Tag Archives: Vocational Education Teachers

Nancy Cook: Vocational Ed teacher, suffragist, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt

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Vocational education teacher, suffragist, and Chalkboard Champion Nancy Cook, at right, with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at left. Photo credit: George Washington University

Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.

Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.

After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.

During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.

Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.

Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.

When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.

Nancy Cook, Chalkboard Champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.

Turn-of-the-century farm schools taught vocational skills

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Boys work the farm at the Lyman School for Boys in Massachusetts. In 1890, 190 boys lived at the school. Photo credit: Westborough Public Library

When we think of schools today, I think most of envision the standard classroom with one teacher and 30 or so students, a chalkboard or white board, students desks, a bulletin board, playground, and so on. But while I was conducting research for my first book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about various types of schools that I had never heard about in my 36 years as a teacher. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, specialist schools—just to name a few. In our nation’s past there were many types of schools that didn’t look like the picture of a standard classroom. One type of school I learned about that I found particularly intriguing is the farm school.

A farm school was a boarding school which primarily served teen-aged boys. These schools were most often established by missions or charitable organizations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The purpose of the farm school was to care for orphans and homeless youth, while simultaneously giving these youngsters the opportunity to learn a marketable skill which would enable them to find employment on farms in the Midwest or the South.

The farm school provided housing, food, and medical care. In addition to room and board, the school offered training in agricultural skills, and in fundamental literacy skills in such subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics.

Today, a farm school offers outdoors programs that teach learners to appreciate the importance of farm-to-table practices, healthier eating habits, preparation of our natural environment, and becoming active agents of change in their communities.

Texas teacher Jeff Wilson lost in catastrophic Texas floods

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Teachers at Kingwood Park High School are mourning the loss of Jeff Wilson, a Career Technology educator who perished in the catastrophic floods that hit Kerrville, Texas, on July 4. Photo credit: KHOU-11

The community of professional educators in the Humble County, Northeast Houston in Texas, is mourning the loss one of their own. Jeff Wilson, a teacher at Kingwood Park High School and his wife, Amber, and son, Shiloh, perished in the catastrophic floods that hit Kerrville, Texas, in the early morning hours of July 4.

In a career that spanned 30 years, Jeff taught Career Technology at both Kingwood Park High School. He instructed courses in collision repair and auto body refinishing. He also taught at Humble High School in the same school district.

In addition to his work at the high school, Jeff also spent 14 years as an instructor for I-Car, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Repair. He once said I-CAR courses are valuable to his students because of the knowledge and skills they provide, which makes his students more employable. I-CAR has reported that over the years, 98% of Jeff’s students achieved Platinum ProLevel 1 status.

Family friend Johnny Dudley remembers the popular teacher with fondness. “Jeff has been my friend for over 25 years. We went to a bunch of the same rodeos back when he was riding,” he recalls. “Now his 12-year-old son Shiloh is riding and Jeff loves nothing more than to haul him to junior rodeos. We know that they were in Kerrville for a rodeo.” Dudley continues. In his day, says Dudley, Jeff rode steers, bulls, and saddle bronc horses. He was forced to give up the activity in 2004 because of injuries he sustained from a motorcycle accident.

The Humble Independent School District (ISD) encompasses the city of Humble, parts of Houston (including Kingwood), and portions of unincorporated Harris County (including Atascocita and Fall Creek), with a small section extending into Montgomery County.

Jeff and his family will be greatly missed, say all who knew him.

Julian McPhee: High school vocational education teacher and veteran

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Julian McPhee

Julian McPhee, the high school vocational education teacher who became president of Cal Poly universities Photo credit: Cal Poly University

There are many stories of talented high school teachers who work their way up into positions in universities. This is true of Julian McPhee, a high school vocational education teacher who eventually became the president of the California Polytechnic University system.

Julian was born in San Francisco on February 7, 1896. His parents were immigrants from Canada. After his graduation from high school, Julian enrolled at University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. While still working on his undergraduate degree, Julian inaugurated his career as an educator by teaching a course in agricultural education at Pomona High School in Pomona, a suburb of Los Angeles.

During the waning months of World War I, Julian enlisted in the US Navy, where he served as an ensign. While in the service, he worked as an instructor at the naval port guard and as an aide in Naval Intelligence. In 1918, at the conclusion of the Great War, Julian was given an honorable discharge.

After the war, Julian returned to the San Francisco area, where he accepted a position as a teacher of agriculture at Gilroy High School in Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California. During his many years as a high school educator, Julian strongly emphasized vocational education, particularly in the fields of agriculture. An advocate of hands-on learning, he formed clubs for agriculture and mechanics in each one of Gilroy’s public schools.

In 1928, Julian completed the requirements for his Master’s degree in Agricultural Education through the University of California at Los Angeles. Between 1926 and 1944, he worked as the chief of the State Bureau of Agricultural Education. In this capacity, he formed the California state headquarters of Future Farmers of America.

In 1933, Julian was selected president of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. There he converted the struggling school from a two-year technical school to a full-fledged four-year university in the CSU system.

When World War II broke out, Julian served as the director of California’s War Food Production Training Program. Later he served as acting chief of the Bureau of Readjustment Education, the Assistant Executive Officer of the State Board of Vocational Education, and the director of Vocational Education for the State of California. He also oversaw the founding of newly-built Cal Poly Pomona.

By 1966, Julian could claim 33 years as the president of the Cal Poly system. But because of deteriorating health, he decided to retire. Sadly, this amazing educator passed away of colon cancer on November 10, 1967. He was 71 years old.

Emily Griffith: Founder of Denver’s Opportunity School

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Emily Griffith

Emily Griffith, teacher and founder of Denver’s Opportunity School, often wore hats created by students in the school’s millinery classes. Photo credit: Denver Public Library

There aren’t many educators who are so revered their portrait hangs in a state capitol building, but one who does is teacher Emily Griffith of Colorado.

Emily was born on February 10, 1868, near Cincinnatti, Hamilton County, Ohio. Even at a young age, Emily knew she wanted to be a teacher. However, because her father often changed professions and frequently moved the family from state to state, and because she was expected to go to work at a young age to help support the family, Emily didn’t have much opportunity to earn a formal education.

Nevertheless, in spite of her youth, lack of formal education, and inexperience, Emily managed to convince the school board at Broken Bow, Oklahoma, she was capable enough to teach. The teenager began her teaching career in the sod schoolhouse she had briefly attended herself. How long she taught there is not known for certain, but it is estimated to be between eight and eleven years.

In 1895, Emily moved with her parents to Denver, Colorado. There she accepted a position as a long-term substitute sixth grade teacher at Central School. The following year she secured a full-time position. The students that attended Central School came from impoverished immigrants from many countries, and Emily could see that her kids’ parents needed help to learn math and how to read and write in English. Emily reasoned that it was just as important to offer educational opportunities to adults as it was to offer them to children.

In 1904, Emily was appointed the Assistant State Superintendent of the Colorado Education Department, a position she held for four years. When her term expired, the veteran teacher served a two-year stint as an eighth grade teacher at the Twenty-Fourth Street School in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. In 1910, she garnered the position of Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, where she served another four-year term. After the end of this appointment, Emily once again taught at the Twenty-Fourth Street School, and before long, she became the school’s principal.

In 1916, Emily inaugurated a radical progressive experiment, a nontraditional school open from early morning until midnight, available to “All Who Wish to Learn,” including adults and working youngsters. The school offered courses the students deemed useful, such as English as a second language, American citizenship, mathematics, millinery, auto repair, cooking, carpentry, sewing, needlework, typewriting, and telegraphy. Instruction was individualized, and students could attend free of charge. When Emily became aware that some of her younger students had no time or money to eat, she organized free soup to be served. After 17 years, Emily retired from her work at the Opportunity School in 1933, but her years of service were not over. For the next 12 years, she served on the State Board of Vocational Education.

After Emily completed her public service, she and her sister, Florence, retired to a rustic cabin located in Pinecliffe, Boulder County, Colorado. Sadly, on June 18, 1947, the two sisters were found murdered in their home. Authorities have never been able to prove with certainty who the murderer was.

For her tireless work in public schools, Emily garnered many honors, both during her lifetime and after. In 1911, she was recognized with a diploma and two Bachelor’s of Pedagogy degrees from the Colorado State Normal School and Teachers College in Greeley, Colorado, an institution now known as University of Northern Colorado. In 1976, a stained glass portrait of Emily was dedicated in the Colorado State Capitol. In 1985, Emily was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2000 she was recognized with the Mayor Wellington Webb Millennium Award for Denver’s Most Useful Citizen.

Emily Griffith: A true Chalkboard Champion.