The Negro Teacher and a Philosophy of Negro Education

Abstract

I was sitting in the quiet and shade of a stately maple tree in Rock Creek Park a few days ago trying to organize the thoughts which have finally formed this address. As I picked up my pencil to write the first sentence a leaf fell on my hand. It immediately set up a train of thought concerning the similarities and differences between the life of the tree and my own life; between the life of plants and animals in general and that of mankind. It seemed to me that the most important similarity between these living things was action. In the tree, action is ceaseless; in the animal, movement is incessant; in human society, change is the dominant characteristic. As long as life lasts, in whatever form, action is unescapable. Paradoxically, the greatest difference between the life of plants and animals and the life of mankind seems to concern itself with this same element-action. In the plants, action cannot be controlled by intelligence; in animals, the control of action is of a much lower order than in man; in humans there is the possibility of intelligent control. The term possibility is used advisedly, for all human actions are not motivated and directed by intelligence. In fact, as will later be shown, only recently have any con-