Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / April 17, 1930, edition 1 / Page 1
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By Uncle Billie Part III THOSE WHO GO THROUGH GRAMMAR Studying grammar and Id* ing through grammar do hot bring the same results as to grammatical irtfoifaatidn: Go* ing through gramlriki' one sees only the primary meanings of words as to their relations in sentences. Their knowledge in the study of English grammar is superficial. It is the opinion cf quite a number of unfortu nate school teachers who seem to hol'd the idea that a word or some words have only one office in a sentence, or can hold but one office and that, for in stalled, the word but is just a conjunction regardless to the office it holds; but it should not be overlooked by those Who are mentally elastic—not finished-^-* that a word is what it is by the office it occupies in a sentence. They are not hypocrites (play ing the role of What they are not.) Whatever they do they are that. Benjamin Franklin’s being a great American states* man does not destroy the fact that he was a scientist and printer. The late Dr. D. J. San ders’ being a churchman, edi tor and college President, did not destroy his ability to make shoes; for he was a.fine shoe maker. The duty performed by a word in a sentence gives it its meaning as it relates to other words in a sentence^ One should not determine the part of speech of a word by its form but by the service it renders or office it holds. is to be able to diagram or parse your sentence in your mind before giving it to the public. You will help readers and admirers of good grammar and good English. Of course, Latin and Greek —but the former is not stressed while the latter is not offered in oftr colleges now—make the study of English (-quite easy and pleasurable. You do not haVe to study so hard and long for the cause of linguistic things. Good English is your recom mendation as well as mathemat ics is your living. This article may impress some young person pursuing an education in some high school or even in our colleges to give more careful study to those subjects that will widen his view, deepen his interest, and strengthen his grasp on common and finer points in English. High schools and colleges do hot teich English grammar ‘any more now.* That is a sub : ject for those down in the " grades; and I, having kept up v a large correspondence, for ov er thirty years with men and yeomen, boys and girls of edu cational advantages to be en vied. see this great need among them; as a general rule, T can detect the difference, in Composition, between that group that studied English in our ‘high and normal schools years ago and that group that boasts now of better advantages and of the fact that English gram “hiar is not a high school sub ‘ ject any more. A college graduate of one of Our big Negro universities looked upon me some years ago with a contemptuous smile be ' Cause 1 told him I studied bota ny in my sophomore class when a student in Biddle. He laughed and said: ‘That is a high school Subject.” Perhaps it is or was when he went to college. But ■ after further investigation on '/my part—I like to catch big „*neads—I find that this boastful gentleman did not study bota^ ny in the . high school from which he graduated, and that ' botany was not taught in his -- 9Q. to roe&ted mot eh among some tea. We have think that a must he tow* and be a . This umfere a certain than among they have a anil* without our P a stiff of the edfin; giv es one art of tMl? speech botrayeth itmr e up the fruitless d«H k ihahility to place words jn Sea. the full of if a sentnece livery Unless they convey thoughts in very, very sentences they become of their speech, which H them. inology, or the mint sions or terms used in the new grammars, are m&kteM to frighhni a weak Mbw from grammatical quoit. But if a has a good working or Qnek or Latin walk through Shadow of crit no evil for the bhn. CAPE MHtfi Old Gape Fear met for the forty-fourth thne in history ih the dear old town of Wilson— a great farming center and the largest tobacco market in the world. It convened in Old Cal vary church, a church with a hospitality and friendliness en gendered by the ever faithful and modest Prof. Vick. Every thing was peaceful but every body was not satisfied. I myself was not grieved but was uneased because of the ap parent smallness of our mem bers throughout the bounds of: the Presbytery. In years past I was not at ease with the old veterans, but during this ses sion I could readily see that the “old men” had done their best, {dieting the old ship toward the shore. J t)rs. Savage and Dillard have stood by their guns fighting the fight of faith. These men are still fighting. Dr. Savage in his great speech before the boys1 verged on eloquence trying to5 stimulate and enthuse us to spiritual action. No man of the Presbytery can think hard, fairly ahd justly, of these men whb have striven hard for more than forty years. In some degree my thoughts have not been in the past jus tifiable, for nothing can stand' in the way of the determined, faithful, hard worker. I believe that if every man in Cape Fear during his sojourn had worked as Untiringly as Drs. Dillard and" Savage in their early days,1 when these men preached un der'trees, in little houses, and baptized men and women in mill ponds after night fall, our num ber of communicants would not be lessthan ten thousand souls. Tkm;Jfet hopeful for this over shower of heaven’s blessings, t took my training at Albion and Lincoln University. I lovg these schools. I labor daily to main tain the honors received from f Lincoln and I pray that all of Lincoln’s sons may give a good account of themselves. T trust that the men of Cape Fear may !fcot foe>diseouraged, but get down to work'and results will come. Fhave never had any honors from the men constituting Cape BaggagBg'Ti'' 1 ' ’ ) "Win, =agae Fear Some years ago a brother (told me that “I did not have, sense enough.” This brother does not belong to us now. No, I have never been to the Gen eral Assembly, nor have I mod erated a session of Cape Fear and at this date it is not antic ipated. Yet I have had ther pleasure of attending two ses sions of our Church’s greatest tribunal. 7"r :pr ' I am appealing to the men of the Presbytrey to behd fev«ry‘ energy for a large harvest this year. A great-banner year will no doubt bring joy and glad ness to the hearts of our dear leaders Dts. Dillard . and Sav age, who love us and Cape Fear WlthaU of their strength. I thank Dr. and Mrs. McCror rey for their visft to ora* t6wfc. they looked fine on the ros Wm. ' ::~ • ^ J. BURTON HARPER. Rocky Mount, N. C. m NEGRO’S CONTRIBUTION By Audrey West (Winning Essay in the recent Junior Prize Contest , at Scotia Seminary.) In America^ today we: have somewhere between ten and twelve million people’ pi Negro or African descent, fit is true that a race is human first, then racial, so we can say that since the slavery period the Negro has made his greatest progress. To America the Negro could bring best his music, one of his greatest possessions. Though he had very few opportunities at first, he at once turned with gie*t zeal to-dwetop- his gift when he became his own mas ter. Music is as natural to the Negro as song is to the bird. The music of the Negro is of three distinct types: the spir ituals or sacred songs, the work songs, and the Negro Creole songs. The spirituals are really the most characteristic product in America of the race’s genius yet. They have outlived the particular generation and con ditions that produced them. The roots of melody and rhythm and.the harmonies were brought no doubt from Africa, but al though there is a connection with African music, the image ry and sentiments expressed by these songs are the results jof the conditions under which the slaves lived in America. It was in these songs that he poured out his soul. Among the Negroes of the lower South who lived in dread of being sold in slavery the spirituals are of a deeper and more truly religi ous zeal than the spirituals of those of the upper South where the Negroes lived on the same plantation all their lives. -> An outstanding characteristic of the 'spirituals as well as of other Negro music is their un usal harmony. All of them have three or four parts. This is due to the fact that the Negro is « natural harmonist. If there are three Negroes singing to gether you at once catch the harmony of three distinct tones, but take thrde people of any other race, and usually you find them singing one part or the melody. Another characteristic of these camp-meeting songs is that the time is even, being either two-fourths or four fourths time. No spirituals have triple rhythm, whico means having three or six beats to the measure. This can be explained by the fact that they are al ways accommpanied by the beating of the foot and the swaying of the body. . The spirituals are essentially religious. They are meant for congregational singing and not (Continued on page 4) r PLACE OF THE COL-LEGE FOR WOMEN IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF TEXAS. By Miss Margaret N. Lee of the College, Head of the Department of Education, and Supervisor of Physical Education at Mary Allen Seminary, Crockett, Texas ^ Parti J.Dean Margaret N. Lee was granted her master’s degree by Ohio State University. She red in Education and Soci and is especially prepared die the problems of a girls’ 1 This paper was delivered *e the State Colored Teach-, ^Association at Houston, Since the administration oljJKss Lee every girl who has finished has gone into teaching or further study in a higher in stitution and made a creditable record. Although Dean Lee em phasizes adequate professional trailing she feels that the ulti place of every girl is in the mat home, and that women, wheth er wives, mothers, or teach ers; .• should work through the Jaonm both directly and indirect ly. She also feels that women are the primary mouldftrs of the face; At Mary Allen she endeavors to prepare the girls, to bf the guardians of the so cial heritage, «to meet the re sponsibilities that are particu larly! theirs, and to so shape mid control conditions in home, school, and church, that life is made richer, and deeper, and more!meaningful to all.—M. E. mil As pat introduction to my dia College for Women in the Edu cational System of Texas,” I shall review briefly the origin ana ueveiopment oi iiisululiuiih of higher learning for women. We know that the struggle to gain for women educational ad vantages equal to those enjoyed by men was a long and difficult one. It was slow to come true because of prejudice, conserva tism and the dismal predictions that damage would be the re sult, if learning should be ad vanced to the weaker sex. At first, schools were established for men only. As women began to awaken, to realize their con dition and their responsibilities, they tried to enter some of these schools. In many instanc es their application was reject ed. The fact that they were re fused* ^engendered t_he desire to establish schools for girls. So women’s colleges were organ ized as an expression of pro test against the exclusion of women from men’s colleges. The higher education for wo men began in the nineteenth century, its foundation being laid in the academy. The earli est institution of college grade was Mt. Holyoke, founded in 1837 by Mrs. Lyons, followed in 1855 by Elmira College; in 1865 by Vassar; in 1870 by Wellesley; in 1871 by Smith, and 1885 by Bryn Mawr. Columbia made peace by establishing Barnard as a co-ordinate college for women in 1889, and Harvard set up Radcliffe five years lat er. Of the twenty-two institutions dating their origin before 1850, but two were in the North At lantic States. Just previous to !the establishment of Mount Ho jlyoke, several institutions of somewhat more than secondary [grade had been established in 'the South. Among these the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, Georgia. In all, before jl 850, Georgia had four so-called women’s colleges, Alabama, Mis souri, North Carolina and Ten nessee each had two, while one each had been founded in Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina and Texas. The preponderance of such institu tions throughout the South is noticeable in this list, and is over more prominent in the next decade. Out of the thirty nine women's colleges founded between 1850 and 1859, thirty two were in that region, which indicates that the growth of these institutions as very rapid especially in the Southern area. Educational statistics for 1902 show 131 colleges devoted ex clusively to the education of. women, 91 of which were locat ed in the Southern States. A more recent report on the number of colleges and prepar atory schools for women is 3* follows: Alabama, 21; Arkansas, 8; California, 37; Colorado, 7; Connecticut, 30; District of Co lumbia. 29; Florida, 6; Georgia, 23; Illinois, 57; Indiana, 19; j Iowa, 19; Kansas, 7; Kentucky, 34; Louisiana, 20; Maryland, 20; Massachusetts, 57; Michi gan, 15; Minnesota, 22; Missis sippi, 19; Missouri, 40 ; Monta na 3; Nebraska, 6 ; New Hamp shire, 3; New Jersey, 34; New Mexico. 4; New • York, 141; North Carolina, 28; Ohio, 32; Oklahoma. 7; Oregon, 4 ; Penn sylvania, 70; Rhode Island, 1? South Carolina, ^Penm 21; Texas, 26; Utah, me£'Vm% consin, 17 • Wyoming, 1. These statistics indicate , clearly that the separate school for women is not an unusual affair. Between 1890 and 1910 there was an increase in attendance in college? for women of 348 per cent. This tendency toward increase is still apparent ac cording to a report recently, in the Atlantic Monthly, on the seven outstanding women’s col leges in the East. It shows that in the last few years more stu dents have presented themselves for admitance than could be properly housed, fed and taught and from the waiting ^>.t of girls waiting to enter, one would be led to think that the demand , for women’s colleges is increas- ■ ing. i The fact that we have such a large number of colleges de voted exclusively to the educa tion of women and that the at tendance at such institutions is still creditable, indicates that they must serve a desirable pur pose. An explanation of the ser vices rendered by these insti tutions will most vividly point out to you the place of the col lege for women in our education al system. If the separate school does not meet a certain demand, then it has no place. But it is my conviction that it fills a very important place for the follow ing reasons: 1. The ages for graduation from high school have been con siderably lowered in the last two decades so that the girl is often ready for college at fif teen or sixteen. This is a time when there is a great deal of intellectual and emotional un rest, and the youth’s energies are directed toward properly ad justing the self. The transition from high school to college at this time is a difficult and dan gerous one. It seems but a step 1 ut that j step is aeross the mighty gulf that separates a girl from childhood and ; sets her in a pew world where she is to work out her on. destiny. All about her is strange and un tried. She must make her own choices, she must diredt her self. She finds the intense and pulsating life of the campus {fascinating but confusing. The social attractions and insistent appeal of student activities [make it very hard for her to weigh and compare values cor rectly, and she is likely to make sore blunders. A knowledge of these conditions which are com monly characteristic of the large educational schools, has aroused a question in the minds of thoughtful parents as to whether their daughters are prepared to be thrown into the current of social contacts and more or less unabridged free dom that is becoming more characteristic of our co-educa tional institutions. The years that have been so aptly called the experimental life are very trying to the girl’s deals Her salvation at this stage, would seem to lie in an earnest resolution not to do anything which is not really up lifting. Keep her ideals she must, if college is to be her ben efactor. Her difficulty lies in ap - plying them, in strejnuouisly striving for unfaltering prac tical impulses that will lead , to jher highest development, be cause of the numerous tempta tions and social complexities [which accompany life in the 11 larger co-educational institu tions. | In view of this, in the minds of thoughtful parents, it seems jthat they prefer a school for women only until the girl [reaches an age when her atti tudes and ideals are more firm ly developed. This does not mean that in the college for women there should be an absence of» social contact with the opposite jgex, but rather a restricted so cial life. And in our time of so cial freedom and PffSonal lib ^fflctie^stich restrictions are very "mention a1 so in connectiorfwith tftjs purpose of assisting the girl through the experimental stage of life, that colleges f\>r iMiuen are not to lie thought of a« correctional instuutionls :>J some have erroneously conclud ed. In the Southeast and iNortn e-iot. oareri.s send their daugh ters to Spelman, Barber, Scotia, Radcliffe. Bryn Mawr and oth "r schools not for the purpose of reforming them but for the purpose of giving them a higher and more adaptable culture than they could obtain in the co-ed ucational school and the stu dents come from the very best hbihes among both white and colored, because among thinking parents, such social restrictions as' are characteristic of these institutions, are considered de sirable. Another advantage in a sep arate college for women is that it provides an atmosphere in which hard and continuous men tal work is possible. A stimulat ing sense that the college girl may and would do something fine with her life seems ever present in the minds of the girls. The work of the student is not seasonal. The steady rou tine of the year is not broken 'n on by feverish periods of in ter-collegiate athletics and oth er distractions. To the whole group of women’s colleges in i the country, is the fact that, there is in general an under standing between the college and the student that she has come to work seriously at an ar duous task which is important not only for her as an individ ual, but also important because she is to be later, a member of a community to which she must make a serious contribution. ! With the students once ad mitted and their own more di rect responsibilities begun, spe cial effort is made to see that the work is well directed. It is generally believed by the educa tors that graduates of women’s j colleges are a good investment, Educationally. Evidence of this is illustrated in a study that was made in 1927 of the seven cutstanding colleges of the East; ! Bryn Mawr, Vassar, . c (Continued on page 4)
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
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April 17, 1930, edition 1
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