Some Theories Regarding the Education of the Negro

A most powerful conception which has long dominated the thinking of the American Negro is his belief that education is his certain way of salvation. Ever since his emancipation from slavery, education has been regarded by him as a sort of magical cloak for covering up his inferiority in American society. He has conceived of it as the one sure thing which can enable him to measure arms with his superiors. This hunger for formal education was greatly stimulated and intensified by the tendency on the part of Southern white people to discourage and frustrate these desires. Accordingly, it was only human that the Negro should have hungered for what was so generally denied him. The Negro has always craved to come into possession of those things which the white man has-the things which seem to account for white superiority. The Negro feels that the supremacy of the white man consists in the things which are associated with him. In other words, he has been led to regard the things which the white man produces as being the causes of his greatness, rather than the results of his genius and industry. Accordingly, he has enthusiastically and uncritically taken over, one after another, the various phases of the white man's culture. The white man's mannerisms, his education, his religion, his modes of dressing, his extravagant modes of living, and, in fact, nearly all of his vices and his virtues have been appropriated by the Negro. This zeal for education, therefore, is just another example of the Negro's attempt to bring all phases of his life into conformity with the accepted norms of American society. Almost from the very beginning of the program to educate the Negro, there has been the most pronounced disagreement as to the kind of education which he should receive. This question has given rise to at least two distinct theories of equipping the American Negro with a technique for social adjustment. One of these theories advocates the training of Negroes along technical lines. That is, it places emphasis on the necessity of acquiring skill in the ordinary pursuits of gaining a livelihood. One must work well with his hands. The most prominent advocate of this doctrine was the late Booker T. Washington. The other theory, of which Dr. W. E. B. DuBois is, or was, the chief protagonist, repudiates this doctrine and conceives of the educational needs of the Negro in terms of his higher spiritual and intellectual possibilities. The weakness of the positions of these two theories lies in the fact that instead of supplementing each other, they have apparently been antagonistic and, therefore, detrimental to the best educational interests of the American Negro. One cannot deny the importance of vocational training for Negroes. Nei

Mathematics education · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society