- Dec 2017
-
engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
-
The use of tools too in the manual arts is worthy of encouragement, by facilitating, to such as choose it, an admission into the neighbouring workshops. To these should be added the arts, which embellish life, dancing music & drawing; the last more especially, as an important part of military education. These innocent arts furnish amusement & happiness to those who, having time on their hands, might less inoffensively employ it;
I appreciate the fact that the University acknowledged the importance of fine arts even back then. I find it amusing how they worded it "to those who, having time on their hands, might less inoffensively employ it". It makes it seem like the arts were recognized not only as a means of facilitating creativity and to supplement studies in more concrete departments like math and science but also as a way to keep students from getting into trouble. The part where they mention arts as an important part of military education also interests me. Perhaps it was a way to let students in the military program relax and spend recreational time which they felt was integral to their usual strict and discipline oriented education. Lauren L.
-
And generally to form them to habits of reflection, and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others & of happiness within themselves.
This objective seems a bit ironic to me especially considering the kind of exclusivity of the type of students that attended when UVA was first founded. Also, it's hard to ignore the fact that at UVA they are meant to "correct action" and "render themselves examples of virtue to others", both good moral values, except while African Americans were being oppressed and not given the same opportunities as these men attending the University. Lauren L.
-
- Oct 2017
-
engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
-
The 1st. duty enjoined on them was to enquire & report a site in some convenient & proper part of the state for an University, to be called the “University of Virginia.”
I find it interesting that they put convenient and proper together when describing where they wished the University to be built upon. What considered a place proper versus improper to the men who contributed to the Rockfish Gap Report? I'm assuming vicinity to well off white communities would have contributed to the proper-ness of a location for the University. Also, what made the founders feel that Charlottesville, Virginia was the most convenient spot for such a prominent site for education?
Lauren L.
-
same advantages to youths whose education may have been neglected untill too late to lay a foundation in the learned languages
When thinking of the creation of the University I imagine privileged white boys attending the University, so when I read this excerpt, I found myself wondering what they meant by "youths whose education may have been neglected". Does this mean young boys who simply were not at the same education level as some of their other peers or perhaps boys of the middle and lower class were also allowed to attend the University if they had the means to attend? I'm assuming it is the first explanation I gave rather than the latter, but I could be mistaken. Nevertheless, the opportunity for whoever it was to catch up and be on the same level as their peers in certain subjects was a smart decision to allow more students to thrive in their studies.
Lauren L.
-