There has been an interesting development in the languages that are most widely used across different countries. Here it says that French was "the language of general intercourse among nations", but this is no longer the case. English has taken over and is currently one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. This could be due to the fact that, with universities like this one that focus on a special type of education in which students learn to advance and promote technology and language, many countries want to be in contact with us, which would inevitably expand the English language.

I think these objectives line up pretty well with the objectives of the engagements courses and I don't think that is a coincidence. UVA is all about preserving Thomas Jefferson's original plan for the university, like the Academic Village and the living and learning communities, so I like that with the New Curriculum, we are able to further expand Thomas Jefferson's plan for the university.

This statement goes hand in hand with the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Thomas Jefferson was a huge advocate for separation of church and state and the freedom to choose which religion to practice. He believed religion was a personal matter that government had no place in. This statement really highlights the importance of religious freedom to Thomas Jefferson. The fact that he wrote in the founding document of the University of Virginia that they would propose no professor of Divinity proved that it was an important issue to him that needed to be stressed.

This goes hand in hand with the Declaration of Independence when it says, "All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights." It's evident that equal rights were very important to Thomas Jefferson, after the ill treatment of the American colonies by the British. In his university, he did not want students to feel like they were being controlled and treated unfairly. I also found this statement somewhat ironic. Earlier in the Rockfish Gap Report, it stated that when searching for a plot of land to build the university on, its centrality to the white population of the state was critical. This goes against the statement I highlighted here, because this one is highlighting the importance of equal rights, while the statement about the location of the university being central to the white population highlights only the rights of white men. I guess what Jefferson meant here was that any students should not have their rights violated, and at this time, the only students were white.