- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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The best mode of government for youth in large collections, is certainly a desideratum not yet attained with us. It may well be questioned whether fear, after a certain age, is the motive to which we should have ordinary recourse.
It had never occurred to me that at this period in time there wasn't really any precedence in how colleges should govern and discipline the study body. After further thought it makes sense because there weren't really that many colleges available at the time. Also, it is interesting that they thought fear would be a good way to keep order among the students. Currently at UVA it doesn't seem like they govern us with fear, but when you think about it, the threat of getting in trouble by higher authority is a form of fear. This fear of getting sanctions or getting expelled from college helps to keep students from doing things deemed unsavory by the university such as drinking in dorms or other disorderly conduct. This is now the norm for how to deal with these issues at colleges and it appears it hasn't changed much since the beginning of UVA.
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To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.
I find it interesting that when they were creating the University they thought one of the main objects of primary education was the ability of every citizen to carry out the transactions of their own businesses. In recent years there has been much debate as to whether there should be personal finance classes required in high school. Just four years ago a personal finance class was made a requirement to graduate from my high school back in NOVA. It is notable that the founders of UVA knew that personal business transactions were essential skills for all people and only now are public schools catching up around 200 years later when many graduates complained of not knowing how to pay taxes or other important real world skills.
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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distinct houses or pavilions,
In my art history class we studied and sketched certain buildings at UVA. Some of the buildings I had to study were the pavilions and I found them specifically interesting because none of them strictly follow neither the ionic or doric orders. Instead, they adapt and borrow from pieces of each order to make very unique buildings that have a certain character and aspect that isn't found elsewhere. I think this decision to have blended architecture embodies characteristics that UVA has become over the years. Although we didn't start as a diverse university, recently we have made great strides in becoming a unique and diverse learning community. Since the architecture came much earlier than the goals we have achieved, it has a certain foreshadowing effect on the university as a whole that Jefferson or anyone else could never have imagined.
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Giving then a portion of their time to a finished knowledge of the latin and Greek,
I find it interesting that they thought it was important that students had a finished knowledge of Latin and Greek even though they are both considered 'dead' languages to a certain extent. In my high school, I was pushed to take Latin by many of my teachers and I ended up taking 4 years of it. It taught me many things such as English root words (prefixes and suffixes) along with Roman and Greek history. I consider these lessons an essential part of my schooling and I am happy Jefferson thought the same thing.
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