The Homer Pittard Campus School of Mtsu and Educational Reform in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1930-2000
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WHEN PRACTICE GOES LOCAL: THE HOMER PITTARD CAMPUS SCHOOL OF MTSU AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE, 1930-2000 by Matthew T. Norwood A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History Middle Tennessee State University August 2016 Thesis Committee: Dr. Mary Hoffschwelle, Chair Dr. Carroll Van West ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to recognize the efforts of Dr. Rita King for her help with this thesis. Dr. King is the head of the Friends of Campus School organization which seeks to preserve the history of Homer Pittard Campus School as well as raise money for the maintenance of the school building and grounds. Dr. King assisted me in obtaining names of former students and teachers of Campus School as well as their contact information for personal interviews. Their words provided much in the history of the school that could not be acquired through other means of research. Her help proved invaluable for this master’s thesis. I would also like to acknowledge those who did manage to take time out of their lives to talk to me about their experiences at Campus School. Oma McNabb, Rita King, Elizabeth Bennett, Suzanne O’Gwynne, Joan Clark Mann, Pat Nelson, and John Womack participated in separate interviews with me and told me much about their experiences at Campus School and their personal feelings about the school. John Womack unfortunately passed away about two months after his interview. I would also like to recognize those who believed in me and never gave up on me when researching and writing this thesis. Thank you. ii ABSTRACT Following the Civil War, education in the South underwent a major reform movement, resulting in a much more thorough public education system and teacher training program to improve the education of the citizens and reduce the illiteracy rate. In the early twentieth century, Tennessee passed legislation that established three post- secondary teacher training “normal schools” in each of the major regions of the state, along with a laboratory school at each site. This thesis examines the progressive architectural origin of Middle Tennessee State University’s Campus School and how it managed the challenges of the Great Depression, school desegregation, and school overcrowding and also chronicles the impact of its association with the University. Since 1929, Campus School has been housed in a Neoclassical Revival building that has been able to adapt to meet the educational needs of its pupils and the university’s students. Campus School has also weathered significant events of the twentieth century, has benefitted from its association with the University, and has emerged as a valuable educational resource to the University and Rutherford County. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………....1 CHAPTER ONE: THE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT OF HOMER PITTARD CAMPUS SCHOOL IN RELATION TO MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY……………………………………………14 Education Reform and Architectural Design………………………………………16 Campus School: Its Architects and Architecture…………………………………..27 Change Over Time at Campus School……………………………………………..36 CHAPTER TWO: CAMPUS SCHOOL’S EXPERIENCES WITH SELECTED ISSUES IN TWENTIETH- CENTURY PUBLIC EDUCATION…………………………………………...44 The Great Depression……………………………………………………………...44 Desegregation……………………………………………………………………...59 School Overcrowding……………………………………………………………...68 CHAPTER THREE: THE LABORATORY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE: THE ACADEMIC ADVANTAGES OF HOMER PITTARD CAMPUS SCHOOL………………………………..83 Teacher Credentials and Responsibilities…………………………………...……..84 Education Technology……………………………………………………………..90 Middle Tennessee State University’s Influence on Campus School……………..106 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………122 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………126 iv Page APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………..138 APPENDIX A: PHOTOGRAPHS………………………………………………..139 APPENDIX B: LENGTH OF SCHOOL TERM 1928-1938……………………..149 APPENDIX C: EDUCATION EXPENDITURES IN TENNESSEE 1928-1938………………………………………...150 APPENDIX D: TEACHER TRAINING IN THE (WHITE) COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF TENNESSEE 1928-1937…………………………………….151 APPENDIX E: TEACHER CERTIFICATION IN THE (WHITE) COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF TENNESSEE 1928-1937………………………..152 APPENDIX F: SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN TENNESSEE 1921-1973…………………………….……….153 APPENDIX G: TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN RUTHERFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS 1921-1973………………………………154 APPENDIX H: CAMPUS SCHOOL ENROLLMENT 1922-2000……………...155 APPENDIX I: IRB APPROVAL………………………………………………...156 v AUTHOR’S NOTE In both of their respective histories, Middle Tennessee State University and Homer Pittard Campus School have undergone several name changes. MTSU was originally founded as Middle Tennessee State Normal School in 1911. In 1925, MTSNS was renamed Middle Tennessee State Teachers College, or MTSTC. In 1943, MTSTC became Middle Tennessee State College, and remained a state college until 1965 when it became Middle Tennessee State University. Likewise, Homer Pittard Campus School was founded on the same day as MTSU and was named Model School. Some sources refer to the school as the Model and Practice School. In 1929, when the school’s current structure opened, Model School was renamed Training School, a name it retained until 1957 when it was renamed Campus School. The minutes of the Rutherford County School Board refer to the school during this time as MTSC Campus School. When MTSC became MTSU, the school was renamed MTSU Campus School. In 1985, MTSU Campus School was renamed in honor of Dr. Homer Pittard, a longtime educator who had taught at MTSU for a number of years. For the sake of simplicity, both institutions will be referred to in this master’s thesis using their current names, where applicable. vi 1 INTRODUCTION Middle Tennessee State University began as a normal school, a teacher-training institution. Originally founded as Middle Tennessee State Normal School in 1911, the university was the end result of a reform movement in Tennessee that sought the expansion of public education programs including a teacher training program. The movement strove to improve the State of Tennessee’s education deficits at the turn of the century, when illiteracy numbers were high and public education was limited largely to elementary grades and was poorly funded at the local and state levels. Reform legislation enacted by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1909 called for the creation of four normal schools, one for the training of white teachers in each of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee and one for the training of African American teachers, located in Nashville, with a training school attached to each normal school. The purpose of the training school was to allow the students of the normal school, later teachers’ college, to participate in a practicum in which they practiced what they had learned in the classroom prior to receiving their teaching certification. The training school component is essential because it allows for a hands-on opportunity to apply educational theory and develop skills necessary to become an effective teacher and is one of the last legs of the training experience before the teacher enters the real world of classroom instruction. According to William C. Bagley’s “The Place of Applied Philosophy in Judging Student Teaching,” “the training school is in many ways a microcosm of our system of universal education…. For the training schools set the 2 standard for the beginning teacher and what they reflect in practice is quite likely to be what the teacher will at least have as an ideal when he enters the public-school service.”1 MTSU’s training school appears to have served this purpose since its founding in 1911. Middle Tennessee State University and Homer Pittard Campus School have their origins in the southern education reform movement that began towards the end of the nineteenth century. According to Andrew David Holt’s dissertation “The Struggle for a State System of Public Schools in Tennessee, 1903-1936,” Tennessee lacked a state- regulated system of public education at the end of the nineteenth century.2 Earlier, in 1835, the Tennessee General Assembly established a “state board of commissioners,” including a state superintendent of schools, which it entrusted to oversee the state’s monies for public schools. However, by 1844, due to the state school superintendent’s improprieties in managing the account, the office was eliminated, and the responsibility restored to the state treasurer. For almost a decade afterward, the General Assembly took no additional action toward a state-run system. In 1852, the legislature established “a twenty-five cent tax on those who voted, plus a small tax on property in the state” which went to the state’s education program and was the first such tax in the state’s history.3 In the post-Civil War era, the state legislature passed “An Act to Provide for the 1 William C. Bagley, “The Place of Applied Philosophy in Judging Student Teaching,” in Educational Administration and Supervision 17 (1931): 335, quoted in Edward Irwin Franklin Williams, “The Actual and Potential Use of Laboratory Schools: In State Normal Schools and Teachers Colleges” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1942), 39. 2 Andrew David Holt, “The Struggle for a State System of Public Schools in Tennessee, 1903- 1936” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1938), 3. 3 Dick Bryan Clough, “A History of Teachers’ Institutes in Tennessee, 1875-1915” (EdD diss., Memphis State University, 1972), 33-34. 3 Reorganization, Supervision, and Maintenance of the Common