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LD3907 ■ * W n I
.E3 Thomas, Ida Belle (Wilson) 1890-
1943 The life and work of Sarah Elizabeth.
.T4 Richmond, a pioneer Iiaryland educator...
Hew York, 1942.
164 typewritten leaves, front.(port.)
29 cm.
final document (Ed.D.) - hew York
university, School of education, 1943.
Bibliography: p .134-150.
A97557
SPsil list !
Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED.
Sarah E. Richmond
Principal, 1909-1917
y u -
$
m u i jM3
Accepted. Date— — —-----
THE LIES AND WOBK OF SARAH ELIZABETH RICHMOND
JL Pioneer Maryland Edueator
Ida Belle Wilson Thomas
Submitted in partial fulfillm ent of the
requirements for the degree of Dootor of
Education in the Sohool of Eduoation of
Hew York university
1942
PLEASE NOTE:
Some pages may have
indistinct print.
Filmed as received.
University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company
INTRODUCTION
This document, a study of the life and work of a pioneer
Maryland educator, is designed to be used especially as reference
reading in the field of teaoher-eduoation in Maryland, It is not
primarily cm intellectual contribution to the history of eduoation,
but an attempt to show that other side of teaohing, the contri
bution which is made by personality and character.
Sarah Elisabeth Richmond (1843-1921) is well known
throughout the State of Maryland as one of the early pioneers in
the field of teaoher education. Her long life of teaohing servioe
was spent almost entirely in one institution, the present State
Teachers College in Towison, Maryland; hence the history of that
school is also in a large measure a history of Miss Richmond. She
herself was no w riter; she published no books, wrote very few
artioles, was not even a prolific letter-w riter, Her official
reports as vice-principal, prinoipal, and dean of the Maryland
State Normal School were merely oonoise accounts of school pro
gress, but her carefully w ritten minutes of the Alumni Association,
the meetings of the Maryland state Teachers Association, and of the
oonduot of various teachers institutes give evidence of the range
of her activities in the teaciher-eduoation field.
In the fifty-five years (1866-1921) in whioh Miss
Riohmond was connected with the Maryland state Normal School more
than five thousand students went out to f ill teaohing and adminis
trative positions. Her unique contribution to their work was made
largely in the field of personality and foroe of oharaoter. In a
A 9 75 57
day when teaohing was poorly paid and teachers were even more
poorly trained. Miss Richmond m s a great inspiration. It was
her custom to give brief talks in assembly, at olass gatherings,
and alumni convocations, thus coming into oontaot with all students
in the sohool, and many of the teaohers in service. Many former
students have mentioned Miss Richmond's talks as positive faotors
in their moral and professional development. She continually
emphasised the importance of teaohing and the dignity of the teaoh
ing profession. She deprecated the idea of oommeroialising the job,
regarding it more as a call to service. This sense of "mission?
made a great appeal to the more serious-minded young people of a
previous generation, thus Miss Richmond is inseparably connected
with the growth of the teaohing profession in Maryland.
The soope of this document is limited to an investigation
of the life and work of Miss Richmond. Her duties as teacher, her
ideas oonoeming methods and the curriculum, her thoughts on "good
morals" as related to the teaohing profession, her sense of the
value of teacher-training; all these are necessarily seen against
the background of her own times, her own state, and the history of
her own sohool. An attempt has been made not to encroach upon the
fields of related researoh studies.
m collecting the materials for this study particular
attention has been paid to the various historical theses and sur
veys of Maryland education and to state educational lawB and
official reports. A* to other souroes, personal letters and reoords
of the sohool have been carefully examined. Members of Miss
Richmond's last faculty have been interviewed and letters have been
received from her family and friends. The investigator knew Miss
Riohmond as teadher and alumni oounselor, over a period of fifteen
years. A questionnaire was sent to many former students of the
Maryland State Normal Sohool, and their replies have been checked
against eaoh other for oonsistenoy. A sinoere attempt has been
made to support all generalisations by speoifio comments from those
who were well acquainted with the life and work of Miss Riohmond.
This study was first begun several years age at a time
when there was no printed history of normal sohool eduoation in
Maryland. Just recently however, three valuable studies have been
completed: "The Historical Development of State Normal Sohoola for
White Teachers in Maryland" by Mary Clough Cain, Ph.D.—1941,
"Seventy-five years of Teaoher Eduoation," Alumni Association State
Teachers College, Towson, Maryland, 1941 and "The 1941 Survey of
the Maryland Public Schools and Teaohers Colleges," Herbert Bruner,
William C. Bagley and others.
These books furnish much organized material on eduoation
itse lf, but surprisingly litfcle on the eduoators.
This brief researoh is an attempt to dwell upon an
educator* It hopes to show the professional values that may be
drawn from the observation and study of a devoted teaoher at work.
In a day when soientifio measurement of student achievement was
unknown, personal relationships between teaoher and pupil took the
place of more mechanical and possibly more aoourate evaluation.
This study makes an attempt to note those relationships and to
indicate their professional values.
Many persons have helped in collecting the material used
herein, but the study would have been impossible without the
motive aid and oonstant encouragement of Miss Lena 0* Van Bibber,
head of the Department of History of State Teaohers College at
Towson and editor of Seventy-Years of Teacher Eduoation. Miss
Tan Bibber was a member of Miss Richmond's last faculty and her
«
careful reading of this manusoript has contributed greatly to
the aoouraoy of the document. The investigator also wishes to
thank Miss Mary Hudson Scarborough, Mias Richmond's teaohing
oolleague and intimate friend, for her valuable comments} Dr.
M. Theresa Wiedefeld,. President of State Teaohers College at
Towson, for her great kindness in providing aooess to a ll of the
historical files; Miss Kate Ricker for the loan of valuable souroe
material, and all of Miss Richmond's former students who so kindly
answered letters and questionnaires.
Muoh constructive oritioism has been given by the
members of the sponsoring committee - Professors Addlph E. Meyer,
Herman H. Horne and Alonso Myers, and this assistance is
acknowledged with deep gratitude.
THE LIFE AND YIORK OF SABAH ELIZABETH RICHMOND
