4 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2017
    1. They will be more advanced than we are, in science and in useful arts, and will know best what will suit the circumstances of their day.

      The report as a whole is very exhaustive in laying out the details of the university, but the authors are well aware of the limits of their expertise. They are smart enough to realize that the faculty they hire are much more knowledgeable about their fields and the divisions between their departments, and will thus be far better equipped to address them and create the most efficient structure for the university.

    2. But the Commissioners are happy in considering the statute under which they are assembled as proof that the legislature is far from the abandonment of objects so interesting: they are sensible that the advantages of well directed education, moral, political & economical are truly above all estimate

      This particular passage reminds us of the fact that the founding of this university was by no means certain even with the endorsement of Jefferson. This sentence and the paragraph as a whole are essentially appeals to the legislature concerning the value of education and the potential value of the university. This sentence is a disguised compliment towards the congressmen who will hopefully approve funding for the university the founders envision, emphasizing its value and assuring the readers that they are of course already demonstrably committed to the values of education. It's easy to imagine now that Jefferson waved his hand and the University came into being, but in reality it is a state school not only because Jefferson envisioned education serving the state but also because it never could have existed without funding from the legislature.

    3. A language already fraught with all the eminent sciences of our parent Country the future Vehicle of whatever we may Ourselves atchieve and destined to Occupy so much space on the Globe, claims distinguished attention in American Education.

      I think this sentence in particular demonstrates the ambition and hopefulness of the University founders. Anglo-Saxon language is to be emphasized because it forms the foundation of the language with which the future achievements of the University will be recorded for posterity. This sentence demonstrates the international reach the founders intended for both the university and the nation as a whole to have. At this time the United States was hardly a global power; European nations dominated every aspect of the world's power distribution, from education to commerce to the sciences. The sentiments set forth in this sentence and the report as a whole would have seemed impossibly ambitious at the time but are vindicated in the present. The founders new that the key to American success on the world stage was the success of American education. I think we owe a great deal of our current wealth and power to the foresight of these educational pioneers.

    4. Fluxions

      I had never read or heard the term "Fluxions," but it turns out it is the original term Newton used to describe what we now call "derivatives." His book Method of Fluxions published in 1736 is the foundation of Newtonian Calculus. According to Wikipedia, Liebniz's method of calculus, which was published earlier but possibly thought of later than Newton's, is more widespread which makes the use of the term "fluxions" interesting in this report. On the one hand, It wouldn't surprise me that the Anglo-American founders of the University would favor the Englishman's term of that of the Dutch, but I still am surprised this specific term was used in lieu of the more common "calculus."