Dear Thomas Jefferson,

 

Today, I would like to talk about your nephew Peter Carr.  He lived at Monticello as a young man.  He was an educator and was a founding trustee of Albemarle Academy.  That academy later evolved into the University of Virginia. 

Today, Peter is primarily known because you claimed that he was the father of Sally Hemmings’s children.   We know that your accusation is not true because DNA tests in 1998 ruled out the possibility that Carr was the father. 

On September 7, 1814, you wrote a letter to Peter in which you spelled out a plan for education.  It is quite a long letter, and it covers many things, including your ideas for curriculum at the University of Virginia.  Let’s start our discussion by talking about the part of that letter where you explain your vision for elementary schools.

Could we start the conversation by discussing just two words in the first sentence: interesting and functionaries.  You said it was “highly interesting to our country, and it is the duty of its functionaries, to provide that every citizen in it should receive an education proportioned to the condition and pursuits of his life.”  

I wonder what you meant by ‘interesting to the country.’  I am wondering if it would be appropriate to substitute important for interesting?  Also, in your mind, who were the functionaries?

You actually stated that the mass of the citizens might be divided into two classes: the laboring and the learned.  The laboring would receive a basic education, and the learned would receive the foundation for further educational pursuits.  I really want to discuss the whole section with you, but I am stuck on that first part where you were suggesting that children should be divided and then taught with two different goals for their education. 

Once I can figure out the part of the laboring and the learned class, I will have more questions for you. 

You won’t be surprised that I am also concerned about education for girls and education for the enslaved people, but for now, I want to understand your ideas for a class based education system.  For a variety of reasons, and in many different ways, we have that system in this country today.

Sincerely,

Katy Dalgleish