for now, the only thing we're growing on this farm is kids - not the goat variety

What Makes a Good School?

I’m reading Booker T. Washington’s autobiography Up From Slavery and took note of an interesting section where Washington contrasts 2 different schools. He notes that the school that required its students to take responsibility for paying for their own board, books, clothing, and room (while the tuition often came from donors) and to acquire “industrial” skills produced students who were ready to face the rigors and hardships of daily life after school. The school that focused solely on academics and allowed donors to provide for all of a student’s necessities produced students who

“seemed to be less self-dependent. They seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. In a word, they did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom, on a real, solid foundation, to the extent that they were at Hampton [the other school]. They knew more about Latin and Greek when they left school, but they seemed to know less about life and its conditions as they would meet it at their homes…

How many times I wished then, and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I might remove the great bulk of these people into the country districts and plant them upon the soil, upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother Nature, where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten their start, — a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one that nevertheless is real.”

 

2 Comments

  1. My oldest will be wanting to go to collage in 3 years

    My oldest will be wanting to go to collage in 3 years, and unless he gets some grants or scollarships I don’t know how. I don’t want to see him get a bunch of student loans. I personaly would like him to work for a year or 2 live at home so he can save his money for collage, and be able to pay cash for at least 2 years. I know if he has to pay for it with money he toiled for he will take it much more seriousely. I have seen to many childred go off to collage to play and party and have nothing but debt to show for it. I think if he payed for 2 years we paid for one and maby a loan for the 4th it would be a good thing. As you can tell we are looking down that road as well.

  2. Milkmaid

    I think these are good questions to be asking. So many people go to college because it is expected of them. More and more people are taking a year or more between high school and college to work, travel, or do missions. Some go on to college, and I’ve known some who decided against it or delayed it longer. From my limited experience, it does seem that those who get some work experience first benefit more from college than those who don’t.

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