"Everything to Help, Nothing to Hinder": The Story of the Texas School Journal

Texas SchoolJournal andJournal ofEducation, Volume ?, Number 3, May 1883, published by Texas EducationalJournal Publishing Company. Photograph courtesy ofthe Centerfor American History at the University ofTexas at Austin, DI 03899. "Everything to Help, Nothing to Hinder": The Story ofthe Texas SchoolJournal Mindy Spearman* many early american educational administrators believed that . the majority of teachers practicing during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were ill prepared for classroom instruction. They complained, for example, that teachers exhibited a "lack ofacademic and professional preparation," which insured that they would never improve "past the crude apprenticeship stage." Marching under the banner of progressivism, administrators urged some sort of continuing professional development thatwould target teachers already in service. "The training of teachers is a continuous function," wrote University of Chicago professor William Gray in the early twentieth century. "In-service training must begin at the point where pre-service training ends."1 Orlando Newton (O. N.) Hollingsworth, secretary of the Texas State Board of Education (1876-1882), echoed others' observations that latenineteenth -century teachers were poorly prepared. To remedy this problem, he lobbied the Peabody Education Fund for an appropriation to establish a state normal school and recommended the establishment of summer teacher institutes for the state's teachers already in service. He also created a state educational journal, the TexasJournal ofEducation. Hollingsworth conceived of thejournal as "a general companion and an earnest helper" that would contribute to the professional development of ill-prepared teachers. Indeed, one of thejournal's subscription slogans was "in aiding * Mindy Spearman is an assistant professor at Clemson University, specializing in the historical foundations of education and social studies education. Her previous research has examined teachers' institutes in five southwestern cities during the early-nineteenth and late-twentieth centuries. 1J. Howard Stoutemyer, "The Educational Qualifications and Tenure ofthe Teaching Population ," The SchoolReview, 25, No. 5 (1917), 336 (ist quotation); William S. Gray, "Interrelations ofTraining for Service and In Service," Preparation and Improvement ofTeachers:A Conference Report (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University School of Education, 1932), 52-53 (2nd quotation). Vol. CXI, No. 3 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January, 2008 284Southwestern Hutorical QuarterlyJanuary thejournal, teachers aid themselves."2 Educational periodicals like the TexasJournal ofEducation represent an important form of teacher professional development popular at the turn of the twentieth century. By the start of the twentieth century, most American states and territories had a state educational periodical. As Sheldon Davis, a normal school superintendent, noted in 1919, the development of a state or territorial public school system almost inevitably resulted in the publication ofa state school journal. At first, most state periodicals were designed as a vehicle for carrying official communication from the state board of education to employees. As state journals matured, many began to publish articles intended to inspire thejob performance of school officers and teachers. Indeed, educationaljournals benefited from the late-nineteenth-century "emphasis upon self-reliance and ambition for self-improvement." The nature of thesejournals varied greatly from state to state. Some were small and short-lived, like the sixteen-page Nevada Educational Bulletin. Others, like the Ohiojournal ofEducation, were enduring and extensive. Some were sponsored by state boards ofeducation, some bystate teachers' associations, and others by private organizations.3 In his discussion of early British educationaljournals, sociologist Asher Tropp correctly acknowledged that historical study ofeducational periodicals is hampered by a lack of information. In most cases, determination of circulation and subscription details of such magazines is impossible. Additionally, to find extant copies of the volumes themselves, especially in a complete run, is often very difficult. Paul Mclnerny, an educator with graduate degrees in bothjournalism and educational foundations, is one of the few scholars to have investigated a complete run of an educational periodical, TheEducationalReview. The Review, a nationaljournal founded in 189 1 by NewYork educational reformer Nicolas Murray Buder, printed ten issues yearly for thirty-seven years. As Mclnerny demonstrated, nineteenthand twentieth-century educational periodicals were critically important to the dissemination of ideas concerning educational thought and practice.4 2 O. N. Hollingsworth, TAiHistory ofPublicEducation in Texas and theMaterialResources oftheState:An Address by Hon O. N. Hollingsworth, Secretary ofthe Board ofEducation (Austin: n.d.), 6; Peabody Order ofTrustees, Proceedings ofthe Trustees ofthePeabodyEducationFund: i88i-i88y, Volume2 (Cambridge: JohnWilson and...