The Educational Systems of Franklin and Jefferson
Instead of grasping the power and self-determination promised in Franklin's
wholistic vision of education, the United States accepted Jefferson's less optimistic
program for education handed down by a paternal state. Franklin proposed organized
education with the positive aim of increasing youths' "Inclination...and Ability to
serve Mankind." Having educated himself and come to a sense of responsibility for
his community and country, Franklin was optimistic about what other Americans
might make of their increasing opportunities. Jefferson worked to establish an
educational system with the negative aim of preserving and protecting what he
thought to be the fleeting virtue of a new republic. He felt that the natural tendency
of citizenry was to "suffer while evils are sufferable, [rather] than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." The new republic would
eventually fall to tyranny unless the paternal state acted presently to guard against
this natural erosion of virtue. Jefferson's sense of the inertia of the masses led him to
a vision of education applied by the state to the people. He felt that without such
state-involvement, the masses would fail to educate themselves. While this
pessimistic approach may be justified by historical experience, it yielded a system that
does not inspire or motivate as does Franklin's. The pessimism that underlies our
Jeffersonian system undermines the American promise of self-government and
self-determination that Franklin represents. We cannot expect self-determined
citizens to emerge from a sytem that neither expects nor encourages
self-determination.
Jefferson's program has the purpose of securing the involvement of the
general public in its own government. However, it is a passive or reactionary roll
that he outlines for the public in the introduction to his Bill for the More General
Diffusion of Knowledge:
Section I. Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better
calclated 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 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 public happpiness 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 expense, 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...
Jefferson acknowledges the strength of the Republic of Virginia but is wisely fearful
for its security against time. His solutions are two-fold. First, he strives for the
general enlightenment and vigilance of the public. Second, he does not want to allow
any man of virtue to waste his talents for the lack of money for education. The more
men of virtue and education a state produces, the less likely it is to fall to the hands of
"the weak or wicked." In both branches of his solution, the 'agents' of solution are
hardly agents at all; they are passive. The enlightened public is supposed to act to
preserve the purity of the republic, but they are to act according to the lessons given to
them. They are to react to the conditions of a state that is somehow above and beyond
their involvement under ordinary circumstances. Jefferson claims his system will
"render" those "whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue...worthy to
receive, and able to guard..." "[T]hey should be called to that charge..." These geniuses
are to become "useful instruments for the public." In Jefferson's formulation, the
individual will, both of the commoner and of the trustee of the state, is left with
nothing to do.
Franklin's vision begins with the individual's will and action. He esteemed
the active involvement of private citizens in public life, and it is not accurate to
separate his encouragement of public involvement and his educational program. He
repeatedly suggests the merit of "preparing the minds of the people" for government
and social action by circulating essays concerning upcoming public affairs. This
approach to public action is a part of a larger philosophy that manifests itself more
clearly in his writings on education. As described in the Autobiography, Franklin's
Junto "prepared the minds of the people" for political issues with a kind of
case-by-case education. Itself a club for the improvement of members' minds, the
Junto collaborated to educate the general public through publication of its essays and
political tracts. Beyond its use in the particular cases of political questions and
educational institutions, Franklin's "preparation of minds" is an important
component in his vision of a democracy of proactive citizens. Made possible by such
"preparation," the many projects introduced in connection with the Junto are
Franklin's demonstration to others of how citizens can lead government by
continually re-imagining and re-creating the society in which they live.
Franklin's educational system begins with his own self-education. Always
scrounging after books as a youth, the only project he initiated for the education of the
young was the creation of a subscription library, the mother of all public libraries. For
him, the mere potential offered by such libraries was enough for the education of the
young, as he envisioned a democracy in which individual citizens win independence
and self-reliance by their own motivation and ability: the young could educate
themselves.
The Junto made a wide-spread contribution to the effectiveness of
self-education when it established the first public library. The following statement at
the close of "Part One" in the Autobiography indicates the respect Franklin had for
self-education and the role of one of his most important projects in it:
[The libraries that followed the Junto's first] have improv'd the general Conversation of the
Americans, made the common Tradesmen and Farmers as intelligent as most Gentlemen from other
Countries, and perhaps have contributed to the stand so generally made throughout the Colonies
in Defence of their Privileges.
As Franklin saw it, the mere presence of many accessible books ‹ more than he had
resort to as a youth ‹ had resulted in the general education of Americans and in
their ability to maintain democracy.
Organizations such as the Junto carry the spirit of self-education deep into the
realm of adult learning. Far more primary than the Junto's tendency to influence
public affairs is its original purpose of education for its own members. Franklin
writes:
...I had form'd most of my ingenious Acquaintance into a Club, for mutual improvement,
which we call'd the Junto. (p. 57, The Autobiography)
...And the Club...was the best School of Philosophy, Morals and Politics that then
existed in the Province; for our Queries, which were read the Week preceding their Discussion,
put us on reading with Attention upon the several Subjects, that we might speak more to the
purpose: and here too we acquired better Habits of Conversation, every thing being studied in our
Rules which might prevent our disgusting one another. (p. 58)
Here were the makings of a passable system of educational opportunity: books were
available to all, and by his own example of the Junto, Franklin shows that by pooling
the resources of several men, a good foundation in the liberal arts may be obtained.
However, as a scientist and as a man highly concerned with business and the
market-economy, Franklin realized that if America was to compete and prosper in the
world, aspiring scientists and businessmen would require the equipment and
resources of a publicly funded institution. While his own self-education enabled him
to make many substantial contributions to his society, and had made him one of the
most important scientists of his time, he believed that many more citizens could
become capable of such service if they could only be guided in their learning. He
founded what is now the University of Pennsylvania around 1750, twenty-three years
after the Junto first met.
It is in the corresponding Proposal Relating to the Education of Youth in
Pensilvania that Franklin describes his plan for higher education, and gives his most
coherent expression of "preparing the minds of the people." Just as Franklin's own
pen and printing press are his vehicles of education in the social sphere, the study of
history is the necessarily more abstract engine for motivation and "preparation" of
students in the academic sphere. By using history as a foundation and starting-point
from which the practicality and desirability of the other subjects (mathematics,
oratory, logic, ethics, physics) may be clearly seen, Franklin hopes to have the student
motivate himself to their study, developing for each of them a natural, rather than a
forced interest.
Whereas Jefferson scientifically outlined an educational program, Franklin
approached education and public involvement as an art. When introducing this
approach in the Proposal, he turns to poetry as the expression of what the young
mind requires:
And if Men may, and frequently do, catch such a Taste for cultivating Flowers, for Planting,
Grafting, Inoculating, and the like, as to despise all other Amusements for their Sake, why may
not we expect they should acqhire a Relish for that more useful Culture of young Minds.
Thompson says,
"'Tis Joy to see the human Blossoms blow,
When infant Reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind Hand of an assiduous Care.
Delightful Task! to rear the tender Thought,
To teach the young Ideahow to shoot;
To pour the fresh Instruction o'er the Mind,
To breathe th' enliv'ning Spirit, and to fix
The generous Purpose in the glowing Breast."
Franklin expresses this approach more concretely when he discusses the place of
history in his curriculum. For Franklin, history is to "prepare the minds" of students
for a more natural and efficient learning of manifestly practical subjects:
History will show the wonderful effects of oratory in governing, turning and leading great bodies
of mankind, armies, cities, nations. When the minds of youth are struck with admiration at this,
then is the time to give them the principles of that art, which they will study with taste and
application. Then they may be made acquainted with the best models among the ancients, their
beauties being particularly pointed out to them. Modern political oratory being chiefly
performed by pen and press, its advantages over the ancients in some respects are to be shown; as
that its effects are more extensive, more lasting, etc. ...
On historical occasions, questions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, will naturally
arise, and may be put to youth, which may debate in conversation and in writing. When they
ardently desire victory, for the sake of the praise attending it, they will begin to feel the want,
and be sensible of the use of logic, or the art of reasoning to discover truth, and of arguing to defend
it, and convince adversaries. This would be the time to acquaint them with the principles of that
art. ...
The history of commerce, of the invention of arts, rise of manufacture, progress of trade,
change of its seats, with the reasons, causes, etc., may also be made entertaining to youth and will
be useful to all. And this, with the accounnts in other history of the prodigious force and effect of
engines and machines used in war will naturally introduce a desire to be instructed in mechanics
and to be informed of the principles of that art by which weak men perform such wonders, labor is
saved, manufactures expedited, etc. This will be the time to show them prints of ancient and
modern machines, to explain them and let them be copied, and to give lectures in mechanical
philosophy.
Unlike Jefferson, who makes no attempt at fulfilling the students' need for interest in
their sudies, Franklin is highly concerned with the timing of every step in his
curriculum. The theme of the following sentence dominates the selection above:
When the minds of youth are struck with admiration at this, then is the time to give them the
principles of that art, which they will study with tast and application. [my italics]
For each of the subjects that he deems appropriate for the "youth of
Pensilvania," Franklin gives a formula: demonstrate to the youth his interest in a
given subject by specific examples in history; "then is the time" to teach the practical
subjects of oratory, mathematics and all the others most efficiently, after first
establishing the natural foundation of a desire for their acquisition.
This is precisely the formula that Franklin and the Junto employ, both
privately and publicly. As we saw in Franklin's description of the Junto as a system
of self-education, "Queries" served as motivation to get members "reading with
Attention upon the several Subjects, that we might speak more to the purpose."
With its various pamphlets, articles, and essays, the Junto established interest in a
subject by the mere discussion of it, and then desire for a particular project by showing
its pragmatic merit:
In 1751. Dr Thomas Bond, a particular Friend of mine, conceiv'd the Idea of establishing
a Hospital in Philadelphia...He was zealous and active in endeavouring to procure Subscriptions
for it; but the Proposal being a Novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he met with
small success. ... [I] engaged heartily in the Design of Procuring Subscriptions from others.
Previous however to the Solicitation, I endeavoured to prepare the Minds of the People by
writing on the Subject in the Newspapers, which was my usual Custom in such Cases, but which
[my friend] had omitted. (pp. 118-119, The Autobiography)
... After some Enquiry I found a poor industrious Man, who was willing to undertake keeping the
Pavement clean, by sweeping it twice a week and carrying off the Dirt from before all the
Neighbours Doors, for the Sum of Sixpence per Month, to be paid by each House. I then wrote and
printed a Paper, setting forth the Advantages to the Neighbourhood that might be obtain'd by
this small Expense; the greater Ease in keeping our Houses clean, so much Dirt not being brought
in by People's Feet; the Benefit to the Shops by more Custom, as Buyers could more easily get at
them, and by not having in windy Weather the Dust blown in upon their Goods, etc. etc.. I sent
one of these Papers to each House, and in a Day or two went round to see who whould subscribe an
Agreement to pay these Sixpences. It was unanimously sign'd, and for a time well executed. All
the Inhabitants of the City were delighted with the Cleanliness of the Pavement that
surrounded the Market; it being a Convenience to all; and this rais'd a general Desire to have all
the Streets paved; and made the People more willing to submit to a Tax for that purpose. ... (p.
120, The Autobiography)
Franklin offers similar descriptions of the activities of the Junto. In every case there is
a sense of a city or Country asleep to the potential for social activity and to the power
that a group of people has to do good for its own members as well as others. Just as an
educator might awaken a student's mind to the possibilities of the sciences or any
other branch, one of Franklin's primary aims in the Autobiography is to awaken the
social inclinations that accompany self-interest within the context of society. As we
saw with Franklin's projects above, he initiated his programs on the basis of their
usefulness to those who supported them as much as to those who were the nominal
beneficiaries. For him, the appeal of the democratic life is that such mutually
beneficial projects are possible: it is possible for individuals to mutually benefit by
their co-action, and possible that projects unimaginable to the individual be
accomplished through the power of massive cooperation. Franklin's ideal democracy
is not one in which education is primarily to protect the individual's or minority's
rights from his fellow citizens. It is not the government of the various states or of the
Union, but rather the private cooperation of groups and communities in a
relationship that benefits the individual just as it benefits the group. His civic
projects ranged from street-sweeping to the creation of a state militia without the aid
of the Pennsylvania government. They tell us to make our role in society an active
one in which we realize the potential of cooperation outside the official government
rather than the dangers of tyranny within it.
Jefferson's program seems dull in comparison. It exercises only the initiative of
those who have established themselves in government, and forces those whom it
seeks to enlighten to accept a system that is given, a system that does not cultivate
innovation and self-determination. As we saw in the Proposal, Franklin's vision is
founded on the principle of inspiration. As highlighted by Franklin's use of poetry
and other artful devices in the Proposal, and Jefferson's dryness, the sharply differing
styles of their respective proposals may have two roots. Firstly, Franklin and Jefferson
certainly differ in their personal character. The respective proposals for education
that these characters produce is likewise of differing character. Secondly, the fact that
Jefferson brings his proposal before the state government, and Franklin his before
private citizens affects the styles of the proposals. The state needs to be convinced and
pursuaded whereas public donors need to be excited and inspired. Because he works
in the sphere of private initiative, Franklin must inspire. But Franklin's work is
most inspiring for the very reason that it accomplishes so much while remaining
independent of the state government.
By maintaining faith in the responsiveness of Americans to inspiration,
Franklin conceived of a society in which citizens take responsibility for themselves.
He understood that to follow an example such as his requires a foundation and
preparation within the mind. He believed that the best program for preparation of
minds would demand that they take an active role in their own development. He
conceived and offered such a program and it failed. The people of eighteenth-century
America were not in the habit of imagining themselves the creators and shapers of
their own society. Lament it as Franklin did, towns and cities were held static by the
habits of the Old World and by loyalty to the traditions of various religious sects. His
vision of grass-roots social progress was ahead of its time and perhaps ahead of ours.
Despite his attempts to demonstrate to his readers the power of individuals working
together, we are yet content to bow to the seemingly distant authority of our official
governments, and rarely aspire to lead them or lead in spite of them, as did Franklin.