OPINIONS OF
EDUCATORS
REGARDING
THE TUSKEGEE NORMAL
AND INDUSTRIAL
INSTITUTE
From Members of
the Department of Superintendence
of the
National Educational
Association
1916
Typesetting and Presswork by
Tuskegee Students
FOREWORD
In February, 1911, at the time of the meeting of the
Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association, at Mobile, Alabama, several hundred delegates
to this convention took advantage of the opportunity af¬
forded to visit, either on their way to, or from Mobile, the
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. These visits
to the school, which were made at different times by groups
of teachers from different parts of the country, extended
over a week or more.
The program of these visits was usually arranged to per¬
mit the visitors to look over and study the different depart¬
ments of the school for the greater part of the day, and
then, late in the afternoon, there would be an assembly in
the Institute Chapel of the whole body of students and
teachers, as far as could be spared from their various duties
in connection with the work of the school.
At these meetings, several prominent members of the
party would be called upon to speak. Usually, in the course
of their remarks, they would make some reference to what
they had observed during their visit to the Institute and
say something to emphasize the value and importance of
the work that the school is trying to do. Thus, in the
course of these visits a number of the most prominent edu¬
cators in the United States were heard from.
The Tuskegee Student, one of the publications of the
institution, reported the visit of the educators in part as
follows:
The Department of Superintendence of the National
Educational Association held a meeting in Mobile, Ala¬
bama, last week. Prior to the meeting and afterwards,
Tuskegee Institute was visited by a considerable number
of educators. The larger number of these arrived on Wed¬
nesday, February 22nd, and were met by officers of the
school and guides who conducted them through the academic
classes of the school, through the mechanical shops, through
the Office Building, through Dorothy Hall, and through most
of the divisions of the Agricultural Department.
It was an inspiring thing on Wednesday to have this
group of educators from all parts of the country, from
points as widely distant as the New England States, Col¬
orado and Minnesota, when they assembled at the Baldwin
Monument, to review the students as they passed into din¬
ner at noon. After this inspection, the visitors were taken
through the Students' Dining Room, through the Kitchens
and Bakery, and were themselves served at luncheon in the
grove to the rear of White Memorial Hall.
At 8 o'clock the whole party assembled in the Institute
Chapel where a number of particularly helpful and inter¬
esting addresses were made. Among those who spoke were:
Mr. Charles Allen Prosser, Def Commissioner of Educa¬
tion for the State of Massachusetts; Mr. A. L. Rafter, As¬
sistant Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Massachusetts;
Mr. Arthur K. Whitcomb, Superintendent of Schools, Lowell,
Massachusetts; Mr. Vernon L. Davey, Superintendent of
Schools, East Orange, New Jersey; Miss E. E. Thompson,
Superintendent of Schools, Fort Fairfield, Maine; Mr.
Arthur D. Call, Superintendent of Schools, Hartford, Con-
3
4'
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
necticut; Professor Ernest Carroll Moore, Yale University;
and Superintendent of Schools Coburn, Battle Creek, Michi¬
gan.
Mr. Prosser spoke in part as follows: "I believe that
we all think that industrial education is coming to stay in
this country. The kind of education that trains all kinds
of men all kinds of ways for all kinds of things is the kind
of education needed, and when some time in the distant
future the history of the movement for industrial educa¬
tion is written, high upon its roll of honor will stand the
names of Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee, and the
Trustees and benefactors who from time to time have
served this institution so loyally and so well.
"None of us came here today just for the ride. We came
because we wanted to render on this twenty-second day
of February our tribute to an institution which is doing as
much to solve the problem of American citizenship as any
within its borders; we came here because we wanted to be
confirmed in our faith of what we believe to be true stand¬
ards in vocational education, true methods of preparing
boys and girls, whether they be colored or white, for the
trades and industries and occupations which they are to
follow in life."
Mr. Arthur K. Whitcomb, Superintendent of Schools,
Lowell, Massachusetts, in expressing to the students his
interest in the work of the institution said: "I came here
indeed to see the school in a small measure, but I came here
mainly to see you; for it is not the school, but you, who are
to make the men and women of the next generation. As I
stood on the corner, I noted the alert bearing and the erect
forms of the young men and women as they marched by
on their way to dinner, for I was interested in you a thou¬
sand times more than I was in the school, for it is on you
that results must fundamentally depend.
"I wish I could make you understand for a moment the
real earnest sympathy I have with you and the interest I
have in you. The whole country has its eyes fixed upon
you, waiting to see what you will do for this school and for
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
5
your race. Therefore, give to the world the very best serv¬
ice, in the belief that you have the sympathy of the whole
country. God be with you!"
Assistant Superintendent of Schools Rafter, of Bos¬
ton, Massachusetts, said, among other things: "What Tus-
kegee is doing for you we are going to take on home to the
North. You are doing what we are talking about. We wonder
if we could teach farming up there. You are doing it here.
So all power to you !"
Professor Ernest Carroll Moore, of Yale University,
after expressing his wonder and admiration at what he
had seen, said: "I have been hoping for a time when the
masses of the people in the United States might have a
demonstration of the reality of the work of the colored peo¬
ple of the South, and I have been making this a pious pil¬
grimage and saying: 'This is the thing I have wanted for
years to see. This is the thing I have wanted these other
folks to see. This is the thing that the whole world has
wanted to see for all these years.' And like the vision to
the Queen of Sheba, it is much greater than we had hoped
for, very much larger than we had expected to find."
Mr. Vernon L. Davey, Superintendent of Schools, East
Orange, New Jersey, in voicing the sentiments of the large
number of New Jersey educators who were present, said:
"We came here to see a great institution. We have seen
things with which we have been immensely delighted, but
I know I speak the sentiment of every one when I say that
the greatest part, the thing that has been of most value
and of most interest to us, is this audience of students
which is right here before us now. We have to face a good
many students in our schools in the North. We do not face
students, as a rule, who are so earnest, so enthusiastic, so
full of vim, of energy and of determination as those we
have seen today. I want to say that a lot of us are
going away from here today having learned a great deal,
and some things will be done up North next week, next
month, and next year which had their beginning right here
from this visit today."
6
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
Mr. Arthur D. Call, Superintendent of Schools, Hart¬
ford, Connecticut, said: "This has been a great inspiration
to me. Some years ago I committed to memory a selection
from Emerson, and today I have seen it fulfilled and the
significance of it made prominent in a way that I have
never seen before. The words run something like this: 'If
a man write a better book, or preach a better sermon, or
make a better basket than his neighbor, though he build
his home in a wilderness, the world shall make a beaten
path to his door.'
"Back through the years of my experience I have been
trying to build a sort of ladder. I have never had a course
in the Tuskegee carpenter shop and I do not know but what
this ladder of mine is a bit rickety, and as I hear various
discussions pro and con on modern education, it seems that
my ladder was about to fall to the ground. But after what
I have seen today, it seems that my ladder is more firmly
set on the ground than ever before."
On Saturday, another large body of superintendents
reached the school grounds. These persons were also shown
through the school departments and grounds, and a con¬
siderable number of them remained overnight, and spent
the Sabbath here. Among those present from abroad at
the regular Sunday evening Chapel services were: Miss
Georgia A. Seaman, Principal of the Bradwell School, Chi¬
cago ; Miss Elizabeth Farson, Principal of the Libby School,
Chicago; Miss Grace Reed, Principal of the Francis E. Wil-
lard School, Chicago; Miss Ida Pahlman, Principal of the
McCosh School, Chicago; Miss Abby E. Lane, Principal of
the Carter Practice School, Chicago; Mr. G. A. Mirick, As¬
sistant Superintendent of Schools, Indianapolis, Indiana,
and Mrs. Mirick; Rev. W. P. Boshart, of Montreal, Canada,
and Mrs. Boshart; Mr. H. R. Pattengill, former State Super¬
intendent of Schools, Michigan; and Mr. Mason S. Stone,
Superintendent of Education for the State of Vermont.
Lack of space pervents us from quoting herewith more
than a short extract from the excellent talks given by the
speakers on this occasion;
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
7
Mr. Mirick: "I am carrying away a great deal more than
I expected. You have made Tuskegee a name for all the
world."
Mr. Pattengill: "This is a red letter day for me. Since
coming here I have not had time to draw my breath."
Miss Dean : "I came South expecting to see many beauti¬
ful flowers and plants. But the finest plant I have ever
seen in the North, East, West or South, is the educational
plant here at Tuskegee Institute."
Miss Farson: "Tomorrow I would go a thousand miles
to see this school again."
Miss Seaman: "I came to learn. If I carry back only a
little bit of the joy and helpfulness I have seen at Tuskegee,
I shall be more than pleased."
Miss Pahlman : "Here in Tuskegee, so far as I can see,
the thing most lacking is idleness."
Mr. Boshart : "I not only want to congratulate Mr. Wash¬
ington as a leader, but I also want to congratulate him
upon the materials he has to work with. I have seen a
happier lot of faces tonight than any I have ever seen, and
I have visited schools in Europe, Canada, China and Japan.
I have never seen a happier and more intelligent looking
body of students in all my experience."
Monday morning a party of 65 of the superintendents
came to the school. About 30 of them were able to re¬
main only until 1:40 o'clock, but the rest stayed until the
evening train. At three o'clock the whole student body,
the teachers and families assembled in the Chapel, and
addresses were made by the visitors. Among the important
persons who composed the visiting party on Monday and
some of whom spoke in Chapel were: Mr. H. F. Estill, Pres¬
ident of Sam Houston State Normal Institute, Huntsville,
Texas; Mr. R. M. Tryon, Superintendent of Schools, Madi¬
son, Wisconsin; Mr. J. H. Binford, Executive Secretary Co¬
operative Education Association of Virginia; Mr. R. E.
Cavanaugh, Superintendent of Schools, Salem, Mass.; Mr.
8
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
Jackson Davis, State Superintendent of Rural Schools, Rich¬
mond, Virginia; Mr. D. H. Christianson, Superintendent of
Schools, Salt Lake City, Utah; Mr. H. V. P. Garver, Super¬
intendent of Schools, Harrisburg, Pa.; Mr. C. D. Koch, In¬
spector State High Schools, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Mr.
Samuel Hamilton, Superintendent Allegheny County Penn¬
sylvania Schools, Braddock, Pennsylvania; Mr. R. B. Tie-
trick, Deputy State Superintendent of Schools, Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania; W. M. Pierce, Superintendent of Schools,
Ridgeway, Pennsylvania; Mr. Oran Lipe, President Millers-
ville Normal School, Millersville, Pennsylvania; Mr. J.
George Becht, Principal Clarion Normal School, Clarion,
Pennsylvania.
Superintendent Hamilton, who was among the speak¬
ers on Monday afternoon, said in part: "I want to bring to
you the greetings of 1,800 teachers, 70,000 school children,
and a million people who live in Allegheny County, Penn¬
sylvania, and who are interested in your Institute and in
your work here. I want to say that I have been a teacher
of music myself, and live in a country where 10,000 school
chidren read music at sight. But I have never heard music
anywhere sweeter than the music sung by your choir here
this afternoon. This is a great credit to you. Of all the
many audiences I have ever seen, I think this is the most
inspiring."
Mr. Tietrick said: "After what I have learned and seen
here today, I shall be able to credit anything to Tuskegee
Institute in the future. I have seen everything from chick¬
ens to mules, from Jew's-harps to pianos, but the splendid
dinner we had today served by the young women in the
Domestic Science Department, shows that you are learn¬
ing to cook as well as to spell. I know of no institution like
Tuskegee anywhere in the world, and men and women are
glad to make a pilgrimage to it."
Mr. Jackson Davis, State Superintendent of Rural
Schools of Virginia, said: "I am glad to be able to see the
work you are doing here at Tuskegee in your class rooms.
I have seen some of the best teaching I have ever seen.
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
9
I saw in your departments an earnestness and a real pur¬
pose that I know will mean great progress and development
in the South in the years to come. My work in Virginia is
that of improving the colored schools and I have gotten
more enjoyment and more pleasure out of it than anything
I have ever done."
Continuing its report of the visit, The Student said:
Traveling in two special Pullman cars- the last of the
large parties of superintendents, principals and teachers
that have visited Tuskegee Institute during the past two
weeks, arrived Friday morning, March 3rd, from Dayton,
Ohio, led by Mr. Edwin J. Brown, Superintendent of Schools
of that city. Every one of the sixty-five members of the
party is at present engaged in teaching in Dayton, and
great interest was manifested by them in the academic
and industrial work of the institution.
The meeting at 3:30 o'clock in the Chapel was one of
special interest to the student body and to the teachers.
Being from Dayton, a great many of the visitors had
known the late poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the talks
made by various members of the party were tinctured
throughout with friendly references to their former fellow-
townsman. Miss Ellen Tomlinson, principal of the Willard
School, Dayton, was present and stated that Dunbar had
at one time been a pupil of hers. "And I am proud to say,"
she added, "that he was one of the brightest pupils I had."
Superintendent Brown also stated that he had been one of
Dunbar's close friends, and that he knew of the pleasure
Paul's mother would have when we went back to Dayton
and told her how much Tuskegee revered her son's memory.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar was a worker," said Mr. Brown,
"just as every one of you. It seems to me that this great
institution should have over its portals the motto, BE
READY, for if there is any place on earth where they are
training young men and women to be ready, it is at Tus¬
kegee. I want to congratulate you upon your splendid
teachers; I want to congratulate you upon yourselves. You
are worth while, for if you were not good people, you would
not be here.
10
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
"I saw in Chicago not long ago a play called, 'The Melt¬
ing Pot/ The central theme of this play was the blending
of all the various European races that come into this coun¬
try into one people—the pure gold of American citizenship.
I feel quite sure that with such wonderful leadership and
with such splendid teaching you cannot fail to be turned
out pure gold, for this place, Tuskegee, is one of the earth's
greatest and best melting pots."
Miss Grace A. Green, principal of the Dayton Normal
School, said in part: "If it were mine to have my wish ful¬
filled today, I would wish that every child in this country
might have the teaching with spirit and method that you
have. May there come to every teacher in this land the
enthusiasm and the devotion that I have seen today."
*
Mr. Charles L. Loos, Jr., principal of the Steele High
School, Dayton, said: "I am glad to see standing out in the
work at Tuskegee the dominant idea that everything that
is done should be done with a view to practical utility.
Every problem that I heard in the arithmetic classes to¬
day, every sentence that I heard in the English classes,
seemed to have that idea in view. You are throwing away
all those things that are of no service, and are giving your¬
selves the things that are useful and practical."
Mr. Ebenezer Mackey, Superintendent of Schools, Tren¬
ton, New Jersey, who was also present at this meeting, said:
"It is a mark of distinction throughout the North generally
to be a graduate or former student of Tuskegee Institute.
It is little short of miraculous what your Principal has done
here in a few short years. I know of nothing in this age
more inspiring than the progress that has been made by
this institution. This whole day has been to me one of
tremendous inspiration and practical suggestion. I am full
of good things to carry back to my schools. More especially
have I been impressed with the splendid spirit of earnest¬
ness that I have seen everywhere. I am only sorry that I
cannot stay longer to drink in more fully the wonders of
this great school."
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
11
The Choir, the Band, and many of the Institute teachers
gathered at the Terminal Station inside the grounds to bid
the Ohio party adieu. The two special Pullman cars pulled
out to the accompaniment of songs, strains of music from
the Band, and the waving of hats and handkerchiefs.
The visits of these teachers, as well as the visits of other
educators which have been chronicled in these columns and
which continued for the greater part of two weeks, have
been most helpful to officers, teachers and students alike.
This year has been an especially happy one for Tuskegee.
It has had many critical as well as sympathetic visitors
who have in many ways helped to confirm the school in the
opinion that its methods are worthy of emulation, and all
of whom have been particularly jubilant in their praise not
only of the spirit of earnestness and enthusiasm of the
teachers in the class room, but of the students as well.
Among the addresses delivered during the visit of the
educators above mentioned we reprint that made by Mr.
Charles Allen Prosser, Deputy Commissioner of Education
for the State of Massachusetts.
Mr. Prosser spoke as follows:
"It seems certain that industrial education is coming, and
coming to stay in this country. When in the hour of its
triumph, the history of the movement for those forms of
education that train men in all kinds of ways for all kinds
of things is written, high upon its roll of honor will stand
the names of Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee, and the
trustees and benefactors who from time to time served this
institution so loyally and so well.
"None of us have come here today just for the ride. We
came in part because this is a famous institution which
we all wanted to see; we came in part because we wanted
to render on this twenty-second of February our tribute to
an institution that is doing so much to solve the most per¬
plexing problems in American citienship. Some of us came
here because we wanted to be confirmed in our faith in what
we believe to be true standards in vocational education, true
methods of preparing boys and girls, whether they be col-
12
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
ored or white, for the trades and industries and occupations
which they are to follow in life.
"It is becoming increasingly apparent that there are two
different kinds of education, both of which are necessary
in the life of every citizen, liberal education and vocational
education. Liberal education precedes vocational educa¬
tion; it is a general education, or foundation which boys
and girls should have before they fit themselves for special
callings in life. Liberal education is the kind of education
we get in the regular public schools, in the elementary
school, in the high school, in the college and in the uni¬
versity.
"Vocational education is the kind of education that def¬
initely fits boys and girls and men and women for callings
in life. When vocational education fits for the practice of
medicine or law or theology we call it professional educa¬
tion ; when it fits for the successful pursuit of farming we
call it agricultural education; when it sends a girl home
prepared to be a better home-maker we call it household
arts education; when it sends the boy into the industries
to be a more effective machinist or carpenter or blacksmith
we call it industrial education; when it fits the boy to sail
the high seas we call it nautical education.
"The difference between a liberal education and a voca¬
tional education lies not only in the fact that the first
precedes the second and prepares for it, but also in the
fact that in the two kinds of training the emphasis is laid
in each upon a different purpose. In liberal education
the emphasis is laid upon culture; in vocational education
the emphasis is laid upon the vocation or the vocational
training; yet each has within it, in a subordinate way, the
aim which the other has emphasized. We can represent
liberal education by a large 'C' with a small V' inside of
it. This is but saying in other words that liberal education
seeks as its highest end culture and general training, but
that much of this culture and general training has within
it vocational values which the boy will be able to utilize
in future life.
"It is equally true that we may represent vocational edu-
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
13
cation by a large 'V' with a small 'c' inside of it. The
direct aim in vocational education is to fit for a calling,
hence the large emphasis is laid upon the vocational
studies and the success of the school is measured by the
efficiency of its graduates in the trades and industries and
occupations and professions which they enter. The pres¬
ence of the small 'c' inside the large 'V' indicates, however,
that every bit of the work which is being taught as voca¬
tional preparation, every bit of instruction which is being
given is disciplinary and cultural as well. In this sense Tus-
kegee, while it is a vocational school, is at the same time a
liberal and cultural school. In this school boys and girls
have come to the time in life when there is a shifting of
emphasis in their training. In their schooling before reach¬
ing this institution the emphasis was laid upon the liberal
and cultural ends. Studies were selected for the general
training which they were supposed to confer. In this voca¬
tional school, however, since you are pursuing the voca¬
tional end, studies are selected largely for their practical
value to you in the pursuits which you are to undertake in
life. Yet this is done at the same time in the full confidence
that the successful pursuit of these studies will yield as
large returns in the culture and discipline of the mind as
any others that could be chosen. Tuskegee has then, first
of all, taught us the great need of vocational education that
will fit boys and girls for effective service in the ordinary
callings in life. It has been a pioneer in holding out the
idea that the studies in a school striving to so fit boys and
girls should be chosen for the utilitarian value to a large
extent, and that in and through them mind as well as hand
and eye could be well trained.
"Vocational education is the superstructure built upon
liberal education as a foundation. Liberal education might
in this sense be termed pre-vocational education. Vocational
education may begin at different points, according to the
ambition, the ability and the opportunity of the pupil, and
to the kind of a calling for which he is seeking preparation.
Some men pass through the university before they begin
work in vocational schools, such as law schools, medical
14
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
schools, engineering schools. Some enter professional
schools to be fitted for their life work at the close of a col¬
lege course; some take upon themselves vocational prepara¬
tion at the close of the high school course. The normal
school in this country today is a vocational school which
takes boys and girls at the close of their high school careers
and prepares them for the profession of teaching. The new
note in industrial and agricultural education today is that,
if it is right to offer vocational schools branching off after
the close of a university or a college or a high school career,
it is equally right to offer vocational schools for the train¬
ing of boys and girls who between fourteen and eighteen
years of age require definite training for the work which
they are to do in life. One large service which institutions
like Tuskegee have rendered the country is that they have
emphasized the idea that there should be vocational schools
for the definite training of boys and girls for the farm and
for the industries and for the home after they have become
fourteen years of age.
"There is a sense in which liberal education is a grand
trunk or a through line railroad stretching from kinder¬
garten to university, and that vocational education con¬
sists of a series of side tracks or spurs leading off from the
main line at different points, at the close of the university
career, at the close of the college career, at the close of the
high-school career. The friends of industrial and agricul¬
tural and household arts education today are saying this,
'All hail, liberal and cultural education! May it live long
and prosper, and do more in the future than it has in the
past in sending the boys and girls who are to be leaders in
all the callings of life on toward successful and useful ca¬
reers.' Let us keep the main line of general education clear
all the way through from one end of the road to the other:
let us provide steel cars, good ballast and efficient trainmen
who can keep the train on schedule time; and let us have
everybody travel on this road as far as they wish or as far
as they can.
"Let us preserve the open door for all those who are look¬
ing forward to college and professional careers, but let us
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
15
not forget that we owe it to every American citizen to train
him to be efficient in whatever task in life falls to his lot.
Let us build out the side tracks which today we call voca¬
tional education, and let us be as solicitous about giving to
those who are to be farmers and mechanics and home-
makers the training which they need for the work which
they are to do as we have been solicitous about the welfare
of more fortunate classes in life.
"Tuskegee has helped to teach the friends of industrial
and agricultural education in this country the fundamental
principle that effective vocational education of any kind re¬
quires practice or experience in the calling and thinking
about that practice or experience; requires the doing of
things combined with the study about that doing. In pro¬
portion as practice and the theory lying back of that prac¬
tice can be combined closely together, can vocational edu¬
cation be made effective. The industrial training of this
institution is based upon the idea that the boy must first
of all do the thing; he must keep the poultry, tend the cow,
take care of the orchard, make the shoes, set the type; and
she must launder the clothes, cook the food and set the
table, trim the hat, make the dress and nurse the sick and
the injured. On basis of the practical activities which these
boys and girls are performing they are receiving from time
to time at the moment when they need it the related in¬
struction in mathematics and drawing and science that lie
back of the best methods in the work and enable them to
climb the highest levels of skill.
"Tuskegee seems to have recognized from the first the
necessity that a vocational school should be a finishing
school and not a preparatory school. A vocational school,
whether it be professional, agricultural or industrial, if it
serves its purpose aright, does not prepare for more prep¬
aration; it fits for a definite calling or pursuit in life. We
have been perfectly willing to recognize this principle in
determining the work and the methods of professional
schools. The purpose of the law school has long been rec¬
ognized as being to fit for law, not to prepare the lawyer
to take more preparation; the medical school has long had
16
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
for its end the fitting of the doctor for the practice of his
profession, not to prepare him to take more preparation,
but to fit him for the thing he is to do. The normal school
has of late come to see as its task the training of boys and
girls to be effective teachers, not to fit them with the idea
that a few might seek to enter college. Strange to say, we
have been unwilling to accept this principle in regard to the
industrial school and the agricultural school. Tuskegee is
helping us to see that a vocational school is a finishing
school within itself, that its mission is to give the boy and
girl a chance to do the thing that he is willing to do and
that he is fit to do, hence all of its training must focus in
the ability of the boy or the girl to perform a task. Work
must be taught in the school for its practical, not its de¬
ferred value.
"Another fundamental thing in vocational education
which those in charge at Tuskegee seem to have recognized
from the start has been the necessity that the pupil in his
practical training should participate in productive work.
If vocational education for the industries and for agricul¬
ture is to be effective it must bring about a close adjust¬
ment to the calling. In order to bring about a close adjust¬
ment the training must be real, and in order that the train¬
ing may be real, it is necessary that the boy should partic¬
ipate in the work of a productive shop and in the work of
a productive farm. If industrial or agricultural education
is to be real, if it is to be educative, the boy must have a
real experience in real things. This means that he must
participate in training that is carried on upon a commer¬
cial basis, that the thing which he produces must have a
value in the market. This is but saying in other words that
to be trained effectively in vocational education, the boy
must either in a shop under a school roof or in a shop co¬
operating with the school, get a job and carry on that job
as the world carries it on, turning out some product that he
is conscious contributes to the needs of the world around
him.
"Tuskegee seems also to have recognized that there are
two fundamental principles in teaching which must be fol-
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
17
lowed in a vocational school. These principles seem to be
equally applicable to liberal and cultural education. These
two principles are that the boy must be taught on basis of
what he knows, what he thinks, what he is doing, and on
basis of the things in which he is interested. It is only by
appealing to the child's knowledge and interest that any
education that is of value can be conferred upon him. This
is particularly true in the case of the boys and girls who
ask for practical training in industry and agriculture since,
as a class, they learn more by seeing, handling and making
things than they do from books. They can grasp principles
and theories when these principles and theories are taught
to them gradually through the medium of the practical ac¬
tivities which they are performing and are applied by them
in the work of the shop and farm. In the best industrial
and agricultural schools of the country today, notably at
Tuskegee, the effort is being made to utilize the experience
of the boy in the shop or farm as the basis from which to
teach him all the related technical and academic work which
he needs. He can be taught spelling best by spelling the
names of the tools and material which he uses over and
over again; he can be taught calculations best and even the
fundamental processes in arithmetic best by working out
the problems that are involved in or applied to the work
which he is doing; he can be taught English best by using
the experiences which he is undergoing as a basis for oral
and written expressions; he can be taught the principles of
science best by having pointed out to him their application
in the little industrial or agricultural world in which he is
laboring. Finally, the success of this institution proves the
educative value of experience. Books are but the shadow
of reality, the photograph of the thing which one encounters
in the real experience of life. As certainly as travel is more
educative than the reading of books about travel, so organ¬
ized experience, rightly bestowed, is more educative than the
book which merely summarizes that experience. The ef¬
fort of the vocational school is to utilize experience as the
basis of instruction and the book as the summary and de¬
pository of knowledge. The success of those who have gone
18
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
out from this and from other vocational schools points to
the fact that while seeking a vocational end, minds have
been quickened and strengthened and characters bettered
in the things that make for a better citizenship."
We also reprint the address of Mr. Arthur Deerin Call,
Superintendent of Schools, Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Call
said: "Today has been an inspiration to me, also. Some
time ago I gathered from one of Emerson's Essays a passage
which I have seen fulfilled and illustrated here today as we
shall rarely see elsewhere upon earth. Emerson's words
run something like this: 'If a man write a better book, or
preach a better sermon, or make a better basket than his
neighbor, though he build his home in the wilderness, the
world will make a beaten path to his door.'
"Back through the years of my experience, my friends,
I find that I have been trying to build a sort of ladder.
I have never had a course in a carpenter's shop such as you
splendidly have here at Tuskegee, and I have had fears that
this ladder of mine is a bit rickety; indeed, as I hear the va¬
rious discussions pro and con about modern education, it has
seemed from time to time that this cherished ladder of mine
was about to fall to the ground. And still, after what I
have seen and heard here today, I am encouraged to believe
that it is more firmly set upon the good earth than ever
before.
"While you sit there and look on may I strive to place the
rounds of this ladder before you? The first and bottom
round of the ladder we may call information. I suspect that
you and I will agree that we must know how to read and
Write, to add a little, substract a little, in short, that we
must know a few things if we are going to get along suc¬
cessfully in this world.
"Information is of some importance, but I judge that
more important than mere information is accuracy. Large
concerns spend vast sums each year to correct the mis¬
takes of their employees. Accuracy is a salable ability,
worth dollars and cents in the open marts of trade. So the
second round in this ladder I call accuracy.
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
19
"Still more important than the round of information or
the round of accuracy is the round of self-control. By self-
control I mean the ability to control one's self at a crisis,
to put forth power when power is needed, to say No when
one should say No, or to say Yes when one should say Yes.
"A next and more important round is the round of health,
physical health. While there have been certain exceptions,
the general rule is that success depends very largely upon
a good digestion, a good circulation, a clean, healthy, rested
body. . »
"But above these rounds I would place another higher up.
I name this round with some fear and trembling because
the word is often construed to mean stuck-up-itiveness. It
is culture. It stands for the ability to appreciate the
beautiful in the arts, in human behavior, in life generally.
It stands for the power to associate with one's fellows kind¬
ly and efficiently.
'Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk?
At rich men's table eaten bread and pulse?
Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust?
And loved so well a high behavior,
In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained,
Nobility more nobly to repay?
0, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!'
Emerson called this forbearance, I also call it culture, a
very important round in this ladder of ours.
"Then there is a more significant round than any of these.
It is the top round, and in looking for a name for it I have
had some trouble. Sometimes I think I ought to have three
names. Adapting from Horace Bushnell we might call it
grit, grace and gumption, these three abide, but the great¬
est of these is gumption. And yet our language presents
one word which includes these three, it is the word char¬
acter, by which is meant the sum of all of the qualities to
which I have already referred, information, accuracy, self-
control, health, culture, grit, grace and gumption.
"So, my friends, this is my ladder. Six rounds in it, in-
20
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
formation, accuracy, self-control, health, culture, character.
I feel that it rests upon the earth, and that its top reaches
to the stars."
The following article from the Lansing (Mich.) Journal
also refers to the visit of these educators to Tuskegee:
"Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington's school at
Tuskegee, Alabama, as embodying one of the modern mir¬
acles, was the subject of an address delivered Sunday by
Henry R. Pattengill before the Sociology class of First
Baptist Church. Mr. Pattengill recently visited the Tus¬
kegee Institute for several days and has prepared a series
of four addresses on the school. The first, "A Modern Mir¬
acle," delivered Sunday, was a general summing up of what
the school has done for the Negro race, the second will be
"A Sunday at Tuskegee," showing the religious influences
of the school; the third, "A Monday at Tuskegee," will pic¬
ture the school in every-day work, and the last of the
series will be a sketch of Booker T. Washington. He said:
DID THE IMPOSSIBLE
"Surely this is a modern miracle. Forty years ago peo¬
ple would have thought it impossible—impossible that in
40 years there could be a great school of the proportions
and influence of the Tuskegee Institute. After 250 years
of slavery the Negroes were in a frightful condition. They
were uneducated, crushed, weak and many of them vicious.
There were some 4,000,000 in all. The Southerners were
horrified at the thought of freeing the slaves; they saw
their soil going to ruin and their means of support disap¬
pearing. They believed that the great hordes of Negroes
freed would become wild and uncontrollable. They struggled
against freeing the slaves and believed it wrong to help
them in any way. It was in this state of affairs that the
Negroes were turned loose.
"A young Negro lad, a freed slave boy, working in a
Virginia mine, heard of the Hampton Institute at Hamp¬
ton, Va., which educated Negroes and Indians. He longed
for an education, so with the help of his mother, he pre-
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
21
pared to leave home. He walked to Hampton Institute. He
neither could read nor write when he started in but in a
few years he graduated.
START OF THE SCHOOL
"At this time a call was s«nt out for a man to take charge
of a proposed school for the education of Negroes at Tus-
kegee. The Negro lad, Booker T. Washington, was chosen
for the place. The school opened July 4, 1881, in a rented
church with one teacher and 30 pupils. The legislature had
appropriated $2,000 for the school. In 1893 the school was
incorporated with 100 acres and three buildings and the
school was placed in full charge of Washington. It was the
spirit that made the school what it is, the spirit that per¬
vades the institution now, the spirit of vigor and life, the
spirit of 'get up and do, keep doing, amount to something,
and help the world along.' Now there is a 2,000 school popu¬
lation, including 174 teachers, officers and employees. The
educational plant includes 2,350 acres, and 25,000 acres
granted by Congress as an endowment fund. Every bit of
work on the campus has been done by students. The archi¬
tects were graduates of the school, as were the contractors;
every brick, every board in the magnificent buildings on
the campus have been made and laid by students.
THREE BRANCHES OP STUDY
"There are three branches of education given—academic,
industrial and spiritual. The academic course includes
mathematics, history, grammar, literature, geography, and
all of the other studies of the academic course. In the In¬
dustrial Department more than 40 vocations are taught—
farming, carpentry, masonry, brick making, blacksmithing,
printing and binding, architecture, plumbing, canning, shoe-
making, tailoring, gardening and landscape architecture,
upholstery, and nearly every other occupation known to
man. Farming is the great industry of the school. The
students not only make all of their own garments and pay
for them, but they do work for outsiders, and the students
of 1910 paid $14,457 toward the expenses of the school.
22
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
"The spiritual work of the school is strong. The Tus-
kegee school stands fifth in the United States in number of
students studying the Bible, that is, counting denomina¬
tional and religious schools and schools with much larger
enrollments than that of the Tuskegee school.
"The girls are taught millinery, dressmaking, nursing,
laundering, basket and mat making, and domestic science.
The senior girls have a house of which they have the entire
care to insure their efficiency.
SEVEN THOUSAND GRADUATES
"Seven thousand young men and women have been gradu¬
ated from this institution and dozens of smaller educational
institutions have been established by the graduates as well
as other students. The South is becoming dotted all over
with the little auxiliaries to the Tuskegee Institute.
"And all this has happened, this miracle h^s been
brought about because slavery was abolished and a little
slave boy became inspired with the longing for education
for himself and his race."
In general, the remarks upon the occasion of these meet¬
ings were by no means of the usual or perfunctory sort,
but were so cordial and so thoroughly appreciative of the
work of the school, that it was deemed advisable, if pos¬
sible, to gather the opinions expressed together in some
permanent form, as a testimonial to the character of the
work undertaken and an estimate of the efficiency with
which it is being done.
In accordance with this proposal, the following letter was
sent out by Principal Washington to the educators whose
names and addresses had been preserved at the school:
"I am writing you what may seem to be rather an un¬
usual request. I did not put the matter before you while
you were upon the grounds, because I hardly thought it fair
to do so. Now, however, that you have seen what we are
trying to do and have had long enough time to think over
your impressions, I am going to ask you, if you care to do
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
23
so, to write me a few lines telling what your impression of
our work is, in order that I may print it and give it, per¬
haps later, to the public in some form or other.
"What I should like would be some sort of discriminating
comment or criticism of our work in general or some partic¬
ular feature of it which attracted your attention—such
comment as would give anyone who is interested, a more
definite and accurate notion of our work, of its importance
and possibilities, than they would be able to get from the
ordinary sources. Please understand that I want you to be
perfectly frank. Say anything in praise of our work, if
there is anything to be said in that direction, or say any¬
thing in adverse critcism of it. We are a public institution
and are ready for praise or blame. Criticism in either direc¬
tion, I am sure will prove helpful.
"I have two objects in view; one is to get a statement
that might help to ease the financial burden which I am
constantly struggling under; the other is, you might say
something that would enable us to do our work better and
to get better results. We are very glad that you had a
chance to be with us and hope you will come again when¬
ever you can."
The extracts that follow are taken from some of the
replies received in response to the foregoing letter:
From Mr. Arch L. Bell,
Superintendent of Schools, Ottawa, Kansas:
"You are doing a wonderful work at Tuskegee, Mr. Wash¬
ington. In many of our schools boys and girls are urged
to remain in school, else they would have to work for a liv¬
ing. They may be kept in school for a time, but at the loss
of the best ideals and of the right attitude toward labor.
The world is constantly looking for men who can do its
work regardless of race or previous condition of servitude.
There is much preaching of service; but at Tuskegee I
found the finest illustration of a training which sees beauty
in utility, and an appreciation that one of the chief ac¬
complishments of life is to make a living; but best of all a
24
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
training that enables these young people to find pleasure in
their work, the satisfaction that comes only to the person
who does his work well, and the further appreciation that
one cannot take out of life, more than he puts into it. I have
never seen more live, vital teaching anywhere."
From Mr. Walter E. Ervin,
Principal Streator Township High School, Streator, Illinois:
"It is a matter of regret to me that I was unable to spend
a longer time in Tuskegee. The visit was a revelation to
me, not only as to what you are doing for your people but
as to the possibility of educators in the North being taught
a lesson and given pointers along many lines of vocational
work.
"I believe that the most vital point of failure in the pres¬
ent secondary school system of the North, and I speak from
fifteen years experience in that work, is that we have not
been able to teach our boys and girls the dignity of labor.
Too many of our pupils get the idea that a high school edu¬
cation is given them to prepare them for a life's work
where manual labor is not to be considered. I think we fail
in that and I know you succeed along these lines. You can
depend on my support in every way possible."
From' Mr. Edward G. Bauman,
Superintendent of Public Schools, Quincy, Illinois:
"Permit me to say to you that I consider my visit to
Tuskegee Institute one of the most pleasant and most profit¬
able features in connection with my recent trip to Mobile
to attend the meeting of the Department of Superintendence
of the N. E. A. The day which I spent with you, I consider
one of the best days I have ever spent anywhere in connec¬
tion with any institution. I am frank to say that it was a
genuine inspiration to me. I had heard many excellent re¬
ports with regard to the work that you are doing in connec¬
tion with your school, but it never occurred to me that you
had such a great and wonderful institution as you have. I
was delighted with every feature of the work that I saw. I
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
25
consider your Academic Department thorough and strong.
From the work which it was my pleasure to observe, I
should say that I consider your teachers well prepared and
the students getting good results from their work.
"I wish to congratulate you especially upon the excellency
of the Industrial Department of your school. I was very
highly impressed with all the various phases connected with
this department of your institution and feel that you are
solving in a splendid way some of the many questions which
come up in connection with the industrial side of our edu¬
cation.
"You are doing a great and good work not only for your
own people but for this country. I wish that every one who
is interested in education might have an opportunity to
visit your institution. The effort which you are making and
the work which you are doing is deserving of the highest
commendation and most liberal financial support."
From Mr. J. Asbury Pitman,
Principal State Normal School, Salem, Massachusetts:
"The day that I spent with you I count as one of the
most profitable in my experience in visiting educational in¬
stitutions. I hope the opportunity may come when I may
have sufficient time to make a more careful study of your
methods and results.
"Although I thought I was somewhat familiar with your
school, I was amazed at the extent of the equipment and
material resources of the institution, as well as at the
magnitude and importance of the work. I was particularly
impressed with the wisdom which has been shown in mak¬
ing the Department of Agriculture more prominent than
any other, since the school is located in the heart of a great
agricultural region and the hope of so large a proportion
of the Negro race would seem to be more easily realized in
this than in any other industry. You seem not only to have
solved the problem of industrial education for the people of
your own race, but to have discovered the fundamental
principles underlying industrial education in general.
26
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
"It was a sight never to be forgotten to look into the
faces of your sixteen hundred students whose real emanci¬
pation was everywhere so visibly in progress. I realized
as never before that the Emancipation Proclamation was
the merest beginning of the salvation of the race. It is
my conviction that you are playing quite as important a
part in that work as did the Great Liberator himself."
From Mr. Alvin N. Cody,
Superintendent of Public Schools, Flint, Michigan:
"I am frank to say that I never spent a day in visiting
any educational institution from which I derived greater
pleasure and profit. You are actually doing what we have
been talking about in the North. I think your institution
is simply wonderful, and I congratulate you upon your suc¬
cess in so skilfully and practically combining academic and
industrial education. I have never seen better class work
anywhere than I found in your institution and no one it
seems to me could spend even a day at Tuskegee without
the feeling that there is certainly a bright future for the
Negro by reason of industrial education."
From Dean W. G. Chambers,
School of Education, University of Pittsburg, Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania:
"I think you have worked out much better than any one
else, the proper relationship which should exist in educa¬
tion between actual work with the hands and mental train¬
ing. Wherever I went in your shops, I found a blackboard
and a little class room in the corner. Why should not this
be taken as typical of the true relationship between doing
and thinking—doing furnishing the motive of education,
the blackboard and the class room furnishing the oppor¬
tunity to formulate what has been done. I was pleased to
find here and there a member of your academic faculty in
the shops searching, as they told me, for practical problems
on which to base their recitation of the morrow. This is
another ideal feature.
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
27
"I am glad further to say that I have never visited a
school of any grade where the teaching was so uniformly
good. I did not find a really weak teacher in any of the
rooms I visited, and in one or two instances, I think the
teaching was as strong as I have ever seen. My only re¬
gret is that I was not able to remain at least a week to
study your ideals and your methods for I am sure you have
much to teach those engaged in any grade of educational
work. I hope that before a great while, I shall be able to
return and make this study which I have promised myself.
This is not at all an adequate expression of my impressions.
I feel that the enthusiasm aroused by my visit is yet too
strong to permit of a clear and definite analysis of these
impressions. I have not hesitated, however, to say on
numerous occasions since my return that your school is the
best I have ever seen, and that you have more to teach
us all about real education than any other man in the
land."
From Mr. J. E. DeMeyer,
District Superintendent of Schools of Abington and Bridge-
water, Bridgewater, Massachusetts:
"I believe Tuskegee Institute to be more nearly an ideal
industrial school than any other I know of. The thing
about Tuskegee that impresses itself upon the mind of a
visitor is the definiteness of the whole scheme. The pupils
are working with a fixed purpose in view. They are not
doing things merely for the sake of doing them, but because
they have a use for the finished product, and that factor in
itself adds interest to the work.
"I believe the function of education is two-fold. First,
to fit a boy for life, and second to make him fit to live. It
is not merely intended to assist him to acquire ability to
earn his living in society, but to so equip himself mentally,
morally and physically, that he will be able to add to the sum
total of society, and that the world may be better because
he has lived. I believe this is what Dr. Washington is doing.
He is teaching his race how to live and making them fit for
the society they are to enter.
28
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
"Tuskegee is a great institution and is doing a noble
work. It deserves the support and commendation of all
true educators."
From Mr. J. Burton Wiley,
Superintendent Public Schools, Red Bank,. New Jersey:
"I am glad to have the opportunity to write that during
my recent visit to Tuskegee I saw not only an ideal institu¬
tion for the education of the colored youth but the practic¬
ability and imminent necessity of similar vocational indus¬
trial training in connection with our free public schools.
Tuskegee is actually doing what our best systems of pub¬
lic schools have been only dreaming of.
"I am perfectly frank in saying that I can offer no adverse
criticism on any of the departments which I have visited.
"The atmosphere of industry and the spirit of earnest¬
ness manifested the dignity of labor which you teach."
From Mr. W. A. Baldwin,
Principal State Normal School at Hyannis, Hyannis,
Massachusetts:
"I cannot adequately acquaint you with my interest in,
and admiration for, the work which you are doing for the
educational advancement of the world. I have visited many
schools in many lands, but never have I visited any school
in which my own educational ideals were being so nearly
embodied in practice as in the various forms of education
which center in your office."
From Mr. Henry M. Maxon,
City Superintendent of Schools, Plainfield, New Jersey:
"I think every one of our party felt that the day spent
at Tuskegee was the most valuable that we have spent any¬
where for a long time. No one who has not visited Tus¬
kegee can get any adequate conception of the work you are
doing, no matter how much he may read what you have
written or however much he may listen to what you say
in your lectures."
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
29
From Mr. Mason S. Stone,
Superintendent of Education for the State of Vermont,
Montpelier, Vermont:
"On the positive and constructive side of Tuskegee In¬
stitute, I was deeply impressed with the attitude of all to¬
ward their work; with a spirit of co-operation and achieve¬
ment that works miracles with the simple, honest, straight¬
forward methods of procedure, with the refreshing disre¬
gard of educational traditions, and with the sane and effec¬
tive application of subjects to every-day life. I obtained
an inspiration and suggestion far more than I anticipated,
and I gladly join with the thousands of other educators in
America in gratitude for a demonstration of what can be
done by the proper spirit, the proper method and the
proper administration.
"I know of no institution that surpasses Tuskegee in its
soundness and efficiency; and its high service, not simply
to a particular race, but to the entire country, deserves a
greater appreciation on the part of all citizens."
From Mr. B. W. Tinker,
Superintendent Department of Education, Waterbury,
Connecticut:
"It seems to me that during my recent trip to the Su¬
perintendents' Convention at Mobile, Alabama, that my
visit to Tuskegee Institute was the most profitable of the
whole trip. I was amazed at the size of the plant and its
adaptability to the work undertaken and impressed with
the size and number of buildings, the general air of cul-.
ture and of those things that we feel are characteristic of
the regular New England college. I was particularly im¬
pressed with the kind of work that was being done and the
thoroughness with which the industrial occupations were
being taught, not as we are obliged to, so many times in
the East, using models of things, but in full size operation
just as are found in real life. I don't see how the work
could be don6 more efficiently, or how it could be better
arranged. Probably there has been and will continue to be
30
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
a natural evolution and development, but to an outsider it
is difficult to tell how it could be improved. The general
appearance of the students and their earnestness, was
especially noticeable."
From Mr. C. P. Cary,
State Superintendent, Department of Public Instruction,
State of Wisconsin, Madison:
"If I were to express fully my appreciation of the work
I saw in passing through the institution, it would probably
seem extravagant. It was, upon the whole, the best work
I have ever seen in any educational institution. The in¬
struction was the most vital and real that I ever witnessed;
it was closer to realities, and there was an effort made to
secure adequate and complete comprehension on the part
of the students that delighted me. I have made remarks
similar to the above to many people in my own State since
my return. Your school has many lessons for the people
of the North, the East and the West to learn. Compared
with yours, much of our instruction seems academic, book¬
ish and unreal."
From Mr. F. E. Converse,
City Superintendent, Public Schools, Beloit, Wisconsin:
"It seems to me that you have clearly and definitely dis¬
covered the right idea and method of true education in a
democracy; that is, education for all the people, instead of
for the few who enter the professions. As I understand it,
the aim of education in a democracy should be to educate
all the people in all kinds of work; that is, for whatever
kind of honest work each desires to do. This aim requires
an intimate correlation of the actual and the theoretical;
of the actual work to be done and the theory of that work;
of the actual industrial processes and the academic knowl¬
edge relating thereto.
"The success with which you apparently have succeeded
in working out this vital relation of industrial and academic
work for your students was a revelation to me. It seemed
indeed marvelous. You are actually doing in your Institute
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
31
what the rest of us in the field of education are only talking
about. Previous to my visit I had read everything I could
find regarding Tuskegee, and I say without hesitation that
'the half has never been told.' You are years ahead of the
times.
"While in the cites of Tuskegee and Montgomery I met
several Southern gentlemen whose opinion I asked regard¬
ing the work you are doing in Tuskegee. Without excep¬
tion these men, all white men, had only words of commen¬
dation."
From Mr. R. B. Teitrick,
Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Harrisburg, Pa.:
"The marked eagerness of your students to know and
the enthusiastic manner and apparent delight with which
they carry on their work made a strong impression upon
me. Your teachers were alert, forceful, thorough and prac¬
tical. The completeness of your vocational schools was far
beyond my expectations. Tuskegee is the correct answer
to the problem of your race."
Honorable Payson Smith,
Superintendent of Schools for the State of Maine, Augusta:
"Since my visit to Tuskegee two years ago I have fre¬
quently expressed in public my opinion that Tuskegee is
the most useful educational institution in America and that
it has found its usefulness by going straight to the needs
of the people it would serve, something all of our schools
must do if they are finally to be justified.
"Before my visit, I confess, I had thought of Tuskegee
as an institution of rather restricted purpose. I was enlight¬
ened. I recognize it today not only as a big factor in the
solution of a nation's problem but likewise a leader in the
development of these ideals which are to have an increas¬
ingly larger influence in the educational policy of democ-'
racy. I am certain there is nowhere in this country an
institution that is performing a more definite or more valu¬
able service to education throughout America than Tus-
32
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
kegee is performing. In so many ways is this service being
rendered that it would be impossible to define them, but if
I may attempt, in a sentence, to analyze the impression
made upon me by my visit I should say this, that Tuskegee
vitalizes education by connecting the needs of the individ¬
ual on the one side with the needs of the social body on
the other, that it helps men to find their places in the serv¬
ice of the world by first helping them to find themselves
and the powers that are within them."
From Mr. W. M. Pierce,
Superintendent of Public Schools Ridgeway, Pennsylvania:
"I had read 'Up From Slavery' and had also read and
heard of the history and work of your school from various
other sources, and went to Tuskegee with the expectation
of seeing some good, practical work, but I had thought,
from the very necessity of the case, much of this work
would be more or less crude. I was simply astonished, how¬
ever, at the following features: First, the discipline, as far
as I had opportunity to observe, was perfect. By this I
mean not simply that there was good order, but the spirit
that seemed to permeate the whole school atmosphere made
every pupil, teacher and officer alert, prompt and business¬
like. No one obtruded himself, his work, or the Institute,
but every question brought a prompt, definite answer.
"It has been my business for years to watch the work
of teachers critically every day. I inspected the teaching
at Tuskegee as I would have done in our own schools, and'
for the work of every teacher I saw I have only commen¬
dation. I have rarely seen greater earnestness or greater
tact in teaching than was displayed there. Every teacher,
too, seemed to have his or her aim in teaching the lesson
clearly in mind, and drove straight to the point.
"One of the things that impressed me most was the real
practical nature of the work of your school. In our public
schools, we have been talking about correlation of work,
and of giving such instruction as should fit our students
for real life, but when I saw the work at Tuskegee it seem-
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
33
ed to me that you had completely solved the problem we
have been talking about. The arrangement of alternate days
in shop work and in school, and the making of every school
lesson center in the work of the shop, as far as this could
be done, seemed to me so good that I cannot too highly
commend it."
From Mr. George Morris,
Superintendent Bloomfield Public Schools Bloomfield,
New Jersey:
"I was greatly impressed with the importance of the
work you are doing and with the spirit of co-operation and
earnestness that seemed to be in evidence everywhere. The
plan of organization and of carrying on the different lines
of work seemed to me to be as nearly perfect as it could be.
Of your plant and equipment you may well be proud but of
the magnificent work you are doing along the line of leading
the young men and young women und§r your charge to
higher ideals of living, thinking and doing you may be still
more proud, for I know of nothing being done in the country
today of greater importance."
From Mr. H. F. Estill,
Principal, Sam Houston Normal Institute, Huntsville,
Texas:
"We were accorded most courteous treatment and were
given every opportunity that our limited time permitted
to study your plans and methods. To state my impressions
in detail is impossible. However, I may briefly summarize
some of the points that most deeply inpressed me.
"First—The splendid organization and discipline of your
large establishment, including seventeen hundred students,
besides instructors and helpers, impressed me greatly. The
prompt and cheerful obedience to direction, the orderly
movement of large bodies of students, were features of this
discipline.
"Second—My visit to Tuskegee convinced me that your
institution stands for "thoroughness" in everything, and
that your instruction and training are such as are best
34
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
adapted to fit the Negro boys and girls of the South for the
greatest usefulness and service.
"Third—The quality of teaching that I witnessed in the
different class rooms was excellent. The principle of co-
relation of work in education is exemplified more completely
at Tuskegee than at any other schools I have ever visited.
"Fourth—In noting carefully the bearing of the Tus¬
kegee students, I was impressed with the neatness of their
personal appearance, the air of self-respect which seemed
to animate each boy and girl, and the spirit of cheerfulness
that characterized all their work.
"Fifth—Lastly, the three things which characterize Tus¬
kegee and which argue most for the future of the Negro
race in the South, in my judgment, are (1) the moral and
religious influence which is exercised over the student body,
(2) the habits of industry that are inculcated, (3) the rec¬
ognition of the dignity of manual labor and of the value
of skilled and honest work which is impressed upon every
student through actual mastery of some industrial pur¬
suit."
From Mr. J. H. Binford,
Executive Secretary Co-operative Education of Virginia,
Richmond, Virginia:
"There were many things about Tuskegee that impressed
me. The size and growth of your Institute strikes me as
being remarkable. I shall never forget the feeling that
came over me when I stood on the campus at the noon hour
and saw the fifteen hundred students march by. I think
that the finest teaching I ever saw was in the Academic
Department at Tuskegee. The fact that every student must
devote half of his time to industrial work, also impressed
me very favorably.
"The work shop, the Dressmaking Department and the
well managed farm connected with your Institute are cer¬
tainly giving to the Negro youth the right ideals of life.
I was born and reared in the South and I say without hesi¬
tation that your Institute has been and is the greatest factor
in the development of the Negro race that I know of."
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
35
From Mr. William P. Kelly,
Superintendent of Schools, Meriden, Connecticut:
"An impressive thing was that Tuskegee's method of
education is the method of experience, which all admit is
the greatest teacher. Your students prepare for life by
participating in the life of the shop, the farm, the dining
hall, the assembly, and the dormitory, as well as that of
the class room.
"But the most impressive thing was the earnestness,
dignity and poise of your students, unsurpassed in any
student body I have ever seen, and equalled in few. This
indicates that the aim and ideal of the founder will be
multiplied indefinitely by the students in their future life,
and that, as a leavening institution, the Institute is un¬
surpassed.
"I have no adverse criticism to offer."
From Mr. John Miller,
President North Bergen Board of Education, Weehawken,
New Jersey:
"For adverse criticisms of your noble work there is abso¬
lutely no room — everything you are doing at Tuskegee
speaks for itself in its own favor. Since visiting your In¬
stitute I have thought much about the varied lines of in¬
dustrial work which you are doing, and of the splendid op¬
portunities which that work affords to your students. The
undertaking is assuredly a vast one—and all this is carried
on under such splendid and systematic control, that it de¬
serves the commendation and support of all people. You
are actually doing what we are talking about doing in the
line of industrial education."
From Mr. John W. Carr,
Superintendent of Schools, Bayonne, New Jersey:
"I was very much pleased with the work I observed at
Tuskegee and the general deportment and personnel of
teachers and pupils. The buildings and grounds were bet-
36
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
ter kept than I expected them to be. The students in the
different industrial departments seem'ed to be earnest and
intelligent. Every one seemed to have confidence in himself
and in his work.
"I have no criticisms to offer and wish to congratulate
you and your associates on the splendid work you are doing.
I have more faith in the possibility of the colored race after
visiting your school. The problem you are endeavoring to
solve at Tuskegee is very similar to the one that confronts
us in every city of the North."
From Miss Nora E. White,
County Superintendent of Schools, Knoxville, Iowa:
"I went to Tuskegee expecting to find an ordinary school.
My surprise at the general appearance, on first arrival, soon
developed into sincerest admiration for the extraordinary
institution whose many departments we visited.
"I was especially attracted by the thoroughness that was
required in all lines of work, both in the class room and in
the industrial department.
"Among all students, I observed an air of industry, cour¬
tesy and self-respect; and the finer qualities of manhood
and womanhood were i everywhere noticeable among the
excellent corps of instructors.
"I left feeling that the colored youth had, at Tuskegee,
a better opportunity of fitting himself for usefulness to his
race, or any race, than that which is afforded either the
white or colored race in any of the institutions of the great
Commonwealth where I reside."
From Mr. G. F. Loomis,
Superintendent of City Schools, Waukesha, Wisconsin:
"The marvel of Tuskegee and the inspiration of what we
witnessed there have grown on me with the passing of
these few weeks. You have developed amid naturally des¬
olate surroundings an educational object lesson that those
in the most favored localities may well profit by. Not only
does Tuskegee stand for the solution, in a very sane way,
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
37
of the problem of uplifting the colored man and fitting him
to become a real and contributing factor in the life of our
country, but aside from all color lines, you have shown the
solution of the problem of blending the academic and the
industrial into one educational whole in a way we have all
dreamed and talked about, but have never before seen ac¬
complished.
"Never have I seen a better spirit of co-operation, a
greater earnestness, or a keener belief and appreciation of
the fact that they were doing the things worth while in
education, than I saw in Tuskegee.
"If every college in our land could be remodeled accord¬
ing to the pattern of things being done at Tuskegee, it
would be a long step toward the goal of education.
"You certainly are to be congratulated on the institution
and its work, which we all felt was most emphatically
worthy of the support of philanthropists and the approba¬
tion of all good citizens."
From Mr. Henry Whittemore,
Principal State Normal School, Framingham, Mass.:
"I need not go into detail concerning what we found
there. As far as my observation is concerned, it is one of
the very few institutions which is meeting, in a most
masterful way, the expectations for which it was founded.
It seems to me that is may be taken as a type form for
our vocational schools or trade schools. Apparently the
art and science of industrial education is carried on with
so even a balance that one cannot discover that there is any
difference in the level of the scales. They seem to be most
evenly balanced."
From Mr. Jackson Davis,
State Superintendent of Rural Schools of Virginia,
Burkeville, Va.:
"I came away from Tuskegee with a new feeling of hope
and encouragement for work among the Negro schools in
the South. I was imposed with the practical way in which
the academic work *,as correlated with the work of the
38
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
students on the farms and in the shops, and with the
earnestness and interest which the students manifested in
all their work. Indeed, I saw some of the best teaching I
have ever seen. The thing that impressed me most about
Tuskegee is the fact that here are being carefully trained
hundreds of young men and women who are to go out
among the masses of their race, not to sow discontent with
their condition, but to raise by thrift and intelligent labor
their standard of civilization to a happier, more wholesome
and efficient basis. I have great admiration for the splendid
work you are doing and I wish for Tuskegee a wide distri¬
bution of its training and its spirit."
From Mr. John R. Wilson,
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Paterson, N. J.:
"The day was an enjoyable and a profitable one for me,
and among the many, many things that I saw that deserve
favorable comment, I might mention two.
"First, I like the manly bearing of your young men. They
are straight, 'well set up' fellows, and they walk with a
swing and business-like stride that is characteristic of men
who can do things.
"Second, I talked with several, and all of them seemed
to have clear and definite ideas of what they intend to do
when they leave your institution. In other words, they
seemed to have a definite purpose in life."
From Mk. H. A. Hollister,
High School Visitor for the University of Illinois,
Urbana, Illinois:
"I have been deeply impressed by what I saw during my
stay of thirty hours at Tuskegee. The work that is being
done there stands out clearly in my mind as being the great¬
est thing, so far, at least, as elementary education is con¬
cerned, that has yet been accomplished in the United
States: First, Because here is realized, in a high degree of
perfection, all that we mean when we talk about relating
the arts of the school to the arts of life as a basis for
OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS
39
Interest. Second, Because Industrial intelligence is a part
of the evident accomplishment of the institution. As a
result the young men and women trained there are learn¬
ing to apply the broader knowledge, the clearer thinking,
the fuller comprehension of principles, which they get in
their academic training to the more efficient execution of
their task in whichever one of the many industries there
carried on they may be especially fitting themselves.
Third, Because here is set up the true basis for inculcation
of principles of wholesome moral living in the social group.
There is no weak sentimentalism. Wholesome surround¬
ings, food, habits of living; arduous work under competent
direction; daily object lessons as well as inculcation of prin¬
ciples of a virile Christianity—all as a part of a community
life which grows richer and fuller as the co-operative spirit
becomes more vigorous—these are here proven to be the
sure foundation for happiness, prosperity and social secu¬
rity."
From Mr. R. M. Tryon,
Superintendent of Public Schools, Madison, Wisconsin:
"I came away from Tuskegee feeling that you are cer¬
tainly solving a very big problem in a very practical and
sensible way. You are giving your people an education that
really educates.
"I was much impressed with the practical correlation of
academic and industrial work, the definite motive in all
phases of work, the emphasis on moral and physical train¬
ing and the general spirit of happiness that was present
everywhere. You are certainly doing a great work and
deserve the loyal support of not only your own race, but
all who are interested in the solution of a great educational
problem."