I find it very interesting that the when the Rockfish Gap Report was created, it had the intention of building up UVA to be a highly prestigious institution that would serve as an honor for Virginians to attend. We see this when the authors make a point to distinguish public and private schools as proper preliminary educational programs in order to gain entrance into the University. These schools were not was causally assigned, but rather carefully planned to be in various, spread out locations around the state, which tells us that the authors wanted all of Virginians to be able to attend the great university and become a part of its large and close knit community. It was important to the authors that citizens of Virginia all over the state had an equal opportunity to be able to attend the school, and that in doing so, they would be prepared for the rigorous academic environment that they would become a part of.

When they say “ideology”, what exactly is being taught here? Ideology regarding economics? Religion? Ethics? It is left unclear what the University was attempting at by enlightening their students in ideology. Due to the nature of the report and the historical context, it makes me wonder if any of this so called “ideology” may have been in regards to or relations with racial hatred and discrimination. With the fact in mind that the University did not accept women into the school until the institution was well into the 1900’s, it brings to mind the question of whether or not this ideology may have been sexist in some manner. If so, what steps were taken in reforming it? It would be interesting to learn more about how teaching ideology was actually put into practice.

This passage uses a comparison of Jefferson and his scholars to people of lesser education in order to emphasize and exemplify the importance of learning and seeking knowledge to the advancement and progression of the human race. Jefferson is most likely referencing the Native Americans here and their traditional practices throughout daily life to explain why choosing to accept what has been taught for generations is making the wrong choice. He rather harshly pleads his desire for students and professors to go forth and challenge their ideals, propose opposing views to their own, in order to learn more about themselves and the world around them. He denounces the idea “to look backward for better things and not forward” as “preposterous” for he firmly believes in the positive outcomes of trusting the process of learning. This relates to my engagement class because we discuss topics of the New Testament, and how some things that were widely accepted as fact, such as the idea that slavery is moral, have drastically changed over time. If people never opened up to the idea that every human should be treated equally, we would still be stuck in a time where skin color was the only factor determining social status. Although true equality has not been reached, it is clear that we have made immense progress as a nation, which would not have occurred if people stuck with old thinking.

I found it very interesting that Jefferson thought it crucial to construct the lawn and the range in the exact physical formation, “arranged at proper distances on each side of a lawn of a proper breadth, & of indefinite extent in one direction at least…”, that we see today. The equal distances and congruent structures of the lawn rooms and pavilions were most likely intended to bridge the gap between students and professors of different backgrounds. Jefferson had a larger goal in mind than just putting students at the geographic heart of the university. He wanted to create an environment where UVA students could learn from one another, broaden each other’s perspectives, and embrace new ideologies and cultures. Jefferson was trying to push traditional boundaries of his time by making UVA a place where students and professors gained experience and knowledge from one another. This type of housing accommodation was created with the intention of connecting peers on a level beyond strictly intellect. This connects back to my engagement class in the sense that when people read the Bible, they sometimes come about with radically different interpretations of the same exact verses. However, putting us all together in one class discussing the same lines helps us all gain a new perspective which we did not come in with before.