John Lawrence Childs was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on January 11, 1889, the second child of John Nelson Childs and Helen Janette (Nettie) Smith. In childhood Childs absorbed the values of industry, democracy, and a traditional, but socially conscious, religion. Childs was a Methodist and an intensely private person not given to talking about…

This brief paper captures only a glimpse of the faceted experiences of Alabama State College Laboratory School's students, teachers, and administrators during a period of dramatic societal changes. It is a response to the call for more scholarship in the history of Black education during this period and for case studies of schools that…

Following World War II, fear rooted in Communist paranoia gripped America. This distress seeped into all aspects of American culture, including education. The American people became increasingly worried that Communist influences would infiltrate the schools and pervert the minds of children. At the forefront of this quagmire was Dr. Earl James…

Schools are public entities that reflect the inequalities of communities; inequalities in race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Public schools privilege males through power in leadership positions such as the principalship. This privilege is historically ingrained in the public school structure and invisible to stakeholders. This article…

In 1964, the Freedom Summer Project brought nearly one thousand volunteers to the South, most of which were northern white students, to facilitate Black voter registration. Allowing northern Whites to take part in the Movement created a tension within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as "two principal concerns were whether they…

As Jesse H. Newlon prepared to speak at Teachers College on July 10, 1940, he apparently did not appreciate the impact his words would make. He had not prepared a complete text of his remarks, as was his habit for important speeches, speaking instead from a three-page outline. His ultimate title, "The Teaching Profession and the World Crisis," was…

Progressive education was pluralistic and often contradictory in its missions, motives, and degrees of success as was progressivism in general. The larger political progressive movement with its genesis in the latter half of the nineteenth century peaked in the Progressive Era at the beginning of the twentieth century. Until Lawrence Cremin's…

The Progressive Education Association (PEA) emphasized the responsibilities of teachers as citizens within a democracy. Teachers could and should create miniature democracies within each of their classrooms, educating boys and girls on the virtues of such a society. Education for a better democracy was a descendant of George S. Counts' stronger…

This brief glimpse into how schools responded to a national tragedy only hints at the magnitude of responses. No school board policy or university program had prepared American educators to respond to events like those of September 11 attack. Teachers and principals simply found themselves confronting a tragic event. Still, they quickly determined…