The Future of the American NegroWashington, Booker T.
History
The Future of the American Negro
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans
The problem that the Tuskegee Institute keeps before itself constantly
is how to prepare these leaders. From the outset, in connection with
religious and academic training, it has emphasised industrial, or
hand, training as a means of finding the way out of present
conditions. First, we have found the industrial teaching useful in
giving the student a chance to work out a portion of his expenses
while in school. Second, the school furnishes labour that has an
economic value and at the same time gives the student a chance to
acquire knowledge and skill while performing the labour. Most of all,
we find the industrial system valuable in teaching economy, thrift,
and the dignity of labour and in giving moral backbone to students.
The fact that a student goes into the world conscious of his power to
build a house or a wagon or to make a set of harness gives him a
certain confidence and moral independence that he would not possess
without such training.
A more detailed example of our methods at Tuskegee may be of interest.
For example, we cultivate by student labour seven hundred acres of
land. The object is not only to cultivate the land in a way to make it
pay our boarding department, but at the same time to teach the
students, in addition to the practical work, something of the
chemistry of the soil, the best methods of drainage, dairying,
cultivation of fruit, the care of live-stock and tools, and scores of
other lessons needed by people whose main dependence is on
agriculture.
Friends some time ago provided means for the erection of a large new
chapel at Tuskegee. Our students made the bricks for this chapel. A
large part of the timber was sawed by the students at our saw-mill,
the plans were drawn by our teacher of architectural and mechanical
drawing, and students did the brick-masonry, the plastering, the
painting, the carpentry work, the tinning, the slating, and made most
of the furniture. Practically, the whole chapel was built and
furnished by student labour. Now the school has this building for
permanent use, and the students have a knowledge of the trades
employed in its construction.
While the young men do the kinds of work I have mentioned, young women
to a large extent make, mend, and laundry the clothing of the young
men. They also receive instruction in dairying, horticulture, and
other valuable industries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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