My greatest inspiration has always been Anna Julia Cooper. I also love Nannie Helen Burroughs. Both believed in classical education and learning a trade. Nannie Helen Burrough studied under Anna Julia Cooper while she was principal of the M Street School and she was the head of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literary Society. She carried on Cooper’s educational philosophy when she founded her own school, The Nannie Helen Burroughs School, where girls learned trades AND studied Latin. Anna Julia Cooper wrote that the purpose of education is to train the “head, hand, and heart” so that a person becomes “a beneficent force in the service of the world.” I love that because it captures exactly what I believe education should do. Having both a classical education and a trade ensures that you will always have a way to earn a living while also being prepared to excel academically.
When Anna Julia Cooper became president of Frelinghuysen University, she developed a curriculum that included learning trades and receiving a liberal arts education. It was an early model of what we would now think of as a community college, where Black people who had been denied an education because of enslavement could learn reading, writing, mathematics, and other academic subjects, while also learning trades.
Cooper offers a balanced perspective on W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. When it comes to the education of Black people, I do not think we can really choose sides between these two. Embracing Washington alone is a real detriment to the progress of Black people because we need a strong liberal arts education. Embracing Du Bois alone also has a weakness. At times, his more elitist perspectives could prevent some Black people from making the financial progress that comes through learning a trade. Both are needed, and Anna Julia Cooper understood that.
One reason we ask our high school students to do internships is so they can learn a trade. Last year we had a student learn woodworking. My son has followed this philosophy by getting his lifeguard certification. He now always has money. He has his own little bank account and is enjoying some financial freedom because he is always being called in to lifeguard at the pool. No matter what, he will always be able to earn a living. At the same time, he is ready for college too. His options are limitless. I was recently talking to his younger brother about what trade he wants to learn before he finishes high school.
My goal is that each of my kids, by the time they graduate, also has a trade, and that trade can help them earn income while they are in college. We have another student who earned her certificate to be a dental assistant before she went to college. I actually went to nail school so I could become a manicurist if I ever needed to make some extra money. That is a skill and training that I will always have and can use to earn income. Knowing this, does not diminish my love for Plato or the academic world, but it has broadened me in other profound ways.
As a people, we have often been limited, and that has been a form of enslavement. Either we limit ourselves by only knowing a trade or our rejection of working with our hands because of our history, keeps us from having marketable skills at our disposal. The more you learn in this life, the more opportunities you have. I truly believe that every new skill you learn is another step toward freedom.
Anika Prather 