HEARTS OF THE SOUTH LLC
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

Educational ideals and practices are always determined by the larger social, political, religious, and industrial ideals, and those in the South have been no exception to the rule. Aristocratic democracy, agriculture, feudalistic society, religious zeal and orthodoxy, resulted in private instruction for those who were able, charity schools of one kind or another for the children of the poor who desired it, private academies, church schools and state colleges and universities with small endowments and little help from public treasuries for the cultural education of the sons of the aristocracy of the large plantation and of professional life. These produced their legitimate results- on the one hand, a comparatively large number of men and women with the training of the academy and the college; on the other hand, total or approximate illiteracy of the masses. It should be remembered, however, that many ambitious boys of the middle classes and even many sons of the poor found their way to the academies, colleges and universities, and gained from them all they were capable of giving. There have never been any fixed social barriers in the South. All lines of division have been flexible, uncertain and vanishing. Protestant Christianity, the zeal of the churches, and the well-nigh universal presence of the Bible have been important forces against total illiteracy, and the pulpit and the stump have infused some degree of moral and civic knowledge among the most ignorant. The active, self-reliant life and labors of the pioneer developed a shrewd, native intelligence and a practical ability in dealing with the primitive conditions and solving the simple but comprehensive problems of the frontier. If education is adjustment, then many of these men with little of the learning of the schools and slight acquaintance with books were well educated. They were strong, masterly, courageous, quick of perception, sound of judgment within the limits of their experience, and hopeful and ambitious of the future. Before I sign off, I must confess to being disappointed when I hear of Confederate memorials being removed, and school names being changed. Not because I think we should unflinchingly worship these memorials and profess an unwavering greatness about those whom they depict, but because it is a weird logic indeed that believes it can change its future by photoshopping its past. Instead, let us explore these men for who they were, flawed, the product of an age, etc., and let us seek to find ourselves in them so that we do not repeat their mistakes. Let us perform an honest Step 4 moral inventory to see where the vestiges of prejudice remain in our hearts, or where systems of governance and policy long since displaced still have a legacy effect on the descendants of those impacted by same. It is with this latter thought in mind that I leave you with the last paragraph of the above quoted section from Professor Claxton: