I came across these photos from the early days of the Hampton Institute. According to Wikipedia, Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen. Booker T. Washington is an alumni!

Looking at these pictures takes me back to a theme I’ve written about recently having to do with education. My mom had a brilliant idea that we should require all American youth to do one year of service to the country in some way after high school, before whatever else they plan to do (college, trade school, apprenticeship). It’s important to develop a love and an appreciation for our country and an expectation that we all contribute. And it solves a multitude of problems having to do with isolation and opportunity.

Today’s thought goes just a little further. If you do go to college, you should develop marketable skills and show real results while you are there.  I don’t know what the philosophy of the Hampton  Institute is today, but at least it once was aligned closely to this way of thinking. The students you see working here are building the house they will live in, and generations of boys would go on to live in too.

Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952, photographer (LOC)

Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952, photographer (LOC)

Students in an 1899 bricklaying class.

1899 class in Mathematical Geography

My education was on the liberal arts side of things. I love history and English and art. But I have no more idea of how to build a house or make a dress from scratch than I do to fly to the moon. Unlike an apprenticeship where you must prove your abilities, liberal arts graduates aren’t expected to demonstrate any particular skill. Introducing some concrete proof into liberal arts programs by connecting each degree with a real, marketable skill that produces a tangible result would be a tremendous improvement in our educational system.

It would take creativity and wisdom to do it. But if it can’t be done, then how can colleges and universities justify the amount of time and money a young person wastes there?  And if Hampton Institute could do it in the 1890s, then why can’t any college or university do it in the 2020s?