STUDENT TEACHING
(BY THE STUDENTS OF FISK UNIVERSITY DURING THE SUMMER VACATION.)
REV. H. S. BENNETT.
A meeting of great interest was held in Fisk University on the night of the 15th of September. The occasion was to furnish an opportunity to those students who had been engaged in teaching during the summer to give the details of experience in their work.
Pres. Cravath presided. Rev. Geo. W. Moore was introduced as one who during the past year had been studying theology and preaching in Ohio. Mr. Moore paid a grateful tribute to Fisk University as the place where he had studied. He thought that colored students would do better to study in the South. He had been preaching to a white church, or to white churches. As a colored man he would make no apologies nor explanations. He had a message to carry to the people. He got their confidence and love before they knew who he was. He had three regular stations and preached to eight churches in all. Last Sunday he was called to Sullivan, and was told that they would oppose him on account of his race identity; but he was cordially received, and the result was a unanimous call with increase of salary.
Brethren Anderson and Ously have been highly esteemed in Oberlin. They have been hard students and have won the commendations of their teachers.
H. C. Gray taught school in Shelby County, Tenn. “My school did not have more than thirty on the roll. I tried to give satisfaction because four or five teachers before me had failed and left before their time was out. During the last two months my school was much larger than at first, but the pupils were kept out by chills and fever. I had fifteen or twenty pupils without any books.”
H. F. Mitchell, near Fernanda, Miss. “I enrolled 104 and had two assistants. I was quite successful. I introduced the tonic sol-fa method of teaching music and succeeded well in it. My health was good all summer. I was taken with a chill the last day of school.”
W. H. Ross, who had been helping in holding an institute gave an account of his work. He had attended institutes before, but they were not so much of the nature of a school. “We had a course of lectures, which was a main feature in the work. We tried to inspire the young people with a desire to pursue a course of study. All who attended were pleased with the work done. The colored people of Gibson Co. are far behind in the scale of intelligence. After the institute closed I opened my school the next Monday. The attendance was about thirty. The people have a great desire to go forward.”
Humphrey Jones taught school in Georgia, near Dalton. “I opened school on the 10th of July with nine scholars. They wanted to know whether I was Methodist or Baptist. I told them I was Congregationalist. They shook their heads; they did not know anything about that. They did not think it was anything. My school was very small, because the people would not pay twenty-five cents per month. The people are further behind there than in any place I have been.”
G. A. T. Robinson: “I taught in Georgia near Mr. Jones. The people are very poor and ignorant. They are not interested in education. A strong prejudice exists against the public schools. The most of the people are servants and are content to be such. A teacher is looked upon as a bad man. I taught in a Baptist Church and they would not let me teach in the Sunday school. They want me to come back there.”
Ella Jones, from Texas: “I had charge of the girls in the place where I taught, Huntsville. I made up my mind to live a Christian life. I taught eight months. I also taught in the Sabbath School. They wanted me to teach the next year, but I felt that I must continue my course. I tried to do whatever I did as a Christian. There were some conversions in my school. How much of this is due to my influence I do not know.”
Alice Vasser only taught five weeks at Booneville, Tenn. “When I arrived they had no school-house for me to begin to teach in. They put a floor in an old house and a roof on it, and I began to teach. I walked two miles every day. I had fifteen scholars. I feel that I did some good. The children wanted to learn very much. They were very anxious to have me come back.”
G. A. McLelland taught at Tiptonville, Tenn. “My school numbered about sixty. The children were not so far advanced in their books, but they were more easily managed. I taught in the Sunday-school. The older people were harder to interest. I got them in night school. I sang Jubilee songs and told them stories, and thus got them interested. Fisk University stands very high in the estimation of the people.”
Henrietta Bailey taught in Mississippi for three months; had a pleasant school, but did not get her money till after Christmas. Afterward taught in Lincoln school; had an attendance of forty-five, an average attendance of thirty-one.
Thus closed a very interesting exercise. Most of the students are still out teaching. The record of the evening is a fair statement of the work done by the students of the institution.