Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 August 2005 09:03:51
Another of the "odd" books I bought in Birmingham was Baptists Together in Christ 1905-2005 which is basically a history. Within it there is a slightly surreal picture of a black American woman, on the back of a cart addressing crowds in Hyde Park in 1905. This woman is todays historical figure, Nannie Helen Burroughs.
Upon reading about her on the web it appears that she was an amazing woman of faith who was determined to overcome prejudice and become a teacher. In the end she not only became a teacher, but founded a school with the motto, ""We specialize in the wholly impossible". It's aim was to have a school for girls specialising in "the highest development of Christian womanhood" through a curriculum designed to emphasize practical and professinal skills. Her students were taught to be self-sufficient wage earners as well as "expert homemakers." She believed it was her duty to see that an industrial and a classical education be attained simultaneously."
Makes me wonder, though, why today we learn so much in history lessons about the "bad guys" and so little about people who could be positive role models?