A Disciplined Mind and Cultivated Heart
Indiana University School of Education at 100
by
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The origin of the School of Education dates from 1829 when Indiana College created a preparatory department during the presidency of Andrew Wylie. Preparation was designed to ready students for collegiate work, more out of parental concern than applied pedagogy, which came later. Indiana College had succeeded Indiana Seminary, established in 1820. The College became Indiana University in 1838. None of these schools was a religious institution, but all were led by preacher presidents until 1885. Indiana University created a course in didactics in 1851. A normal department and model school followed in 1852. The course, department, and model school were steps toward the institutionalization of education. The entire university, of course, was devoted to education, but these more localized developments spelled a discipline of teaching and learning with its own elements and methods. Since education was generic to the university, the distinct role of such a discipline would be defined and defended. Initially, its growth came as much from outside as inside the academy, but the value of public education has fluctuated in American society as well. Scholars disagree on the origin of “normal,” but it meant a teacher training school. The Normal Department of 1852 begot a Department of Pedagogy in 1886 that begot a Department of Education in 1904 that begot a School of Education in 1908. Trustees of Indiana University authorized the School of Education to award its own degree in 1923. Today, in 2023, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of a professional school of education with duties and powers comparable to schools of law and medicine and other professional schools in the university that grant their own degrees. Henry Lester Smith, fourth and longest serving dean, led the school from 1916 to 1946. Smith and his successor, Wendell W. Wright, dean until 1959, laid the professional foundation. Smith was the lever of growth. A graduate of IU, he was superintendent of Bloomington schools, received his doctorate from Columbia University, and came back to southern Indiana with fresh ideas of teacher education. During his tenure, the school established a graduate division, a school counselor curriculum, the Bureau of Coöperative Research, the University School, Bloomington conferences and headquarters of high school principals and superintendents, and courses for library science, physical education, home economics, nursing, and an administrator’s license. Smith often locked horns with Fernandus Payne, dean of the University Graduate School, over the quality of the School of Education’s graduate programs. Wendell Wright during his tenure as dean, appointed scholars and good administrators. One of them, Raleigh Holmstedt, became president of Indiana State University. Wright expanded the guidance curriculum and created a global teacher development program. His international focus was higher education partnerships, whereas Smith had concentrated on secondary and elementary international projects. The school expanded cooperative doctoral programs and launched closed-circuit television broadcasts across campus and airborne television instruction throughout the state. A longtime advisor of IU President Herman B Wells, Wright was coauthor of the consequential campus self-study that Wells commissioned in 1937. The school prospered so well under Smith and Wright that it was prepared to take advantage of vast federal expenditures in the post-World War II period. The GI Bill, National Defense Education Act of 1958, and Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson flooded schools with money for scholarships, faculty, facilities, and research. In the 1960s the school was the largest of its kind in the nation, ranking second, with over 200 full-time faculty and millions of dollars in grants. David L. Clark, dean from 1966 to 1974, had worked as a federal educational research and development officer. A scholar of educational leadership, he preached the mantra of development and knew how to write grants. His term was a golden era for the school. The school stands on the shoulders of giants who did not wait for the future to be handed to them—dedicated faculty, staff, and students who seized the moment for education, often against great odds. Today is a challenging time for public education, but the school continues to discover new meaning in its century-old tradition. If the past is any indication, the school will build on its strong foundation and find new ways, barely imaginable today, to inspire what the great 19th-century school reformer Caleb Mills called “a disciplined mind and cultivated heart.”
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About the Book
This illustrated history of the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Education tells the dynamic, 100-year old story of the state’s leading research and teacher education institution. The dynamic story begins with the founding of Indiana University in 1820. Against great odds, Indiana University’s School of Education advanced from a handful of students and professors in the early nineteenth century to one of the top schools of education. As a one-hundredth anniversary volume, the book shifts to 1923 when the School was authorized to award its own degree. From its first research publication, first doctoral degree, and the opening of a laboratory school in 1938, the School grew rapidly. The return of servicemen and women from World War II on the G.I. Bill filled classrooms and brought significant expansion to teacher education. Likewise, the National Defense Education Act of 1958 extended the School’s counseling and guidance programs. International programs flourished, development of educational technology became a national trendsetter, and from 1958 to 1973 the School operated 29 research centers and institutes. Teacher education anchored enrollment at IU’s regional campuses. By the early 1990s, the School had a new home in a national demonstration site for technology in education. The last thirty years have witnessed significant growth in every aspect of the School’s portfolio – state, national, and international service, research, teaching, diversity, and inclusion. IU’s first all-online doctoral program launched in 2011 in instructional systems technology. A living-learning center for teacher education students opened in 2014. In 2020 the School celebrated 50 years of its Global Gateway for Teachers, placing student teachers in 21 countries, the Navajo Nation, and an urban program in Chicago. Looking back on its one hundred years, the School has turned adversity into a thriving institution providing Indiana and the world with outstanding teachers, counselors, educational leaders, and ground-breaking research.
About the Author
Frederic W. Lieber Author Born in Indianapolis, Frederic W. Lieber has Indiana roots. His great grandfather Richard Lieber founded the Indiana State Park system in 1916. His grandfather Clarence Efroymson was a freshman at IU in 1914, and in 1985 IU President John Ryan conferred an honorary degree on him. Lieber’s great uncle Lander MacClintock was professor of French and Italian at IU from 1920 to 1960. His family created the Frederic Bachman Lieber and Herman Frederic Lieber teaching awards at IU in the 1950s. He attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, the state’s first free high school. Graduate of Brown University, Lieber received his doctorate from IU’s Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology in 1995. He served as visiting assistant professor while working as a psychotherapist in private practice. He coordinated elementary teacher education in the School of Education and taught counseling, classroom management, history of psychology, and social psychology. For 12 years he taught history of ideas for Hutton Honors College. He is a poet and intellectual historian. He lives in Bloomington, writing a history of empathy.