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Booker T Washington's Influence On Education

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Booker T Washington's Influence On Education
“Success is to be measure no so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” No one exemplified or understood this statement more than its author, Mr. Booker T. Washington. Washington was born a plantation slave on April 4th, 1856. Until the emancipation proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, Booker lived as a lowly, unknowing slave boy on Franklin County, Virginia. After he was freed from slavery, Booker began seeking education. Although he was a poor man who hardly knew how to read, Booker was able to save just enough funds to attend the school established for the purpose of instructing African Americans hungry for knowledge. This place was Hampton University. Eventually after he graduated Hampton, he was invited back to teach, and he thrived. While teaching at Hampton, another opportunity was presented to him during the year of 1881- To fabricate his …show more content…
Washington valued an education of the whole individual: Head, hand, and heart. Although the traditional education consists of only enlightening the head, Booker discovered that the indoctrination of the whole body resulted in many more beneficial life skills for the crowd he was teaching, the African americans. Since the African Americans had just been liberated from slavery, most of them had no idea how to keep proper hygiene, take care of the few items they owned, not to mention how to read. Booker swept these African Americans under his wing, kindly coaching them on how to brush their teeth, take baths, build homes, reap crops from the earth, repair dilapidated items, read, and a plethora of other necessities. Along with inculcating the whole body, Booker extrapolated that captivating and charismatic mentors made all the difference. “there is no education which one can get from books, and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact great men and women.” -Booker T.
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