So far as the institutions of the American Missionary Association are concerned, I am inclined to think that there is a nobler ideal to be realized under the name of university than any feeble imitation of older institutions. A field is open here in the South for the development of an institution such as the world has not yet seen, and which, in a somewhat new but not unnatural sense, would justify its claim to be called a university.
The university which missionary effort can make most useful in the South is one that shall represent, in their most perfect form, all the successive grades of education from lowest to highest. It should be prepared to train ordinary pupils of all ages rather than extraordinary ones of mature age only. It should also provide ample facilities for normal and industrial training, now so much needed in all the South. But especially it should magnify and dignify the work of primary instruction, regarding this as a permanent feature of its work, and not as an unavoidable evil to be shaken off as soon as possible. It should neither undervalue nor neglect the higher education. This should be held up as a worthy object of aspiration for all who show themselves fitted to receive it, by thorough work lower down. Such an institution would present, under one management, a kindergarten, or something like it, a graded school, a normal school, an industrial department, an academy, a college, and in course of time the professional schools.
In favor of such a university several reasons may be given. In the first place, the interests of the higher education would be better served by such an institution than by one devoted to the higher education alone. It is taken for granted that the Freedmen and their descendants, for whom largely our institutions are established, should, like all other people, have the opportunity of the higher education given them to the extent of their ability to receive and use it. The welfare of the masses demands that we train up leaders of intelligence and principle. That this work is not being overdone at present is evident from the fact that only ninety-one college students are reported in all the institutions of the American Missionary Association put together, and only about fifty in all have ever been graduated from our college courses since our work in the South began. Now, the principal reason why our work in the higher education has been so limited, has been the great scarcity of suitable material for college classes; and the reason of this scarcity has been that our preparatory departments have not been able to get hold of their pupils early enough. Pupils come to us heavily handicapped by a lack of proper training, moral and intellectual, in early childhood. Now, who can doubt but that the universities that are going to have the best college classes twenty years from now, and do the best work, will be those that soonest put the kindergarten, or some equivalent of it, underneath all their present courses of study, and thus manipulate the entire education of their pupils from the age of five onward? A thoroughness and symmetry of training could be realized by such an arrangement which would be scarcely possible under any other.
But a second reason in favor of such a university is the invaluable help it would render to the cause of general education. Here let it be explained that it would not be the purpose of the proposed institution to take the work of preparation for college out of the hands of preparatory schools elsewhere; nor would it expect to carry all its own beginners through to the end of its higher courses. It would, however, if properly manned and equipped, expect to show what might be called specimen work from the bottom to the top of an education. Such work would be a stimulus to all other schools of whatever grade, and the methods employed in these schools would gradually come to be patterned after those in vogue at the university. The more the lower work of the university was duplicated elsewhere, the more would its own recruiting ground for the higher courses be enlarged, and the wider would its influence become.
A third reason in favor of such a university concerns the association of normal and industrial departments with the collegiate. It should be our aim to cultivate manhood and womanhood rather than mere scholarship. The culture we give must be guarded from selfishness. The practical uses of all education must be kept prominently in view, and especially the urgent need of trained teachers and artisans. The dignity of labor must be emphasized. On the other hand, our normal and industrial work should be guarded from the narrow and materialistic spirit into which such training is sometimes apt to fall. Now, the association of all these departments under one general management will surely bring to each from the others some salutary restraint or broadening influence.
In connection with the practical aim of such a university, I desire to specify two features which should characterize it, both of them rendered necessary by the same cause—the almost entire lack of true homes among the people we are seeking to uplift. In consequence of this deplorable lack, two duties press upon us: first, to obviate the difficulties arising from this cause in our present educational work, and second, to remove the cause.
The first of these duties suggests the kindergarten, already proposed. I use this term for the lack of a more convenient one; contending simply for some system of training for children under the usual school age. Among cultivated people, and even the intelligent farmers and artisans of cultivated communities, every home is a kindergarten—a preliminary training-school for the eyes, hands, brains, and hearts of toddling and prattling humanity. Very few such are to be found among the poorer classes of the South. Hence arises the necessity of beginning our work earlier than elsewhere, and using appliances which elsewhere might seem superfluous. But it will not be enough to have the kindergarten composed entirely of day scholars from the neighborhood. There should be a special building for a children’s home, with an able matron and assistants in charge of it. Into this could be gathered from a wider territory as large a number of little boarders as might be thought desirable. The inestimable advantage of this arrangement would be that a considerable number of children would thus be separated from their unfortunate surroundings for twenty-four hours each day instead of six, and for seven days in the week instead of five. From this number, in after years, would undoubtedly come our best material for the college and normal classes.
But a second pressing duty is to help the growth of true homes among these people. This must be done largely through the girls who come under our care. For this also a separate building should be provided as a housekeeping school. It should be constructed like an ordinary dwelling-house, with such conveniences within and around it as civilized people aim to secure. It should not be too large, lest the coziness of home be lost. It should have a parlor with pictures and books. It should have a garden with flowers and shade trees. Above all it should have the most commodious and convenient kitchen and pantry that can be arranged. Let a dozen girls together occupy this house for a fortnight at a time—all those in the university taking their turn in the course of the year. Let some good woman, as near like Mrs. Cornelius or Marion Harland as can be found, be put at the head, and let her teach these girls how to cook, sweep, dust, make beds, set the table, wash the dishes, and in general how to make home as attractive as our Christian civilization knows how.
Finally let it be observed that such a university would be simply an expansion of what is now being done in our present higher institutions, and which the force of circumstances has compelled us to do. Why should we not accept it cheerfully as the mission which Providence has given us, and by a deepening and broadening process convert our present universities into something that shall bring new honor to the cause of Christian education?