Thomas Jefferson's plan to reform Virginia's education system gave a broad outline of a progressive school structure; the details of what was taught, he thought, would be filled in by experts. Jefferson, however, had his own ideas on the proper course of instruction: The first stage of this education being the schools, ofthe hundreds wherein the great mass of the people will receive their instruction, the principal foundations of future order will be laid here. Instead therefore of putting the Bible and Testament into the hands of the children, at an age when their judgments are not sufficiently matured for religious inquiries, their memories may here be stored with the most useful facts from Grecian, Roman, European, and American history. The first elements of morality too may be instilled into their minds; such, as, when further developed as their judgments advance in strength...