I would like to acknowledge the use of metaphor here. In the same way that a wild tree can be grafted and made anew, a "man" can be transformed and reborn as a result of education. Jefferson's intent was to transform the younger generations of Americans into people who would carry virtue and social worth along with them and across the next generations. Jefferson wanted to 'sustain' America, and he understood the implications of having educated young people to continue to tirelessly transform the nation for the better. Clearly, not everything in this nation has gone perfectly, I do believe that this increase in education has led to many great improvements. Things such as the civil and women's rights movements that took place in the last 100 years. This shows how transformative education can be, yet it ever so important in our world today that we continue this educational trend--providing it to more people who were never before given the opportunity and having conversations about provocative topics that were commonly looked over. -Tim Irish

This is something that I find so fascinating about Thomas Jefferson. Many people consider his implementation of student self-governance as revolutionary, but the action of allowing youth to build maturity on their own was something that humans had been doing for ages. This is something that occurs in nature all of the time. Sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches, with no real intention of seeing their own children outside of the eggs that they had created. I find it ironically fitting that Thomas Jefferson wanted to integrate a sense of of innate naturalism, self empowerment, and self discovery into the University. He transformed the educational system by simply integrating human nature into the University's academic structure. -Tim Irish

I find it interesting that Acoustics and Phonics are labeled together. Both fall under the category of sound, however, one has to do with both music and architecture while the other has to do with language. Acoustics, for Thomas Jefferson at least, seemed to have been very important to his architectural design. The echo-chamber that is the Dome Room is something that Thomas Jefferson must have thought about, and I'm sure that this would influence his desire to have the same subject taught in the University. At this time period, phonics would have been a course of study in order to help people understand the science behind speech. I find this interesting because in todays world, we rarely learn the science behind acoustics (maybe a little bit in high school physics) but we learn phonics from the day we are born as our parents attempt to get us to pronounce words. -Tim Irish

It is quite striking to find such a clear statement that emphasizes the importance of participating in "historical review" while linking that review to the "present day"--for this type of review and analysis is exactly what UVA's first-year students are undertaking. It makes it evident that even the Rockfish Gap Report was meant for critical review. In the past, and the present, nothing is perfect--human words have always been scrutinized and will continue to be reviewed as long as media exists. With an emphasis on science within our language (as described), we are able to formulate effectively factual claims. Scientific discovery has flourished since the time of this report, however, it becomes more and more difficult to know what information is true and what information has been fabricated by the news media. The importance of opening up this informational language to students becomes vital to the creation a nation that vicariously breathes truth through its citizens. -Tim Irish