Booker T. Washington was born into slavery and remained a slave until 1863 when slaves where freed. Since Booker T. Washington was an African-American in the 1800s he, his mother and step-father were very poor, so from a very early age he worked, but the older he got the desire to go to school increase. Booker T. Washington would go to work in the salt mines with his step father until school began, he would go to school all day and then return to work in the salt-mines. Unfortunately his school soon came to an end when he had to quit in order to work longer hours for more money for his family. In 1872 he heard about a school in Virginia for African Americans, so his journey in education began and he as he attended the Hampton Institute he was able to work as a janitor to pay for his school. After graduating he began to teach and in time he founded the Tuskegee Institute. Booker T. Washington believed that school should lead to a well paying job, he wanted students to learn thinking and job skills. He worked for a better tomorrow.

I can relate to this book in the fact that after many years for just working at a job, and I have worn many hats and have acquired many different job skills, it was never a career. I wanted to be able to go back to school and learn a skills that once was learned, I could actually apply it to many different positions in one field, something that I could work hard for and the end result be not only a skills but something that will help to benefit many for years to come.

I would do a planting project with my kids to relate to this book. I would have the following supplies:
a planting box
soil
seeds
gardening hand tools
small tarra cotta pots

I would have the kids help pour or scoop soil into the terra cotta pots, then I would have then drop a few seeds into the pots and then cover them up soil and then water then seeds. I would explain to them that by learning how to plant seeds and water them that they are learning how to take care of plants and that maybe some day they would grow up to work with plants and flowers. Once the seeds had began to sprout and get a little bigger then I would have the students help me remove the plants from the pots and replant them inside the planter box. I would also have the students keep a journal of how the plants grew from start to finish. I