Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-22
FOR C0L0RED YOUTH
Fourteenth Year of Industrial
School at Manassas.
NEW PRINCIPAL IN CHARGE
Faculty at Coming Session One of I'm
usual Ability.
SOME EDUCATIvE AMBITIONS
Hope to Direct influence Of Institu-
ton Through Channels Of Social
Service in Virginia
SOME EDUCATIvE AMBITIONS

|
Service in Virginia.
The Manassas Industrial School for COL
| ored Youth at Manassas, Va.-WeIl known
| IN Washington, because here Jennie Dean
! the founder of that institution, won her
| first helpers-ls to open it's doors Tuesday,
October l, for it's fourteenth year. Leslie
| P1nckney Hill, master of arts, from Har-
ward University, and for the past three
| years teacher of education and English
| at the Tuskegee Institute was called to the
principalShip of the school last Nav and
| has been in charge since June During the
| summer Mr. Hill has been waging a money
campaign in behalf of the school, and as
a result interest has been aroused in new
| quarters and an increased enrolment seems
| assured. Closely connected with him in
| the work will be his wife, who as Jane Clark
graduated from oberlin College in 1901. and
| has been for six years q member of the
| Iuskegee faculty, first as librarian and then
as dean of the woman's department.
The faculty this year will be an unusually
strong one, representing some of the best
colleges and trade schools In the country
The course OF study Is to be revised and a
systematic attempt will be made to have
the schooI minister more largely to the
social needs of the colored people of north
| ern Virginia. To this end the plan will be
| to emphasize the basic Importance of i'm
proved methods in agriculture In a COM
| munity where agriculture is the chief in
dustry. There will be farmers meetings
and short courses In agriculture with
demonstration lessons in the treatment
and building up of soils, the selection of
seeds. plant nutrition and the care of live
stock.
Direction of Social Servica
| AS a further enterprise in the direction
| of social service in the community, mothers
| meetings will be held. The mothers are the
administrators Of the homes, and the homes
| OF any race are the surest index to its
| civilization. Around these mothers, in a
| degree of which they are unconscious CEN
| tiers the social destiny Of the race. These
| meetings, then. will concern themselves
| with vital home problems-the ownership
| of land, sanitation of houses, the prepare
| ton of foods. proper clothing and the
great problem Of cooperation between home
and school, in order that the influence of
the one will further and not hinder the
| work Of the other.
The third and perhaps the most i'm
portant educative ambition Of Manassas
Is to help to raise the standard of the
| rural schools which in northern Virginia.
| as throughout the SOUTH are weak in al
| most all the respects in which the school
should be strong There are some ex-
i
comment on the average preparation of
| the coiored teacher when It is said that he
Is not usually successful aspirant to even
| a third grade certificate Manassas will
attempt to raise this standard not only
| by the thoroughness of its own course Of
| study and trade work. but by the es-
enlistment of teachers institutes, which
| will meet as often and continue as long
! as the convenience of the rural schools
| Will permit. These Institutes will encourage
| discussing, aiming at practical solutions
| hos Ri
| and hygiene, the Improvement of school
| buildings, the grading Of classes, methods
| Of instruction and the relation of the
| school to the negro church and the home
| In these ways the new administration
| at Manassas hopes to direct the influence
| Of the school through channels of social
| service in northern Virginia.
What Academic Department Offers.
| The academic department at Manassas
| offers thorough grammar school educa-
| ton. The studies comprised are English,
| including reading, writing grammar, COM
| position and literature; arithmetic with
| especial application to business methods
| and to the industries; bookkeeping draw
| ing, geography. history and civics as a triad
| of social studies with special reference to
| negro history in American civilization and
| to Hebrew history in comparison; physi-
| strumental. elementary science, and, for
| those who wish to teach in the rural
| schools. practical ethics and the elements
| of psychology and school management
Every study comprised In this course is
| entered in response to the actual demand
| for better teachers specifically and for a
more adequate preparation for an advanc-
| ing American citizenship in general
| The Industrial department offers car
| pentry. blacksmithing and wheelwrighting,
agriculture including poultry raising. care
| of stock and dairying; shoemaking sewing
! laundering and cooking.
1t is said to be well known that the
| tendency Of the dual plan of education is
| to divide society into two separate classes
| the class of scholars and men of business
| on the one hand and the other of
| farmers and industrial craftsmen. The
| task before school of this kind. therefore,
| it is explained, Is the correlation of those
| elements of the work that make for
| literacy with those that make for prac-
teal efficiency. so that instead of any
| course there will be throughout inter-
] dependence and reciprocal helpfulness
| There is claimed to be an unprecedented
| opportunity in Institutions like Manassas
| kind and grade of useful work in a de-
| mocracy, and to make still clearer the
truth that in a society of this kind the
| only metes and bounds to mans service
| ableness are those which set by his
| own abilities and energy.
| High Moral Sentiment
| Finally, it is said that the methods of in
| struction and the whole school government
| will seek to cultivate in the student body
| a strong and high moral sentiment as a
| guide to conduct; to develop the habit of
| respectful obedience and loyalty to proper
| authority: to instill courtesy. faithful appli-
| cation to duty and reverence for the High
est as revealed in the religious aspiration
| of humanity.
| The Manassas School is still supported
mainly by voluntary subscription. there be-
| Ing as yet no state aid and no permanent
| endowment fund. 1t is the desire of the ad-
| ministration this year to raise $4,000. With
| that amount the school could be cleared of
| a debt of $500. strengthened in many
| points of physical equipment and improve
| nent in the class room. in the shop and on
| the farm. and thus enabled to go forward
L - Il, mid