- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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each of these was unexceptionable as to healthiness & fertility.
It surprises me that each of the sites chosen were not determined to be healthy or fertile, and even disappointing to the founders of UVA. It makes one wonder why the founders narrowed the list down to these three places, when it was determined they were not appropriate to their tastes for their vision for UVA. Charlottesville has, to me, become a fertile and healthy city that can unite together and stand as one after events such as the August marches. It is interesting to think about were UVA was founded could have been in Lexington or Staunton, possibly affecting how a reflection could have been written in response to calling these areas unexceptionable healthiness and fertility.
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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We should be far too from the discouraging persuasion, that man is fixed, by the law of his nature, at a given point: that his improvement is a chimæra, and the hope delusive of rendering ourselves wiser, happier or better than our forefathers were. As well might it be urged that the wild & uncultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour & bitter fruit only, can never be made to yield better: yet we know that the grafting art implants a new tree on the savage stock, producing what is most estimable both in kind & degree. Education, in like manner engrafts a new man on the native stock, & improves what in his nature was vicious & perverse, into qualities of virtue and social worth; and it cannot be but that each generation succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those who preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions & discoveries, and handing the mass down for successive & constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge & well-being of mankind: not infinitely, as some have said, but indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix or foresee
It is interesting to see the purposeful imagery the authors used for this passage. They first liken the students of UVA to a chimaera, a being composed of multiple animals, showing they intend to have us as students adapt and evolve during our time here rather than to remain a static character. The writers then go on to mention a tree that has been engrafted, much like a chimaera may take on new animals the tree takes on new fruits. This is what the founders of UVA wanted, but rather than fruits and animals, they wanted to do this with education and I feel this visual analogy serves well in that purpose.
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- Sep 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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that of proposing a plan for its buildings; and they are of opinion that it should consist of distinct houses or pavilions, arranged at proper distances on each side of a lawn of a proper breadth, & of indefinite extent in one direction at least, in each of which should be a lecturing room with from two to four apartments for the accommodation of a professor and his family: that these pavilions should be united by a range of Dormitories, sufficient each for the accommodation of two students only, this provision being deemed advantageous to morals, to order, & to uninterrupted study; and that a passage of some kind under cover from the weather should give a communication along the whole range
The planning and design of the lawn shows care for its aesthetic nature. The pavilions were to be set with a specific symmetry and to be linked to each other by student housing. This layout is then mirrored for the other side of the lawn and set with no real limit for its expansion. This exemplifies what the founders of UVA thought about this venture into education, limitless. The proximity between students and teacher signifies a sort of journey one must take in their academic journey, and that this specific road may never end as everyone continually grows.
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www.history.org www.history.org
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that of proposing a plan for its buildings -- and they are of opinion that it should consist of distinct houses or pavilions, arranged at proper distances on each side of a lawn of a proper breadth, and of indefinite extent, in one direction, at least; in each of which should be a lecturing room, with from two to four apartments, for the accommodation of a professor and his family; that these pavilions should be united by a range of dormitories, sufficient each for the accommodation of two students only, this provision being deemed advantageous to morals, to order, and to uninterrupted study; and that a passage of some kind, under cover from the weather, should give a communication along the whole range.
The planning and design of the lawn shows care for its aesthetic nature. The pavilions were to be set with a specific symmetry and to be linked to each other by student housing. This layout is then mirrored for the other side of the lawn and set with no real limit for its expansion. This exemplifies what the founders of UVA thought about this venture into education, limitless. The proximity between students and teacher signifies a sort of journey one must take in their academic journey, and that this specific road may never end as everyone continually grows.
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