thomas jefferson – Blue Cereal Education

The XYZ Affair (from “Have To” History)

Blue Cereal — Fri, 28 May 2021 00:22:46 +0000

Three Big Things

1. France was mad because the U.S. was making nice with England, who France had only recently helped them break away from and who France hated most of the time anyway.

2. U.S. efforts to make nice with France led to serious drama when French representatives (code names “X,” “Y,” and “Z”) made demands the U.S. contingent found offensive.

3. The resulting kerfuffle led to a “Quasi-War” abroad and more pronounced divisions between political parties at home before being resolved by a new round of diplomacy and a new treaty. The dispute also prompted the Federalists to push through the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts (which didn’t turn out all that well).

Humble Magniloquence (Purdy Words in Primary Sources)

Blue Cereal — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:43:50 +0000

There are folks you expect to write all fancy. Poets, for example. Certain flavors of novelists. Artsy musician types. George Will. Education bloggers, not so much. That’s just as well. Rhetorical flourish is a tricky business. Like cilantro, it can add unexpectedly welcome flavor and complexity, or make an entire passage taste like old soap. … Continue reading

Building A Wall of Separation (Faith & School)

Blue Cereal — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 20:59:24 +0000

The U.S. Constitution was written as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation – our first effort at writing a broad set of laws by which to govern the nation. The Articles had guaranteed the States almost complete sovereignty and absolute independence from one another – a great idea in theory, but not as workable … Continue reading

Liberty, Part One – The Causes Which Impel Them

Blue Cereal — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 18:42:31 +0000

Why T.J. and crew changed the phrasing is subject to discussion, but whatever their motivation, our lil’ nation wasn’t birthed by Locke. Our legal birth certificate says Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – not ‘estate’. So… what do they mean?

40 Credits & A Mule, Part V: Maybe Radio

Blue Cereal — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:39:39 +0000

The original element of despotism is a MONOPOLY OF TALENT, which consigns the multitude to comparative ignorance, and secures the balance of knowledge on the side of the rich and the rulers. If then the healthy existence of a free government be, as the committee believe, rooted in the WILL of the American people, it follows as a necessary consequence, of a government based upon that will, that this monopoly should be broken up, and that the means of equal knowledge, (the only security for equal liberty) should be rendered, by legal provision, the common property of all classes. In a republic, the people constitute the government, and… frame the laws and create the institutions, that promote their happiness or produce their destruction… It appears, therefore, to the committee that there can be no real liberty without a wide diffusion of real intelligence; that the members of a republic, should all be alike instructed in the nature and character of their equal rights and duties, as human beings, and as citizens…

40 Credits & A Mule, Part IV: The Measure of a Man

Blue Cereal — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:51:40 +0000

I've left out one of the most important reasons for the landowner fetish of the Framers. It has to do with owning stock in Wal-Mart... Also, the title of this series begins to make a little sense. Begins. A little.

40 Credits & A Mule, Part II: Chosen People

Blue Cereal — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 04:22:55 +0000

I last opined on the almost sacred role of land in founding a new democracy – United States version. It was, to many Framers, the most obvious and tangible measure of a man’s legitimacy, his potential value as another voice in the national discussion. Land was about provision, responsibility, independence – individually-sized portions of national … Continue reading

40 Credits & A Mule, Part I: This Land

Blue Cereal — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:59:15 +0000

Land was a big deal when our little experiment in democracy began. Now it's not - at least not as much. I'd like to convince you that today's college degree is yesterday's 160 acres. If not, I'll seek to bore and befuddle you enough along the way that hopefully you'll begin skimming, and eventually just assume I've made some pretty good points.