Industrial Education.                 311






                            IV.
                        [Contributed.]
       IN DEFENCE OF HIGHER AS WELL AS INDUS-
                  TRIAL EDUCATION.


  Louisiana has only one school for colored youth, where the
common grade is partly supported by the United States gov-
ernment. This is so handicapped by the lack of dormitories
that the work of preparing teachers for the 1019 positions in
the common schools of the State falls very largely to Straight
and her sister missionary universities.  Without these the
public school system of Louisiana for colored children would
be impossible. They are supplementary to the public school
system, and are rendering the State an inestimable service.
  In the public discussions of the higher education for colored
youth the assumption has been that college instruction, espe-
cially in the ancient classics, is their main work.  This is quite
contrary to the fact. The United States Bureau of Education
reports only 167 graduates from these colleges and universities
for 1897-98, and probably not more than half of these pursued
the purely classical course. There is also reason to believe
that this number far exceeded that of any previous year. As
for Straight University, there has been an average of only one
college graduate for the last seven years. The impression that
this has been our chief work is quite wide of the mark.
   Two questions have been raised in this connection: First,
whether college-bred colored youth find suitable employment;
and, second, what is the measure and quality of their influence
upon society? As to the first question, teaching offers the
largest field at present.  According to the latest report of the
United States Commissioner of Education there are in the




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 17, Num. 4

In Defence of Higher as Well as Industrial Education

W.

Volume:  17
Issue Number:  04
Page Number:  311
Date:  04/1901