The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-06-25


that they were private institutions
deprived them of that wide useful
ness, which it is alone possible for
well-supporte1 State institutions TO
exert Such institutions as Hampton
and Tuskegee, which have had
high degree of independence and oil
freedom from binding conditions, have
made possible the development OF
type of education that is full of sug-
gestion for vocational schools today.
The motto of Hampton, Learning
by Doing, has stood for making use
OF all the facilities OF daily life for
training. Thus from the first, the
girls were carefully trained in va
rious processes of house work, even
though no formal courses or home
economics We're developed. Such train
ing has continued to form an i'm
portant part of the home-economics
education of Hampton girls and OF
the girls IN all the well-conducted
industrial schools"
Miss Lyford paid warm tribute to
the pioneer home-economics work
which had been done in Norfork,
Newport News, and other Southern
cities during the past twenty-five
years. She also commended the val
liable work of the State supervisors
of rural Colored schools and the
Jeanes industrial supervising teach
ers, who aim to improve the Negro
girl, her home, and her community.
Modern Economics Courses.
said Miss Lyford, that does not
make the girl a healthier, better
dressed, more Industrious, and a
more honest girl fails of its first
purpose. The girl who has learned
to care for and control herself anr
to spend her money wisely has re-
ceived the fundamental training nee
essary before she can be prepared
to take her place as the head of a
home or to assume those wider re-
sponsibilities which make for better
show the results of school training
that is effective and only as it does,
will the need in community life be
brought to pass.
To-day, because of the recognized
changes that are taking place in
economic and social conditions, all
teachers feel the pressing need of
preparing their girls for lives of
usefulness, of developing habits of
thrift, and of awakening a spirit Of
responsibility in those upon whom the
future welfare of the race is to rest.
AN know that the old-time cabin
is passing and that the homes Of
the Colored people must be made as
sanitary, as attractive, and as in
spirational to family life as are the
homes of any other civilized race
1t is a fact that Negro girls today
come from homes that range from
the poorest to the best and that they
come to their home economics work
with corresponding backgrounds of
experience.
when determining the sort of
home economics course that ii to be
offered, it is necessary to- know very
definitely the amount of preparation
that the teachers have had and their
ability to carry on the work. The
limitations in TIE educational OpDOr-
tunity of the ColOred people arc
nowhere more apparent than in the
preparation of their teachers. This
is practically true of the teachers OF
ome-econOmics, most of whom have
had a meager elementary education,
a still more limited secondary edu-
cation, and a normal training of E
few weeks in summer school or. at
best, a few months of practice teach
ing in CONJUNCTION with a secondary
course.
"Two-year normal courses are be-
ing offered today, but it will be many
years before the home-economics
teachers of home economics in all
the city schools and in the county
training schools of the South. Fewer
by far are the ColOred teachers of
home economics who have earned a
college degree. There is an increas-
ingly large number of young Colored
women who are completing courses
in the Colored Colleges of the South.
Majors, however, in home economies
have not been offered in these col
leges. At the same time the occas-
ional graduate of a Northern COL
lege seldom finds her way back to
Southern schools and even then her
course may have prepared her IN
adequately for the conditions which
she has to face in her everyday work
within and without the classroom.
For many years to come home
economics courses must be so plan
ned that they can be effectively
taught by teachers who have been
thained in the industrial schools.
They are capable of doing good work
and great numbers of them are doing
effective work all over the South.
Their work can be strengthened by
wise supervision and by increased
opportunities for summer school
courses and other forms Of advanced
study. Probably no class of teach
ers is more eager for opportunity for
self improvement than these women
who are so intimately acquainted
with the Conditions of their own
people and who feel the need Sc
keenly and their own inadequacy SO
greatly. The industrial school has
given them fundamental training,
which every girl needs and without
which our home-economics courses
will never be successful. This fun
damental training in better living is
the greatest need Of the Negro girl,
for upon it the improvement Of the
home depends
KILLED BY EXPLOSION WHILE
OPERATING STILL.