V. "Of the Wings of Atalanta"

The fifth essay in The Souls of Black Folk is "Of the Wings of Atalanta".  It begins with stanza six of John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Howard at Atlanta" (1869).  The musical bars are from the obscure Negro spiritual, "The Rocks and Mountains".  "Atalanta" is a romantic way of spelling Atlanta and alludes the Greek myth a free spirited woman named Atalanta who would only marry the man who could beat her in a foot race.  Du Bois compares the city of Atlanta to that free-spirited woman.

The most important topic Du Bois discusses in this essay is the function of the university.  This discussion is as important in 2010 as it was in 1903 when Du Bois published The Souls of Black or in 1933 when Carter G. Woodson published the Mis-Education of the Negro.  The discussion of the function of the university extends beyond the industrial arts versus classical education debate of the early twentieth century.  It even extends beyond the university to elementary and secondary education.  Documentaries like "Waiting for Superman" and "The Lottery" highlight how crucial a topic the function of thehee university and more broadly speaking the function of education is.

Du Bois in the essay, "The Wings of Atalanta" argues that:

The function of the university is not simply to teach breadwinning, or to furnish teachers for the public schools, or to be a centre of polite society; it is above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which forms the secret of civilization.

 Check out the trailer for "Waiting For Superman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfaro96dg

Check out Amos Wilson talking about the function of education
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ShE9IONGQ

Check education clip:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE


Check out on 21st Century Educational Realities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc1hgMl3uUk