It is interesting to think that any person interested in the arts and any sort of subject that was not considered a part of the core sciences, maths, languages, etc. would be expected to pay their instructors separately and themselves. This has luckily changed, but it indicates the attitude the University of Virginia and it's founders took towards the arts: while they found them to be valuable and helpful, they did not see them as crucial or important sections of education. This rhetoric can even be found today- those seeking a degree in art or music are often teased and ridiculed by society, which encourages them to find a more useful area of work. Although arts and the abstract are slowly being weaved into modern education, clearly there is more work to be done before they are fully integrated and accepted as valuable.

Sydney Lear

This is a particularly difficult quotation to read in the Report. While one one hand it serves to highlight the enormous benefits the founders of UVA believed were gained from education, but on the other it blatantly displays the racist rhetoric surrounding the university at its founding. The "indigenous neighbors" referred to are likely Native Americans, and the use of the phrase "barbarism and wretchedness" truly indicates the feelings many white people had towards indigenous people. This quotation upholds a long history of educated white men looking down upon those who were different and/or not afforded the same opportunities as they were.

Sydney Lear

This line in the report highlights the supreme value UVA’s founders placed on reading and books. This value is reflected in many elements of the report, and even in the design of the University. UVA was the first university to be designed around the focal point of a library (the Rotunda), rather than a church. Throughout its conception and execution, the University of Virginia was designed for and around books and the pursuit of knowledge. The founders wanted UVA to be purely a place of learning, curiosity, and exploration, uncorrupted by the motivations of the church. Reading was central to the development of the University, and Jefferson and the other founders believed it was essential for developing a well rounded man.

It is an interesting notion that a university's place both the world and the lives of young people should be more than academic; in this sentence, the writers of the Rockfish Gap Report postulate that a university also bears the responsibility of providing a social education to its students. In today's world, college is indeed viewed as an environment in which social interaction plays a huge role, but few would think to entrust the University itself with the task of providing this type of education. The inclusion of this notion in the report shows how dedicated the University's founders were to providing a well balanced, enjoyable life. The idea that a university should include social education in it's curriculum is beneficial to students in not only their college careers, but their social and working lives ahead.