Shortly after America declared independence from Great Britain and became a nation of its own, many realized the need for a new education system in the new nation of the United States. Three men accredited for forming plans for a new education system were Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Noah Webster. These men each formulated their own plan for the education system in America. While the plans of each differed greatly, one agreeable point between the three was that education in America needed change.
According to Thomas Jefferson's notes on the state of Virginia, he was an advocate for equal chance for education regardless of financial standing. His plan was to take the children excelling the most after three years of free education and place them in an institution of higher learning, regardless of their ability to afford it. The children that qualified for this would receive funding for their education. Jefferson also said the languages like Greek and Latin needed to be taught in order to better educate the children. Benjamin Rush differed from both Jefferson's and Webster's philosophy by being a strong supporter in further education of women. Rush states in his "Thoughts Upon Female Education" that, "if men believe that ignorance is favorable to the government of the female sex, they are certainly deceived, for a weak and ignorant woman will always be governed with the greatest of difficulty." Rush is saying that women need to have the same opportunity of education as men, which will in turn make the nation equally easy to govern. This differed from the other two, as they suggested that women only needed to know enough to take care of the house and younger children. Noah Webster was also a contributor to the American education system, best known for his dictionary, speller, and readers. Webster helped make the english language easier to interpret and brought a more unified use of the words and language. Webster was an advocate for children being taught about American history rather than history of other nations. This also meant that Webster thought that instead of being taught dead languages like Greek and Roman, children needed to be taught English the way it was used in America and not Great Britain. This suggestion is contrary to that of Jefferson and Rush. All three of these men made large contributions to the evolving system of education in the new nation. Many aspects of their new proposed plans for education differed and conflicted with each other. However, even though the details of each plan may have been different, the general idea was the same, and all three men agreed that the system of education in America needed change.
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