2 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2017
    1. And how much more encouraging to the atchievements of science and improvement, is this, than the desponding view that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been, must ever be, and that to secure Ourselves where we are, we must tread with awfull reverence in the footsteps of Our fathers. This doctrine is the genuine fruit of the alliance between church and State, the tenants of which, finding themselves but too well in their present position, oppose all advances which might unmask their usurpations, and monopolies of honors, wealth and power, and fear every change, as endangering the comforts they now hold.

      They liken the indigenous people's veneration for their forefathers to the alliance of church and state, in which many apparent truths would be ignored for the sake of maintaining the status quo's of power and knowledge.

    2. At the same time no greater obstruction to industrious study could be proposed than the presence, the intrusions, and the noisy turbulence of a Multitude of small boys: and if they are to be placed here for the rudiments of the Languages, they may be so numerous, that its character & Value as an university, will be mixed in those of a Grammar school. It is therefore greatly to be wished, that preliminary schools, either on private or public establishment, would be distributed in districts thro the state, as preparatory to the entrance of Students into the University. The tender age at which this part of education commences, generaly about the tenth year, would weigh heavily with parents in sending their sons to a school so distant as the Central establishment would be from most of them. Districts of such extent as that every parent should be within a days journey of his son at school, would be desirable in cases of sickness, and convenient for supplying their Ordinary wants and might be made to lessen sensibly the expense of this part of their education.

      The document makes sure to encourage that both public and private institutions be established throughout the state in order to prepare students for study at the University. Also it is important to make note of how they refer specifically to "boys." Only males were expected to attend school during this time and I think that this document lacks any progressive thought on this topic.