Why Exclusion Leads to Oppression
Prologue: A First-Year Writing Journal
W hy Exclusion Leads to Oppression
-
Why Exclusion Leads to Oppression
By Kareha Agesa
Early intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Catherine Beecher placed an importance
on education because they believed it would strengthen the new nation and engender happiness
throughout its people. Though these intellectuals argued for education, they oftentimes argued
solely for the education of middle class white men and rarely, if ever, middle class white women.
The choice to leave out women and people of color was a detrimental flaw in the plans of the
early intellectuals. The ideas of Jefferson and Beecher matter as we consider the history of US
education because flaws in the ideas of these thinkers have developed into stereotypes and
hardships prevalent today. Their ideas for education have been molded into our current education
system, and modern day problems such as lower graduation rates and income levels among
people of color and a gender wage gap favoring men originate from the education plans of the
early intellectuals privileging solely white men.
The philosophies of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson centered on happiness. Jefferson
believed that education was an imperative means for the pursuit of happiness and placed high
value on the pursuit of knowledge. One of Jefferson’s goals was to remove the “artificial
aristocracy” made up of those placed in power solely because of their wealth and birth status and
allow for a natural aristocracy, consisting of those with the virtue and talent to lead the new
nation.1 Jefferson created a plan for education that widened the pool from which the nation’s
leaders could be chosen. In his plan, Jefferson divided the schooling system into four distinct
tiers that would ultimately give rise to men with the merit and skill level to lead the nation.2
1 Guy Senese, Steve Tozer, and Paul C. Violas, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 7th
ed.
(New York: McGraw Hill, 2013)
, 33-36.
2 Ibid., 40.
Jefferson’s plan called for a republic based on meritocracy, in which only those who
demonstrated the appropriate amount of merit could occupy influential positions in the nation.3
Though Jefferson’s plan for education and building the new nation was ideal for middle
class white men of his time, it proved disadvantageous for women and people of color. In his
plan, Jefferson accounted for a woman’s education only up until elementary school (the first tier
in his four tier plan) and viewed a woman solely as a “homemaker, bearer of children, and
delight to her husband.”4 Jefferson saw no purpose for a woman’s education past elementary
school and reduced her potential for success to that of the household economy. Along with his
disregard for the educational advancement of women, Jefferson failed to include slaves in his
plan for education. Though Jefferson’s views on the humanity of slaves are ambiguous, refusing
to include them in his legislative proposals on education shows his dehumanizing sentiments
toward them.5
Remnants of Jefferson’s misguided exclusion of women and slaves in the entirety of his
education plan can be traced throughout US education history. Traditionally, people of color
have been subjected to mediocre education compared to that of white people, which has resulted
in both lower graduation rates and lower income levels among people of color. Further, though
women currently have the potential to reach levels of economic success equal to those of men,
there exists a gender wage gap favoring men and a societal expectation that a woman’s long-term
goal should be to get married and start a family. Oppressive issues such as these show modern
day society’s internalization of Jefferson’s ideas. Though there are current examples of affluent
people of color and women who have acquired influential positions in society, most women and
people of color must work considerably harder than white men to achieve these roles. Jefferson’s
3 Ibid., 40.
4 Ibid., 43.
5 Ibid., 42-44.
exclusion of women and people of color from his plan for education has created a barrier that
favors white men to reach academic and socioeconomic success.
Similar to Thomas Jefferson, Catherine Beecher valued happiness and recognized that
education prepares men to assume the important duties of society. Additionally, Beecher
believed that collegiate and professional institutions must be established in order to give a proper
education to these influential men. From this education, men will have “well-disciplined and
well-informed minds,” better allowing them to successfully hold their positions and strengthen
the nation.6 According to Beecher, the absence of education would result in “desultory,
deficient” men un (...truncated)