The Washington times., 1894-11-07
NEGRO FALSELY EDUCATED
Mr.. George r. Stetson Criticises
Methods of Race Culture.
TOO HIGH A PLANE OF EFFORT
logical Society on the Failure of Negro
Education to Accomplish ANY Real Good
Recommendations for Work Of the Future.

At the regular meeting of the Anthropolog-
zeal Society held last night Mr.. George r.
stetson read a carefully prepared and excsed-
ingly instructive paper on "The educational
status of the negro. and its relation to his
Industrial and economic development"
1t was, in large part, a severe criticism Of
existing methods of education in general, as
well as of existing methods Of negro educa-
ton in particular.
Mr.. Stetson said, among other things:
'My creed is that at the moment the negro
Is intellectually, morally, and industrially in
ferior to tho Western Aryan, and thar a sys-
tenn OF education to be of service to him must
honestly, practically. and philosophically
recognize the difference in the present de-
velopment of the two races, and that the
highest intellectual development and social
organism are correlative with the widest and
longest culture.
~ do not deny and have no desire to deny
to the negro whatever his natural faculties,
his progress and development have given
him up to the present time, or in the slightest
degree impeach or PREJUDICE or in any way
GU alify the possibilities which the future may
have in store for him under favorable condi-
tions for his development Neither do deny
that his race has produced and is producing
some exceptionally brilliant men under cir
cumstauceS by no means favorable.
II maintain. however, that the two races
now occupy, and in obedience TO an unwrit-
ten but infexible law, must follow two dis
tinct planes OF development, higher and a
lower and that as an obvious corollary the
negro, to derive the greatest practical benefit
from his enforced tutelage, must not sud
denly be thrust upon the higher plane, but be
properly instructed upon the line OF his own
development within the confines OF his own
mental, moral ana industrial capacities or,
Ia simpler phrase that the educating means
employed must be adapted to his racial de-
vslopment and character and 10 the end TO be
attained.
The treatment OF our negro ward by
church and State has thus far been, to great
and unfortunate extent, empirical.
"We have given him a religion that he can
not fully comprehend. and without proper
consideration of his capacity heredity, or en-
vironment, offered him an education that he
cannot assimilate or adapt to his conditions.
"Our system OF public instruction as applied
to the negro has resulted in giving him false
ideas of lie and labor.
''We have thoughtlessly tried to make
white man OF him. and the result is as much
OF an anomaly in education as the mulatto is
in race"
Mr.. Stetson then considered at some length
the Industrial capacity OF the negro, reaching
the conclusion that in this as in other fields
Of competition with the white race the negro is
at great disadvantage owing to inherited
racial characteristics.
Mr.. Stetson urged that secondary educa-
ton be abandoned in the Southern States;
that all education be made compulsory and
be confined to the rudinentary branches;
that an educational qualification for voting
be prescribed, aud that agricultural and in
dustrial education be given a larger place in
the educational system Of the negro.
Dr. Thomas Wilson also read paper in
criticism OF modern methods OF education,
devoting himself particularly to the made
quacy of puslIc school education in fitting
youth for the dRties of citizenship.