Booker T Washington's Influence On Education

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The time period in which Booker T. emerged cannot be overlooked when examining his philosophies and practices. He was born into slavery, being freed by the Civil war nine years later. For the entirety of his life, he had to endure blacks being treated as less than human. For the early stages of his life blacks were enslaved facing daily hardships and maltreatment. Even when freed by the ending of the Civil War in 1865, Blacks still faced immense struggles. They were now faced with the issue of finding work. With Washington at the helm, The Tuskegee Institute was chartered and opened in 1881. Washington's educational projects were reflective of his own life projects. It was suggested by Merle Curti in The Social Ideas of American Education that the educational methods practiced at Tuskegee were stemmed from the daily needs and activities of its students. Credit was given to William Kilpatrick for the development of the "project method". Project method is the process of centering curriculum on meaningful activity in a social environment. These methods were designed to give each student learning opportunities that were not restricted by the limitations of traditional approaches to education. It was believed that if the student was involved in meaningful …show more content…

Washington's beliefs are rooted in the idea that learning is not a set process. He believed that students should be constantly encouraged to be problem solvers as well as active thinkers. His views on curriculum, where they may seem to hold more of a vocational weight, carry over what many schools today now incorporate. The ideals of the Tuskegee Institute are heavily stemmed in vocational practices. Students attend not only to gain knowledge of academic proportions, but also to benefit from knowledge they will acquire to better serve their industrial

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