I believe that the "indigenous neighbors" that the authors are referring to are not the impoverished or the uneducated, but the Native Americans. At this time, they were still considered barbaric savages simply because they had developed different languages, traditions, and cultures. The authors continue to utilize words with extremely negative connotations, such as "wretchedness", "besotted", and "degeneracies" to better express the idea that education and knowledge are the most important things one could possibly gain - a society that has not employed the Western model of education is a primitive one.<br> These scholars were so focused upon educating people in the sciences and humanities, but were close-minded when it came to learning about others' cultures. There is no 'right' way to be educated. Nowadays, I am pleased to see the existence of many different Anthropology classes that teach us about many different ways of life. UVA has most definitely improved in terms of awareness and open-mindedness.

It is clear that the founders of the University took language very seriously, and incorporated it to a great extent into the curriculum. Although UVA, being a predominantly arts/sciences school, does indeed still consider language to be important, English is the one that is most focused upon.<br> Learning or continuing to learn a language at UVA is definitely encouraged, but oftentimes is not required - and I know that many people choose not to take one simply because they don't want to.<br> One of the things that I agree on in the Rockfish Gap is that learning a language should be something that every student must do; additionally, we must stop considering English to be the superior language and understand that each language is every bit as complicated and useful as ours. I admire how the founders took the time to explain how each language - French, Spanish, German, etc. - has contributed to the development of society.