The Education of the Negro Child

Abstract

A N IMPLICATION of the democratic ideal in American education is that practical account may be taken of differences in individual abilities, but not indiscriminately of groups. In practice, however, our education may be said to be neither ideal nor democratic, although it pays respect to the democratic ideal in the standardization of its structure. The standardization itself is by no means the least of the present problems of American education. It is a part of our educational philosophy to assume that the objectives of education, and the social opportunities for pupils after completing the prescribed routine, are, generally speaking, the same. This, as everyone knows, is wide of the fact and, essentially, impossible in the present organization of our society. It is possible that various sociological groups of the population may have an equal number of problems, but these problems are not of the same kind. It is doubtful if any general curricular prescription can accomplish the leveling in theory which the local culture so insistently denies in fact. The assumption of this paper is that the broad objectives of education are the same for all children, but that the special social settings, beyond the control of the school, must determine the channels through which these objectives are reached; and that it is the duty of education to adjust its procedures to the character of these social and cultural problems. There are certain important theoretical considerations back of the special problem of Negro education which should be noted at the outset. So far as this group is regarded as a separate group, the assumption usually follows that the difference is cultural, and that this culture is African at base. Actually, the Negro in America has very little if any African cultural heritage. His relation to the American culture has been conditioned vigorously by his historical role in it. The relationship has been very largely a biotic one, and the role that of performing a specialized function now very largely assumed by the machine. The process of acculturation for the Negro

Keywords

Related Publications