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Rating: 
Summary: The Path Towards Reconciliation
Review: For years pundits have debated the manipulation of the "Negro problem" in post- civil war America. The period of reconstruction marked the struggle between accomodationist Weltanschauung and intellectual empowerment in the Black community. William Watkins of the University of Illinois, Chicago has illuminated the alliance formed among northern philanthropists and southern racists to propagate the sub-standard education of Blacks. Drawing upon examples of some of the most well known white philanthropists, such as the Rockefeller Family, Thomas Jesse Jones, and William Ogden Watkins weaves a telling tale of seemingly well-meaning charity with a very real and insidious agenda. With striking documentation and thoughtful insight Watkins sheds the veil of altruism and reveals an ill-begotten truce between North, South, and accomodationist Blacks. The culmination of this bargain was the educational marginalization of an entire race drafted to support the burgeoning economic machine in the North and suppress the over-zealous discrimination characteristic of the South. The ideology exposed by Watkins in The White Architects of Black Education defines the scope and sequence of a carefully planned and well-executed contextualization of an entire culture.
The effects of the architecture are still evident in the modern classroom and in society at-large. By providing a minimal education dominant American culture has created an intellectual and societal caste system, which exists today inside and outside of schools. Contrary to the important work of W.E.B. DuBois, who posited the value of education for intellectual empowerment, the White architects designed their philanthropy for the good of everyone involved except the recipients. Subsequently, the entire history of Black education must be re-evaluated and we (education/society) must reconsider our own practices and prejudices. William Watkins's text gives us the resources to chart the appropriate pedagogical and social modifications on the path towards reconciliation.
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Summary: Predicting the Future of U.S. Public Education
Review: In the U.S. our children are being educated in a society that Watkins reminds us has experienced more than two centuries of slavery, territorial conquest, and international isolation which fed notions of White supremacy, ethnocentricism, and great-nation chauvinism. He describes how the Great Education Board supported the Booker T. Washington model of vocational education that would allow blacks to be laborers, and how they rejected any progressive views of Black education of the likes of W.E.B. Dubois. For "white architects" like the Rockefellers, their advisor Gates, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Ogden and Baldwin, Watkins persuades the reader that these men embodied the ideology that "labor was desirable, subservience was acceptable, and prevailing segregationist practices were tolerable" (p.125). Watkins (p. 40) rightly claims, "The race issue saturates every aspect of our social, economic, political, educational and personal life." Thanks to our "white architects" described by Watkins, most U.S. citizens are born and raised in a modern society where they see inequality, accept it and live it each day. In the traditional public school classroom, with the traditional public school teacher, "reproduction theory" is blindly ingrained in practice and functions to reproduce capitalist social relationships that conform to a base and superstructure framework (Bowles and Gintis 1976, in Watkins 2001). Watkins asks readers to consider if we recognize that there are new architects of education present in school systems today who continue to construct schools and society with the same general precepts of scientific racism. Watkins predicts adaptation and accomodationism to dominate U.S. education, the curriculum, and social policy now and for the decades to come. I believe that modern educators such as myself must consider the effects of these past white architects on U.S. education when organizing their projects for change. Watkins is a key resource in my research even as a World Language educator. His words are crucial to the future of critical pedagogy, to teachers, and to the children who are getting left behind by our present architects.
Rating: 
Summary: The White Architects of Black Education
Review: Mr. Watkins walks us through an historical and turbulent era of education that continues to have ramifications in our present educational system. Watkins journey through the maze of black education exposes the political and socioeconomic influences of the dominnant and affluent white culture of the north. He reveals to the reader the influences of the corporate magnets of the north who wanted cheap labor and subserivent workers. They used their philanthropy and the educational system to imposed their own philosophy of education on the black population;while promoting subserivent lifestyles for those who participated. Mr Watkins is able to convince the reader about the political and economic hold that the corporate world imposes on the black population and the disregard these men had for how the black population wanted their education to progress.
Mr. Watkins continues to show us the need for continued political and socieconomic justice for all people and warns us of the continued influence that corporate America has on all of us.
Rating:
Summary: The White Architects of Black Education
Review: Mr. Watkins walks us through an historical and turbulent era of education that continues to have ramifications in our present educational system. Watkins journey through the maze of black education exposes the political and socioeconomic influences of the dominnant and affluent white culture of the north. He reveals to the reader the influences of the corporate magnets of the north who wanted cheap labor and subserivent workers. They used their philanthropy and the educational system to imposed their own philosophy of education on the black population;while promoting subserivent lifestyles for those who participated. Mr Watkins is able to convince the reader about the political and economic hold that the corporate world imposes on the black population and the disregard these men had for how the black population wanted their education to progress.
Mr. Watkins continues to show us the need for continued political and socieconomic justice for all people and warns us of the continued influence that corporate America has on all of us.
Rating:
Summary: A New Foundation for an Old School Structure
Review: William H. Watkins is subtle in his story of the "white architects" who developed Black education beginning in 1865, just at the end of the Civil War. Watkins shocks you with his "scientific racism" platform that he explains "presented human difference as the rational for inequality" and that it "can be understood as an ideological and political issue" (pg. 39). The reader senses a calm attitude about the author as he speaks of the Philanthropists, beginning with John D. Rockefeller, Sr, who was most concerned about "shaping the new industrial social order" (pg. 133) than he was for providing a useful education. "The Rockefeller group demonstrated how gift giving could shape education and public policy" (pg. 134). In their support of Black education, by 1964,the General Education Board (GEB) spent more than $3.2 million dollars in gifts to support Black education. This captivating book begins with a forward written by Robin D.G. Kelley who reflects that she learned one lesson from Watkins, "If we are to create new models of pedagogy and intellectual work and become architects of our own education, then we cannot simply repair the structures that have been passed down to us. We need to dismantle the old architecture so that we might begin anew" (pg. xiii). Why don't the school reformers who mandate educational laws experience such an awakening?
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Summary: White Architects
Review: William H. Watkins writes about the power of education and how it "can be used both to oppress and to liberate." (pg.1) Watkins shares with us how research and science in the last century validated the belief that Whites were the superior race. This belief has played a great role in the development of the school system and curriculum we have today in America. The "White Architects" have used the school system to keep races of people oppressed. He clearly defines who the architects were and the role they played in orchestrating the school system we have today. I believe that in order to see more success among minority students in schools today we have to restructure the whole school system. Watkins book strengthens my belief. He states "public education was product of historically, politically, and socially constructed ideas." These ideas need to be updated and remade to include all races equally.
Rating:
Summary: White Architects
Review: William H. Watkins writes about the power of education and how it "can be used both to oppress and to liberate." (pg.1) Watkins shares with us how research and science in the last century validated the belief that Whites were the superior race. This belief has played a great role in the development of the school system and curriculum we have today in America. The "White Architects" have used the school system to keep races of people oppressed. He clearly defines who the architects were and the role they played in orchestrating the school system we have today. I believe that in order to see more success among minority students in schools today we have to restructure the whole school system. Watkins book strengthens my belief. He states "public education was product of historically, politically, and socially constructed ideas." These ideas need to be updated and remade to include all races equally.
Rating:
Summary: From a Survivor
Review: William Watkins pointedly and proudly explains how people other than the African Americans have guided the principles of Black education in the United States from the Reconstruction era to post World War II. Whether these people acting philanthropically as John D. Rockefeller or as "evil geniuses" (Chapter 6), they have shaped Black education then and some would argue for all time. In his writing, Watkins shows that there is a view of the history of American education that does not come from the larger culture. Watkins view is from the "other side of the fence" that is not written by the victors but rather a survivor. This view is equally important as it establishes the fact there are always two sides to every story. "History is made by people in struggle" (p.179). Generalizations tend to pervade Watkins' writings as the use of the words "few" and "many" are consistent. But this is understandable considering little or no empirical research was being conducted regarding Black education during this time period. Pointing to the past for blaming is not the purpose of Watkins in his book, but rather an enlightenment of the history presented by a survivor of slavery, segregation and racial inequalities that have existed for generations. Truly, Watkins has offered a view of history in which we can reflect upon and use to help guide a new generation of architects.
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Summary: White Architects-Bad Design
Review: William Watkins' "The White Architects of Black Education" gives an historical and sociological perspective to the progress, or lack of progress, related to the education of African Americans in the United States. This is an excellent resource for those people who have an interest in how the educational system of the mid 19th century through the mid 1950's was crafted in a way to limit the progress of African Americans during those times.
It is interesting to read about how famous Americans such as John D. Rockefellers Senior and Junior, and Andrew Carnegie set up philanthropic foundations to improve the lives of Black Americans. Even though they had what appeared to be benevolent intentions, the reality was that they perpetuated a continued system of racial subservience.
We see not only white men of influence involved, but also conflicts between those African American leaders who differed on plans to educate children. W.E.B. Dubois criticized Booker T. Washington for, what he called, "submission and silence as to civil and political rights." Many felt that Dubois' remarks about Washington would create a diviseness among Black leaders.
Though education for African American children has improved over the past century, this book points out why progress was slow and why we haven't yet reached a truly equal educational system. This part of American history should be a part of general history texts, not separate add-ons to sociological and historical course work.
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