Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.
Interpretation
Education is essential for public welfare, even if most education is better managed by private institutions.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the role of public education in serving the needs of society. He acknowledges that while private enterprise successfully handles many educational concerns, only public institutions can provide certain necessary sciences that contribute to the overall improvement and preservation of the country, highlighting the importance of a balanced educational system that addresses both common and specialized needs.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech advocating for increased funding for public education.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
I was not a good student. I did not spend much time at college; I was too busy enjoying myself.
Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students: this is one great thing that literature can do - it can make us identify with situations and people far away.
We read Robert Browning's poetry. Here we needed no guidance from the professor: the poems themselves were enough.
Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter.
In the '70s and '80s there was an attempt in K-12 to teach science through art or art through science. The challenge today is how do you build the ethos of art and design into the academy of science.
Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.
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