Views on Education by Washington and Du Bois Essay

Views on Education by Washington and Du Bois - Essay Example However, many had argued on what type of education the newly freed African American people will need in the course of their lifetime. This question has given rise to the argument on the advantages and disadvantages of industrial education. With this on hand, the Industrial Education for the Negro by Booker T. Washington and On the Training of Black Men and A Negro Schoolmaster by W. E. B. Du Bois will be used to cite the advantages and disadvantages of industrial and liberal education. Booker T. Washington was one of the African Americans who were the slaves in the South. For this reason, he wrote the essay Industrial Education for the Negro. In the time that they were given their freedom, he immediately and strongly supported the industrial education for African Americans especially in the South. He believed that for an African American to live a strong and fruitful life in American soil, he or she must learn to work and earn for a living. In this manner, he had considered all types of employment as an honorable job, even doing the laundry and doing the dishes. In the process of industrial education, an African American student will be able to place his or her self in the American society and will be able to work and not be worked in the process. The learning in this type of education is necessary in order to be sufficient and skilled in the chosen industrial field. The ability to learn how to handle tools and incorporate these learning with mathematics and scienc es will allow the work to be more sophisticated, efficient, and easy. In amalgamating industrial education with mathematics, languages, letters, and sciences, a student, who will also be a future employee, will be harnessed and strengthened and will eventually be equipped for real life. It will open a door for the African American to the world of business and commerce. Washington also cited that he considered that the African Americans are capable of learning higher education and are free to achieve such education. However, he also wants to see his fellow African Americans to be able to use their â€Å"mental strengths† (Washington 357) in accomplishing daily practical activities and work. He also added that incorporating industrial education to the learning of African American students will allow them to pay for their own schooling and earn from their activities. Furthermore, he strongly believed that industrial education will not only equip African Americans in the light of industrial employments, but will also inculcate in their lives the habit to save and love their work, business, and economy they are a part of. Along with these values will also grow the individual’s moral values and religious foundation, which Washington considers supplemental values in order to appreciate and enjoy life, art, and literature. In the light of liberal education, W. E. B. Du Bois cited in his essays, On the Training of Black Men and a Negro Schoolmaster, that industrial education is essential, but it must not be the only type of education African Americans must be given. He believed that African Americans, considered as free men, must be given the chance to mold themselves into leaders that will soon rise and lead the nation. As a graduate of BA in Fisk University and PhD at Harvard University, he strongly believed that the African American youth must be given equal learning with the White in terms of arts, politics, philosophy, and other branches of knowledge . In this way, they will be raised as strong, committed, and well-educated leaders. He believed that education is not only a medium in order to teach a person to work and earn for a living, but it is the key to mold laborers to men and women in society. Working for a living

Eastern European Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Eastern European Studies - Essay Example It also has practical implications for the lives of citizens of these countries, whose future depends on the development of democracy backed by a robust judicial system. Constitutional reform or engineering toward this end is a daunting task and early signs of this experiment have shown disappointing results1. This essay will take an in-depth look into factors that are holding back constitutional engineering in the Eastern European bloc; and especially focus on how the Soviet legacy is still influencing crucial areas of reform. The ongoing transformation from state communism to a free-market economic system in Eastern European countries is unprecedented in its scope and wide-ranging in its impact. Given that communism radically altered major institutions in these countries, it should come as no surprise that the early stages of the reform process have not been fruitful. Since economic growth is a key indicator of a stable constitutional structure, it is instructive to look into this facet of a nation's health. It turns out that the degree of economic contraction is larger than what was predicted by analysts. This trend can be observed in the republics of former U.S.S.R as well. For example, â€Å"With the important caveat that the rise in private sector activity may not be fully captured in the official statistics, the drop in output in the region since 1989 is now estimated to have reached 20 percent, and for some countries it has exceeded 35 percent. There has been some progress in the implementation of reforms in Eastern Europe, but the supply response thus far has been limited. Signs of a bottoming out of the contraction can be discerned in some countries, but further output losses may yet be in store. In the republics of the former U.S.S.R., the reform process has barely started.† 2 The transformation from communism to democracy involves radical overhaul of former authoritarian institutions. Hence, political commentators were under no illusion about the turbulences it is going to involve. Already, in the twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, three former communist countries of the union have seen political upheavals. The Rose Revolution threw out Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia and brought to power a 36-year-old lawyer from New York. The Orange Revolution that followed in 2004 handed power to Viktor Yushchenko, who is known to have the backing of Washington. Yushchenko's election victory was disputed by the opposition party and he narrowly escaped an assassination bid as well. Similarly, the Tulip Revolution of 2005 in Kyrgyzstan removed dictatorial president Askar Akayev (who eventually took refuge in neighbouring Russia) and in his stead brought the opposition leader to power, whose election rhetoric was centred on constitutional reform. These examples show the magnitude of the task of bringing democracy to the region which has not yet come out from the communist hangover. At first these so-called revolutions w ere hailed in the Western press as the beginning of a new era of prosperity and progress for these countries. But the truth is far from this idealization. These three 'revolutions' are now recognized as total failures. In fact, â€Å"no fresh heroes rose from the grass roots, swept into power by a newly robust civil society