- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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and if they are to be placed here for the rudiments of the Languages
I find it interesting the way education has changed as shown by this bit of the document. The paragraph this excerpt is from is talking about the ancient languages (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) and how the University should go about teaching those. They believe that it would be a nuisance to have young boys on the grounds of the school learning the "rudiments of language". Learning these languages was expected and was completed at a young age, yet today a lot of people do not even learn a language, let alone these three.
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The best mode of government for youth in large collections, is certainly a desideratum not yet attained with us
Student self-governance is such an integral part of UVA and its easy to see the beginnings of this system in this document as the founders discuss how to set up the University. However, I was shocked to find this bit in here as it shows that the idea of student self governance was not something the founders were thinking about. Rather, this points to this system evolving as the University aged.
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- Sep 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.
Yet another example of the moral irony in this document. One goal of this new University was to teach student how to grow in their morals and instill proper virtues in them. The irony is implicit in the document, however, it seems to say "you can learn these things as long as you are of the race we see fit to learn".
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In this enquiry they supposed that the governing considerations should be the healthiness of the site, the fertility of the neighbouring country, and it’s centrality to the white population of the whole state: for altho the act authorised & required them to receive any voluntary contributions whether conditional or absolute, which might be offered thro them to the President & Directors of the literary fund, for the benefit of the University, yet they did not consider this as establishing an auction, or as pledging the location to the highest bidder.
I find this moral irony interesting; on one hand the Commissioners are interested in a location's centrality to a white population in order to found a school for such a population, but are also making sure to prevent money from becoming the driving force behind the University.
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