Educating Educators

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One of our summer projects was finishing a new website documenting the history of the teacher education at Davidson.  The site includes a timeline, scanned historical documents, and a database on faculty and courses. While teacher certification is relatively new, Davidson graduates been in the forefront of classrooms and education from the earliest years.

An early tally showed 429 graduates between 1840 and 1924 who had made teaching their profession. In more recent surveys of Davidson graduates around 35 students a year
list teaching as their first job out of college.  One early graduate, Augustus Leazar, valedictorian for the class of 1860, not only taught for 17 years but while serving in the state legislature introduced the bill establishing what is now NSCU and served as chairman of the legislature’s Education Committee. He also served on Davidson’s Board of Trustees from 1885 to 1905.

During that time, Davidson College students played an important role in the lives of Davidson school students. Beginning in the 1890s, Davidson students served as the principal for the local school.  The January 1892 Davidson Monthly reported that “Hugh Murchison, ’93 has
taken charge of the public school at this place, we are sorry to
see him drop out of college, but wish him success with his school .
The school will be held in the old Glasgow home.” Lest you be concerned that this student gave up his own education, the May 1892 issue noted, “Mrs. Anne Martin, has
taken charge of the primary department of the district school
formerly taught by Mr. H. R. Murchison, while Mr. Murchison has resumed
his regular routine of studies in College. He however, still teaches
the pupils in Greek and Latin.”

Over the next decade or so, a series of students taught and directed the school. One that became important to teacher education at the college is Archibald Currie, class of 1897. In June 1898, he became principal, a position he held until 1902.  In 1905, he returned to the college as an instructor and from 1912 to 1920, he taught the only courses in education at the college.

To find out more about the department’s history, check out The First Hundred Years.  We’ll leave you with just one more tidbit,  In 1928, Miss Estelle Rawls became one of the earliest women to teach Davidson students when she was hired for a summer course on “Teaching of Methods and Supervison.