Presentation Title
Session Name
Concurrent Session 3. Turning Students into Teachers: Case Studies from the Early Years
Start Date
26-3-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
26-3-2015 3:30 PM
Abstract
State normal schools and the professionalizing of teaching broadened women’s vision and the public and political spheres of their work. The opportunity for higher education and career inspired teachers to improve the lives of children and the health of the nation. Despite the intentions of founding legislators aiming to prepare teachers for the common schools; despite criticisms that the curriculum was too limited, or, conversely, too taxing; despite claims that “normalites” lacked “scholarship,” even “knowledge and interest in human life”[i], countless graduates left with a passion to do good, do it well and do it with a sense of adventure. Their journals that they had read widely, thought critically, and accepted social responsibility in critical times. Using primary sources[ii], we will trace the ways in which gender, purpose and politics informed normalites and sent them geographically and philosophically beyond the expectations set for them. In particular, we will share stories of graduates who went South to the sea islands during the Civil War with radical reconstruction in mind to provide freed people with tools for independence, self-reliance and citizenship.
--------------------
[i] National Education Association, “Shortcomings of Graduates of Normal Schools,” NEA Journal of Proceedings of 51st Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1913, p. 530. Retrieved December 1, 2014, fromhttps://books.google.com/books?id=ukkXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA535&lpg=PA535&dq=normal+schools+criticism+curriculum&source=bl&ots=QzJ3JVPgmi&sig=n3mwraT0LBtWc3NX45dq0AhWRcc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1LqJVM71AcqdNoSqgSg&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=normal%20schools%20criticism%20curriculum&f=false.
[ii] For example, Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke, Francis Grimke Papers Box 40-46 Folder 1820; Manuscript Div., Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; Diaries of Annie Heacock,Whittaker-Glanville Family Papers, 418, MS96, Special Collections, Marshall University, Huntington, WV; Penn School Papers #3615, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Included in
Radical Social Purpose in 19th Century Teacher Education: Normal Schools and the Port Royal Experiment
State normal schools and the professionalizing of teaching broadened women’s vision and the public and political spheres of their work. The opportunity for higher education and career inspired teachers to improve the lives of children and the health of the nation. Despite the intentions of founding legislators aiming to prepare teachers for the common schools; despite criticisms that the curriculum was too limited, or, conversely, too taxing; despite claims that “normalites” lacked “scholarship,” even “knowledge and interest in human life”[i], countless graduates left with a passion to do good, do it well and do it with a sense of adventure. Their journals that they had read widely, thought critically, and accepted social responsibility in critical times. Using primary sources[ii], we will trace the ways in which gender, purpose and politics informed normalites and sent them geographically and philosophically beyond the expectations set for them. In particular, we will share stories of graduates who went South to the sea islands during the Civil War with radical reconstruction in mind to provide freed people with tools for independence, self-reliance and citizenship.
--------------------
[i] National Education Association, “Shortcomings of Graduates of Normal Schools,” NEA Journal of Proceedings of 51st Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1913, p. 530. Retrieved December 1, 2014, fromhttps://books.google.com/books?id=ukkXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA535&lpg=PA535&dq=normal+schools+criticism+curriculum&source=bl&ots=QzJ3JVPgmi&sig=n3mwraT0LBtWc3NX45dq0AhWRcc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1LqJVM71AcqdNoSqgSg&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=normal%20schools%20criticism%20curriculum&f=false.
[ii] For example, Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke, Francis Grimke Papers Box 40-46 Folder 1820; Manuscript Div., Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; Diaries of Annie Heacock,Whittaker-Glanville Family Papers, 418, MS96, Special Collections, Marshall University, Huntington, WV; Penn School Papers #3615, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.