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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