Page 3 - Integrity Seminars - Special Report

converted into teachers. With their kindly aid,
obtained at different times and in different
Topic List places, I finally succeeded in learning to read.

(What Frederick Douglass Can Teach When I was sent of errands, I always took my
Contemporary College Students)
book with me, and by going one part of my
errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before
1 . Develop an orientation toward
my return. I used also to carry bread with me,
truth-seeking and truth-telling
enough of which was always in the house, and to
2 . Encourage independent thinking in
which I was always welcome; for I was much
yourself and others
better off in this regard than many of the poor
3 . Travel widely, think broadly, and
white children in our neighborhood. This bread I
act locally
used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins,
4 . Study and apply the art of who, in return, would give me that more valuable
persuasion
bread of knowledge. I am strongly tempted to
5 . Recognize the importance of the give the names of two or three of those little
liberal arts in fostering boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and
understanding, enriching thinking,
affection I bear them; but prudence forbids;—not
and defining purpose
that it would injure me, but it might embarrass
6 . Remain open to religious insight, them; for it is almost an unpardonable offence to
including prophetic traditions that
teach slaves to read. . .
emphasize moral accountability and
forgiveness

[1] Develop an orientation

toward truth-seeking and

truth-telling

The kind of truth-seeking that typically
precedes truth-telling is a characteristic of
Frederick Douglass's life. Basically, he rebelled
into education rather than out of it. Here's a
famous excerpt from his Narrative (1845)
explaining how he evaded prohibitions against
learning how to read:

The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I
was most successful, was that of making friends
of all the little white boys whom I met in the
street. As many of these as I could, I

Integrity Seminars: Special Report January 2020 3