Language is the base of human society. In the engagement course of Extinction in Art&Literature, we read Berger's essay: Why Look At Animals? In his essay, Berger states:"Between to men the two abysses are, in principle, bridged by language." Here, the abysses are the abyss of non-comprehension. And, Berger later suggests that language allows human to confirm each other and to reckon with each other as with themselves. Language is what distinguishes men from other species and the force which binds human together as a species. Therefore, I think it is necessary for us to understand how to construct language and the beauty of language. From language, what we can find is human nature.

This statement inspires me a lot. I think this is exactly how education changes me. The value of education does not only lie in the fact that it teaches us knowledge about the world we live in, but it also turns us into a completed human being. By "completed human being", I mean a human being who can interact with this world in a more rational way and who can build a unique relationship with society. In addition,without education, we will never know how to use our nature in a way which creates beauty for this world. It is education teaches us how to write, so that we can express our feelings by poem. It is education teaches us how to use science to break our limits, so that we can turn our curiosity into a space station. I think this is why we need education. More than teaching us facts, education compensate to our human nature, so that we become stronger and stronger.

Besides the issue of gender equality in this sentence, another intersting point is that this first objective emphasizes individual needs instead of social needs or national needs. I want to link this to my engagement course "the Individual and Society". It partially shows that the importance of individual happiness has exceeded the welfare of society as a whole. I can see the importance of individualism in American society from this sentence. Furthermore, I am also confused that why the first objective is to give citizen the ability of transacting his own business, because I don't think it's not the most important objective of education. Shouldn't education teach citizens to think in a broader vision and pursue authenticity of oneself?

From my perspective, I feel these three conditions are not necessary for the establishment of a university. The aim of a university it so educate young people no matter where they are from or which social classes they are in. The pooper a place is, the necessarier for government to establish a school in such place. So, I think these three conditions go contrary to Thomas Jefferson's motive of establishing the university. But, I can understand why they had these considerations. Fertility of the neighboring counties, healthiness of the site and white population can make the university easier to manage since students were from well-educated middle/upper class. Furthermore, the founders might not even know that they were practicing racism by writing "centrality to the white population of the whole state", because racism was normal in that period. Therefore, the term "racism" and "discrimination" were meaningless to them. How can we expect them to realize that their considerations were inappropirate, if there were even no such thing called racism in that period?

From these objectives, we can see that Jefferson regards "Education" as a powerful tool to bring people/citizens happiness and create a better society.