The teachers are, for the most part,
graduates of leading colleges--Smith, Wellesley, Vassar, the University
of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin--and educational work of great
variety is carried on, including instruction in English for foreign
employees, and domestic-science classes for women--separate
establishments, of course, for whites and blacks, for the color line is
drawn in southern mining camps as elsewhere. Negroes are, however,
better provided for by the corporation than by most southern
municipalities, both in the way of living conditions and of education.
On the whole, I believe that a child who grows up in the Docena Village,
and is educated there, has actually a better chance than one who grows
up in most Alabama towns, or, for the matter of that, in towns in any
other State which has not compulsory education. Moreover, I doubt that
there is in all Alabama another kindergarten as truly charming as the
one we visited at Docena, or that there is, in the State, a schoolhouse
of the same size which is as perfect as the one we saw in that camp.
In another camp old houses have been remodeled, giving practical
demonstration of what can be done in the way of making a hovel into a
pretty home by the intelligent use of a little lattice-work, a little
paint, and a few vines and flowers.
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