A Note on the Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson

NEAR THE DRIVE that leads to the top of Monticello simple monument marks the grave of the third President of the United States. The inscription names the three services for which Thomas Jefferson wished to be remembered: author of the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty and of the Declaration of American Independence, and father of the University of Virginia. The first two cleared the way to new heights of spiritual and political freedom. The other envisioned trained and dedicated leadership for an intelligent citizenry. Two elements in Jefferson's education created this sense of values. His most impressionable years were lived on the verge of the wilderness, and he came to know the trees and flowers, the animals and people of the forest. He never forgot the awe that crept over him as he listened to Ontassere's farewell to his fellow Cherokees before his departure for England. Though Thomas was the son of frontier colonel of militia, his mother was Randolph, and the culture of Tidewater Virginia also had its place in his home. His early education, Jefferson said, was period of study under a superficial Latinist, less instructed in Greek, with later schooling by a correct classical scholar, Whig of broad views. At William and Mary College he met Dr. William Small, Scottish professor, who kindled in him real love for learning. Dr. Small saw in the

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