and usher, and ten
or twelve lodging rooms for the scholars.
To each of the said grammar schools shall be allowed out of the public treasury, the sum
of pounds, out of which shall be paid by the Treasurer, on warrant from the Auditors, to the
proprietors or tenants of the lands located, the value of their several interests as fixed by the jury,
and the balance thereof shall be delivered to the said overseers to defray the expence of the said
buildings.
In these grammar schools shall be taught the Latin and Greek languages, English grammar,
geography, and the higher part of numerical arithmetick, to wit, vulgar and decimal fractions,
and the extraction of the square and cube roots.
A visiter from each county constituting the district shall be appointed, by the overseers, for the
county, in the month of October annually, either from their own body or from their county at
large, which visiters or the greater part of them, meeting together at the said grammar school on
the first Monday in November, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday,
shall have power to choose their own Rector, who shall call and preside at future meetings, to
employ from time to time a master, and if necessary, an usher, for the said school, to remove
them at their will, and to settle the price of tuition to be paid by the scholars. They shall also visit
the school twice in every year at the least, either together or separately at their discretion,
examine the scholars, and see that any general plan of instruction recommended by the visiters of
William and Mary College shall be observed. The said masters and ushers, before they enter on
the execution of their office, shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth.
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A steward shall be employed, and removed at will by the master, on such wages as the visiters
shall direct; which steward shall see to the procuring provisions, fuel, servants for cooking,
waiting, house cleaning, washing, mending, and gardening on the most reasonable terms; the
expence of which, together with the steward’s wages, shall be divided equally among all the
scholars boarding either on the public or private expence. And the part of those who are on
private expence, and also the price of their tuitions due to the master or usher, shall be paid
quarterly by the respective scholars, their parents, or guardians, and shall be recoverable, if
withheld, together with costs, on motion in any Court of Record, ten days notice thereof being
previously given to the party, and a jury impannelled to try the issue joined, or enquire of the
damages. The said steward shall also, under the direction of the visiters, see that the houses be
kept in repair, and necessary enclosures be made and repaired, the accounts for which, shall,
from time to time, be submitted to the Auditors, and on their warrant paid by the Treasurer.
Every overseer of the hundred schools shall, in the month of September annually, after the most
diligent and impartial examination and enquiry, appoint from among the boys who shall have
been two years at the least at some one of the schools under his superintendance, and whose
parents are too poor to give them farther education, some one of the best and most promising
genius and disposition, to proceed to the grammar school of his district; which appointment shall
be made in the court-house of the county, on the court day for that month if fair, and if not, then
on the next fair day, excluding Sunday, in the presence of the Aldermen, or two of them at the
least, assembled on the bench for that purpose, the said overseer being previously sworn by them
to make such appointment, without favor or affection, according to the best of his skill and
judgment, and being interrogated by the said Aldermen, either on their own motion, or on
suggestions from the parents, guardians, friends, or teachers of the children, competitors for such
appointment; which teachers shall attend for the information of the Aldermen. On which
interregatories the said Aldermen, if they be not satisfied with the appointment proposed, shall
have right to negative it; whereupon the said visiter may proceed to make a new appointment,
and the said Aldermen again to interrogate and negative, and so toties quoties until an
appointment be approved.
Every boy so appointed shall be authorised to proceed to the grammar school of his district, there
to be educated and boarded during such time as is hereafter limited; and his quota of the
expences of the house together with a compensation to the master or usher for his tuition, at the
rate of twenty dollars by the year, shall be paid by the Treasurer quarterly on warrant from the
Auditors.
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A visitation shall be held, for the purpose of probation, annually at the said grammar school on
the last Monday in September, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday, at
which one third of the boys sent thither by appointment of the said overseers, and who shall have
been there one year only, shall be discontinued as public foundationers, being those who, on the
most diligent examination and enquiry, shall be thought to be of the least promising genius and
disposition; and of those who shall have been there two years, all shall be discontinued, save one
only the best in genius and disposition, who shall be at liberty to continue there four years longer
on the public foundation, and shall thence forward be deemed a senior.
The visiters for the districts which, or any part of which, be southward and westward of James
river, as known by that name, or by the names of Fluvanna and Jackson’s river, in every other
year, to wit, at the probation meetings held in the years, distinguished in the Christian
computation by odd numbers, and the visiters for all the other districts at their said meetings to
be held in those years, distinguished by even numbers, after diligent examination and enquiry as
before directed, shall chuse one among the said seniors, of the best learning and most hopeful
genius and disposition, who shall be authorised by them to proceed to William and Mary
College, there to be educated, boarded, and clothed, three years; the expence of which annually
shall be paid by the Treasurer on warrant from the Auditors.
Report, p. 53–5. Surprisingly, no MS copy of this famous Bill has been found and no memoranda
or scraps of notes such as TJ left respecting other Bills.
The Acts pertaining to the College of William and Mary fell within Pendleton’s share of the
revision, but, as TJ explained in his Autobiography, “We thought that … a systematical plan of
general education should be proposed, and I was requested to undertake it. I accordingly
prepared three Bills for the Revisal, proposing three distinct grades of education, reaching all
classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a middle
degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life, and such as would be desirable
for all who were in easy circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences
generally, and in their highest degree” (Ford,I, 66). Within a decade after the work of the
Committee of Revisors was begun, TJ regarded the Bill for the More General Diffusion of
Knowledge as the most important one in the Report (TJ to George Wythe, 13 Aug. 1786). The
exalted declaration of purpose in the preamble remains one of the classic statements of the
responsibility of the state in matters of education. But what was new and distinctively
Jeffersonian in the Bill was not its advocacy of public education, for in this respect it in fact
envisaged a combined system of public and private education; and, indeed, public education was
already in practice and had been for some generations in the systems of common schools of New
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England. But what was new in the Bill and what stamped its author as a constructive statesman
of far-seeing vision was the object of seeking out men of genius and virtue and of rendering them
“by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and
liberties of their fellow citizens.” This implied the establishment of a ruling élite that would
promote public happiness by wisely forming and honestly administering the laws; but, though
this never became and possibly could not become an explicit object of any democratic society,
the important thing about TJ’s Bill was that those “whom nature hath endowed with genius and
virtue … should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or other accidental
condition or circumstance.” The Bill recognized natural gradations and disparities among men; it
saw nothing dangerous or inimical to the liberties of the people in accepting and making use of
such a natural aristocracy of virtue and talent; and its unique and revolutionary feature, never yet
put into practice by any people, was that, in order to permit such a natural aristocracy to flourish
freely, it would remove all economic, social, or other barriers that would interfere with nature’s
distribution of genius or virtue. (See TJ’s account of this Bill in Notes on Virginia, Ford,III, 251–
5; see also R. J. Honeywell, Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson, Cambridge, Mass., 1931.) A
highly interesting contemporary comment on the Bill is that by William Wirt: “Among other
wise and highly patriotic bills which are proposed, there is one for the more general diffusion of
knowledge. After a preamble, in which the importance of the subject to the republic is most ably
and eloquently announced, the bill proposes a simple and beautiful scheme, whereby science
(like justice under the institutions of our Alfred) would have been ‘carried to every man’s door.’
Genius, instead of having to break its way through the thick opposing clouds of native obscurity,
indigence and ignorance, was to be sought for through every family in the commonwealth; the
sacred spark, wherever it was detected, was to be tenderly cherished, fed and fanned into a
flame; its innate properties and tendencies were to be developed and examined, and then
cautiously and judiciously invested with all the auxiliary energy and radiance of which its
character was susceptible. What a plan was here to give stability and solid glory to the republic!
If you ask me why it has never been adopted, I answer, that as a foreigner, I can perceive no
possible reason for it, except that the comprehensive views and generous patriotism which
produced the bill, have not prevailed throughout the country, nor presided in the body on whose
vote the adoption of the bill depended. I have new reason to remark it, almost every day, that
there is throughout Virginia, a most deplorable destitution of public spirit, of the noble pride and
love of country. Unless the body of the people can be awakened from this fatal apathy; unless
their thoughts and their feelings can be urged beyond the narrow confines of their own private
affairs; unless they can be strongly inspired with the public zeal, the amor patriœ of the ancient
republics, the national embellishment, and the national grandeur of this opulent state, must be
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reserved for very distant ages” (William Wirt, Letters of a British Spy, 10th edn., N.Y., 1832, p.
231–2; originally published in 1803).
TJ apparently finished the Bill late in the autumn of 1778, for on 18 Dec. 1778 he wrote to
Pendleton about it (his letter is missing, but see Pendleton’s reply under date of 11 May 1779).
On 15 Dec. 1778 leave was given by the House for the presentation of a Bill “for the more
general diffusion of knowledge,” and Richard Parker and George Mason were ordered to prepare
it; the Bill was presented by Parker on the next day, whereupon the House “Ordered, That the
public printer do forthwith print and forward four copies of the said act to each county within
this Commonwealth” (JHD, Oct. 1778, 1827 edn., p. 117, 120). It is very doubtful whether this
order to print the Bill was actually executed; if it was, no copy of it has been found (see Edmund
Pendleton to TJ, 11 May 1779 and notes thereon). The Bill was again presented on 12 June 1780,
but no further action was taken until, on 31 Oct. 1785, Madison brought it up along with other
bills of the Report of the Committee of Revisors. It was considered by the House 6 Dec., was
amended 20 Dec., and on 21 Dec. was actually passed by the House under a new title, “An act,
directing the mode of appointing aldermen.” But, on being referred to the Senate, the Bill died
(JHD, May 1780, 1827 edn., p. 14, 44; same, Oct. 1785, 1828 edn., p. 12–15, 74–5, 100, 101).
Madison reported a year later, when TJ’s Bill was again considered, that the system was
carefully considered but not adopted because of the cost involved (Madison to TJ, 4 Dec. 1786;
see also Madison to TJ, 22 Jan. 1786).
Madison did not bring in Bill No. 79 with the others reported on 1 Nov. 1786 but it was brought
up two weeks later, and, as Madison reported to TJ, it “went through two readings by a small
majority and was not pushed to a third one” (Madison to TJ, 15 Feb. 1787; JHD, Oct. 1786, 1828
edn., p. 44). The plan for establishing public schools was not carried to completion until 1796
when the Assembly passed an “Act to Establish Public Schools” (Shepherd,II, 3–5) which
retained some of the phraseology of TJ’s Bill, especially that providing for the election of
aldermen. However, the 1796 Act provided only for primary schools, and the determination of
the expediency of establishing such schools was left entirely to the aldermen of each county,
borough, or corporation.
A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779,” Founders Online, National
Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-
02-02-0132-0004-0079. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, 1777 – 18 June
1779, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 526–535.]
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Appendix Two:
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Queries 14 AND 19, 146--49,
164—65
1784
Another object of the revisal is, to diffuse knowledge more generally through the mass of the
people. This bill proposes to lay off every county into small districts of five or six miles square,
called hundreds, and in each of them to establish a school for teaching reading, writing, and
arithmetic. The tutor to be supported by the hundred, and every person in it entitled to send
their children three years gratis, and as much longer as they please, paying for it. These schools
to be under a visitor, who is annually to chuse the boy, 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, of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of the
country, for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic.
Of the boys thus sent in any one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schools one or two
years, and the best genius of the whole selected, and continued six years, and the residue
dismissed. By this means twenty of the best geniusses will be raked from the rubbish annually,
and be instructed, at the public expence, so far as the grammar schools go. At the end of six
years instruction, one half are to be discontinued (from among whom the grammar schools will
probably be supplied with future masters); 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 in the study
of such sciences as they shall chuse, at William and Mary college, the plan of which is proposed
to be enlarged, as will be hereafter explained, and extended to all the useful sciences. The
ultimate result of the whole scheme of education would be the teaching all children of the state
reading, writing, and common arithmetic: turning out ten annually of superior genius, well
taught in Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of arithmetic: turning out ten others
annually, of still superior parts, who, to those branches of learning, shall have added such of the
sciences as their genius shall have led them to: the furnishing to the wealthier part of the
people convenient schools, at which their children may be educated, at their own expence.--
The general objects of this law are to provide an education adapted to the years, to the
capacity, and the condition of every one, and directed to their freedom and happiness. Specific
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details were not proper for the law. These must be the business of the visitors entrusted with
its execution. The first stage of this education being the schools of the hundreds, wherein the
great mass of the people will receive their instruction, the principal foundations of future order
will be laid here. Instead therefore of putting the Bible and Testament into the hands of the
children, at an age when their judgments are not sufficiently matured for religious enquiries,
their memories may here be stored with the most useful facts from Grecian, Roman, European
and American history. The first elements of morality too may be instilled into their minds; such
as, when further developed as their judgments advance in strength, may teach them how to
work out their own greatest happiness, by shewing them that it does not depend on the
condition of life in which chance has placed them, but is always the result of a good conscience,
good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.--Those whom either the wealth of
their parents or the adoption of the state shall destine to higher degrees of learning, will go on
to the grammar schools, which constitute the next stage, there to be instructed in the
languages. The learning Greek and Latin, I am told, is going into disuse in Europe. I know not
what their manners and occupations may call for: but it would be very ill-judged in us to follow
their example in this instance. There is a certain period of life, say from eight to fifteen or
sixteen years of age, when the mind, like the body, is not yet firm enough for laborious and
close operations. If applied to such, it falls an early victim to premature exertion; exhibiting
indeed at first, in these young and tender subjects, the flattering appearance of their being men
while they are yet children, but ending in reducing them to be children when they should be
men. The memory is then most susceptible and tenacious of impressions; and the learning of
languages being chiefly a work of memory, it seems precisely fitted to the powers of this
period, which is long enough too for acquiring the most useful languages antient and modern. I
do not pretend that language is science. It is only an instrument for the attainment of science.
But that time is not lost which is employed in providing tools for future operation: more
especially as in this case the books put into the hands of the youth for this purpose may be such
as will at the same time impress their minds with useful facts and good principles. If this period
be suffered to pass in idleness, the mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the body it
inhabits if unexercised during the same time. The sympathy between body and mind during
their rise, progress and decline, is too strict and obvious to endanger our being misled while we
reason from the one to the other.--As soon as they are of sufficient age, it is supposed they will
be sent on from the grammar schools to the university, which constitutes our third and last
stage, there to study those sciences which may be adapted to their views.--By that part of our
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plan which prescribes the selection of the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor,
we hope to avail the state of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor
as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated.--But of all the views
of this law none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people
the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. 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; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them
as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every
disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views. In every government on earth is
some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will
discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate, and improve. Every government
degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore
are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe their minds must be improved to a
certain degree. This indeed is not all that is necessary, though it be essentially necessary. An
amendment of our constitution must here come in aid of the public education. The influence
over government must be shared among all the people. If every individual which composes
their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe; because the
corrupting the whole mass will exceed any private resources of wealth: and public ones cannot
be provided but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own
price. The government of Great-Britain has been corrupted, because but one man in ten has a
right to vote for members of parliament. The sellers of the government therefore get nine-
tenths of their price clear. It has been thought that corruption is restrained by confining the
right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier of the people: but it would be more effectually
restrained by an extension of that right to such numbers as would bid defiance to the means of
corruption.
Lastly, it is proposed, by a bill in this revisal, to begin a public library and gallery, by laying out a
certain sum annually in books, paintings, and statues.
.....
We never had an interior trade of any importance. Our exterior commerce has suffered very
much from the beginning of the present contest. During this time we have manufactured within
our families the most necessary articles of cloathing. Those of cotton will bear some
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comparison with the same kinds of manufacture in Europe; but those of wool, flax and hemp
are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant: and such is our attachment to agriculture, and such
our preference for foreign manufactures, that be it wise or unwise, our people will certainly
return as soon as they can, to the raising raw materials, and exchanging them for finer
manufactures than they are able to execute themselves.
The political oeconomists of Europe have established it as a principle that every state should
endeavour to manufacture for itself: and this principle, like many others, we transfer to
America, without calculating the difference of circumstance which should often produce a
difference of result. In Europe the lands are either cultivated, or locked up against the
cultivator. Manufacture must therefore be resorted to of necessity not of choice, to support the
surplus of their people. But we have an immensity of land courting the industry of the
husbandman. Is it best then that all our citizens should be employed in its improvement, or that
one half should be called off from that to exercise manufactures and handicraft arts for the
other? Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen
people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is
the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face
of the earth. Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phaenomenon of which no age
nor nation has furnished an example. It is the mark set on those, who not looking up to heaven,
to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistance, depend for it on
the casualties and caprice of customers. Dependance begets subservience and venality,
suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. This, the
natural progress and consequence of the arts, has sometimes perhaps been retarded by
accidental circumstances: but, generally speaking, the proportion which the aggregate of the
other classes of citizens bears in any state to that of its husbandmen, is the proportion of its
unsound to its healthy parts, and is a good-enough barometer whereby to measure its degree
of corruption. While we have land to labour then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied
at a work-bench, or twirling a distaff. Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in husbandry:
but, for the general operations of manufacture, let our workshops remain in Europe. It is better
to carry provisions and materials to workmen there, than bring them to the provisions and
materials, and with them their manners and principles. The loss by the transportation of
commodities across the Atlantic will be made up in happiness and permanence of government.
The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the
strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic
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in vigour. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and
constitution.
The Founders' Constitution

Volume 1, Chapter 18, Document 16
Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. Edited by William Peden. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture,
Williamsburg, Virginia, 1954.
33

1 Wang Jefferson and Confucian Education

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Virginia Review of Asian Studies: 20 (2018) 1-33

CONFUCIAN EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES: THE ORIGIN OF

Confucius Education Principles

Education is priority for a nation

Universal Education: The First Principle of Confucian Education

Meritocracy: The Second Principle of Confucian

One of the earliest examples of administrative meritocracy can

Education in Colonial North America

Thomas Jefferson’s Educational Revolution

Education: the Vehicle for Instilling or Strengthening Virtue

Jefferson Promoted Universal Education and Merit System

pursuits of his life.”33 Basic learning would be important in

During Jefferson’s stay in Paris between 1781 and 1785, he

Jefferson’s Curriculum: European Classics, History, Modern Language and

Jefferson’s ideal curriculum incorporated European classical influences while simultaneously

Jefferson’s Educational Reform were based on Confucian Educational

In developing his educational principles, Jefferson was significantly influenced by the

The late Professor Herrlee G. Creel (1905-1994), a distinguished scholar on Confucius,

A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779

The Founders' Constitution

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