 |  School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4/e Stephen E. Tozer,
The University of Illinois, Chicago
Paul C. Violas
Guy Senese,
Northern Arizona University
Liberty and Literacy: The Jeffersonian Era
Professional Vocabulary- Bill for a More General Diffusion of Knowledge
- A bill for the public funding of locally controlled schools that Thomas Jefferson twice tried to push through the Virginia legislature (1779 and 1817) but which failed to pass.
- bourgeoisie
- Originally, European city dwellers who were members of the new middle class that emerged after the breakdown of feudalism; neither nobility nor serfs nor clergy; they were part of the new classes that formed as a result of capitalism and commerce.
- capitalism
- The "free market" economic system in which money and credit are exchanged for goods and services according to the laws of supply and demand in an attempt not only to make a living but also to secure financial profits that can be invested to generate further income and wealth; although known as a "free market" system, capitalism can be regulated heavily by governments.
- civic freedom
- In Aristotle's formulation, the aspect of liberty that emphasizes limitations on the government's power to interfere with the right of the individual to live as he or she chooses; the basis of the notion of civil liberties and civil rights today.
- classical liberal
- Historians' term for an array of beliefs and values that emerged in about the 16th century after the breakdown of feudalism, emphasizing individual rights and liberties, social progress, human reason, and scientific inquiry; "classical" denotes links to classical Athenian roots and differentiates it from the "modern" liberalism of the 20th century.
- conservative
- An orientation to social policies and practices that seeks to preserve the existing social arrangements and hierarchies or even return to those of the past rather than seek social change toward an envisioned future state of affairs.
- democratic localism
- An emphasis on the value of people making shared decisions in their immediate circumstances as much as possible so that they have genuine influence on the decisions that affect their lives in local contexts.
- "divine right" of the nobility
- A late feudal period justification for the absolute authority of the monarchy in which it was claimed that the authority of the monarch derived from God's will and therefore could not be questioned.
- elementary school
- A local school for teaching the basics of literacy, mathematics, and social knowledge and skills, with origins in colonial America and with a prominent role in Jefferson's efforts and later efforts to provide public education in the United States.
- faculty psychology
- A theory of learning, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, asserting that the mind is a collection of separate faculties (such as memory, reasoning, and aesthetic taste) that can be developed through vigorous exercise and that the learning in some areas transfers to increased learning in other areas; at its most extreme, led to the nonscience of phrenology, which measured the human skull to draw conclusions about a person's character and mental faculties.
- feudalism
- A system of political and economic organization prevailing in Europe from about the 9th to the 15th centuries; based on the holding of lands by the nobility and clergy, with serfs bound to the land and the landholder by birth and a system of tenant farming and without a voice in government.
- freedom
- One of the basic components of the classical liberal ideology; committed to preventing government interference with individuals and groups in their personal, intellectual, and economic lives.
- grammar schools
- In Jefferson's proposal for public schooling in the state of Virginia, the tier of schooling after elementary school; reserved for those who could afford it and those meriting scholarships; formal academic work would include the study of Latin, Greek, composition, mathematics, and other liberal studies.
- happiness
- A term Jefferson borrowed from Aristotle to designate the fundamental importance of the satisfaction of the individual as a measure of the goodness of the social order, as in "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
- intellectual freedom
- One of the basic components of classical liberal ideology; emphasizes the right of the individual to believe as he or she chooses, uncoerced by government power; closely related to religious freedom.
- meritocracy
- A term for the view popularized by Jefferson, Conant, and others in different times and places that a society's institutions should be led by those who merit it by their talent and character.
- nationalism
- One of the basic components of classical liberal ideology, emerging from and in contrast to feudalism; the emphasis is not on the tribe, estate, or city-state but on the nation as the basic political unit and source of political identity.
- natural aristocracy (meritocracy)
- Classical liberal term used by Jefferson to indicate the need for a system that granted leadership to those with talent and character as opposed to those with inherited wealth and power, whom Jefferson termed the "false" aristocracy.
- natural law
- One of the basic components of the classical liberal ideology that emerged in the Enlightenment era; committed to the view that the universe (nature) operates according to scientific principles or laws that are understandable by human reason.
- patriarchy
- A social system that privileges the status of males and their power over females.
- progress
- One of the basic components of classical liberal ideology; emphasizes the inevitability of social improvement through the ability of people to reason about how to achieve their best interests together.
- religious revelation
- Truth revealed through religious texts and authority rather than through the processes of science or reasoning which could create a basis of opposition to religiously "revealed" truth (revelation).
- republicanism
- A system of government that allows people to choose representatives to speak and vote for their interests in legislative processes.
- Rockfish Gap Report
- A nickname for Jefferson's proposal for public education in Virginia, from elementary school through university.
- scientific reason
- One of the basic components of classical liberal ideology; emphasizes the human ability to understand the world through agreed-on, systematic processes of discovery of truth as opposed to understanding the world through revealed truth or on the authority of others.
- social meliorism
- The belief that society can be improved slowly over time through organized human effort.
- virtue
- One of the basic components of classical liberal ideology; emphasizes the good character of the individual as demonstrated in good works for others and visible religious devotion or piety.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education