nic34
06-21-2013, 09:26 AM
In April 1776, John Adams put his Thoughts on Government in writing in response to a resolution by the North Carolina Provincial Congress. He begins by making a case for the purpose of government, writing "the happiness of society is the end of all government" which naturally follows his belief that "the happiness of the individual is the end of man." Using these as guiding principles, Adams then sketches an outline of what he believes good government should be.
After outlining a legislative framework, Adams moves on to specifics. After a well-armed militia, Adams wrote, "Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a human and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant."
John Adams wasn't alone in this belief. Thomas Jefferson was so committed to his belief that self-government was doomed to fail without an educated electorate that in his 1806 State of the Union address, he called for federally funded public education, saying "An amendment to our constitution must here come in the aid of public education. The influence over government must be shared among all people." When he could not garner support for a constitutional amendment, he set about to create a framework for his vision for public education, which ultimately failed to pass the Congress. In the end, Jefferson settled for the establishment of the College of William and Mary, now the University of Virginia*, as a legacy to his undying belief in public education.
http://www.winningwordsproject.com/founding_fathers_appalled_at_attacks_on_public_edu cation
Public educaton's purpose is to inform and enlighten a nation's citzens. As Adams believed, self-government would be doomed to fail w/o it. There would be no other way to educate the masses, and only the wealthy and privileged would be able to afford it.
We may not always agree with everything that is taught beyond the 3 R's, but education has evolved since it's early beginnings. I certainly wouldn't have agreed with government teaching that blacks were 3/5's of a human, Indians were savages to be assimilated, women could not be treated as equals. We as a people changed and so did what we teach. The poster sums up well here:
It is time to reclaim our Founders' values. It must once again become an imperative in this country to educate our youth without asking them to take on ridiculous levels of debt before they've even begun to use that education for the betterment of our country. We must affirm that education and the attendant intellectual curiosity it fosters is not a privilege of a free society, but a duty of that free society to foster. It is time to reject the frames foisted on us by the right wing about what a failure public education is and instead embrace it as the single most important right—yes, right—afforded to all citizens in order to secure a more perfect union.
After outlining a legislative framework, Adams moves on to specifics. After a well-armed militia, Adams wrote, "Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a human and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant."
John Adams wasn't alone in this belief. Thomas Jefferson was so committed to his belief that self-government was doomed to fail without an educated electorate that in his 1806 State of the Union address, he called for federally funded public education, saying "An amendment to our constitution must here come in the aid of public education. The influence over government must be shared among all people." When he could not garner support for a constitutional amendment, he set about to create a framework for his vision for public education, which ultimately failed to pass the Congress. In the end, Jefferson settled for the establishment of the College of William and Mary, now the University of Virginia*, as a legacy to his undying belief in public education.
http://www.winningwordsproject.com/founding_fathers_appalled_at_attacks_on_public_edu cation
Public educaton's purpose is to inform and enlighten a nation's citzens. As Adams believed, self-government would be doomed to fail w/o it. There would be no other way to educate the masses, and only the wealthy and privileged would be able to afford it.
We may not always agree with everything that is taught beyond the 3 R's, but education has evolved since it's early beginnings. I certainly wouldn't have agreed with government teaching that blacks were 3/5's of a human, Indians were savages to be assimilated, women could not be treated as equals. We as a people changed and so did what we teach. The poster sums up well here:
It is time to reclaim our Founders' values. It must once again become an imperative in this country to educate our youth without asking them to take on ridiculous levels of debt before they've even begun to use that education for the betterment of our country. We must affirm that education and the attendant intellectual curiosity it fosters is not a privilege of a free society, but a duty of that free society to foster. It is time to reject the frames foisted on us by the right wing about what a failure public education is and instead embrace it as the single most important right—yes, right—afforded to all citizens in order to secure a more perfect union.