Teacher education

Narrator:
Swollen by postwar optimism and the baby boom generation's demands for more teachers, college enrollment in 1950 soared to 2,816, up 260% from 5 years earlier. Minnesota needed nearly 1,000 new teachers each year to keep up with demand.

Margaret Virum, retired public school teacher, B.S., 1949:
Here in Burton Hall, Eddy Hall, Pattee, that's where most of our education courses were. There was not a bus, like I think you have a bus now that goes to the farm campus, that area. They had a streetcar. And there were veterans on the campus at that time in '45--the war was just ending. When I started out, I thought, oh, 2-year-olds, they'll be the easiest to work with because they're little and you're big, you know, and you're in charge. But it was the other way around! [laughs] I taught for 49 years. The longer I taught, the more I got to appreciate the philosophy and the background I got here. Of course, the philosophy was the developmental point of view that all kids are not the same. Each kid is different, and he or she progresses at his or her own rate.

Narrator:
In the 1950s, University High School offered student teachers a lab setting to practice their skills.

Bill Gardner, former dean, College of Education and Human Development; B.S., 1950; M.A., 1959; Ph.D., 1961:
I really thought that was a great place—a great place to teach, a great school. Maybe the reason I thought it was such a great school was that I learned so much there.

Narrator:
Literacy education has always been a strength of the college, and it remains so today. One prominent literacy professor on the faculty was Guy Bond.

Deborah Dillon, professor, literacy education:
He’s just a treasure in the field of reading, known as a scholar and as a teacher, but he also had a real love for kids who seemed to struggle. Guy Bond is also known for his leadership with a huge federal project called “the first grade studies.” And one question that was posed was, what does it take to really read well? What program will really help kids learn to succeed and do well? And as simple as it may sound, the bottom line is that kids' reading develops, and develops well, because of excellent, knowledgeable teachers.

Narrator:
From the early part of the last century, the college was known for its work in what is now called “special education.” In the 1950s, Professor Maynard Reynolds led the state and nation.

Stan Deno, professor, special education, Ph.D., 1965:
To establish standards for special education teachers. My heart beats very strong for the University. My mother, Evelyn Deno, was on the faculty originally in the institute of child welfare and worked in the nursery school.

Narrator:
Influenced by the work of his mother, Professor Stan Deno developed curriculum-based measurement, a system for monitoring the growth of students in basic skills.

Stan Deno:
As with medicine, when a child is not feeling well, we take his temperature very frequently. When children are not doing well academically, we try to take their academic temperature using curriculum-based measures.