- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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To these should be added the arts, which embellish life, dancing music & drawing; the last more especially, as an important part of military education. These innocent arts furnish amusement & happiness to those who, having time on their hands, might less inoffensively employ it; needing, at the same time, no regular incorporation with the institution, they may be left to accessory teachers, who will be paid by the individuals employing them; the university only providing proper apartments for their exercise.
Here again, we see subjects (the arts in this case) serving military purposes. Even though they point out the arguably more practical use of the arts, they do acknowledge the fact that the arts are enjoyable. However, similar to today, the arts are a subject that is seen as secondary. This is evident in the assignment of "accessory teachers" who are paid when they are needed. Tori Cherry
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We have proposed no formal provision for the gymnastics of the school, altho a proper object of attention for every institution of youth. These exercises with antient nations, constituted the principal part of the education of their youth
I believe this attitude towards physical activity within school is similar to how it is treated today. At least in my experience, physical education was something required in elementary and middle school but was optional in high school. It is interesting how they believed that "gymnastics" only served as a skill relative to warfare and not to one's general well being. Tori Cherry
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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To develope the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds cultivate their morals, & instil into them the precepts of virtue & order.
I particularly enjoy this line of the report. I appreciate this emphasis on personal growth in conjunction with academic growth that is so prevalent throughout the report. Furthermore, I also appreciate that these two types of growth seem to share the same level of importance.
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- Sep 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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nothing, more than education, adorning the prosperity, the power and the happiness of a nation
Regarding the lens in which we view the world in my engagement class entitled Race, Racism, Colony, and Nation, this reference to the "prosperity...power, and the happiness of a nation," can be connected to the differences between the experience of the colony and the nation within America. The colony, in this case, referring to the slaves and other marginalized communities unable to enjoy these rights that Jefferson believes are adorned by education. The nation, referring to the community of white people that is clearly who this document (and at this time, the university) was made by and for.
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