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Democracy’s
On this Fourth of July, we ask Rappahannock’s citizens to reflect on the public educational system that is the cornerstone of this nation.
A democracy depends on an educated electorate. For more than 200 years, our leaders have recognized the importance of education to America’s strength and freedom.
“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness,” George Washington told Congress in 1790. “To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and value their own rights. ”
But even before President Washington addressed himself on “teaching the people,” and even before the Constitution was adopted in 1789, the generation of 1776 had committed federal government support for public schools.
In the ordinance of 1785 the Continental Congress decreed that a lot be reserved in every township “for the maintenance of public schools” and, in the ordinance of 1787 that established the Northwest Territory, Congress reinforced that concept.
Down through the years Presidents have often initiated education programs, using the prestige of their office in the effort. In private correspondence, public addresses and messages to Congress, the record is filled with Presidential interest in the advancement of public education.
Many remember Thomas Jefferson’s famous statement,, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state oi civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” He also wrote a friend, “I am now entirely absorbed in endeavors to effect the establishment of a general system of education in my native state..."
Jefferson went on to cite the need for “elementary schools which shall give to
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