B
THE WORK OF
THE COLORED
" SCHOOL
□
THE WORK OF THE COLORED SCHOOL
AN ADDRESS GIVEN BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY
STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION IN ATLANTIC
CITY, NEW JERSEY ON DECEMBER 29, 1921.
By J. R. PAUL BROCK PRINCI¬
PAL OF THE INDIANA AVENUE
SCHOOL ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.
WORK OF STUDENTS OF THE PRINTNG DEPART¬
MENT, VOCATIONAL SCHOOL ATLANTIC CITY N.J.
WORK OF THE COLORED SCHOOL
Y PLACE on this morning's program is not
due to any significant service that I have
done the cause of education, but is wholly
and solely a recognition on the part of the
State Association of a part of its membership who be¬
cause of the fact that they are teaching colored chil¬
dren exclusively and in order to advance more surely
the educational interests of those children have organ¬
ized themselves into the New Jersey Association of
Teachers in Colored Schools.
Slowly but surely this association through its
seven or eight subordinate Study Centers is modify¬
ing the attitude of the colored people toward educa¬
tion and citizenship, is defining a program for the
education of colored children and is formulating a
program for the self-respecting thoughtful colored
teacher.
The purposes of this organization are so worth¬
while and so in accord with the loftiest aims of mod-
ren education that we hold in high appreciation the
THE
M
4 The Work of the Colored School
publicity which comes to our organization through
representation on this program and I feel personally,
signally honored to be selected as the voice to give ex¬
pression to our aims and purposes.
This organization represents two hundred fifty
colored teachers of the state of New Jersey, practi¬
cally all of whom are properly certificated by the
state. Into their hands is placed the education of
over ten thousand pupils, or about 50% of the colored
school population.
These teachers realize that their work is very di¬
rectly affected by the attitude of higher supervisory
officers; so may I say right here that the colored
' teachers of New Jersey have the greatest confidence
in the sympathy, broad humanity and active interest
of the supervisory officers. For say what you may,
the attitude toward the education of colored children
is the acid test of the supervisory officer's belief in the
aim of education. The colored child is the ultimate
challenge to that aim. It is a fact of note-worthy ob¬
servation that the great educators of our country
have met the problem, whenever they have been re¬
sponsible for the education of colored children, with
a humanity and democratic spirit which have begot¬
ten a strong belief in the sincerity with which the
public schools are pursuing their aims. Time alone
prohibits me from going through the long list of
names.
We colored teachers feel that with the consistent
increasing biennial appropriation to Borden town In¬
stitute, the fine morale among the colored teachers of
the state and the steady development of the colored
The Work of the Colored School 5
schools, New Jersey superintendents have shown fine
educational vison which by fair dealing with the prob¬
lem of the colored child has enabled them to raise all
of the schools of New Jersey to a conspicuous place
in the nation.
Our association aims to know the thought of the
colored communities throughout the state so as to
aid it or modify it in order to develop an enthusiasm
for education. We want behind us the whole-souled
support of these communities. We must maintain the
respect of our own group. There is no inducement
in the field of teaching that for the colored teacher
equals the respect for him that comes from his own
group for service rendered. There is no fate more pa¬
thetic than that of the colored teacher in a position
that brings to him the disrespect of his own group.
We find that this colored group has very definite
and fixed notions in matters pertaining to the educa¬
tion of its children. This opinion is created not as
is often supposed by politicians and people in the
public service, but by that group of leaders— business
men, professional men and ministers, a group that is
growing, who find their support within the group it¬
self. Just as labor supports its own leaders, so exper¬
ience has proved to the colored people that this lead¬
ership is the most disinterested, most genuine and
most sincere. This opinion is usually favorable to an
organization of the schools that makes possible an
addition to the self-respecting leadership in the com¬
munity. It is very severe on the trimmer and the
compromiser, who yield everything and gain noth¬
ing but greater humiliation and discrimination. It is i
6
The Work of the Colored School
very bitter toward an organization of schools that
places in close proximity colored and white schools
different in quality and kind, thus accentuating differ¬
ences whether in preparation of teachers, physical
equipment, class organization or ultimate results of
education. Our association aims to know this opinion
and lead it into an enthusiastic support of the educa¬
tion of colored children.
One of the most definitely constructive things that
we are doing is the development of race consciousness
and race ideals on the part of colored girls and boys.
In this work particularly the colored teachers are
making themselves solid with the colored communi¬
ties. We are unearthing the fables and folk-lore tales
of Africa, we aregiving new meanings to the stories of
faithfulness and service that come from the slave
period, we are inspiring a iove for the plantation
melodies, those fine folk songs which are mounting
from ridicule and dishonor to a plane of respect and
reverence. We are giving serious purpose to the lives
of our children by placing before them the notable
achievements of people of color. As we attack this
task we teachers ourselves are amazed at the gener¬
ous nobility of people of another race who have the
records ready for our quest, thereby enabling us to
prove our case. Science, literature, art, music, history
invention and business are yielding character after
character to our determined search. Pupils and teach¬
ers are beginning to feel a stimulating belief in des¬
tiny. It is no unusual thing in a colored public school
to have, as we had a month ago in Indiana Avenue
School of this city, a colored composer of recognized
The Work of the Colored School 7
worth, address two or three hundred colored children
and adults upon the work colored men and women
are doing in preserving for the music of all times
the folk tongs of the Negro. It is no unusual thing
for the colored teachers to set forth in pageant and
forms of entertainment the achievements of the col¬
ored people. At this very minute in perhaps a dozen
centers colored teachers are collaborating on supple¬
mentary reading books that will develop in colored
children race consciousness and race pride. This more
than any other is the peculiar function of the colored
teacher. It sets him apart. It lifts him up.
The organization of teachers in colored schools
aims to keep the colored child in the spot-light of its
work. We are interested in his health and gather all
types of facts that throw any light whatsoever on
health conditions. We are interested in his home, that
problem which more than any other baffles and baf¬
fles us. What shall we do when 54. 7 % of Negro fe¬
males as against 19 .2% of white females are engag¬
ed in this gainful occupation? A casual inquiry of 230
pupils in two grades one morning as to the fact in
how many homes that morning both parents were
away revealed the fact that 73 pupils were thus affect¬
ed or 3 out of 10. Inquiry further revealed the case
that this was a daily condition in one out of five cases.
Our association stands for doing everything we can
to make up for this inefficiency in the home. The col¬
ored teacher who will not stand in loco parentis has
a fundamental disqualification for the job.
The story of the condition of education among
colored people is not a particularly brilliant one. While
8
The Work of the Colored School
it is true that illiteracy among colored people has de¬
creased at a rather wonderful rate decade by decade
and while it is true that certain schools like Tuskegee
and Hampton are beacons as to the course to pursue
in the education of the masses of people and while it
is true that great educators like Washington and
Moton have arisen yet there are many depressing ele¬
ments in the story.
The Negro child is peculiarly circumstanced in
that one out of every six colored people is living in a
state other than the one in which he was born. In the
northern states one out of every two is so circum¬
stanced. Yet this on its face represents an education¬
al loss somewhere. It does not represent an ideal e-
conomy. We cannot rate too highly in the emotional
development of a child the possession of a pride in his
home town and in his native state. We cannot over¬
estimate the favorable reaction upon his educational
development that comes from the feeling of owner¬
ship of the local traditions, historical places, com¬
munity heroes and achievements. There is something
of this feeling that comes even to Negro child in his
native community and it is good as far as it goes.
The Negro child is the real cosmopolite and the study
of his educational problems requires a cosmopolitan
point of view. In every community he is directly af¬
fected by the educational malpractice of any other
community. He carries into every community the
educational problems that he seeks to leave behind
with other besatments. He brings the problems that
have arisen from a school term which has averaged
less than five months in thirteen states, from an edu-
The Work of the Colored School 9
cation that has cost less than $3.70 per capita on the
average in fourteen states and from teachers 70% of
whom have not been trained beyond the eighth year
of the elementary school. The educational fate of the
Negro child wherever he may be, is bound up insep¬
arably with the short school term, the inadequate e-
quipment and the poorly trained teacher of the rural
south. Favorable local conditions are no Chinese wall
which keeps us from being affected by unfavorable
local conditions somewhere else.
A few years ago I made a study of 812 colored
school children, most of whom were of the immigrant
type and found 67. 8% of them over age for grade
where the city norm was 32. 1% over age for grade.
I found where the city had only five children in 1000
late, on the average this group had 19. Where the
city maintained a percentage of attendance of 89. 5%
these children maintained 83. 9 %.
These figures are not intended to suggest fixed
racial traits, for our association has found that how¬
ever stubborn some of these statistics seem they will
yield to persistent attack. Our most notable success
has been in the field of attendance. At our last annual
meeting 29 out of 63 rooms reporting had exceeded
the state achievement in percentage of attendance.
Because we believe that the education of colored
children is one problem throughout this nation and
because we feel that we are affected by the rise or fall
of educational progress in all sections of the country
we are closely allied with the National Association of
Teachers in Colored Schools. We are determined to
exert whatever energy we can in behalf of and give
10 The Work of the Colored School
whatever assistance we can to the movements for the
improvement of educational opportunities in the rural
schools of the south.
Again, the social group in which the Negro child
finds itself is in many respects primitive. Many of its
failings "lean to virtue's side." Yet they are failings
notwithstanding. Society can do many things better
than the individual and has perfected through public
funds, philanthropy and in other ways, institutions to
do what individuals cannot do half as well. The higher
up society goes in the scale of civilization, the more
it tends to think in terms of institutions. Influenced
by primitive methods of thinking, and largely too by
inadequate institutional provisions and the unfair ad¬
ministration of institutions, the Negro does not tend
to think in terms of institutions. These institutions
exist so that the family may function.more efficiently
and thus the next generation of society be improved.
Again and again I have observed that colored families
already functioning with difficulty, out of mistaken
charity, add obligations in the form of orphan children
of the neighborhood. I know a Children's Aid Society
which seems to have very limited provisions for de¬
pendent colored children and has a system of board¬
ing these children out in colored homes. The best col¬
ored homes are not available and so they drift into
homes that commercialize institutional cases. In
many instances because of limited provisions for col¬
ored juvenile offenders they are returned to society
again and again after apprehension for petty offenses.
This condition impairs the efficient functioning of the
home, imperils the status of the colored child in school,
The Work of the Colored School 11
because under compulsory school attendance every
institutional case at large is forced into the public
schools. Yet in the face of the inadequate provisions
for Negro children of institutional character, investi¬
gators are surprised at the number of colored boys
in special classes.
It is our duty as colored teachers to see to it that
our normal boys and girls are as little contaminated
with abnormal types as is possible. Our institutional
cases should be in institutions and we should know
if institutional provisions are adequate.
I fear I have burdened you with a subject that is un¬
interesting to you but of vital interest to ten mill¬
ions of your fellow citizens. At this time men and
women are feeling the need of a spiritual awakening.
Men are opening their eyes to duties neglected and
opportunities unseen. It maybe that the Master in¬
cluded the colored child in "the least of these."
In closing may I state the felt but unwritten plat¬
form of the Association of Teachers in Colored
Schools:
1. We will be absolutely faithful to the highest
educational interest of colored children.
2. We stand for an administration of the educa¬
tion of colored children that will maintain the respect
of the public opinion among colored people without
which life becomes intolerable for the thoughtful
colored teacher.
3. We believe in a flexible organization of schools
by means of which the highest educational interests
of colored children may be most safely guaranteed.
4. We believe that racial pride should be instilled
The Work of the Colored School 12
in colored children through imparting to them the
accomplishments of people of their own group through
all the ages and in all countries.
5. We stand for trained colored teachers and every
possible opportunity for their continued development.
6. We believe in those organizations of colored
teachers where they develop consciousness of their
peculiar problems and at the same time we believe in
affiliation with those organizations that develop the
widest professional outlook.