The Washington bee., 1907-03-16

w WaShlngtOn summer ScnOOI IOT teach
ers engaged in the actual work of teach
ing was inaugurated.
Among, other things advocating a sum-
mer school here. DR.. Washington said :
For some time I have been Of the
opinion that you would help the race
very much by opening summer school
here. You have several very emphatic
advantages in the way of providing for
a summer school for our people"
The dormitory quarters of the insti-
. tute were inadequate to accommodate
the large number of teachers who ap-
piled for admission. Over 200 were un-
able TO avail themselves of the oppor-
tuniy to equip themselves more thor
oughly for their work. The summer
session was continued during July, 1906.
They Mast Teach JaSt Right.
The present aim of the reorganized
work here is to give a course of instruc-
ton, both academic and industrial, that
will prepare the young people for teach
ers of the various industrial subjects.
The courses are 50 arranged as to per-
NIT a large portion of the time to be CIV
en- to the actual work belonging to the
different subjects. For example, a girl
pursuing the domestic science course
who intends to become a cooking teacher
has the full share of the laboratory work,
classroom instruction and a years ex-
perience in the school kitchen, where she
makes out daily menus, assists in pre-
pairing and cooking the food for the
school dining-room and works in the
pantry and puts into practice her class
room knowledge of serving, caring for
and waiting on the pupils and teachers
tables.
1t is intended that she shall not only
know cooking theoretically, but that she
shall know thoroughly how to prepare,
cook and serve food. The school has
already developed daily menu for the
year which received the commentator
of hotel managers, stewardesses of board
ing schools and other authorities. This
daily menu is commended especially for
its variety, wholesomeness, economy and
scientific arrangement.
The Institute for Colored Youth, which
was organized in Philadelphia in 1887,
is one of the oldest efforts for the edu-
cation of the colored race, and it was
undoubtedly the first to combine acad-
emic and industrial work in the train
ing of the colored child. The founding
of the school upon such a basis is an
other evidence of the foresight of the
members of the Society of Friends in
regard to education. So strong has the
conviction become in this country that
industrial education should share with
academic training in the development of
our youth, President Roosevelt in his
annual message to Congress, 1906, gives
considerable space to the subject.
Founders Design Realised.
The design of Richard Humphreys,
the founder of the institute, was stated
thus in his will in February, 1899: "I
give and bequeath unto my friends the
sum of $4,000, having for its object the
benevolent design of instructing the de
scendants of the African race in school
learning and the various branches of the
mechanic arts and trades and in agricul-
ture, in order to prepare, fit and qualify
them to act as teachers"
The institute today is devOting all of
its efforts to accomplish this design.
Like other truly wise and benevolent
educational ideas, it has run the course
of development beginning with simple
farm work. then leaning to suit the
prejudices and misconceptions of the
times toward purely academic work, then
annexing the industrial, and finally stand
ing on the firm foundation suggested by
its founder of proper combination of
them both.
For over half century the work Of
the Institute for Colored Youth had
been an influential factor in the educa-
tional history of the colored race in the
Middle Atlantic States. In 1851 build
ings were erected on Lombard street, in
Philadelphia, where the school was con-
Quoted until 1866. From 1866 to 1902
a period of SO years-the work was car
ried on in a building on cambridge
street west of Ninth, in Philadelphia
Some of It's Early WOrkerS.
During that period the institute hao
more than a local reputation. 1t was
the first school in the country estab-
lished and sustained by private benevo-
lence to give a secondary training to the
colored faculty, and, as a result, the first
one able to furnish TO the public schools
established after the civil war for the
colored race their first colored teachers.
The excellent training received there
along literary lines permitted many OF
its graduates to enter the professional
/ schools that opened their doors to col