Education

HIST 235 African Intellectuals November 29, 2012 Education in any sense is a form of advancement of the mind. Whether the education obtained is through vocational or University, the knowledge that is gained through both helps one get to a higher level in life compared to someone that is without a focused training or a University education. Whether vocational school or University education is better than or worse than the other is particularly based on the individual obtaining the education. One is not better or worse than the other in my opinion because both educations help one get to another level in their own schooling which makes it improvement of self nonetheless. Vocational school primarily focuses on a specific trade that one can obtain rather quickly in a specific job or field whereas University education one is obtaining an associates or bachelor’s degree in a two to four year program in a field that focuses on educating the individual not only in their chosen major but in theoretical thinking and general core classes. Both are very different in the way they educate its students however in the end they both achieve the same goal in adding to ones intellect. W.E.B Dubois believed that with a liberal education, African Americans will have the necessary tools and ability to make a way for others to follow and that a Liberal education has enough hands-on application to be used in the real world In W.E.B Dubois’s Souls of Black Folk, Of the Training of Black Men he stressed the importance of education among the African American race. He believed that African Americans should be educated in order to lead and teach the other uneducated African Americans. Dubois emphasizes the fact that there is a great need for higher education and the necessity of educated role models that will motivate others to be better educated. In my opinion he believed that both University education and vocational teachings would be better for the African American to be able to learn and teach. Vocational training and University education for the African American proved to be both good and bad. Some students did poorly in the traditional educational setting and some did well in the vocational training but once again Dubois believed that one should not be taught solely to gain money but to educate others. In the chapter Of the Training of the Black Men Dubois states that “The function of the Negro college, then, is clear: it must maintain the standards of popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of problems of race contact and cooperation. And finally, beyond all this, it must develop men”. This in my opinion goes for both vocation and university. In conclusion, one education is not better than the other. It depends uniquely on the individual that is obtaining the education that better fits for them and what they want to do with their education or training. Both educations will develop the African American race and also others in general.