Learning is a choice. I receive many letters from parents respecting the education of their children. At the same time, though, when Douglass calls slavery a “poor school for the human intellect and heart,” he’s reminding people that while slaves might often not seem to be as smart or as well-spoken as white people, this isn’t their fault.
Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue’s responsibility until it engulfs his pupils’ lifetimes will deliver universal education.
To curb restive propensities, to awaken dormant sentiments, to strengthen the perceptions, and cultivate the tastes, to encourage this feeling and repress that, so as finally to develop the child into a man of well proportioned and harmonious nature—this is alike the aim of parent and teacher.
These ceremonies and the National Statuary …