8762. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Studies.—
A material question is what is the
whole term of time which the students can give
to the whole course of instruction? I should
say that three years should be allowed to general
education, and two, or rather three, to the
particular profession for which they are destined.
We [University of Virginia] receive
our students at the age of sixteen, expected to
be previously so far qualified in the languages,
ancient and modern, as that one year
in our schools shall suffice for their last
polish. A student then with us may give his
first year here to languages and mathematics;
his second to mathematics and physics; his third
to physics and chemistry, with the other objects
of that school. I particularize this distribution
merely for illustration, and not as that
which either is, or perhaps ought to be established.
This would ascribe one year to languages,
two to mathematics, two to physics,
and one to chemistry and its associates.—
To Dr. John P. Emmett. Washington ed. vii, 442.
(M.
1826)
