The
tendency is here, born of slavery and quickened to renewed
life by the crazy imperialism of the day, to regard human
beings as among the material resources of a land to be trained
with an eye single to future dividends. Race-prejudices, which
keep brown and black men in their "places," we are coming
to regard as useful allies with such a theory, no matter how
much they may dull the ambition and sicken the hearts of
struggling human beings. And above all, we daily hear that
an education that encourages aspiration, that sets the loftiest
of ideals and seeks as an end culture and character rather than
bread-winning, is the privilege of white men and the danger
and delusion of black.
Especially has criticism been directed against the former
educational efforts to aid the Negro. In the four periods I
have mentioned, we find first, boundless, planless enthusi-
asm and sacrifice; then the preparation of teachers for a vast
public-school system; then the launching and expansion of that
school system amid increasing difficulties; and finally the
training of workmen for the new and growing industries. This
development has been sharply ridiculed as a logical anomaly
and flat reversal of nature.
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