JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION, VOL. 49
THE POSSIBILITIES OF PRECARIOUS BALANCE IN EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT:
W.E.B. DUBOIS AS FREIREAN LIBERATORY EDUCATOR
Don Hufford
Newman University
W.E.B. DuBois was - in many ways - a "man for all seasons." He was a scholar, civil rights activist, novelist, journalist, editor, historian, sociologist, political agitator -- the list goes on. But DuBois' own choice for a self-definition was summed up in the statement, "I am a teacher." It is here proposed that - as an educator - he was a "liberatory theorist" and exponent of "critical pedagogy" before the terms were invented and added to the current political/educational lexicon of "in" words. Many will challenge the above statement, and will remember DuBois as the one who - in the words of his friend, Arthur Springarn - "created a Negro Intelligentsia." This leads to the assumption that he was actually an educational "elitist" who based his teaching and educational theory on philosophical Idealism. And this is a partial-truth.
DuBois did not articulate a specific - and certainly not a systematic or consistent educational philosophy. In words used to describe a minor character in one of his novels, "he had a mind too keen to be consistent."1 It may not be far from the truth to interpret that this man of self-described "double consciousness" was also able to hold in positive, creative tension a "double educational philosophy."2
In June 1996, Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, referred to the educational "elitist" in DuBois when he noted that African Americans "... had DuBois who saw that we should be educated in the arts and science, in literature and history. We should become scholars."3 Mr. Farrakhan here made a connection to the historical conflict between DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The two men - each guided by a different educational (and political) philosophy - sought to define the why, what, and how of education for African Americans. At the time this disenfranchised group was effectively excluded from the power that may be bestowed by education. Both men - each in his own way - sought ways to remedy the situation. The DuBois/Washington ongoing debate had, perhaps, as much to do with social/political power as it did with educational philosophy.4 It did, however, help to establish DuBois' reputation as an educational elitist and philosophical Idealist.
DuBois' vision of a socially conscious "talented tenth" - although later modified to fit historical reality - has also helped to contribute to the image many hold of DuBois today. David G. DuBois has written of this image:
.... little more is passed on to our youth today of W.E.B. DuBois than the elitist concept of black leadership, the Talented Tenth. Last year (I was) introduced to a young African American ... At mention that I was a stepson of W.E.B. DuBois, the young man responded in recognition: "Oh the Talented Tenth!" This incident confirmed for me once again how great the need is today to make the work, the enormous contribution, and the truth of W.E.B. DuBois known.... "5
Here was a realization that something should be done to make known the reality that W.E.B. DuBois was more "liberatory" than "elitist" - more Pragmatist/Existentialist than Idealist/Realist - in educational philosophy. To better understand "the work, the enormous contribution, and the truth of W.E.B. DuBois" as a liberatory educator I found it helpful to engage in an intellectual exercise in which his educational philosophy is "compared and connected" to that of the Brazilian educator and philosophical reconstructionist, Paulo Freire. Freire (1921 - 1997) stands out today as a model - some might even say the "father-guru" - of the "critical pedagogy" movement. Considering Freire in these terms Peter McLaren has written:
Freire.... has provided the conditions for countless individuals, regardless of race, gender, class, and caste, to break free from their historically contingent and entrenched vocabularies to face up to their fallibility and strength as agents of possibility. As the standard-bearer of what has become known as critical pedagogy, Freire continues to identify and challenge not only those pedagogical mechanisms central to the phenomenon of oppression but also those relations within wider social, cultural, and institutional contexts that confront individuals with the logic of domination in the guise of grand narratives of reason and univocal meaning in the service of capital.6
In a "connect and compare" exercise - matching W.E.B. DuBois' educational thought to Freire's educational philosophy - one is able to recognize a persona that is a more accurate reflection of the "real" DuBois than is his elitist/Idealist image.7 To engage in this exercise requires a hermeneutical process that involves a personal, subjective analysis of the writings of both men, an analysis in which the content of their writings invokes "meaning" based on the interpreter's political/philosophical biases.8
As this writer "compared and connected" it was possible to construct a "liberatory educator" profile of DuBois that has much in common with Freire. DuBois' educational thinking was influenced by a concept of humanity based on a natural rights philosophy. He understood there is an inherent learning drive in each individual which seeks correspondence with a social/political right to learn. DuBois understood that the individual - irrespective of his or her racial, cultural, ethnic group - inherently wants to learn, needs to learn, has a right to learn. DuBois would certainly have echoed Freire's statement that "dehumanization is not a given destiny, but the result of an unjust social order ... which dehumanizes the oppressed."9
The demands for equal distribution of knowledge and for equitable access to help in understanding that knowledge, are social responses to a natural right. This right establishes a bond that unites diverse individuals into a common humanity. It is the basis for a conceptual model that draws from both DuBois' and Freire's educational philosophies. DuBois would certainly have agreed with a Freirean ideological construct as interpreted by Frank Margonis:
For Freire the central "problem" of existence is humanization. Human nature embodies an inherent drive towards humanization; it is only an oppressive social order that prevents human beings from realizing this fundamental human "vocation".... Freire's solution to the problem of humanization is a pedagogy of praxis that simultaneously addresses the individual need for self-realization and the social need for a revolutionary movement.10
DuBois understood the implications of such a duality of needs. He was a social visionary, possessing a prophetic understanding of how oppression and injustice relate to the denial of both individual and communal needs. In this role he was a stinging gadfly who would not allow a nation to rest easy while powerless individuals and groups were oppressed. He wrote of his own prophetic role: "Here comes the agitator. He is the herald. He is the prophet. He is the man that says to the world, 'there are evils which you do not know, but which I know and you must listen ....' "11 As an educator he reminded those who were "called" to teach: "To be silent when injustices call out for redress, to fail to speak when poverty and ignorance keep some in social bondage, to muffle the sounds of indignation and righteous anger, is to fail the teacher's calling."12 DuBois understood the liberatory and pedagogical implications of this demand when he defined himself by the ontological statement, "I am a teacher!"13
As a teacher DuBois was influenced by the metaphysics of philosophical Idealism, but his educational "double consciousness" allowed insights from more experiential sources to penetrate his thinking. He was aware of a world of ideas and of the meanings and possibilities that were to be found in seeking "the True, the Good, and the Beautiful." But, he was also aware that the search was always circumscribed by a world in which "the false, the evil, and the ugly" were to be found in the realities of social injustice and oppression.
DuBois agreed with the Idealist, Plato (and the Realist, Aristotle), that the good life for the individual is inextricably bound to that of the just society. His enduring search was for the good society which would allow for "fullest realization of the individual human spirit." As a philosopher of freedom, he understood that any individual's search for self-realization is handicapped if he or she is restricted by exterior forces from full exercise of the right to learn. DuBois and Freire shared a common understanding that "to educate" and "to liberate" are branches of the same philosophical root system. To know provides the stimulus to act, and education is "not only to make Truth clear but to present it in such shape as will encourage and help social reform."14
Both DuBois and Freire have written about the liberatory potential inherent in the individual's process of growing and expanding toward human possibility within a social/political setting. Both men may be interpreted as believing that education should help develop one's ability to creatively use the tension developed between self-realization (an individual dynamic) and sacrificial service to others (a social dynamic). DuBois stood for the right of every individual "to do, (and) to be" - to seek fulfillment of individual potential. Freire has also responded to this human right. John Elias in his interpretation of Freire's concept of "conscientization" wrote:
The educational process of conscientization is one that gives people a genuine sense of power. It gives them the realization that they have the power to be ... It gives them the power of self-affirmation.... People begin to affirm their own being and their own significance. Self-esteem is increased. Conscientization also gives people the power of self-assertion - the power to express themselves against opposition, the power to demand that they be recognized as persons. 15
DuBois understood the importance for an individual to fulfill the potential "to be." But, he understood that "to do" - to act for the good of the larger society - is a necessary and complementary goal. Freire also, it has been interpreted, "was able to demonstrate a thoroughgoing harmony between the twin goals of social justice and individual realization."16 DuBois understood the liberatory educational theory that formal education is for both self and society. He understood that without a social dynamic the educational process is narrowed by an egotistic, "me-oriented" inwardness that fails to be liberatory. Without the individual dynamic, however, education lacks a "centered" purpose that can unify the process of liberation.
When "connecting/comparing" DuBois to Freire it is obvious that implicit in the educational thought of DuBois is the knowledge that the seemingly oppositional demands of self-affirmation and social responsibility may be held in a creative, productive tension. Positive, productive action occurs when the individual allows him/herself to be creatively involved in a larger "self/other" interdependent process.17 DuBois believed - as did Freire - in the importance of a positive self-concept for the individual; and that self-concept as an individual "quality" is related to the communal "quality" of social, political, and economic justice in any given society. DuBois understood the importance of individual self-fulfillment and the educational search for human possibility, but he placed this concept of individuality (not individualism - there is a difference) within the larger context of social purpose and a common humanity.18
Those who understand Freire's use of the concept "Conscientization" will be able to relate to DuBois' belief that one's education should be used for challenging assumptions about both self and society. DuBois expressed a "conscientization" concept when he wrote about educating "human beings, young and old, into an intelligent working knowledge of the world in which we live." This knowledge-put-to-work translates to an active social conscience. This social conscience (keeping in mind Freire's "conscientization") leads activists - in DuBois' words - to "dedicate our lives to lessening others' sorrow, the uprooting of poverty, and to the broadening of life and living for human souls."19
Implicit in DuBois' educational philosophy is the belief that the pedagogical process should stimulate both intellectual curiosity and social awareness. Education should provide not just the skill but also the motivation necessary for one to engage in constructive social action based on critical reflection of the issues involved. Writing of one of his fictional protagonists DuBois described this motivational force: "He wanted to get his hands into the tangles of this world. He wanted to understand.... (I)t was a longing for action, breadth, helpfulness, great constructive deeds."20 DuBois was a dreamer of great dreams, and believed - as he wrote in his Autobiography - that we should be "dreamers toward a better world." He was, however, constrained by a philosophically pragmatic understanding that "there is no dream but deed."21 The deed - the constructive act - is partner to the dream.
DuBois' connection of Dream (as reflection) to Deed relates to Freire's political and educational use of the word praxis. Praxis - as a definition, a concept, and, indeed, a challenge - has entered the vocabulary of today's educators.22 DuBois used the concept -even though use of the word to define a teaching methodology was a future away - when he wrote in his autobiography of the interpenetration of "thought and action and effort." It was this kind of praxis - a reflection/action iteration - which made it possible for DuBois to combine dream and deed into his personal brand of social activism.
The philosophical Idealist in DuBois searched for metaphysical absolutes. But the liberatory Pragmatist knew that, as moral guidelines, philosophical absolutes must be related to the realities of "work, service, and sacrifice."23 DuBois understood that meaningful education must lead to liberty, justice, and equality It takes praxis - reflective action, caring effort - to turn possibilities into reality. The search for a truth and/or for the Truth is a lovely but sterile mental exercise unless knowledge wedded to critical understanding creates the possibility for active service to humanity.
DuBois - as a philosopher of liberty - was a "critical pedagogue" before the term was created and defined. He recognized the dangers of the "banking" system of education which Freire has caused us to seriously reflect upon.24 DuBois understood that for education to be "liberatory" it has to involve more than the student-as-object passively "taking in" knowledge. To be liberating, education has to consist of analyzing and criticizing, evaluating and questioning, interpreting and engaging, challenging and transforming. DuBois' own pursuit of a Ph.D. was motivated by this combination of "dream and deed." He wrote that he wanted "to take the field of social science under political science with a view to the ultimate application of its principles to the social and economic advancement of the Negro people."25 In responding to the educational needs of black Americans he wrote: "What black men need is the broader and more universal (education) so that they can apply the general principles of knowledge to the particular circumstances of their condition."26 Here was knowledge not just "poured in" but critically evaluated and used for the purpose of social reconstruction.
DuBois - wearing his Idealist persona - was inspired by the "romance" of knowledge. He enjoyed the challenges and the delights inherent in learning. But the purpose of "becoming educated" for him transcended the personal thrill of the pursuit, or even the achievement. For DuBois, a liberating education required a goal beyond the self. It required a transforming connection to the wider world.
In his novels DuBois often wrote symbolically and metaphorically of education as "the way." It is a way to seek solutions to the miasma of poverty and oppression, a way to understand and reach toward possibility, a way to dream dreams. It is also a way to forge the tools with which to transform society so that dreams may become reality. Education is a way to toward "conscientization" - a way to a reflective understanding of "who I am" in relationship to the realities of social, racial, cultural, economic, political, and religious realities. It a way of "knowing" how a society's sanction of injustices and oppression penetrates the human psyche and creates self-fulfilling prophesies. It is a way of using this knowledge to remove barriers and open new avenues of possibility.
As an educator DuBois demanded that scholarly impartiality and objectivity be interwoven with a knowledge and an understanding of the subjective pain of injustice and oppression. He viewed teacher and student as actors on a larger stage of life, and wrote: "The teachers, then, cannot be.... mere technicians and higher artisans, they have to be social statesmen of high order."27 Education cannot be complete without personalizing the connecting links between the self and the triumphs and tragedies of others. A teacher's scholarly objectivity cannot excuse a failure to ask hard, critical, penetrating questions about man's inhumanity to man and about historical, sociological, economic, and political "cause and effect" determinants. DuBois understood this, and noted in one of his letters:
I have sympathy for the ideal of cold, impartial history; but that must not be
allowed to degenerate as it so often has into insensibility to human suffering and
injustice. The scientific treatment of human ills has got to give evil full weight
and vividly realize that it means to the world's oppressed.28
DuBois' own scholarly and scientific observations as historian and sociologist were penetrated by his concern for education as a form of social activism and by his concern for confronting pressing social ills. He realized he "could not be a calm, cool, detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered, and starved."29
DuBois gave evidence of the blending of two educational philosophies - philosophies that may contrast and disconnect at times, but that retain the possibility to merge at other times. He began as a classically educated, nineteenth-century Enlightenment-influenced, "march of progress," educational elitist in search of capital-letter-Truth-as-Ideal. He took strength from the fact that he could "sit with Shakespeare ... move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas ... summon Aristotle and Aurelius."30 To this he connected a pragmatically-driven, egalitarian search for small-letter-truths as active responses to injustices and oppression. He "believed in the justice of the ordinary mass of folk if they ever got the power to apply it."31 This educational "double consciousness" represented a philosophical search for Truth, illuminated by sociological realities. In a DuBois philosophy, education is the search for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty leading to the practice of "all that makes life worthwhile -- liberty, justice, and right."32
This search (philosophically Idealistic) and practice (philosophically Pragmatic) may be connected to Freire's "education for critical consciousness." And ... an education for critical consciousness also has the possibility of being an "education for discontent." DuBois was aware of this when he wrote that "to stimulate ... untrained minds is to play with mighty fires."33 He knew that such fires can be stoked to generate sufficient heat to inspire people to seek redress of grievances - to seek change in both self and system. He was aware that "education ... always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent."34 Martin Luther King, Jr. understood DuBois' belief in an education for discontent. In a 1968 speech celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of DuBois' birth, Dr. King once again used his famous analogy of justice as rushing water.
He reminded his listeners of DuBois' committed empathy with all the oppressed and his divine dissatisfaction with all forms of injustice. Today we are still challenged to be dissatisfied.... Let us be dissatisfied until this pending cosmic elegy will be transformed into a creative psalm of peace; and justice will roll down like water from a mighty stream.35
DuBois frequently used his novels to address an "education for discontent" theme. In one, the young Bles spoke prophetically and metaphorically to Zora: "When you're educated you won't have to live in the swamp."36 The swamp symbolized ignorance - and its companion, powerlessness - which allow an individual or group to be mired in the quicksand of social, political, and economic injustices. Education represented a way out of the physical and the metaphorical/psychological swamp.
Earlier in Quest, cotton - representing hope, opportunity, and possibility - was planted in a small patch of prepared swamp land. There was a shout of "de seed done sowed - de seed done sowed," symbolizing the planting of the desire to know, to learn, to understand - of discontent with the past and vision for a transformed future.37 Once the seed is sown it must be nurtured toward the possibility of a blossoming harvest. It was the "seed" as "desire to learn" that would blossom into the protagonists' conscientization, and their eventual liberation from ignorance and poverty -- followed by a continuing struggle against social and economic oppression.
Another interpretation of the "seed" metaphor involves recognition of it as a literary expression of how "enlightened social discontent" may lead to a psychic awakening. As a novelist, DuBois has his heroine, Zora - representing an oppressed people's awakening - exclaims: "I want to know," and later - "I must know."38 Driven by the flowering of discontent she gradually became knowledge driven. The seed of "want" became the flowering "need." Symbolically, the latent energy contained in the seed of possibility is liberated by education. The power thus generated fuels continuing educational motive and method.
In another creative work DuBois reminded those who would listen that once the seed is sown "we must not be content with plans, ambitions, and resolves; with part of a message or part of an education, but be set and determined to fulfill the promise and complete the task."39 Both DuBois and Freire have acknowledged that too often the seed - the promise of possibility - is trampled under the feet of an uncaring and/or oppressive social system, and the will of the powerless to challenge the status quo is lost. Then the promise remains unfulfilled, the task incomplete, the dream denied! All too often even "caring" people act in unwitting complicity with an uncaring system, and then - as DuBois wrote - it seems as if "the whole world emerges into the Syllogism of the Satisfied."40
But for DuBois - as with Freire - it is a commitment to the power residing in liberating education that will shake up the satisfied and complacent; that will make possible the transformation of the "now" and help redefine the future. DuBois used his novelist's pen to describe the flame of hope which is ignited when education awakens an exploited people to the reality of their current dissatisfaction and the promise of their future possibility: "One could not fail to be impressed with the sense of potency and possibility (once they have) tasted of the tree of knowledge."41
Once the taste of knowledge is experienced there is an Augustinian "eternal discontent" born of savoring the taste. Knowing this, DuBois declared: "I cannot promise you happiness always, but I can promise you divine discontent with the imperfect."42 DuBois understood that it is through "the way" - education - that this discontent becomes "known." Freire correspondingly wrote of "conscientization" as a reflective process that may lead the powerless masses to challenge imposed false realities. DuBois understood this, and reminded us that once the powerless "have tasted of the Tree of Life, they will not cease to think, will not cease to read the riddle of the world."43
In a Crisis article DuBois reminded his readers that "education means ambition, dissatisfaction and revolt. You cannot both educate people and hold them down"44 Shortly after World War II he warned that "education for (oppressed) people must inevitably mean unrest and revolt."45 DuBois recognized that education is necessary for awareness (conscientization), which in turn leads to discontent with unjust social systems ---which in turn leads to increased demands for justice and freedom. Writing in 1944 about the economic foundation of Western Colonialism he described the need for an education for discontent -- for a Freirean "conscientization":
The majority of the world's peoples do not understand what the world is, what it has been and what the laws of growth and development are; and they are unable to read the record of its history ... And the human mind with all its visions and possibilities is today deliberately distorted and denied freedom of development by people who actually imagine that such freedom would endanger civilization.46
To know what the world is, has been, and has the potential to become is not simply a matter of historical recognition - particularly for the oppressed. Rather it requires a hermeneutical "reading" of history and the of structures of power, a reading that helps one define the parameters of power and powerlessness. In Freire's terms it requires "reading the word and reading the world." For DuBois it meant "reading the Riddle of the world." To "read" the riddle impregnated world presupposes an education for discontent. Such an education connects to a liberatory education that prepares the individual to define his or her own process of self-definition, even as he or she challenges historical and sociological distortions sanctioned by an educational status-quo. Freire described this as an education that prepares the student "to discuss courageously ... to reevaluate constantly ... to assume an increasingly critical attitude toward the world and so to transform it."47 DuBois voiced a similar educational vision: "My supreme interest is that they (students) should have the right to come to their own conclusions, and their conclusions should be based on their own efforts ... to learn the facts, to reason out their connections and to plan the future; to know the truth, to arrange it logically, and to contrive a better way (transform the future)."48
Individual and cultural/political conceptions of "truth" - not always logical and transformative - vie with each other in the educational marketplace of ideas. Today's contentious educational debates revolve, in significant, ways around two differing views of "truth" as applied to the purposes of public education. One view, the Empirical/Behaviorist, overpowers the other, the Critical/Humanistic. This is, of course, a simplistic look at a complex issue, but it allows one to focus on a major issue.49 The Empiricist view emphasizes the quantifiable and measurable. It leads to a mandated, standardized, outcome and accountability-based, test-driven curriculum designed to produce "world class workers" in order to enhance economic competitiveness in a global economy. The language spoken is one of technical competency influenced by corporate-world definitional standards of "excellence." The discussion is of standardized tests, exit tests, aligned curriculum, state and national performance assessments, bottom-line efficiency, and teacher accountability measured by student "scores" based on a "free market" competitive philosophy.
This tends to reinforce a behavioristic view of learning. Here is an emphasis on "correct" answers defined by standardized, almost "scripted" content knowledge, and a de-emphasis on the hermeneutical. It tends to negate student-generated questions and the pedagogical use of student "lived realities." We see here at its most obvious the "banking model" of education as identified by Freire, and we are reminded of DuBois' warning that "there is a widespread feeling that school is a machine. You insert a child at 9a.m., and extract it at 4 p.m., improved and standardized."50
The Critical/Humanistic, "student-as-subject" view of education is a viable counterpoint to the "student-as-object" view which flows from an Empiricist dominated educational system.51 The student-as-subject view is one of possibility - of personal growth and social transformation. According to Barry Kanpol such a pedagogy "allows students and teachers to share and understand their respective voices in light of structural configurations, such as race, class, gender, and age ... (T)he language of possibility presumes ... understanding of one's own and the Other's voice."52
Critical/ Humanistic educational philosophy is imbedded in Freire's "problem-posing" and "generative themes" methodology. Here open-ended possibilities (as in divergent questions) - not test-generated outcomes (as in convergent answers) are allowed to drive the educational process. In Freire's words "problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming - as incomplete beings with a likewise unfinished reality," where the students' "generative themes inaugurate the dialogue of education as the practice of freedom."53 DuBois related to this Critical/Humanistic philosophy of education when he recognized that "technical training (the what of education) ... is of secondary importance to the people being civilized (the who of education)"; 54 and that "necessary as it is to earn a living, it is more important and necessary to earn a life."55
An Empiricist/Behaviorist educational philosophy is a good match for today's economically driven reform movements Such "reforms" call for public education's basic purpose to be defined as providing the "world class workers" necessary for the U.S. to - in President Clinton's words - "compete and win in the world economy." The Critical/Humanistic philosophy -in counterpoint- inspires an education that aids the student in achieving a Freirean "consciousness of alternative possibilities," and a DuBoisian recognition of "education as (preparing) individuals for the broader life; not (for) production of goods," but "to develop to our full potential ... every capacity God has given us."56
The thinking here expressed is not intended to be a total negation of educational purposes derived from an Empiricist world view. Nor should it be construed as an apologetic for the egocentric excesses which may be committed in the name of Humanistic freedom. DuBois reminds us of an educational reality - "... the truth lies ever between extremes."57 And Freire reminds that education should be dialectical and should "harmonize a truly humanist position with (the technical)."58 Reflection on today's educational issues - and on the prevailing educational philosophy -does, however, give one pause for thought.
Such reflection indicates that a public school system dominated by a free market, bottom-line, competition-for-excellence, accountability-by-test-score mentality does not represent a "happy mean." In counterbalance we should consider a Critical/Humanistic educational philosophy; one which comes closest to a DuBois goal for education: "To develop our own powers ... to come to the broadest, deepest self-realization. To make life ... broad and free for all men, that you and I and all may earn a living and earn, too, much more than that - a life worth living."59 And - in this context - we may subscribe to Freire's hope that "education could help (people) to assume an increasingly critical attitude toward the world and so transform it ... (while) seeking to redirect our educational practice toward the goal of an authentic democracy."60 To this educational purpose DuBois would add his realistic appraisal that "education is the foundation stone of our democracy."61
Let the congregation say "Amen," or ... let the each individual define a personal educational
philosophy and continue the discourse/dialogue.
ENDNOTES
1. DuBois wrote in an article (Crisis, April 1934): "I am not worried about being consistent. What worries me is the Truth." He also noted, regarding his life experiences, that "contradictions and paradox poured over paradox and contradictions." (In Battle for Peace, intro. Herbert Aptheker. Millwood, New York: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1990. Reprint, 1976.)
2. DuBois wrote of his "double consciousness: "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness ... One ever feels his twoness - An American, a Negro; two souls, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals." The Souls of Black Folk, intro. Nathan Hare and Alvin Poussaint. (New York: New American Library, 1982. Reprint, 1903).
A hint of DuBois' educational "double consciousness" is also found in Souls (p.124): "To make here in human education that ever necessary combination of the permanent and the contingent - of the ideal and the practical in workable equilibrium - has been, as it ever must be, in every age and place, a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes."
3. Louis Farrakhan, quoted in an interview with John Kennedy, Jr., in George, October, 1996.
4. Both DuBois and Washington believed in the need to educate African Americans for the opportunities and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society. Each man, however, expressed a different educational purpose. Washington emphasized the vocational/practical - a terminal process. DuBois demanded for his people the right to a liberal/humanist education - a continuing process making room for higher education for African American leaders. Washington was willing to compromise political and civil rights for workplace opportunities. DuBois would not compromise.
5. David G. DuBois, "Understanding the Legacy of W.E.B. DuBois," Emerge, October, 1993, 63.
It is helpful to compare DuBois' "Talented tenth" with Paulo Freire's "lucid vanguard." Freire noted: "Every radical transformation implies a 'lucid vanguard.' It is also necessary, on the other hand, that such a transformation is nurtured in dialogue with the popular masses ... the intellectual's role is to place his ability at the disposal of the people." Quoted in Moacir Gadotti, Reading Paulo Freire: His Life and Work. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 59-60.
6. Peter McLaren,"Introduction," Gadotti, Reading Freire, xiii.
7. In classical Greek theater the masks worn by the actors to denote character changes were called "personas." The "personas" might be changed to facilitate a new thespian characterization, but the real person behind the mask remained.
8. For a scholarly interpretation of "hermeneutics" see, Sharon Gallagher, Hermeneutics and Education. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992).
9. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Ramos. (New York: Continuum, 1993), 28. For DuBois, the "given destiny" includes the innate right to an education; "being born is being given (that) right." DuBois, Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil. (Millwood, New York: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1988. Reprint, 1975), 216.
10 Frank Margolis, "Leftist Ideology and Enlightenment Faith," Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Philosophy of Education Society. (Urbana, Illinois: A Society Printing, 1993), 254.
11. DuBois, quoted in Arnold Rampersand, The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois. (New York: Schoken Books, 1990), 112.
12. DuBois, The Crisis, May, 1914, quoted in Nathan Huggins, W.E.B. DuBois: Writings. (New York: The Library of America, 1986), 1157.
13. DuBois, The Education of Black Folk: Ten Critiques, intro. Herbert Aptheker. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1973), 6.
14. DuBois, "Dusk of Dawn," found in Huggins, Writings, 600.
15. John Elias, Studies in Theology and Education. (Malabar, Florida: Robert Krieger Publishing, 1970), 168.
16. Margolis, "Leftist Ideology," 252.
17. This "self/other" interdependent concept is, of course, not new. As an example, we may take note of how Marcus Aurelius recognized the productive tension residing in a self/other polarity:
Think often of the bond that unites all things in the universe. All are, as it were, interwoven ...
their orderly succession is brought about by the operation of the currents of tension. (Marcus
Aurelius, Meditations, trans. Maxwell Stanforth. [New York: Dorsett Press, 1986.] )
18. Jonas Salk explored this individual/social theme in a way that sheds light upon the thought of both DuBois and Freire:
Man needs to become increasingly conscious of what he is part of so that he may function fully, though individually as an element of the whole ... This requires getting to know oneself so that one can be true to oneself and to others, if more harmony is to develop in the human condition. (Jonas Salk, Man Unfolding. [New York: Harper and Row, 1972] , 118).
19. DuBois, "Prayers for Dark People," intro. Herbert Aptheker. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), 59.
20. DuBois, Dark Princess: A Romance, intro. Herbert Aptheker. (Millwood, New York: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1974. Reprint, 1921), 42.
This DuBois' literary metaphor has comparative connection to Freire's statement that when "the people get their history in their hands ... the role of education changes to an education that enlarges and amplifies the horizon of critical understanding." (Freire and Myles Horton, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change. [Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990], 219-219).
21. DuBois, The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois. (New York: International Publishing Company, third printing, 1988), 281 and 423.
Freire has also noted the importance of the activist's "dream:" "Dreaming is not only a necessary political act, it is an integral part of the historical social manner of being a person. It is part of human nature which within history is a permanent process of becoming." (Pedagogy of Hope. [New York: Continuum, 1995], 90-91). "The dream that moves us is a possibility for which I must fight ... The gradual overcoming of all forms of discrimination is part of the dream of liberation." (Letters to Cristiana: Reflections On My Life and Work. [New York: Routledge, 1996], 151 and 177).
22. The word, praxis, is here defined as "reflective, thoughtful, considered action." This is a dialectical process which involves reflection prior to action, then reflecting on the action taken, leading to further action. Freire has noted: "Liberation is a praxis: the action of men and women upon the world in order to transform it." He speaks of problem-posing education as a "humanist and liberating praxis," and further defines the process as "people's actions upon reality." (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 60, 67, and 87.)
23. DuBois' writings frequently refer to the triple responsibilities of work, service, and sacrifice. In one example he exhorted Fisk University graduates in 1898 to "gladly work and sacrifice and serve." (in Huggins, DuBois Writings, 839).
24. Freire notes that "banking" education turns students into containers and receptacles to be filled by the teacher. "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor ... The students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat." (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 53).
24. Freire wrote in a similar vein: "In the learning process the only person who really learns is s/he who is able to apply the appropriate learning to concrete situations." (Education for Critical Consciousness. [New York: Continuum, 1996].
26. DuBois, Education: Ten Critiques, 94.
27. Ibid. 78.
28. DuBois, The Correspondence of W.E.B. DuBois, vol. 2, ed. Herbert Aptheker. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976), 174.
29. DuBois, Autobiography, 222.
30. DuBois, Souls, 139.
31. DuBois, Mansart Builds a School. (Millwood, New York: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1976. Reprint, n.d.), 31.
32. DuBois, Souls, 225.
33. Ibid., 123. Note the comparison to a statement attributed to the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus: "Teaching is not filling a pail, it is lighting a flame."
34. Ibid., 71.
35. William Miller, Martin Luther King, Jr.: His Life, Martyrdom, and Meaning for the World. (New York: Weybright and Tally, 1968), 266.
36. DuBois, The Quest of the Silver Fleece, intro. Herbert Aptheker. (Millwood, New York: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1974. Reprint, 1911), 50.
37. Ibid. Note a comparison to Freire's statement that "the awakening of critical consciousness leads the way to the expression of social discontent." (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 18.)
38. Ibid., 226 and 245.
39. DuBois, "Prayers," 37.
40. DuBois, The World and Africa: An Inquiry Into the Part Which Africa Played in World History, an enlarged edition, thirteenth printing. (New York: International Publishers, 1983), 42.
41. DuBois, Mansart Builds a School, 86.
42. DuBois, quoted in Philip S. Foner, ed., W.E.B. DuBois Speaks: Speeches and Addresses - 1920-1963. (New York: Pathfinder, sixth printing, 1988).
43. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, intro. Donald B. Gibson. New York: Penguin Books, 1989), 71.
44. DuBois, The Crisis, January , 1912. Found in Huggins, Writings, 1139.
45. DuBois, World and Africa, 37.
46. DuBois, Against Racism: Unpublished Essays, Papers, Addresses, 1887-1961, ed. Herbert Aptheker. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1985), 235-236.
47. Freire, Critical Consciousness, 34. For help in critically "reading the world" from the point of view of the powerless see Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States. (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990).
48. DuBois, Correspondence, vol. 3, 379; and Education: Ten Critiques, 111.
49. Here one should be aware of H.L. Mencken's admonition, "For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is always wrong."
50. DuBois, The Crisis, October, 1922.
51. Both DuBois and Freire wrote of the distinction between student-as-object and student-as-subject. For both a theological and an educational articulation of this subject/object distinction see Martin Buber, I and Thou. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958).
52. Bary Kanpol, "Critical Theory and Liberation Theology," Educational Theory, Winter, 1996, 106.
53. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 65 and 77.
54. DuBois, "Against Racism," 252.
55. DuBois, Education: Ten Critiques, 14.
56. Ibid., 13.
57. DuBois, "Darkwater," 204.
58. Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness, 19.
59. DuBois, "Fisk University commencement address," June, 1888, quoted in Huggins, 832.
60. Freire, Critical Consciousness, 34-35.
61. DuBois, Annals of the American Academy of Science, November, 1928, 9.