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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