Education of the next generation forms a core, central theme in many
             of the greatest works of literature, particularly those of the African-
             American tradition where the next generation holds such promise for those
             oppressed by the historical weight of the present. However, in the
             narrative framework of the novels Youngblood by John Oliver Killens Ann
             Petry's The Street, as well the play "The Piano Lesson," it is not only the
             youth of tomorrow whom receives an education from their wiser elders.
             Although the older individuals in the play educate the younger members of
             the family, ultimately the education in all fictional contexts is holistic,
             rather than an unbalanced relationship of old teaching morality to young.
             In all of the family structures presented, the protagonists are
             children, more or less, if not in years, than in certain dearly held but
             false assumptions they have about life and their place in history. The
             role of education in the African-American experience is particularly
             critical to all of the protagonists, as all members of the family must
             receive an education about their role in a society that has marginalized
             them and continues to marginalize them because of their race, as well as
             their role in the African-American community of America.
             One of the most profound teaching tools, the earliest of the novels
             suggests, comes through is the medium of migration. In John Oliver
             Killen's novel, entitled, Youngblood, the titular family's history is
             chronicled over nearly a half century. The novel begins in the Deep South.
             However, one of the most potent figures in the novel is that of Richard
             Myles, a New York teacher. The idea that education and the North are
             conjoined strikes a strong chord in the minds of many of the younger
             members of the next generations of Youngbloods. The younger Youngbloods,
             although the respect the family patriarch, believe tha...