Curriculum and Textbooks
Through classroom field trips and other techniques, students are exposed to knowledge and methods of creative thinking. This section explores these methods and how interesting, not only as a comparison between white and “colored” education; but also because the entire management of education throughout the State changed during the administration of Oscar Emerick in 1917, running through 1957. One of the most fascinating areas is Home Economics during the depression when basic skills like bathing, cooking, diet, shopping and making clothes were essential skills to learn during a time of great poverty. We will also learn about a teacher who drove a Model T every day around the county, delivering hot meals to white and Black students.
Another fascinating curriculum item under drama use of stage plays to explore social justice. In 1941, an instructor named Ms. Lola Jackson was the lead for a major event in which students from around the county participated in a play at the Ashburn Colored School called A Cavalcade of Negroana. The structure was a series of presentations by students to a reincarnated Frederick Douglass, enabling them to inform the great civil rights leader of developments since his death. The play has also inspired our project to recommend that it be redone in the future, incorporating developments since 1941, but also taking into account the growth of minority populations in Loudoun County.
Topics in Category 5
5.1 Purpose of Education
5.2 Courses
5.3 Field Trips
5.4 Grades and Grading
5.5 National Programs
5.6 Text Books
5.7 Tools