Letter, 1818 March 14, Monticello, [Albemarle County, Virginia], to Nathaniel Burwell, n.p.

Abstract

Outlines a "plan for female education"; he has not thought about female education much other than what was necessary for his own daughters, but it is an important subject as women must be capable of educating their own daughters as well as sons if need be; "a great obstacle to good education" is women's fondness for novels; other than specific "useful vehicles for sound morality," novels are otherwise a "poison [that] infests the mind"; he encourages instruction in learning French, dancing (which must cease after marriage), drawing, and music (except when one doesn't have "an ear" for it); he places a premium on women learning "household economy," because "the order and economy of a house are as honorable to the mistress as those of the farm to the master, and if either be neglected, ruin follows."