The temptation often is to run each individual through a
certain educational mould, regardless of the condition of the subject
or the end to be accomplished. This was not so at Hampton Institute.
The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to have
pleased every one, and many kind and encouraging words were spoken to
me regarding it. Soon after my return to my home in West Virginia,
where I had planned to continue teaching, I was again surprised to
receive a letter from General Armstrong, asking me to return to
Hampton partly as a teacher and partly to pursue some supplementary
studies. This was in the summer of 1879. Soon after I began my first
teaching in West Virginia I had picked out four of the brightest and
most promising of my pupils, in addition to my two brothers, to whom I
have already referred, and had given them special attention, with the
view of having them go to Hampton. They had gone there, and in each
case the teachers had found them so well prepared that they entered
advanced classes. This fact, it seems, led to my being called back to
Hampton as a teacher. One of the young men that I sent to Hampton in
this way is now Dr. Samuel E. Courtney, a successful physician in
Boston, and a member of the School Board of that city.
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