Giving “Reality to the Dim Vision of a Life of Freedom:” A Reassessment of the Impact of the Oswego State Normal School

ABSTRACT

Drawing from the Sheldon and Manktelow collections at SUNY Oswego’s Penfield Library, along with sociological criteria for a profession – graduate-level training, autonomy, peer evaluation and responsibility to the public – this article reassesses Oswego State Normal School’s impact on nineteenth-century teacher education. Descriptions of Oswego identify the school as an active site of object teaching and Pestalozzianism in the US. Yet, as this analysis reveals, Edward Austin Sheldon and Oswego’s faculty oversaw the development of practices and innovations that were designed to enhance teacher autonomy and to involve teachers in their own learning and evaluation. With Oswego’s reputation for innovation spreading, Sheldon took responsibility to describe and defend the teacher preparation work conducted at Oswego. This article argues that Oswego should be remembered not just for the promotion of object teaching and Pestalozzian principles, but also for its efforts to leverage such practices and principles to cultivate a stronger teaching profession.

KEYWORDS:

• Normal schools
• Oswego Movement
• teacher preparation
• teacher professionalism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Pope, History of the First Half Century, preface.

2. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 146; Ogren, The American State Normal School, 36–7.

3. Funnelle, “Amanda Parker Funnelle,” 67–8.

4. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 10; Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 54–6.

5. Fraser, Preparing America’s Teachers, 46.

6. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 12–13.

7. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 57–8.

8. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 28.

9. Fraser, Preparing America’s Teachers, 132.

10. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 145–7; for an example of discussions of practice teaching, see Parker, “Francis W. Parker to Edward Austin Sheldon,” April 13, 1895, Box 1, Folder 68, Edward Austin Sheldon Collection, Penfield Library Special Collections, State University of New York, Oswego.

11. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201.

12. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 84.

13. Ibid., 6.

14. Lathrop, “Underdeveloped and Undirected Power,” 333.

15. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 171.

16. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201.

17. Ogren, “A Large Measure of Self-Control,” 214–5. Ogren cites Oswego as an early effort to innovative by using “concrete items rather than textbooks” for instruction of normalites. However, she asserts that Oswego’s “‘object’ method” was “not well articulated at first and subject to ridicule.”

18. Fraser, Preparing America’s Teachers, 132–3.

19. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201–2; Ogren, “A Large Measure of Self-Control,” 223–6; Ogren, “Where Coeds Were Coeducated,” 2.

20. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 36; Ogren, “Where Coeds Were Coeducated,” 2.

21. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201.

22. Ogren, “History and Historiography of Teacher Preparation,” 413; Gordy, Rise and Growth, 122; Rogers, Oswego: Fountainhead of Teacher Education, 20–2.

23. Dearborn, Oswego Movement, 20–2.

24. Ogren, “History and Historiography of Teacher Preparation,” 413.

25. Gordy, Rise and Growth, 122; Dearborn, Oswego Movement, 20–2; Myers, “American Pestalozzianism Revisited,” 86.

26. Kiehl, “Reminiscent Sketch: Dr. David L. Kiehle,” 216–7.

27. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 99–102.

28. Ibid., 23.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid., 47, 61; Piez, “Edward Austin Sheldon,” 211–2.

31. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 74–84.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid., 79.

34. Ibid., 89–94.

35. Aber, “The Oswego State Normal School,” 51–2.

36. Krüsi, “History of the Normal School,” 42; Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 175.

37. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 146.

38. Ibid., 116.

39. Aber, “The Oswego State Normal School,” 52.

40. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 117.

41. Ibid., 124.

42. Ibid., 117.

43. Pestalozzi, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, 114.

44. Ibid., 200. This note references one of the appendences, specifically “The Method, A Report by Pestalozzi.”

45. Carter, Object Lessons, 17.

46. Dearborn, Oswego Movement, 129.

47. Skinner, “Life and Character of Dr. Sheldon,” 240.

48. Ibid., 13.

49. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 191.

50. Ibid., 98–100.

51. Lathrop, “Underdeveloped and Undirected Power,” 334.

52. Ibid., 336–8.

53. Ibid., 333.

54. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 134.

55. Ibid.

56. Aber, “The Oswego State Normal School,” 53.

57. Ibid.

58. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 134; Dearborn, Oswego Movement, 13.

59. Jones, “A Brief Account,” 7.

60. Coughlan, “Margaret E. M. Jones,” 132; Gordy, Rise and Growth, 66.

61. Jones, “A Brief Account,” 3 (emphasis in original).

62. Rogers, Oswego: Fountainhead of Teacher Education, 20.

63. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 86–137.

64. Rogers, Oswego: Fountainhead of Teacher Education, 20.

65. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 146.

66. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 7.

67. Krüsi, “History of the Normal School,” 45.

68. Rogers, Oswego: Fountainhead of Teacher Education, 20.

69. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 7–8 (emphasis in original).

70. Pestalozzi, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, xxviii.

71. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 8.

72. Lathrop, “Undeveloped and Undirected Power,” 337.

73. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 133.

74. Lathrop, “Undeveloped and Undirected Power,” 337.

75. Jones, “A Brief Account,” 7.

76. Ibid.

77. Greene, Report on Object Teaching, 29.

78. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 26–7; Sheldon, “Sketch of an Object Lesson,” 322.

79. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 24.

80. Ibid., 24–5.

81. Ibid.

82. Ibid., 8.

83. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 158.

84. Funnelle, “Amanda Parker Funnelle,” 67–8.

85. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 7–8 (emphasis in original).

86. Funnelle, “Amanda Parker Funnelle,” 69.

87. Walter, “Sarah J. Walter,” 191.

88. Manktelow, “Manktelow to Her Family,” October 23, 1891.

89. Ibid., November 24, 1892.

90. Ibid., October 23, 1891.

91. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 178; “Circular of the State Normal,” 27.

92. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 40.

93. Pope, History of the First Half Century, 213–344.

94. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 178; “Circular of the State Normal,” 27.

95. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 178.

96. Pope, History of the First Half Century, 213–344.

97. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 7.

98. Sheldon, “Sketch of an Object Lesson,” 325.

99. Ibid.

100. Greene, Report on Object Teaching, 29.

101. Ruggles, Historical Sketch and Notes, 40.

102. Ibid., 49.

103. Mead, “Reminiscent Sketch,” 213.

104. McManis, Ella Flagg Young, 42.

105. Wilbur, “Object System of Instruction,” 445–6.

106. Dearborn, Oswego Movement, 170–5.

107. Sheldon, Manual of Elementary Instruction, 8.

108. Sheldon, “Discussion of the Use and Abuse,” 902, 905.

109. Harris, “William Torrey Harris to Edward Austin Sheldon, December 24, 1892.”

110. Harris, “William Torrey Harris to Edward Austin Sheldon, May 4, 1893.”

111. Parker, “Francis W. Parker to Edward Austin Sheldon”; Cook, “John W. Cook to Edward Austin Sheldon.”

112. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 187.

113. Lathrop, “Underdeveloped and Undirected Power,” 334.

114. Ibid.

115. Tyack and Hansot, Managers of Virtue, 96–7.

116. Lathrop, “Undeveloped and Undirected Power,” 336–8.

117. Funnelle, “Amanda Parker Funnelle,” 67–9.

118. Curry, “Mrs. Sarah E. Curry, ’73,” 140.

119. Herrig, “Honor to Whom Honor is Due,” 178–80.

120. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 40, 65.

121. Hollis, Contributions of the Oswego Normal School, 47.

122. Massachusetts State Normal School at Worcester, 24; Ogren, The American State Normal School, 141.

123. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 139; Matthis, “A Leaf from Our Class History,” 98.

124. Farnham, ‘Our Normal School,” 60–1.

125. Ogren, “History and Historiography of Teacher Preparation,” 413; Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 146; Greene, Report on Object Teaching, 29; Wilbur, “Object System of Instruction,” 445–6.

126. Fraser, Preparing America’s Teachers, 60.

127. Sheldon, Autobiography of Edward Austin Sheldon, 178.

128. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201.

129. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 197.

130. Theobald and Mills, “Accountability and the Struggle over What Counts,” 462–6.

131. Cooke, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, xxviii; Ogren, “A Large Measure of Self-Control,” 214.

132. Theobald and Mills, “Accountability and the Struggle over What Counts,” 462.

133. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 99–100.

134. Ogren, The American State Normal School, 201.

135. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 140, 188.

136. Ibid., 8.

137. Tyack and Hansot, Managers of Virtue, 97–8.

138. Ibid., 96–7.

139. Lathrop, “Underdeveloped and Undirected Power,” 333.

140. Herbst, And Sadly Teach, 191.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William J. Davis

William J. Davis is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Southern Utah University. His current research focuses on the professional development of in-service and preservice teachers, particularly teachers in dual language education settings