The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1917-06-29
DIR. JONES' REPORT
ON EDUCATION
u. S. Expert Finds South
Especially Negligent In
Providing Adequate
Schools.

Washington, June ga report
made by DR.. Thomas Jesse Jones OF
an investigation conducted for the
United States Bureau of Education
and with the cooperation of the
Phelps-Stock Fund, of New York,
asserts that the Negro is more in
need of an education that will fit him
for country life than agricultural pur-
suits is declared the primary need,
rather than for the higher walks of
life
While the report is so worded for
public consumption as to make it ap-
pear that the Negro is being trained
in the higher branches to the detri-
ment of the elementary, it hints that
the South is grossly recreant in prov
ing support for the Negro common
schools.
1t is a notorious fact that the South.
makes but scant provision for colored
rural schools and only few cities
have high schools for Negro pupils.
New Orleans and Atlanta are among
the cities that have no Negro high
schools. Poor pay for teachers and
unfit buildings are another deterrent
in public education.
MARYLAND AN OFFENDER.
Maryland is only little ahead Of
! the far South in providing school ia
cilities for its colored rural pOpula
| tion.
The last Legislature there increased
the terms of colored county schools to
a minimum of seven months, after
years of agitation against the short
ness of the school year, which was as
low as three months in some counties.
The state offers any county $l,5OO
year which installs industrial train
ing, but agricultural training in color
ed rural schools.
The only institution it supports for
all the colored people is the State
Normal School at Bowie. This school
does not receive anything like the fin
ancial support it should have.
In order to receive the federal ap.
preparation to aid in running the
Maryland Agricultural College white
the state has designated the Princess
Anne Academy, controlled by the M.
Z Church, as the agricultural college
| for colored. While this institution is
doing an admirable work, it does not
equal in any degree the scope of the
Maryland Agricultural College.
DIR. JONES' REPORT. Z
"Despite the overwhelming proper
ton of Negroes living in the rural dis
tricts of the South" says DR.. Jones'
"the elementary public school systems
ignore the teaching of agriculture and
the simple trades needed constantly
on the farms. Few States provide
higher schools of agriculture or sup
plement adequately the Federal funds
appropriated for the joint operation
of such schools for the Negroes The
schools conducted entirely by the col
ored people teach the classics and
modern languages when they might
rather be emphasizing agricultural and
industrial training and the other
private schools, as whole, teach
farming and its supplemental trades
only in a perfunctory way.
"Of the private schools Hampton
Institute, Tuskegee, Institute, and a
few smaller institutions are making
genuine effort to prepare pupils for
rural life. With very few exceptions.
however the colored schools have
failed to develop an interest in rural
problems. The large majority have
not even tried.
THE explanation of the indifference
is in the conviction of the colored
people that the way to prosperity and
happiness is the study of literary
subjects, and especially the classical
languages. In this they are following
the example of the white people, who
are only now beginning to see the
error of their belief. This conviction
is emphasized by the life of drudgery
which the pupils in cOlored schools
have always seen to be the lot of col
ored farmers. Their own limited
education also makes them loath to
lose any opportunity to master the
wonders of the printed page"