Chapter II: Preface

For several years I have been receiving requests, from many parts of the United States, and from foreign countries as well, for some detailed information concerning the value of industrial training and the methods employed to develop it. This little volume is the result, in part, of an attempt to answer these queries. Two proven facts need emphasis here:

First: Mere hand training, without thorough moral, religious, and mental education, counts for very little. The hands, the head, and the heart together, as the essential elements of educational need, should be so correlated that one may be made to help the others. At the Tuskegee Institute we find constantly that we can make our industrial work assist in the academic training, and _vice versa_.

Second: The effort to make an industry pay its way should not be made the aim of first importance. The teaching should be most emphasised. Our policy at Tuskegee is to make an industry pay its way if possible, but at the same time not to sacrifice the training to mere economic gain. Those who undertake such endeavour with the expectation of getting much money out of an industry, will find themselves disappointed, unless they realise that the institution must be, all the time, working upon raw material. At Tuskegee, for example, when a student is trained to the point of efficiency where he can construct a first-class wagon, we do not keep him there to build more vehicles, but send him out into the world to exert his trained influence and capabilities in lifting others to his level, and we begin our work with the raw material all over again.

I shall be more than repaid if these chapters will serve the purpose of helping forward the cause of education, even though their aid be remote and indirect.

CONTENTS

I. Moral Values of Hand Work 3

II. Training for Conditions 15

III. A Battle Against Prejudice 31

IV. Making Education Pay Its Way 43

V. Building Up a System 55

VI. Welding Theory and Practice 67

VII. Head and Hands Together 82

VIII. Lessons in Home-Making 98

IX. Outdoor Work for Women 107

X. Helping the Mothers 119

XI. The Tillers of the Ground 135

XII. Pleasure and Profit of Work in the Soil 151

XIII. On the Experimental Farm 163

XIV. The Eagerness for Learning 173

XV. The Value of Small Things 181

XVI. Religious Influences at Tuskegee 192

XVII. Some Tangible Results 200

XVIII. Spreading the Tuskegee Spirit 219

XIX. Negro Education Not a Failure 231

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mr. Washington in his office at Tuskegee _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE
First building erected on School grounds 12

Breaking up new ground with an eight-ox team 16

Cutting sugar-cane on the School's farm 26

Grinding sugar-cane at the School's sugar-mill 32

The repair shop 42

In the Agricultural Laboratory 46

Road-building by Tuskegee students 50

Building a new dormitory 56

Digging foundation for a new building on the
Institute grounds 58

Selecting fruit for canning 60

At work in the School's brick-yard 62

Shoe-shop--making and repairing 66

Mattress-making 68

Basket-making 70

In the School's sawmill 72

In the machine-shop 74

Students at work in the School's foundry 76

Class in mechanical drawing 78

The blacksmith shop 80

Class in outdoor geometry 82

Students framing the roof of a large building 84

Class in language 86

Class in outdoor nature study 88

Wood-turning machinery 90

Class in outdoor arithmetic 92

Chemical Laboratory 94

Class in physiology 96

Dorothy Hall, in which most of the industries
for girls are taught 98

Learning dressmaking 100

Barrel furniture 102

Class in cooking 104

An out-of-door class in laundry work 106

Outdoor work for girls 108

Home-made furniture 130

Class in nature study 152

"When at Tuskegee, I find a way, by rising early
in the morning, to spend half an hour in my
garden or with the live stock" 154

Hogs as object-lessons 156

"The Children's House": Class in nature study 158

"Teach the child something about real country
life" 160

Cultivating a patch of cassava on the agricultural
experiment plot 164

Carnegie Library. Built by Institute students 174

The tailor shop 176

In the model dining-room 186

The paint shop 190

Institute Chapel. Most imposing building on
School grounds built by students 194

Taking an agricultural class into the field 204

A furniture and repair shop at Snow Hill 222

A Sewing-class at Snow Hill 224

Typesetting--printing-office 234

Bird's-eye view of grounds and buildings of
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
Tuskegee, Alabama 244

WORKING WITH THE HANDS