Education is meant to teach us how to advance and thrive in society. As far as the democratic writing project goes, with Allen's stance of liberty and equality going hand in hand, I believe that this project did not meet the goals set. I feel that there were definitely parallels, but not everything completely lined up. As an alternative, I think that there needs to be more of a student voice giving ideas not just a long text stating principles.

While there is no professor of Divinity because UVa was created to be a secular university, I find it interesting that there was such an emphasis placed on the languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. This is due to having "all sects agree." While this is an interesting road to take for a secular university, since religion was not meant to be the focal point of this university, there is a change that is different today. Now, UVa does not emphasize Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In fact, I know very few people who take classes in those subjects as it is not required now. I feel that today, the curriculum has changed in that it is more flexible with what students can take to satisfy gaining knowledge in a certain field. For languages, a student doesn't necessarily have to take Hebrew, but can instead take Chinese, Russian, French, etc. The language discipline hasn't changed, what has changed is what is offered to satisfy the discipline.

Perhaps education is the only plausible explanation as to why society is in a constant state of advancement. This notion, I believe, is the truth. Education is built upon the grounds of curiosity and stands for innovation; it thrives on the pursuit of discovery. In my opinion, education is the most powerful tool that one could ever hope to yield. The application of one's education is their skillset and only a lack of education can "chain" someone down by shrouding one's perspective and giving him/her an unforgiving and ignorant view of the world. Education is not meant to be a blast from the past, but it is a portal to the future. In order to solve global issues that require more complex thinking than the "days of eating acorns and roots," education is a priceless tool that must be used with the utmost care. This passage reminded me of a famous Nelson Mandela quote, which is, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." I believe in these words of wisdom with all of my being because I have full faith in the power of education and its capacity to fix global issues. If we want to "change the world," then we need education to unchain us from the past, and not "look backward" because we know that there is a brighter future waiting for us to create it.

When I took a moment to think over this quote, I can't help but believe that it's completely true. Education is essentially a tool at its very core, it's a tool that people use in order to further society and innovation. "Education generates habits of application" because it constantly forces us to think about what else could be improved. What skills do we need to do this new procedure? How do we create this new procedure? What is the problem and what can we do to fix it? These are all questions that education answers and with education, people have the ability to not only understand these questions, but to understand the answers given to them by themselves, by colleagues, neighbors, etc. Education is an intangible thing, but it is more valuable than anything one could possibly want. While education doesn't directly control one's morals, it definitely has an influence in what people value, what people think is worlthwhile.