BTW Educational Ideas

On November 2, Dr. James Armstead will visit our school as his Chatauquah character, Booker T. Washington. What is Chatauquah?

• The name of a Native American dignitary

• A type of taco that uses grains native to the U. S. instead of meat.

• An extinct language that people in Central America spoke in the 15th Century

• An entertaining and educational way of presenting information through recreating famous historical people.

Answer explanation

The first Chatauquah assembly was held in 1874 near the Chatauquah Lake in New York. Today, assemblies are still held there and throughout the U. S.

BTW alum Rebecca Marks-Jimerson, performing at a Chatauquah Assembly as suffragette Ida B. Wells, is on the right hand side of the photo.

When attending a Chatauquah presentation, what should you expect?

• The speaker to wear a costume similiar to the clothing that the portrayed character would wear.

• The speaker to talk as if he or she IS the historical person being recreated.

• The speaker not to understand contemporary events, ideas, and people since the character being recreated lived in a different time.

• ALL of the above.

Answer explanation

This is Dr. James Armstead in character as Booker T. Washington.

Dr. Armstead is a retired professor of Strategy and International Law at the U. S. Navy War College. He is a distinguished lecturer, a former United Nations consultant, and a former Fulbright professor in Ukraine.

In his essay "The Awakening of the Negro" published in the ATLANTIC in 1896, Booker T. Washington wrote about the work of the Institute he founded. That institute is. . .

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Georgia Tech

• Institute for Excellence in Writing

• Tuskegee Institute in Tuskugee, Alabama

Answer explanation

When he was 25, Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute the first institution of higher learning for African Americans.

This is a photo taken in 1902.

In his ATLANTIC essay, Washington claims that it is "the utmost importance that our energy be given to meeting conditions that exist right about us rather than conditions that existed centuries ago or that exist in countries a thousand miles away." Given that the essay was published in 1896, what conditions did he most likely observe around him?

• Many African American families owned expensive automobiles.

• Many African American families owned too much land.

• Families in need of food, clothing, shelter, and education.

• Families wanted to move to South America.

Washington's thesis is "that a student [who] goes out into the world conscious of his power to build a house or a wagon, or to make a harness, gives him a certain confidence and mortal independence that he would not possess without such training." What is another way of stating this thesis?

• Theoretical education is worth more than practical education.

• Having skills boosts self confidence.

• Harnesses are items that everyone needs.

• Moral independence is separate from self confidence.

To answer his critics who believed that he was teaching people "to work on the same plan that [they were] made to follow when in slavery," Booker T. Washington claims that when people learn "not only practical brick-masonry, for example, but also the underlying principles of that industry, the mathematics and the mechanical and architectural" foundations, people can become "master of the forces of nature" rather than following the old ways of the pre-Civil War south. What is another way to state Washington's claim?

• Pre-Civil War skills are no longer necessary.

• The world will always have a need for brick masons.

• It is time to give people theoretical training.

• Having a practical skill (such as building a brick wall) AND knowing how to engineer it so that it is sturdy is an effective way to help people move forward.

Answer explanation

What skill have you mastered because you understand the science behind it?

In his essay, Washington quotes a Tuskegee student who said, "We is done stopped libin' in de ashes!" Washington certainly wanted to give his reader a sense of some the people at Tuskegee, but what other reason might he have used this colloquial language?

• To demonstrate that people with a limited sense of grammar can improve themselves just like anyone else can.

• To show the need for grammar education.

• To cause his readers to laugh.

• To show that some people cannot improve their own lives.

Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute to promote his idea that the lives of Southern African Americans would improve when they 1) learn useful skills and 2) understand the scientific principles related to those skills.

To what extent do you believe Washington's ideas are relevant today?

Should Washington's ideas be broadened to all people living in the U. S.?

You can write your response or discuss it with your class.

The pressing needs Washington saw when he wrote his essay were "food, clothing, shelter, education, proper habits, and a settlement of race relations."

To what extent have these needs changed from 1896 when the essay was published?

Write your answer or discuss it with your class.

If you could change school curriculum, what would you add, drop, or modify?

Write or discuss.