Up from Slavery: An AutobiographyWashington, Booker T.
History
Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Tuskegee Institute; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported for
admission. I was the only teacher. The students were about equally
divided between the sexes. Most of them lived in Macon County, the
county in which Tuskegee is situated, and of which it is the
county-seat. A great many more students wanted to enter the school, but
it had been decided to receive only those who were above fifteen years
of age, and who had previously received some education. The greater
part of the thirty were public-school teachers, and some of them were
nearly forty years of age. With the teachers came some of their former
pupils, and when they were examined it was amusing to note that in
several cases the pupil entered a higher class than did his former
teacher. It was also interesting to note how many big books some of
them had studied, and how many high-sounding subjects some of them
claimed to have mastered. The bigger the book and the longer the name
of the subject, the prouder they felt of their accomplishment. Some had
studied Latin, and one or two Greek. This they thought entitled them to
special distinction.
In fact, one of the saddest things I saw during the month of travel
which I have described was a young man, who had attended some high
school, sitting down in a one-room cabin, with grease on his clothing,
filth all around him, and weeds in the yard and garden, engaged in
studying a French grammar.
The students who came first seemed to be fond of memorizing long and
complicated “rules” in grammar and mathematics, but had little thought
or knowledge of applying these rules to their everyday affairs of their
life. One subject which they liked to talk about, and tell me that they
had mastered, in arithmetic, was “banking and discount,” but I soon
found out that neither they nor almost any one in the neighbourhood in
which they had lived had ever had a bank account. In registering the
names of the students, I found that almost every one of them had one or
more middle initials. When I asked what the “J” stood for, in the name
of John J. Jones, it was explained to me that this was a part of his
“entitles.” Most of the students wanted to get an education because
they thought it would enable them to earn more money as
school-teachers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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