The truth is that the want of common education with us is not from our poverty, but from the want of an orderly system. More money is now paid for the education of a part than would be paid for that of the whole if systematically arranged.
Interpretation
Proper education is hindered not by a lack of funds but by the absence of a structured system.
Thomas Jefferson highlights that the inadequacies in education are not solely due to financial shortcomings but rather stem from a lack of organization and systematic planning. He argues that with an orderly approach, the resources available for education could be better utilized, resulting in more effective learning opportunities for a larger portion of the population.
In practice
During a seminar on education reform, one might quote Jefferson to emphasize the need for a better framework in schools.
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.
Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.
Intelligence and proper education will give you independence of spirit.
The Spirit is not given to make Bible study needless, but to make it effective.
Hypersegregated inner-city schools - in which one finds no more than five or ten white children, at the very most, within a student population of as many as 3,000 - are the norm, not the exception, in most northern urban areas today.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
I loved books; I read my childhood away. I was more interested in my interior world.
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