Regarding the warning about students as scientists, this is right, and business satirist Scott Adams goes further in “How to Get a Real Education”: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576247143383496656.html – he suggests that B students shouldn’t even be studying science, and I think there’s a kernel of truth there, for high school and university students . Adams’ suggestion is to focus on learning to be entrepreneurs, which I agree does deserve more attention.

I think the U of V was one of the first secular universities in the US (preceded by Benjamin Franklin’s Academy of Pennsylvania created in 1749 and renamed the University of Pennsylvania in 1791) and had a library rather than a church at the center of the campus. Jefferson had other novel ideas for the time. He felt schools should be paid for by the general public, so anyone could attend.

He was ambivalent about conferring certificates or degrees, being drawn to the idea of a living educational community and lifelong learning integrated with an agrarian-based community life.

“Jefferson is widely recognized for his architectural planning of the University of Virginia grounds, an innovative design that is a powerful representation of his aspirations for both state sponsored education and an agrarian democracy in the new Republic. His educational idea of creating specialized units of learning is physically expressed in the configuration of his campus plan, which he called the “Academical Village”… Gardens and vegetable plots are placed behind and surrounded by serpentine walls, affirming the importance of the agrarian lifestyle.” (Wikipedia)

My own vision for intentional community is centered around a university campus and research hospital surrounded by residential and agricultural rings. The final, outer ring is filled with shops, offices, and cottage industries that serve both the campus and the outside world. My fantasy would be for the students, faculty and staff of a financially failing land-grant college to purchase the school and turn it into such an “Academical Eco-Village” for lifelong learning, perhaps when the Republican privatization of state education presents such an opportunity.

PR