The excellent quote:
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Is frequently attributed to Frederick Douglass. I attempted to find a source for it. Of the various quotes websites, the only one with an actual lead was IzQuotes,[1] which says:
"Source/Notes: Earliest reference found in: "Young Children, Volume 53" (1964), p. 375. Probably apocryphal."
Looking at JSTOR, the journal Young Children[2] is published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The publication year 1964-1965 is Volume 20. Volume 53 is year 1998. As far as I can tell, this is the most prominent, if not only, journal titled Young Children, and it is therefore likely the IzQuotes citation is incorrect.
To investigate further, I looked at Volume 20, No. 6 (which contained page 375). Neither page 375 nor the rest of this article contains the quote. I then checked Volume 53. Volume 53 has 6 entries, and none are numbered over page 100. The 375th page of this series corresponds to page 37 of No. 5. The quote is not found here either.
I then used JSTOR's search function to search for "Frederick Douglass" within the Young Children journal. There were 8 results. The oldest is from Volume 41, No. 5 (July 1986). But, aha, there is one entry from Volume 53! "Some Thoughts about Phonics, Feelings, Don Quixote, Diversity, and Democracy: Teaching Young Children to Read, Write, and Spell Part 1", by Polly Greenberg. Young Children, Vol. 53, No. 4 (July 1998), pp. 72-83. Page 75 contains our quote.
Here is the context of the quote:
"Narrowing the frame to focus on phonics distracts us from reflecting regularly upon our ultimate goal in all this. Is the ability to read the be-all and end-all of the educational process? Reading is very important, yes, but what about the ability to be a good and adequately happy person? As Frederick Douglass is said to have said, "It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken people."
We may believe that developing mental health and good character is the job of the family and the church, yet we can't assume that every home is developing good people, people sufficiently free of excess anger and anxiety to function well in adulthood. The evidence doesn't support this assumption. Schools and child care programs can help, perhaps can make a pivotal difference in the lives of children with many strikes against them. To be more specific, kind and caring teachers and caregivers can help, perhaps make a pivotal difference, if a child doesn't already have too many strikes against him. And because the outcome is never known until years later, we must do our best now."
It turns out this was not the first time this quote appeared attributed to Douglass. Professor William Cheng found instances of the quote being used in the 1970s (without attribution to Douglass).[3] The earliest source that Cheng could find attributing the quote to Douglass appeared in 1994.
Other bloggers[4][5] found a possible origin of this quote in Douglass's book My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), in Chapter 11, paragraph 3. Cheng also points to this passage. In this chapter, Douglass is recounting his experience learning to read in his boyhood.
Here is the entire 3rd paragraph:[6]
"When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and contentment. The mistress of the house was a model of affection and tenderness. Her fervent piety and watchful uprightness made it impossible to see her without thinking and feeling--"that woman is a christian." There was no sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a tear, and there was no innocent joy for which she had not a smile. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once thoroughly broken down, who is he that can repair the damage? It may be broken toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. It cannot endure such shocks. It must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. If my condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. The first step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened my young mind. In ceasing to instruct me, she must begin to justify herself to herself; and, once consenting to take sides in such a debate, she was riveted to her position. One needs very little knowledge of moral philosophy, to see where my mistress now landed. She finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning to read, than was her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as her husband had commanded her, but seemed resolved to better his instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor mistress--after her turning toward the downward path--more angry, than seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch from my hand such a newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and consternation which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some dangerous spy."
In the following paragraphs, Douglass recounts how young "white" boys would help teach him to read and were, with little effort, always able to be convinced of the immorality of slavery. I think this context adds a deeper meaning to the quote--it is not just an individual's ambition, self-esteem, or curiosity which is in danger of being destroyed by harsh pedagogues or circumstances of life, but their conscience, sense of morality, and souls. The children who Douglass met possessed that original noble and unprejudiced spirit of conscience which one innately finds in children who have not yet been adulterated.
Douglass is confident that many of those children grew up and continued to hold the same negative views towards slavery. However, perhaps like his mistress, they eventually "grew out of" their "childish" ways, and came to tolerate or approve of slavery and ethnic prejudice after they had their consciences broken? Hopefully not, but this possibility adds a deeper dimension as to why it is so important to avoid crushing the spirit of childhood.
"Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked about among grown up people in Maryland, I frequently talked about it--and that very freely--with the white boys. I would, sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, "I wish I could be free, as you will be when you get to be men." "You will be free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I am a slave for life. Have I not as good a right to be free as you have?" Words like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I had no small satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences, let me have those to deal with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. I do not remember ever to have met with a boy, while I was in slavery, who defended the slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with the hope that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free. Over and over again, they have told me, that "they believed I had as good a right to be free as they had;" and that "they did not believe God ever made any one to be a slave." The reader will easily see, that such little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as a slave."
If you have more information about this quote, please comment below.
References:
[1] IzQuotes. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
https://izquotes.com/quote/52741
[2] Young Children journal.
https://www.jstor.org/journal/youngchildren
[3] William Cheng. (February 14, 2018). The Radical Compassion of Frederick Douglass. Pacific Standard.
https://psmag.com/education/the-radical-compassion-of-frederick-douglass
[4] Daniel Ransom. (April 23, 2014). Quotes on the internet: Frederick Douglass and Repairing Broken Men. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
http://thepinakes.com/2014/04/quotes-on-the-internet-frederick-douglass-and-repairing-broken-men/
[5] Journey Of An English Major. (March 9, 2017). Frederick Douglass: The Brokenness of Subjugation - LIT513 American Renaissaunce. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
https://journeyofanenglishmajor.blogspot.com/2017/03/frederick-douglass-brokenness-of.html
[6] Frederick Douglass. My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). [See page 153 and following in the edition linked below.]
https://archive.org/details/mybondagemyfreed00indoug/page/152/mode/2up
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