Does Improvement Mean Progress? (Du Bois Essay)

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May 16, 2011 Does Improvement Mean Progress? Progress has seven definitions. One definition is the development of an individual or society in a direction considered superior to the previous level. A popular synonym for progress is improvement; it is defined as an act of improving or the state of being improved. As a matter of fact, Microsoft Word interchanges these words, as if they represented the same idea. For W.E.B. Du Bois, progress and improvement had two completely different meanings, and when he returned to his old community, ten years later, he witnessed somewhat superficial improvements, not progress, which Du Bois defined as having the imagination and the drive to improve the mind. Several families had improved their lives by living in bigger houses or owning more land; these changes did not meet Du Bois’s definition of progress because they were superficial. Both Josie’s family and Rueben had moved into larger houses. The Burkes family and the Dowell family had upgraded their homes by building additional rooms. Doc Burkes had surpassed his goal of owning seventy-five acres by twenty-five acres. Uncle Bird Dowell went from having a “small, rough farm” to owning 125 acres of thriving crop (Lofton 60). One of Du Bois’s students, Uncle Bird’s youngest daughter, had married, and was starting a farm. Moreover, he learned that two of his other students, Ben and ‘Tildy, were doing well in spite of their upbringing in a poor, hopeless home. Du Bois recognized these families were making changes for the better, along with the community, but these changes were not progress in Du Bois’s eyes because they did not allow the families to move up in social class. Du Bois had a similar outlook regarding the changes to the schoolhouse. Du Bois’s old schoolhouse had been torn down and a new one had been built. The new school was an improvement compared to his
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