- Dec 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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and it cannot be but that each generation succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those who preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions & discoveries, and handing the mass down for successive & constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge & well-being of mankind: not infinitely, as some have said, but indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix or foresee. Indeed we need look back only half a century, to times which many now living remember well, and see the wonderful advances in the sciences & arts which have been made within that period. Some of these have rendered the elements themselves subservient to the purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke of his labours, and effected the great blessings of moderating his own, of accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, & of extending the comforts of life to a much enlarg[ed] circle, to those who had before known it’s necessaries only.
This part is quite interesting to me because it is another example of how the words of our University's founders still ring true today. If one were to say this in this day and age, it would be just as spot-on as back then. With our three main Libraries and even more special collections libraries, the University continues to show how important it is to hold onto the work of our predecessors and build from there. It can also be seen in the architecture of the school; maintaining the different styles of columns along the Lawn and restructuring the Rotunda shows how we can preserve the great works of the past by improving upon them.
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for altho the act authorised & required them to receive any voluntary contributions whether conditional or absolute, which might be offered thro them to the President & Directors of the literary fund, for the benefit of the University, yet they did not consider this as establishing an auction, or as pledging the location to the highest bidder.
I find this to be yet another example of how hard it really is to put a generalized label of "good" or "bad" when considering the rationale of those responsible for the building of the University. On one hand, it's clearly discriminatory and wrong to base the location off of proximity to the white population. However, it can also be seen here that they did not build it in its location bout of greed for money but rather on certain (socially flawed) principles.
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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within the powers of a single professor.
It's incredible to think how much one professor had to handle during these times. It would certainly have been impressive to learn under one of the professors, and I think that the professor-student community feel would be a lot stronger. However, I am much happier in the current area, where there are many professors that teach essentially one or two classes. I think that it shows how differentiated our studies become as we dig deeper into these origin subjects. They are very straightforward, but seem to be too broad to really holistic in their field. The change of these subjects to the courses we have today also illuminate our current values as a contemporary society, just like these portray an image of practicality only in education to me.
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What, but education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our indigenous neighbours? and what chains them to their present state of barbarism & wretchedness, but a besotted veneration for the supposed supe[r]lative wisdom of their fathers and the preposterous idea that they are to look backward for better things and not forward, longing, as it should seem, to return to the days of eating acorns and roots rather than indulge in the degeneracies of civilization.
This is a prime example of why it is so complicated to assess the moral nature of our forefathers. As with Thomas Jefferson, many of our forefathers displayed almost explicit discrimination but also offered logic that made sense whenever it was independent of race, gender, or other demographic aspect. Here, they show obvious racism through their tone of supremacist ideology when referring to the indigenous nature here, most likely being the Native Americans. This shouldn't come as a surprise considering the report already based the school's location on white supremacy. The authors use cold and degrading words to describe the Native Americans, which can only make one scowl in modern times. However, one should agree that they make fair points about education being the key to progression and that looking forward is the best way to bring about growth. This is sound logic when liberated from the supremacy bias of the authors.
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