Booker T. Washington, Builder of a CivilizationScott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
History
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization
Scott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
When the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association met in Atlanta, Ga., in 1904, many of the delegates, after
adjournment, visited the Tuskegee Institute. Among these delegates was
Prof. Paul Monroe of the Department of History and Principles of
Education of the Teachers' College of Columbia University. In
recording his impressions of his visit, Professor Monroe says: "My
interest in Tuskegee and a few similar institutions is founded on the
fact that here I find illustrated the two most marked tendencies which
are being formulated in the most advanced educational thought, but are
being worked out slowly and with great difficulty. These tendencies
are: first, the endeavor to draw the subject matter of education, or
the 'stuff' of schoolroom work, directly from the life of the pupils;
and second, to relate the outcome of education to life's activities,
occupations, and duties of the pupil in such a way that the connection
is made directly and immediately between schoolroom work and the other
activities of the person being educated. This is the ideal at
Tuskegee, and, to a much greater extent than in any other institution
I know of, the practice; so that the institution is working along not
only the lines of practical endeavor, but of the most advanced
educational thought. To such an extent is this true that Tuskegee and
Hampton are of quite as great interest to the student of education on
account of the illumination they are giving to educational theory as
they are to those interested practically in the elevation of the Negro
people and in the solution of a serious social problem. May I give
just one illustration of a concrete nature coming under my observation
while at the school, that will indicate the difference between the
work of the school and that which was typical under old conditions, or
is yet typical where the newer ideas, as so well grasped by Mr.
Washington, are not accepted? In a class in English composition two
boys, among others, had placed their written work upon the board, one
having written upon 'Honor' in the most stilted language, with various
historical references which meant nothing to himself or to his
classmates--the whole paragraph evidently being drawn from some
outside source; the other wrote upon 'My Trade--Blacksmithing'--and
told in a simple and direct way of his day's work, the nature of the
general course of training, and the use he expected to make of his
training when completed. No better contrast could be found between the
old ideas of formal language work, dominated by books and cast into
forms not understood or at least not natural to the youth, and the
newer ideas of simplicity, directness, and forcefulness in presenting
the account of one's own experience. Not only was this contrast an
illustration of the ideal of the entire education offered at Tuskegee
in opposition to that of the old, formal, 'literary' education as
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account