4. This condition of things, if the strain is not allowed to be too severe, has a compensating benefit to the student, who grows strong by contending with difficulties. He learns the value of education by its cost. He obtains that practical experience which students ordinarily have to acquire after graduation. He is also kept in sympathy with the people among whom his future labors are to lie.
5. These statistics show that, while in the midst of their own arduous labors as students, these young people are accomplishing a great amount of good in a field to which now, happily, the eyes of the nation are turned, the education of the colored people. During the last year, when, for reasons not necessary now to give, a less number of students than usual were engaged in teaching, they had under their training an army of between five and six thousand children, and performed the labor of more than the ordinary lifetime of a man; and, including former years, they have done the work of more than a hundred and sixty years.
6. But the whole good is not to be estimated in years. The great mass of the teachers among the colored people, as among the white, teach with little if any more preparation than what is gained in the common schools. The coming into a community of one who has enjoyed superior advantages, introduces a better idea to which others will seek to attain. One of the most threatening obstacles in the way of colored education has been the great lack of competent colored teachers. The paying of incompetent teachers is almost, if not entirely, a waste of the public money. Viewing from this standpoint, the long and expensive journeys necessarily taken by the students of Fisk University to reach their schools, may not be a loss but a benefit, by scattering further the good influence of the University. In a region where one good teacher is sent, ten schools will be made better.
7. In addition to the devotional exercises held in their schools by the greater majority of the students, much other religious work is done. During the last year six preached, twelve held prayer-meetings and one Bible readings, while ninety-six per cent. of all are now engaged in Sunday-school labor. A more accurate knowledge of the Scriptures and better idea of Christian living must be the result of these labors.
8. From a list of institutions of learning where some of those, now students in Fisk University, studied before coming to it, many of them of high standing and scattered over the land, it is seen that this University cannot claim these good results entirely as its own. It shows also that the University, situated as it is, midway between the gulf and the lakes, is becoming a great central school of learning.
9. No mention is made in these statistics of any students not now in attendance on the University. The exact number of those in that class who are now teaching, is not known. It is known, however, that many such are devoting their entire time to teaching and some of them are already occupying positions of honor and importance as educators. According to estimates derived from reports given by former students not now in connection with the University, the number of pupils taught annually by them cannot be far from 10,000, making a total, with those before mentioned, of more than 15,000.—Fisk Expositor.