Week 42: Education Without Heart

During this same time period that citizens of Shenandoah County, Va, were privileging the perspective of its white populace, its leaders were making decisions on behalf of minority groups, and even for women, without their input.

In the upper part of Powell's Fort, or Fort Valley, Honey Run School House ran a Lyceum for young men in the neighborhood. A brief notice in the local paper poses, "The question discussed on Saturday night last, was: Should female education be as thorough as that of males? Discussed and decided in the negative" (Shenandoah Herald, Volume 5, Number 37, 19 May 1870 p3). 

Each district (see Week 39: The Mask of Defiance for more about the division of Shenandoah County into regions) had a school census enumerator. "These gentlemen will... ascertain the number of children of school age in each district so that correct apportionments of school funds may be made" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 7, Number 34, 7 June 1900, p3). At the time, these funds largely came from state taxes and beneficiaries in the community. The Sentinel also shares a discussion on how those funds should be apportioned, relaying that "many of the most prominent men in the commonwealth favor... restricting the negroes only to the tax paid by their race in apportioning the school funds of the State" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 7, Number 46, 30 August 1900 p2).

An earlier issue of the local paper shared the cost of schools, as well as information regarding who were paying more for these local schools, in general. "A State official has been collecting some interesting statistics, showing the cost of public schools in Virginia since the inauguration of the system in 1870, with particular reference to the relative amounts paid by whites and blacks for their support. The total cost of the Virginia public schools from 1870 to 1899, inclusive, has been $36,919,186. The white schools cost $25,843,430.20. The negro schools cost $11,075,755.80. Of this the whites paid for their white schools... (and) were taxed for negro schools, $9,192,877.32. The negroes have contributed only $1,882,878.48.  The total amount paid by the whites for schools is $35,036,307.52" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 7, Number 42, 2 August 1900 p1). According to this paper, 70% of the school funds went to support white schools. And yet, in Ashby district of Shenandoah County, Va, 95% of the schools were for white children. A newspaper notice from 1871 states "The School census of Ashby Township has been returned by the clerk of the Board of Trustees. There are between the ages of five and twenty one years, 779 whites and 64 colored" (Shenandoah Herald, Vo 51, No 17, 2 February 1871 p3). During the first year of public education, 7% of the students in one of the districts that would eventually come together to form our southern campus schools were African American. The previous article also points out what isn't being discussed: African Americans did not have the wealth that white families had. They, too, were taxed, but without the same access to competent income and property ownership, their tax portion was massively smaller than their white neighbors. The problem wasn't that African Americans weren't paying their taxes or working hard enough for what they had. The problem was lack of representation in community leadership positions, lack of equal opportunities and equal pay, and lack of inclusion as neighbors. They were still treated as a separate, nearly invisible, inferior social class.

In 1901, then Superintendent McInturff shared the appointment of teachers employed in each district. There were 127 total, "of these 123 are white. Lee, Ashby, Davis, and Woodstock each has one negro school" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 9, Number 8, 12 December 1901, p2). Since each district had its own school board then, decisions about school construction and maintenance, teacher hiring and training, and more were made in conjunction with the school authorities. Each board met periodically, with major decisions and teaching assignments often posted in the local papers. For example, "the teachers of the Public Free Schools of Ashby District were assigned as follows at the meetings of the School Board held at Mt. Jackson May 25th and at Conicville September 24th, 1900" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 7, Number 50, 27 September 1900 p2). The article continues with twenty-one schools listed, as well as the principal for the graded schools and head teacher (for more information on the schools, review Week 40: Free Public Schools). The Mt Jackson colored school is "not definitely appointed" according the article.

Teachers often met in district-wide leagues to run professional development trainings, discuss current teaching methods, and more. The Stonewall League of teachers met in New Hope school-house at Jadwyn on the first Saturday in December 1900. "The subjects were: How to teach Fry's Geography, U.S. History in the common schools, Diacritical marks and Spelling in connection with the 'Word Method' of teaching Reading.... clerk of the Stonewall Board of School Trustees also furnished an excellent subject for 'discussion' - an abundance of nice cake and good lemonade which he brought into the school-room for the teachers present. A worthy example - 'Go and do thou likewise.' Stonewall still stands!" (Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser, Volume 8, Number 8, 6 December 1900 p2).

Even in the 1900s, Stonewall, Ashby, and Lee were soaked into the fabric of our community like growing stains. No one questioned whether or not this was morally good or whether it cultivated a sense of peace among whites and blacks. They just accepted it. And as we saw last week, that acceptance led to more harmful examples in the community by 1925 (see Week 41: Self-Preservation), when the KKK held a Klan day at the county fair to celebrate white supremacy and to initiate some of our own into a cult that doesn't deserve shrines. Ignoring these conversations, privileging one set of ancestors over another's even if they are a majority, harms everyone.

Aristotle wrote, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." A sentiment that was shared by Dalai Lama: "When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts" and by Martin Luther King, Jr: "Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." Even Jesus shares a similar teaching: "it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth... what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts..." (Matthew 15:11, 18-19). Invoking the names of Stonewall, Ashby, Lee, and other Confederate generals, no matter what their religious beliefs, in our community in the 21st century, after the historical asperity of minority groups within the same community is not honorable, but oppressive. Elementary through high school should be an experience of levity, joy, and peace. Claiming names of people that fought even to death for the principle of African American inferiority and control is not innocent, joy-filled, or peaceful. It is education without heart.