Top-notch public education isn’t something that has come
easy for South Carolina. Since the end of the Civil War, the state has
struggled to keep pace with the rest of the nation when it comes to the
academic world. Progress has been made over the last few decades, but there is
still plenty of room for improvement.
In 2004, South Carolina still had the lowest SAT score
average in the nation (in South Carolina’s defense, over 60% of high school
students took the SAT—in Iowa, which had the highest scores, only 5% of
students took the test). At the same time, only about half of the state’s
high school students will actually reach graduation. The numbers seem pretty
dismal, but steps are being taken for improvement.
The introduction of the “No Child Left Behind” Act by President
George W. Bush placed pressure on all states to improve their educational
performance. South Carolina reacted by focusing on the Palmetto Achievement
Challenge Test (PACT). In grades three through eight, students are tested
annually in all four of the core subjects (language arts, math, science, and
social studies). The questions are designed to promote “higher level
thinking,” which will be beneficial when students take the SAT and other
standardized tests in high school.
Teachers are also being held up to new standards by the No
Child Left Behind Act. In South Carolina, numerous efforts are being made to
see that teachers are “highly qualified” in their specific subject matter.
Even schools are being held accountable if their students don’t show continued
improvement.
It is still too early to tell whether these drastic measures
will pay off in South Carolina. It isn’t the first time, however, that new
methods have been used to promote education within the state. To get a “historical
perspective,” let’s take a look back at the Port Royal Experiment.
Only months after the start of the Civil War, Union forces
managed to capture the areas around the Port Royal Sound in South Carolina. When
the troops came aboard the Sea Islands, most of the white citizens had already
evacuated. Left behind were 10,000 slaves, all of them confused and scared.
The Union occupied the area for the next four years, and the
newly freed slaves started to become a nuisance. They had no education and no
skills, and many couldn’t even speak English (instead they spoke Gullah, which
is a mixture of English and Western African languages). There was no
telling what would happen to these freedmen when the Union forces left after
the war. Something had to be done.
In order to help the freed slaves stand on their own two
feet, the federal government conducted the “Port Royal Experiment.” The plan
was to send teachers to South Carolina to educate the ex-slaves. Started in
1862, the Port Royal Experiment became a testing ground for solving the
problems that would appear during the Reconstruction Era.
The teachers who volunteered for the task had their work cut
out for them. Their first priority was to teach the freedmen to read and
write, but it went much beyond that. Their students had been completely shut
out from the democratic system as slaves, and most did not even understand it.
The teachers had to make sure that the freed slaves were morally and socially
prepared to become productive citizens. They taught about what it meant to be
a “citizen,” including lessons on civil rights, property ownership, and the
voting process. Basically, the goal was to familiarize the freedmen with
“White Society.”
Another goal of the Port Royal Experiment was to help the freed
slaves find a means of financial independence. Few of them had any skills
aside from working as field hands on the plantations. The quest for economic
independence proved to be extremely difficult. In fact, after the war, many of
them went back to work on the plantations as field hands.
The intentions of the Port Royal Experiment were admirable,
but the program would not be nearly enough to battle the problems of
Reconstruction. The Civil War damaged South Carolina—and the rest of the
South—so extensively that highly educated white men often struggled for
survival along with the freed slaves. Hunger and hardship did not discriminate
based on color.
Despite the end of slavery (officially ended in 1865 by
the 13th amendment to the Constitution), African Americans did
not get equal treatment. Small steps were taken during the Reconstruction
period, such as the passing of the 14th and 15th
amendments. The 14th amendment (1868) gave African Americans official citizenship, while the 15th amendment (1870) extended to them
the right to vote.
The ability to own property and to vote (as well as the
reviving cotton and rice industries) helped African Americans finally gain
respect in the United States during the 1870s. By that time, they had become
an integral part of the nation’s democratic system.
