Book Review: The Teacher was Black
| Author | Oswald Hall |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205501000221 |
| Date | 01 June 1955 |
| Published date | 01 June 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
148
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
assistance,
including
the
Colombo
Plan
as
well
as
those
of
the
United
Nations
Organization.
Broadest
in
concept
and
most
limited in
use
is
Aiding
Under-
developed
Countries Through
International
Economic
Co-opera-
tion.
This
book
derives
its strength
from
the
requirement
that
a
doctoral
dissertation
must
embrace
all
the
relevant
fields
of
knowledge,
but
it
thereby
gains
the
unreadability
of
a
disserta-
tion.
It
is
refreshing
to
be
reminded
that
the
concepts of
aid
have
a
history,
and
Van
der
Veen's
consideration
of
the
duties
owed
to
less advanced
nations
from
the
fifteenth
century
onward
uses
standard
sources
in
a
scholarly
manner.
There
is
also
a
full
treatment
of
the
growth
of
the
contemporary
plans
for
economic
aid
and
development.
This
reader
is
grateful
that
the
work
was
published
in
English,
but
it
is
regrettable
that
its
idiom
was
not
checked
more
thoroughly.
University
of
British
Columbia
H. B.
HAWTHORN
THE
TEACHER
WAS
BLACK.
By H.
E.
0.
James
and
Cora
Tenen.
1953.
(Toronto:
British
Book
Service.
viii,
120pp.
$2.50)
This
is
a study
in
race
relations. Into
a
school
on
the
out-
skirts
of
London
had
been
poured
a
selection
of
the
children
from
outlying
villages.
"A
considerable
proportion
of
them
were
educationally
backward and
could
hardly
read
or
write,
at
eleven;
and
some
of
them
had
to
be
taught
elementary table
manners
before
the
communal
school
lunch
could
be
eaten
in
peace."
Into
their
midst
were
introduced
two
young
teachers
from
the
Gold
Coast,
Africa.
The
writers,
two
psychologists
from
the
University
of
London,
made
an orderly effort
to
study
the
re-
actions
to
the
visitors
during
the
two
weeks
of
their
visit.
The
results
were
very
similar to those
stemming from
a
great
range
of
studies
made
on
this
continent.
Close
personal
con-
tact,
under
the
conditions
where
a
great
number
of
activities
were
shared, resulted
in a
marked
change in
the
attitudes
of
the
English
school
children
to
the
African
teachers. Their
stereo-
typed
notions
that
Negroes were
uncivilized,
dangerous,
and
un-
attractive
melted away
and
were
replaced
by
almost
opposite
ideas.
How
lasting
were
the
effects
of
these
visits?
After
six
weeks
the
children
were
about
as
favorably
disposed
toward
the
Negroes
as
they
were
at
the
conclusion
of
the
visit.
Did
this
improved
evaluation
of
Negroes
extend
to other
foreign
races,
such
as
Chinese
and
Americans, and
affect
the
prejudices
felt
toward
such. The
answer
is
"hardly
at
all."
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