For the last seven years the leading business men and women and educators of Texas have been engaged in a very important matter, known as a study of the curriculum of the high schools in this state. It was the original purpose of this conference to acquaint as many state educators as possible with significant phases of Negro Education in the Southwest . It was believed that this information concerning Negro education would serve as a stimulant to greater interest and more constructed activities. The creators of the conference, with Principal W. R. Banks of Prairie View College as head, further aimed to stimulate attitude toward Negro schools and therefore secure a more scientific basis for a program of improvement. The problems growing out of the deficiency of organization, equipment and personnel of the Negro schools of Texas had attracted the attention of these educators. This attraction was such that the State Department of Education, with county and city superintendents, Negroes and white members of school faculties and representatives of philanthropic foundations responded readily to the first call to conference on Negro education, April 11, 1930. In the meeting of this conference a General survey was made of Negro Rural Schools, high schools and colleges. The conditions of these schools were of such that the members of the conference unanimously voted to repeat the conference the next year.
Some said that the present high school curriculum is not suitable because it only prepares one to enter a college for liberal arts. We all know that we have at present, and for a long time to come, too many Negro men and women finishing college with only that which it takes to teach a few high school subjects. Knowing that the success of any nation or people depends very largely upon the occupational status of its individuals, it was advanced in one of the sessions of the vocational education group that many of the graduates who finish from the various high schools of Texas do not profit; because after finishing high school there is nothing for them to do in the line of making a living.
It was made plain that in order for the graduates who ere finishing high school every year to get a suitable position for making a tolerable living the high schools must change their curriculum at least partly to that of a technical one instead of liberal arts. In an effort to clear out the real solution to the problem, an idea was advanced to make a vocational status survey of the high schools of Texas. After studying the situation it was found that a special revised survey would not only furnish the public with the solution or standing of the vocational status of the graduates of the various high schools but would furnish other material pertaining to personal guidance, family, parents, marriages and the like. All of this information will help to find out just what the children of our race and state should be taught in the high schools.
Foot note- Proceedings of the Fifth Educational Conference. Bulletin July, 1934, Volume 26, No. 1. Published quarterly by Prairie View State College, Prairie View, Texas, pp. 8, Brief History of the Conference
