Francis Wayland Parker

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Francis Wayland Parker (1894)

Francis Wayland Parker (born October 9, 1837 in Piscataquog , Hillsborough County , New Hampshire , †  March 2, 1902 in Pass Christian , Mississippi ) was an American educationalist .

Adolescent years

Parker was born in the small town of Piscataquog near Bedford, New Hampshire, which his paternal grandfather founded. He was named Francis Wayland after the famous preacher and later President of Brown University . His mother, Milly b. Rand, was a teacher so that Francis could read before school started. His father William died when he was six years old and an uncle became his guardian. He only attended school until he was seven years old. When he was eight years old, he was given to a farm. He lived here for five years and developed a lifelong love of nature. He only went to school for eight weeks during the winter months.

When he was 16, he started teaching as a village teacher. In Corser Hill, Boscawen , New Hampshire, he taught 75 students and earned $ 15 a month. Many of his students were older than him and had some life experience. He then taught in Auburn and earned $ 18. At the age of 21 he moved to Hinsdale , Massachusetts , and eventually taught at the school in his hometown. Then in Carrollton , Illinois , he became headmaster of the only local school. Here he stayed for two years with only one assistant with 125 students between the ages of 12 and 25.

War years

With the outbreak of the Civil War , Parker joined the Union ( Northern States ) Volunteer Army in August 1861 . He was elected as Company E Lieutenant, 4th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded in the Battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia, in August 1864, and in January 1865, after the attack on Fort Fisher , North Carolina , he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and in command of 4th New Hampshire Company. In May 1865 he was captured in North Carolina. For his military service he received the certificate of appointment as a Colonel of the US Volunteers for "faithful and meritorious service". Because of his wounds to his chin and neck with a bruised windpipe, his voice remained more or less hoarse. Only when he was deeply moved did she become clear and strong.

In December 1864, he married Phene E. Hall, a schoolteacher he knew from childhood. Their daughter died of infancy and in 1871 Phene also died.

Study and teacher

After the war, Colonel Parker - as he was now called - began studying at Dartmouth College in Hanover , from which he graduated in 1886 with an MA (Master of Art).

He then taught for three years in Manchester and from 1869 in Dayton , Ohio , where he was director of the Normal School . The Normal School was a training center for teachers that set the standards for teaching - hence the name. Here he criticized the school books and got into trouble with the publishers, who sensed the enemy in him and demanded his dismissal, otherwise they would go bankrupt. Instead, he was appointed assistant superintendent. At that time he was aware of the reforms aimed at by Horace Mann in Massachusetts and Edward Austin Sheldon , who had founded a school for teacher training in Oswego , New York , and had been the first to apply Pestalozzi teaching methods.

In Europe

After the death of his wife he soon gave up his position and in 1872 Parker traveled to Germany and studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and inevitably learned German. In Germany he also got to know the upbringing methods of Friedrich Fröbel and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi better, which put the child at the center. Johann Friedrich Herbart found his special interest . Herbarth called for practical, community-promoting teaching. Learning by sight is more important than book knowledge. What is necessary is the comprehensive development of the intellectual, moral-religious and physical-working forces ("head, heart, hand"). He was also enthusiastic about Johann Amos Comenius ' principle of learning by doing . The German gymnastics clubs of "Turnvater Jahn" were also a new experience - a healthy mind in a healthy body. Much of what he had seen in Europe would later flow into his teacher training.

The Quincy Method

When Parker returned to America in 1875, he was appointed superintendent of schools in Quincy , Massachusetts , on April 1 , a place now separated from Boston only by the Neponset River . According to the knowledge he had gained in Germany, he was now an opponent of standardization, individual drill and teaching methods, which at that time were mainly based on constant repetition and thus memorizing the teaching content. All his life he scourged “The three Rs”: R ead, w R ite, R ecite (reading, writing, reciting or repeating). Those who can only learn by heart only create accidental connections in the children's minds that are not based on any understanding. Rules could perhaps be learned this way, but real knowledge could not.

Parker secured a staff of teachers to teach his ideas about teaching. The reform started in elementary school. Instead of learning the ABCs, the children were introduced to short words on the board (whole-word method today). The number of compartments has been reduced from 7 to 3. The old reading books have been given up completely. Instead there were interesting articles from Scribner's Magazine, which was illustrated, or The Atlantic Monthly. They had to write a lot, but not copy them, but from memory. Through these exercises, they quickly learned to formulate whole sentences and were soon able to express themselves orally just as well. By correcting mistakes, they learned spelling and grammar without cramming the rules.

Parker explains using an example: A mother in the kitchen does not teach her daughter to bake bread by giving her a loaf and telling her to analyze it. She gives her the ingredients, shows her how and in what proportions they are mixed and after repeated attempts, the daughter learns how bread is made. She could spend her whole life analyzing the loaves of bread to identify the ingredients, and yet she would not be able to bake good bread. That way she could become a good analyst, but never a good bread baker. The Quincy Method is nothing more than the practical application of the same principle in the classroom.

The school board of John Quincy Adams , James H. Slade and Charles Francis Adam stood behind him. Adam wrote: “Education must return to its origins. Not much has to be tried, but what is tackled has to be done carefully and examined for its practical results and not for theoretical importance. Above all, the simple, comprehensible processes of nature were observed. The children should learn to read, write and arithmetic in the same way as they learned to swim, ice skate or play ball. There was no rule how this was achieved; the fact that it is being done well was everything. "

Parker's teaching came to be known as the Quincy Method , and of course there were many critics. In 1879, the school board ordered a state test, with the result that Quincy students did better than other Massachusetts schools. In the three years from 1878 to 1880, Quincy schools had attended more than 30,000 people.

A lower budget, which in addition to equipment also meant lower teachers' salaries, ultimately led to the end of the experiment. Thereupon the good teachers trained by Parker left Quincy and he himself went to Boston in 1880 as a supervisor of the schools there. In Boston he met his second wife, Francis Stuart, a teacher at the Boston School of Oratory (now Emerson College ), founded in 1880 , and remarried in 1882. She was interested in art and literature and provided Parker with advice and assistance in his work at the school. She was involved in the founding of the first two women 's associations Chicago's Women Club and Fortnightly . She was a tireless worker and excellent teacher with a cool head and often able to tare the scales in decisions in Parker's favor. His wife died on April 1, 1899.

In the five years in Quincy, 1875-1880, Parker had carried out the first major school reform in the United States, and it continued to expand.

Teacher training at Cook County Normal School

Cook County Normal School 1903

The Cook County Normal School in Englewood was founded in 1867 as the first teacher training institution in the state of Illinois. After the death of its director, Daniel S. Wentworth, an administrator with new ideas was looked for. Alice Putnam, who ran a kindergarten here, campaigned for Parker, whose methods she was familiar with from his summer school in Martha's Vineyard, to be appointed to the Normal School in Englewood in 1883. She even moved nearby so that her three daughters could attend the attached practice school. After his nationally known school experiment in the city of Quincy, Parker was considered to be the founder of child-centered teaching that is based on the child's learning needs and curiosity and instead of “book knowledge” focuses on practical action. The child should enjoy going to school. When Parker took office, the school building consisted of 27 rooms with a separate boarding school building that soon attracted students from across the country. The school had three departments: a vocational teacher training, a practice school with eight classes and the four levels of a high school and a kindergarten. There was no tuition fee for Cook County residents ; other students paid $ 75. The prescribed training lasted 40 weeks. Candidates for the diploma were judged on both their knowledge and skills. They were judged not only for their ability to “lead” and “teach a class reasonably well”, but also for their courage to stand up for the ideals of the new educational methods. The class average between 1883 and 1886 was 68 graduates.

In his report to the School Commission 1883-1884, Parker described his views: Most of the public schools in the country are in the hands of ignorant, untrained and uneducated teachers, who are not to blame, but the people who employ them. The introduction of new studies and the subjects that have been imposed on them in recent years have merely overburdened teachers and confused students - Germany and France have already solved the problem of educated and trained teachers. However, American schools became asylum and refuge for untrained and untrained teachers. A lot of money is being spent on supervision, which is mostly about repression rather than freedom. There are many teachers who, with the help of experts, and unhindered by formal exams and nonsensical constraints, could triple their performance. Education is a science that American universities and colleges have not recognized. There is hardly a chair for pedagogy and so the curricula are also missing. Only the progressive had recognized this truth, and so the University of Chicago established a faculty of education headed by John Dewey . "The only means on earth through which subjects can become a value for our children and contribute to character building is through well-educated, trained, personable and devoted teachers."

First, Parker set up a work room and said his first experience of real volunteer attention was the day he saw the first grade saw and plane work.

He rejected strict discipline, rankings and penalties. The children learned in groups and the lessons were project-related and therefore interdisciplinary. Reading, spelling and writing became a subject as “communication”. Arts and sports have been added to the weekly schedule. By bringing nature closer, he taught his students science. Music and singing were also part of the class. In 1889 Parker was able to hire Flora Juliette Cooke as a teacher for his school, who had written a book of stories for children. The painter John Duncan also took a job as an art teacher.

Parker's pedagogical model

Parker was not afraid of failure in his experiments. He said: "The path to success is through constant stumbling". He also said that one should plan for eternity, but work as if one might die tomorrow. (we should plan as if we expected to live forever, but work as though we knew we should die tomorrow).

Parker's methods were so new and influential that former pediatrician Joseph Mayer Rice also went to Cook County Normal School. Rice was not a school inspector, but an independent observer who spent six months in schools for his first study, observing classes and reviewing his notes. He wanted to know how students actually learn, not what good intentions the teachers have. For this he had established independent assessment criteria. Rice visited a total of 36 school districts between January and June 1892 and published his results without consulting the authorities. He described Parker's school as "a rare example of effective pedagogy". Biology is combined with drawing (art): observations of a pupil (4th grade) on a cherry tree in the park of the school from April to June with drawings (original was in color). Biology is linked to arithmetic: germination. The uptake of water by seeds. How many grams of water are absorbed by 10 grams of seeds? 10 grams of seeds absorb what part of their weight with the amount of water? Dry seeds absorb what percentage of their weight in water? Composition of the soil: How much sand does 50 grams of soil contain? What is the proportion of sand in 50 g of soil?

In 1883 a dispute was fought in the Chicago Tribune over which subjects should be taught in public schools. The subjects in which Parker's teachers were trained, such as music, sports, German, painting with watercolors and modeling with clay, were referred to as "fads and frills" (hobby and frills), are superfluous for normal students and interesting at most for the children the rich. That is a waste of taxpayers' money. If such subjects are taught, it leads to having to send all children to college, including the children of workers who have no use for such an education.

Acquired by the Chicago Board of Education in 1895

In April 1893 the Chicago Board of Education established a training school for "cadets" in Chicago . The apprenticeship apprentices had to teach in the mornings at the school assigned to them (“to cadet”) and in the afternoons they received instruction on educational methods. About 300 new teachers (cadets) concluded in 1894 and 1895, these courses were over 400, while fewer than 100 graduates of the Cook County Normal School, with all its possibilities. Therefore, the Chicago Board of Education wanted to bring the school under their supervision so that it could be run better and more economically. On December 9, 1895, the Cook County Board of Commissioners decided to give the school to Chicago, provided that Cook County's residents could continue to attend it free of charge. The Chicago Board was reluctant to accept this transfer, if it had meant taking over Parker and his system. Parker and his teachers refused to resign. They continued to work without pay. The Chicago Board decided in January 1896 to take over the Normal School and keep its staff until July 1, 1896. The transfer became legal on April 22nd, 1896. The “cadets” and their small faculty were integrated into Parker's school and the school was now called the Chicago Normal School . The Board of Education in Chicago had not accepted the proposals of the commission set up by Mayor Carter Harrison in 1898 and chaired by William Rainey Harper on the duties of the Board of Education and the standards for the admission and duration of teacher training. In 1899, Parker resigned from the civil service and was succeeded by Arnold Tompkins.

Parker and the Chicago Institute Academic and Pedagogic 1899

Parker's new teaching methods also caught the interest of Mrs. Anita McCormick Blaine , who toured his Normal School in 1897. She immediately recognized the far-reaching importance of his method and came up with the plan to build a separate institute for Parker and his faculty, where he could work free from the attacks of his opponents. In 1899 she had convinced him and Parker resigned from his public service. He wanted to make the most of his older years and work unhindered in a demonstration school (" Labaratory School ") for teacher training and the upbringing of the children. Although he saw the public schools as the basis of the state, his reforms there were too subject to political currents. He gratefully welcomed the construction of the Chicago Institute, which, in addition to its own center for teacher training, was to be connected to its own elementary school, where the future teachers were to apply the new teaching methods. A kindergarten and high school were also connected. He describes it as “a great experiment in education…. To prove that boys and girls can study in school without coercion. ”An entire block was found near Lincoln Park, where the students came from a better-off neighborhood. The school on North Well Street began operating as The Chicago Institute Academic and Pedagogic while plans for a new building continued to develop.

Parker's school in Chicago was attended by people from around the world who had heard of his radical ideas and practices. They went from room to room and sat on empty chairs against the wall. The children were used to it and did not allow themselves to be disturbed in their work. Parker insisted that the work of the experimental school would never be "finished". He asked for reports from the teachers and said, "If your work is too poor to be exposed to daylight, it is too bad to occupy the children's time." the light of day, it is too poor to occupy the time of children ”.) He believed that the careful attention that writing requires for a publication is helpful in clearing one's thinking and telling them their lack of knowledge and Makes awareness of skill and with it the need for further learning.

Merged as School of Education at the University of Chicago in 1901

William Rainey Harper, President of the University of Chicago, urged Parker to bring his Chicago Institute into the university as part of a School of Education , where he could work on a larger scale and have more resources for academic teacher training. Both the University's Board of Trustees, Mrs. McCormick Blaine, and Parker and his staff agreed to this plan.

Blaine Hall - School of Education, University of Chicago

On February 5, 1901, Anita McCormick Blaine wrote to President Harper to invest a million dollars in the project and the construction of a building of her own that she would donate in memory of her deceased husband. The “School of Education” for teacher training and the associated “Practice Elementary School” were founded immediately afterwards.

The parents of the demonstration school of the Chicago Institute pushed for the continuation of their elementary school as an independent branch with some of the teachers working there, Mrs. McCormick Blaine agreed to continue to support this branch of the school financially for a few years. A new building was erected on Webster Avenue across from Lincoln Park in 1901, and the 180-student school was named Francis W. Parker School . Flora J. Cooke became the principal.

In 1902 Parker moved his Chicago Institute to the University of Chicago. The university administration had suggested to John Dewey that he should remain head of the Department of Education and continue to train young researchers. Now the parents of John Dewey's school were upset and feared a possible closure. Ella Flagg Young took over the negotiations between the parents and President Harper in Dewey's absence. Harper was impressed by the protest, not least by the parents' promise to bear all future deficits of the school themselves. For two years there were two elementary schools at the same university, which also published their own monthly notebooks.

Parker and John Dewey

Now the scientist and the practitioner met. Parker and Dewey both broke new ground in progressive education. Parker knew what helped the children learn, but he didn't know why. Dewey, on the other hand, knew why from his astute philosophical insights. Parker knew how to work intuitively, but felt unable to explain the reasons in an intellectually convincing way. He once said that he and Dewey shared the same ideas, but Dewey could scientifically expound those ideas in philosophical terms. He also said that Dewey could speak for him better than he could himself. Parker's philosophy began with the observation that children live in a natural world where their learning is stimulated by curiosity about the environment. Dewey's concept was the child who lives in a world of people (family, neighbors, food and housing, communication and participation) and these social patterns and actions occupy the children's minds and are the source of their interest and attention. Parker's approach led to the study of the laws of nature, while Dewey preferred to study the world as a social organization.

This essential difference between their educational methods also influenced the teaching of the respective teachers, which led to some differences within the faculties. Parker stayed for health reasons in the Gulf of Mexico, where he died unexpectedly in March 1902. In May, Dewey was appointed his successor as head of the School of Education in addition to his other duties.

In autumn 1903 the two elementary schools were merged and Dewey made his wife the principal of the new school. The teaching staff at Parker's elementary school resisted vehemently. The teachers feared they would be fired. There was a real revolt, even Mrs. McCormick Blaine stepped in and tried to prevent the appointment of Alice Dewey. President Harper arranged a compromise and arranged for a fixed term contract that would last for a year. Alice Dewey was critical of the methods employed by the Parker School teachers and would not have hesitated to fire opponents whom she deemed incompetent. In the spring of 1904, President Harper informed John Dewey that the university was unable to renew his wife's post. Immediately thereafter, both quit. Wilbur Samuel Jackman became the new principal of the elementary school.

Despite their different methods, both respected each other. In 1930, in an article in the New Republic , Dewey Parker praised Colonel Parker was, more than any other person, the "father of the progressive educational movement" and on another occasion for having Parker's gift for being "a student in touch with the realities of the world To bring life to life, to experience nature on one's own body and everything joyfully, with an open mind and heart. "

His doctors had sent Parker south for health reasons. He died there surprisingly at the age of 64 in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on the Gulf of Mexico. His urn was buried next to his wife in May 1902 in his home in Piscataquog Cemetery, Manchester, New Hampshire. War veterans, teachers, and students attended the funeral service.

Publications

Web links

literature

  • CF Adams Jr: The New Departure in the Common Schools of Quincy and Other Papers on Educational Topics. Published by Eates & Lauriat, Boston 1879.
  • Ida Cassa Heffron: Francis Wayland Parker. Publisher I. Deach, Jr., Los Angeles 1934
  • Jack K. Campbell: Col. Francis W. Parker: The children's crusader. Columbia University, Teacher's College Press, 1967.
  • Franklin Parker: Francis W. Parker and education in Chicago. The stormy cvareer of a great educational reformer. Chicago Schools Journal, April, 1961.
  • Franklin Parker: Francis Wayland Parker. 1837-1902. In: Paedagogica Historica, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1961
  • Frank Stuart Parker: Order of Exercises in Elocution. Given at the Cook County Normal School. Verlag Donohue & Henneberry, 5th ed. 1887. New edition: Verlag BiblioBazaar, 2008. ISBN 978-0559869013 as an online book

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Piscataquog
  2. ↑ Franklin Parker: FRANCIS PARKER WAYLAND, 1837-1902. In: Paedagogica Historica. 1, 1961, pp. 120-133, doi : 10.1080 / 0030923610010108 .
  3. ↑ find a grave
  4. ↑ Biography Parker ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / american-education.org
  5. ^ Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts
  6. ^ Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada) Dec 16, 1879
  7. ^ CF Adams Jr: The New Departure in the Common Schools of Quincy and Other Papers on Educational Topics. Published by Eates & Lauriat, Boston 1879
  8. ^ Colonel Parker's Experiments in the Common Schools of Quincy. In: The Elementary School Journal. Vol. 35 No. 7, 1935, page 495
  9. ^ Ida Cassa Heffron: Francis Wayland Parker. Publisher: I. Deach, jr., San Francisco & Los Angeles 1934, p. 26
  10. ^ Nicholas Murray Butler: The Quincy Movement. In: Educational Review. June 1900, page 80 ff
  11. ^ Ann T. Rowland: The Influence of Colonel Francis W. Parker on the Training of Teachers for the Chicago Public Schools
  12. ↑ Parker: Sixth Biennale Report 1892-1893 and 1893-1894 To the Cook County Board of Education pp. 16, 17
  13. ^ Wilbur S. Jackman: Francis Wayland Parker. A retrospect. In: The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study. Vol. 2, No. June 10, 1902. Page 743-751.
  14. ↑ Flora J. Cooke: Nature Myths and Stories for Little Children. ( Memento of the original from February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Published by A. Flanagan, Chicago 1895  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reading-everyday.com
  15. ^ Wilbur S. Jackman: Francis Wayland Parker. A retrospect. In: The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study. Vol. 2, No. June 10, 1902. Page 743-751.
  16. ↑ Cook County Normal School Records ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu
  17. ^ Joseph M. Rice: The Public School System of the United States. Published by The Century Co. New York, 1893, pp. 209-216
  18. ^ Joseph M. Rice: The Public School System of the United States. Publisher: The Century Co. New York, 1893, page 304 ff
  19. ↑ Patricia M. Amburgy: Fads, frills, and Basic Subjects: Special Studies and Social Conflicts in Chicago in 1883. In: Studies in Art Education. Vol. 43, No. 2, winter 2002. pp. 109-123
  20. ^ Ann T. Rowland: The Influence of Colonel Francis W. Parker on the Training of Teachers for the Chicago Public Schools.
  21. ^ Report of the Educational Commission of the city of Chicago. Lakeside press, 1899
  22. ↑ Chicago Institute, Academic and Pedagogic The Course of study: a monthly publication for teachers and parents Volume 1. Editor: Chicago Institute, Academic and Pedagogic, 1900
  23. ^ Chicago Institute, Academic and Pedagogic . Records 1900-1901 in the University of Chicago Library
  24. ^ Ida Cassa Heffron: Francis Wayland Parker. Publisher: I. Deach, Jr., San Francisco & Los Angeles 1934. Page 40
  25. ^ The School of Education. In: The University record. Volume 7, May 1902 Author: University of Chicago. Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1903 - with plans for the new building.
  26. ↑ Frances W. Parker School in Chicago ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fwparker.org
  27. ↑ Advertisements : Parker's "The Elementary School Teacher" and Dewey's "The Elementary School Record"
  28. ↑ Ida DePencier: History of the University of Chicago Laboratory School.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 61 kB) Chapter 1@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ucls.uchicago.edu  
  29. ^ John Dewey: The Significance of The School of Education. In: The Elementary School Teacher. Vol. IV, March 1904, 441-453 (A paper read before the School of Education Parents' Association, Chicago, January 28, 1904)
  30. ↑ Editorial. John Dewey: The University of Chicago School of Education In: The Elementary School Teacher. November 1902, pages 200-202
  31. ^ John Dewey: How Much Freedom in New Schools? In: New Republic, July 1930, pp. 204-205
  32. ^ Find a grave
personal data
SURNAME Parker, Francis Wayland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reform educator in American teacher training
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Bedford , New Hampshire
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1902
Place of death Pass Christian , Mississippi