A Liberal Arts versus Vocational Education

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A Liberal Arts versus Vocational Education In his book Black Leadership, Marable describes what we will refer to as the Tuskegee phenomenon, in which he asserts Booker T. Washington’s favoring of just this type of “quick fix” vocational education to be erroneous. Over the next few pages, I will examine Marable’s arguments and I will attempt to extend their application into society as we know it today. Marable describes the Tuskegee approach to black development as political “racial accommodation.” He details a vocational education completely devoid of encouraging critical thinking. He writes, “…it (Tuskegee) took the social and cultural transformation of the black Southern labor force to be a major responsibility of black educational institutions.” He continues describing Washington’s curriculum which aside from agricultural and industrial instruction, placed emphasis upon promoting literacy and personal hygiene. The education received by a male student at the Tuskegee Institute would consist of courses in carpentry, printing, agricultural economics, and other technical training whereas for females it would consist of courses in laundry, sewing, and kitchen duties. Marable describes Washington’s directive that his students “respect authority without debate.” Although Washington’s plan did seem to promote black capital formation at the time of his Tuskegee, it would come back to haunt African Americans for years to come. Marable states, “Washington’s public position of accommodation to racial inequality prepared the ideological ground for a series of repressing (Jim Crow) laws.” Through Washington’s policies of tolerating racialism, further segregation was enabled between blacks and whites. In the end, Washington’s diss... ... middle of paper ... ...ime to be the same persons who voted against their own interests with the passing of racist initiatives such as propositions 211 and 187. (That is if they voted) Of course, there are socio-economic factors that will contribute to the application of a Liberal arts education as favored by Du Bois versus a “quick fix” vocational education as favored by Washington. The level of education achieved by ones parents, the financial standing of one’s family, the venue by which a person is raised, the education pursued by one’s peers, just to name a few. I am reminded of a cliché junkie as portrayed in the movies saying “I just need a quick fix.” In the end, a quick fix will not work for the junky, it did not work towards the advancement of African American capital for the graduates of the Tuskegee, and it probably will not work for graduates of vocational schools today.

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