We wanted to teach them what to
eat, and how to eat it properly, and how to care for their rooms.
Aside from this, we wanted to give them such a practical knowledge of
some one industry, together with the spirit of industry, thrift, and
economy, that they would be sure of knowing how to make a living after
they had left us. We wanted to teach them to study actual things
instead of mere books alone.
We found that the most of our students came from the country
districts, where agriculture in some form or other was the main
dependence of the people. We learned that about eighty-five per cent
of the coloured people in the Gulf states depended upon agriculture
for their living. Since this was true, we wanted to be careful not to
education our students out of sympathy with agricultural life, so that
they would be attracted from the country to the cities, and yield to
the temptation of trying to live by their wits. We wanted to give
them such an education as would fit a large proportion of them to be
teachers, and at the same time cause them to return to the plantation
districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new
ideas into farming, as well as into the intellectual and moral and
religious life of the people.
All these ideas and needs crowded themselves upon us with a
seriousness that seemed well-night overwhelming.
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