Jefferson felt that a father-child relationship amongst pupils and teachers ought to be developed. The males enrolled at the University amid that time were the children of affluent men, therefore they were expected to be mature and sober students equipped for self-administration. The bulk of these understudies went to the college to propel their social position and were not prepared for the challenging work required by the scholarly community. Coherent to Jefferson's ideology, that less government is better, the students adopted a self-government structure based on the ideal that pupils should practice their own circumspection and that less direction would support self-control.

Jefferson upheld for a comprehensive plan for government funded institutions, including elementary schools and state colleges. Amid this time, the United States and colleges offered a classical curriculum, with the motivation of educating future clergymen and social first class. Nevertheless, Jefferson contended for open advanced education because his faith in democracy was surmised in informed people. This quote was one of the six objectives Jefferson had for open advanced education. He upheld against ignorance, and wanted to establish and enhance the education of the everyday citizens. The accentuation was on access and opportunity for everyone, incorporating those in rural areas and the addition of practical learning to the liberal education then offered by private institutions. The school was to be firmly drawn in with the life and works if the general population, to discover, educate, and disperse knowledge to a developing country, in order to further its monetary prosperity and the prosperity of its people.

Thomas Jefferson seem to be the first individual to advocate for education reform. It seems like Jefferson understood that freedom depends on self-government. Education furnishes both the knowledge and virtues that create a citizen who is self-governing. During the 18th century, public education did not exist. School was exclusively for wealthy families and their children. This had to undoubtedly pose a threat to the democracy of the United States. Are American schools supposed to teach what is right and wrong or is this a decision that each person needs to reach on their own? Public education, and any other type of education system needs to teach citizens how to make good judgments in order to have fruitful lives. These forms of teaching will inevitably produce active voters within a society. 199 years later we are still confronted with the same dilemma. The constant ordering of students seems to widen the gap between the rich and the poor and those with opportunities and those without. This can be very problematic and thus reflect inequality.

Thomas Jefferson did not have a specific framework on the governance of the university. Jefferson undoubtedly considered autonomy as the core bureaucracy, particularly from students of the University. This form of governance is indubitably evident at UVA today, as it was 199 years ago. Undeniably, reexamination and revitalization are requisite and key factors in any system of government, which allow it to operate efficiently and to its fullest potential. Society and culture are inevitably modifying everyday, therefore obligations and beliefs of the University and its students are also endlessly changing. We, students and parents, tend to pick-and-choose when and when not we want the University to act as a parental figure, which would contradict what the University embodies, self-governance. Jefferson however offers the idea of “deportment between father and son”, implying that professors should interact with their students in a respectful, yet friendly manner, as they would with their own child, however, not to the extend of serving as a parent and withholding responsibility over the student’s behavior or decisions. In this day and age, students call professors by their first name and participate in activities that are normally reserved to friends or family, like going to their home, fishing together or even grabbing lunch together. Therefore, as self-governance is reexamined and revitalized, so are the are the attitudes of students towards the norms of professor and student relationships and self-behavior.