- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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o these should be added the arts, which embellish life, dancing music & drawing
I like how Jefferson included the arts as part of the curriculum and activities that the students can participate in while at the university. He acknowledges that the arts add another element to education and "embellish life." The arts can act as a creative outlet or stress reliever for the students and provide them with a more holistic education that emphasizes both scholarly topics and more creative processes to sharpen the mind in all aspects. Jeffersons' mention of more than purely academic endeavors is very forward and admirable. -Allison Ryu
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To improve by reading, his morals and faculties.
I find it rather interesting that Jefferson hopes to improve the students' morals through reading. While I do believe that morals and ideas can be formed through reading literature and through discussion with others, morals and faculties are primarily shaped through experiences. By the time students enter the university, their ethics are already formed and there is very little potential that they would be swayed unless a life-changing event occurred. There is simply little chance that one's morals would "improve" through experiences, let alone readings, and if anything were to change in the students' morals, they would most likely be strengthened throughout their time at the university as they encounter people of different beliefs to whom they must defend their ideas to. -Allison Ryu
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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And generally to form them to habits of reflection, and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others & of happiness within themselves. These are the objects of that higher grade of education, the benefits & blessings of which the legislature now propose to provide for the good & ornament of their country the gratification & happiness of their fellow citizens, of the parent especially & his progeny on which all his affections are concentrated.
Jefferson highlights here how the university has the goal to enforce a reflective nature and spirit among its students and to teach them how to be respectful citizens to themselves and others. He emphasizes how the primary goal of higher education is to create well-rounded and well-educated individuals who also want to share this nature with their peers and instill values of creating a positive community. -Allison Ryu
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The objects of this primary education determine its character & limits. These objects would be, To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express & preserve his ideas, his contracts & accounts in writing. To improve by reading, his morals and faculties. To understand his duties to his neighbours, & country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either. To know his rights; to exercise with order & justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciaries of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence with candor & judgment. And, in general, to observe with intelligence & faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. To instruct the mass of our citizens in these their rights, interests and duties, as men and citizens, being then the objects of education in the primary schools, whether private or public, in them should be taught reading, writing & numerical arithmetic, the elements of mensuration (useful in so many callings) and the outlines of geography and history, and this brings us to the point at which are to commence the higher branches of education, of which the legislature require the development: those for example which are to form the statesmen, legislators & judges, on whom public prosperity, & individual happiness are so much to depend.
The goals that Jefferson outlines here are how he wants every student that attends the university to learn and what he wants them all to receive as students. Essentially, each of these objects aims to shape the students into more competent and active community members with their own well-developed opinions, but the ability to hear out others' opinions, as well, and still act for the better of society with his knowledge. Furthermore, Jefferson entails ideas such as "To know his rights; to exercise with order & justice..." to emphasize his desire for every student to exercise his civil rights as citizens. -Allison Ryu
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