Friends of the A. M. A. institutions have been specially anxious that their students should learn trades and home industries while at school, fearing that they would have little opportunity to learn them except from their Northern instructors, and thinking that they could be acquired from them outside of school hours without much thought, time or trouble.
On the other hand, some have felt that our immediate, pressing need was young colored men and women with minds developed by long and thorough training in the text-books used in our schools and colleges. They are not ignorant of the students’ deficiencies in practical knowledge, but feel that close and continued application of the mind to books is the best and surest way to acquire all knowledge. They believe that if the brain power of a child is developed, the hoe, the cook-stove and the sewing-machine will be well managed when occasion requires.
Again, these students are to be the teachers of their race in the South. These friends believe that nothing will so quickly convince the intelligent men of the South that the negro has power which they are bound to respect, as to see him well versed, not only in the sciences he teaches, but his mind broadened by a familiarity with subjects beyond. To secure this training, through an ordinary course suitable for an average teacher even in Northern schools, with supposed superior material, has generally been found to require all the time and strength of pupils under 18 years of age. Principals of the different schools, however, differ much both in theory and practice, in regard to combining manual with literary work.
In Atlanta much has been done during the past ten years in a quiet way, by the business manager, matrons and preceptress, toward giving practical instruction in a variety of home industries, making specially prominent the importance of good work. Every student, during the entire course, works an hour a day, generally with careful supervision. While visiting the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, recently, I learned that less time for manual labor was required of its students.
During the past year, however, at Atlanta, it was thought best to give more time and thought especially to sewing, cooking and care of the sick. How to secure a practical knowledge of these without much expense of material or instruction, and without taking much of the student’s time from literary pursuits, was the problem. The sewing was arranged in this way: Sometime before graduation the girls are required to make, under the eye of the preceptress, a small garment of calico or other inexpensive material. This garment is to contain all the varieties of plain sewing, machine-stitching, hand-hemming, ruffling, etc. More than this, it must have the bugbears of all beginners in sewing—a buttonhole, a patch and a darn. Each girl writes her name in indelible ink on the garment, and it is kept in the institution as a record of her standing in sewing.
In a catalogue I received lately from the hands of the matron of the Mt. Holyoke Seminary are these words: “It is not part of the design of this seminary to teach young ladies domestic work. This branch of education is exceedingly important, but a literary institution is not the place to gain it. Home is the proper place for the daughters of our country to be taught on this subject, and the mother the appropriate teacher.” I think I remember reading the same words from a catalogue twenty years ago, and presume they were first penned by the immortal Mary Lyon. So we hoped the emulation created by the prospect of leaving a beautiful specimen of needle-work upon graduation would inspire our girls to faithful painstaking in sewing at their homes even before entering school. The matron has the graduating class spend their required hour of work in learning to make good bread and to do other plain cooking. When any student is ill, opportunity is given for practical instruction from the preceptress in nursing the sick. In addition to this, the time of one recitation was taken during a part of the year for giving instruction in household science. A teacher prepared talks upon general rules for good housekeeping, general principles of good cooking, care of the sick, care of children, economy, etc. The class took notes, and were examined from their notes before the visiting board at the close of the school. We hoped thus to convince them that we were not educating our girls above the homeliest duties of the household, as some of them had accused us of doing.
I have given these details to show how much may be done in this direction without any additional expense.
Revival—Work and Results.
S. B. MORSE, SAVANNAH