Maintaining Great Heights
in Teacher Education
by Karla Pennington ’00
rom powerful technological
forces to new state requirements,
the Siena Heights teacher education program has seen numerous
adjustments over its 80 year history. Yet,
much remains the same. Still the largest
academic program at Siena Heights, with
160 students seeking teacher certification
in 1998-99, today’s teacher education
program continues the major purpose for
which Siena Heights was founded: training teachers for the future.
In 1919, Siena Heights was founded (as
St. Joseph College) by Mother Camilla
Madden and the Adrian Dominican Sisters to train women as teachers. At the
time, new certification demands were
forcing teachers to gain the formal preparation that a liberal arts college could
provide. Both laywomen and Catholic
sisters, many of whom already were
teaching at area schools, attended the new
college. In the summer of 1922, 56 Adrian Dominican Sisters—the first graduates
of St. Joseph College—received teaching
certificates from Michigan. While some
graduates went on to teach at public
schools, most became educators at Catholic elementary and secondary schools.
The new college faced turmoil throughout
the 1920s. An amendment ordering children ages 5-16 to attend public schools
was placed before the voters. If passed,
the amendment would have closed
parochial schools. Mother Camilla and
other Catholic leaders adamantly opposed
the amendment, and the proposal was
strongly defeated at the polls. Catholic
schools flourished.
Siena Heights prospered as a college
educating teachers. As it is today at Siena
Heights, teacher education was offered
then not as a major but as a program.
Students majored in philosophy, English, Latin, history, biology, chemistry,
mathematics, French, or music. They also
took courses in teaching the basic subjects— arithmetic, reading, social studies,
spelling—along with general courses on
the psychology, philosophy and history of
education.
For Anna Bakeman Tompert ’38, who
taught English for 20 years before
becoming a children’s literature writer,
the education courses reinforced what
she already knew. “Teachers need to be
knowledgeable and positive in their approaches to the classroom,” Tompert said.
“I learned to be a good actress, so I could
hold my audience’s, the students’, attention. The approach to teaching I learned
is basically the same as what is taught
today: theme teaching, having themes that
tie together all subjects. It’s the same approach with different people and different
names.”
Even in the early years, student teaching and observation requirements were
completed at nearby St. Joseph Academy
or other area schools. Siena Heights
trained both elementary and secondary
school teachers and focused on handling
school and classroom problems. Both the
learning and developmental aspects of
teaching were explored while the women
cultivated their own characters and personalities.
“I learned a lot from my practice teaching
at the Adrian schools,” said Mary Duggan
Cassabon ‘48, who taught kindergarten
and nursery school students for many
Teaching
Excellence
7
The Ultimate “Practice”
Student teaching is a crucial step in preparing for
life in the classroom. The state-required,
10-credit-hour “course” involves 14 weeks of
full-time teaching. Four to six weeks of that time
are spent completely in charge of the classroom,
often without the “real” teacher present.
Student teachers don’t rush in and take over the
classroom, though. They make a gradual adjustment to full-time teaching until they are prepared
to meet the
expectations of
regular faculty
members.
“As