The Philosophy of Education with Regard to African Americans
The philosophy of education with regard to African Americans This study will attempt to look at Alain Locke 's philosophy of education as it applies to the education of the Negro in America 1760 1930. In the days of slavery, education for Negroes was not a thought that was considered by slaveholders until The Reconstruction Period. Before The Reconstruction Period, the only purpose for slaves was to perform slave labor in the fields of their slave masters on a daily basis working them to death. They wanted to keep slaves in the most degraded state possible and never open their minds to education.
"Brought from the African wilds to constitute the laboring class of a pioneering society in the new world, the heathen slaves had to be trained to meet the needs of their environment. It required little argument to convince intelligent masters that slaves who had some conception of modern civilization and understood the language of their owners would be more valuable than rude men with whom one could not communicate. The questions, however, as to exactly what kind of training these Negroes should have, and how far it should go, were to the white race then as much a matter of perplexity as they are now. Yet, believing that slaves could not be enlightened without developing in them a longing for liberty, not a few masters maintained that the more brutish the bondmen the more pliant they become for purposes of exploitation. It was this class of slaveholders that finally won the majority of southerners to their way of thinking and determined that Negroes should not be educated" (Woodson 1- 2).
During this period of slavery and oppression the Negro in America had no other purpose but slave labor which went on for hundreds of years. Then came the time of The Reconstruction Period where the concept of introducing slaves to religion was brought up. Not all slaves were being introduced to the concept of religion as their first encounter with education but
"Brought from the African wilds to constitute the laboring class of a pioneering society in the new world, the heathen slaves had to be trained to meet the needs of their environment. It required little argument to convince intelligent masters that slaves who had some conception of modern civilization and understood the language of their owners would be more valuable than rude men with whom one could not communicate. The questions, however, as to exactly what kind of training these Negroes should have, and how far it should go, were to the white race then as much a matter of perplexity as they are now. Yet, believing that slaves could not be enlightened without developing in them a longing for liberty, not a few masters maintained that the more brutish the bondmen the more pliant they become for purposes of exploitation. It was this class of slaveholders that finally won the majority of southerners to their way of thinking and determined that Negroes should not be educated" (Woodson 1- 2).
During this period of slavery and oppression the Negro in America had no other purpose but slave labor which went on for hundreds of years. Then came the time of The Reconstruction Period where the concept of introducing slaves to religion was brought up. Not all slaves were being introduced to the concept of religion as their first encounter with education but
Bibliography: Harris, Leonard, ed. Philosophy born of Struggle. Dubuque: Kendall/ Hunt Publishing Company, 1983, 2000 Harris, Leonard, ed. The Philosophy of Alain Locke. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1925 Locke, Alain, ed. THE NEW NEGRO AN INTERPRETATION. New York: ARNO PRESS and THE NEW YORK TIMES, 1968 Woodson, C.G.The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. Washington: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1919