It goes without saying that Thomas Jefferson values education immensely, but I am shocked at his implication that those who are not college educated are parallels to "the wild and uncultivated tree" which "can never be made to yield better." This is an extremely bleak attitude toward those without higher education and suggests that they will never personally amount to successes college educated people will, and their children will also be doomed to "uncultivated" and "sour" life. Knowledge is power, but there is also honor in technical trades that require practice rather than a college degree to be successful. I appreciate that as a push in obtaining college education has risen, figures like Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs) has led a counter movement advocating for the importance and value of trade jobs, equal to those jobs obtained through obtaining degrees.