A Centennial Retrospective
Chicago Normal College
Depression, War, and Uncertainty
The Great Depression of 1929 had an immediate and substantial impact on the Chicago school system. Enrollment at the Normal School, which in 1929 had been fourteen hundred, dropped twenty-five percent by the next year. Financial pressures cut back the size of the faculty, the student body, and the budget allotted for the operation of the Normal School. The faculty roster which had numbered seventy-nine in 1929 was reduced to sixty-five by February 1930. Dr. Butler Laughlin succeeded Owen in 1929. Writing in the Chicago Normalite, he stated that the fourteen teachers dismissed had been substitute members of the faculty. In the same article he claimed with a degree of politique that the teaching staff had not been greatly crippled because of the drop in student enrollment. The student body was in fact to experience a very substantial further decrease in numbers. Student enrollment, which in 1929 had been 1,436, declined by twenty-five percent by September 1930. Faculty continued to vanish during the period, reaching a low of fifty-four in 1932. Student enrollment, however, showed no appreciable change after the initial decline in 1930 and, indeed, increased in the late thirties.
The budget also evidenced a drastic cut. In 1929 it had totaled $401,011.00. The budget for 1932 amounted to $228,055.50, almost a fifty percent reduction in funds for the operation of the school. With the student enrollment falling only about twenty-five percent, this decline in operating revenue clearly reflected substantial economy measures imposed on the Normal School. Eventually, in economy's name, all connections between the Normal School and the high school and elementary school affiliated with it were severed and, indeed, Wilson Junior College took physical possession of most of the facilities in the Arts building.
The financial difficulties of the Chicago public school system were very real. The Chicago Tribune, in an article on December 11, 1931, indicated that the 1932 school budget was to be reduced by $12,054,695. Payless paydays ensued throughout the entire system, and quite naturally the Normal College was viewed as an in area which economy could be effected without undue hardship to the school system as a whole. Throughout 1932 the press was filled with repeated proposals to close the school. L.E. Meyers, President of the Board of Education, was an ardent advocate of temporarily closing the school. In a letter to the Board, he made a strong plea for such action. The letter cites the standard arguments given for pursuing such a course. Meyers wrote:
Before passing the Budget, I desire to ask that the Board members once more give serious consideration to the proposal to suspend operation of the Chicago Normal College for a period of one year. I am informed by the Superintendent's office that there are at the present time over sixteen hundred Chicago Normal School graduates waiting assignment. In addition, there are one hundred and fifty-two students graduating this week from the Chicago Normal College, making a total of 1,752 awaiting assignment. This supply of teachers seems in excess of our requirements for several years to come. Because of the extreme financial emergency existing at this time it would seem reasonable to assume that if the Chicago Normal College were closed for a year the Board of Education would then be in a better position to offer employment to the future graduates of that College at the end of that time. Meanwhile a saving of some $725,000 would be effected.
Meyers did not overstate the case. There were many reasons for the large and increasing numbers of unassigned teachers. Financial pressures led a large number of teachers to delay their time of retirement, and a number of teachers who had retired returned to teaching positions. Coupled with the Board's inability to open new teaching assignments because of the financial crisis, as well as the closing of already existing teaching posts, the decrease in normal turnover led to a considerable increase on the unassigned list. Another factor lessening the availability of teaching positions was that class size was increased in 1932 from an average of thirty-eight to forty-eight students. Closing the College appeared to be so reasonable that its demise could hardly be doubted.
But opposition to such drastic action was strong and naturally emanated from those who had a direct interest in the uninterrupted operation of the institution. A well-organized and systematic campaign was begun to prevent the College's closing. The student body joined by the faculty proceeded by means of petitions and mass meetings to gain popular and political support.
The essence of the arguments against the temporary closing of the College was aptly presented by a student publicity group. The group maintained that nearly one thousand sons and daughters of Chicago citizens and taxpayers would be deprived of the opportunity to complete their education. The savings, they maintained, would be negligible since the building would have to remain open to continue serving the students of Parker Senior High School which shared its facilities. The faculty, as tenured senior employees, would have to be absorbed elsewhere, thus negating any appreciable savings in salaries. The student group drew up a resolution incorporating these arguments and forwarded it to the Mayor and members of the Board of Education, as well as the Alderman of the 17th ward.
The student-faculty campaign to keep the school operating was quite extensive. Feelings ran very high, as evidenced by the statement made by Butler Laughlin who, at a pep rally in the College auditorium, made the statement quoted in the Sou thtown Economist on December 11,1931, that "There is enough explosive energy in the student body at Normal to blow Chicago educationally out of Cook County." The exact meaning of this statement is somewhat enigmatic. As pep-rally oratory it was no doubt effective enough. but as a veiled threat to turn to the State for succour, it conveniently ignored both the fact that the inbred faculty of the College had opposed all such earlier proposals and that the State of Illinois was not itself in a financial position to assume an additional burden.
Undaunted, the student body continued to wage the campaign. In 1932 students organized nationality groups to garner support. The Bohemian group secured the cooperation of a number of large organizations and succeeded in getting an article in the school's favor printed in a Bohemian daily newspaper. A German organization also received support from prominent German citizens and was able to have articles published in two German language newspapers, the A bendpost and the Sonnentagpost. An Italian group visited the Italian Consul and addressed various important Italian clubs. Jewish groups enlisted prominent Jewish citizens in the cause, and Polish groups also approached leading citizens on the College's behalf. Of the hundreds of prominent citizens who were asked to support the College, it is interesting to note that the majority did intetcede in various ways. Clearly the College was a well-known and respected community institution.
The threat to the College's continuing operation existed most strongly during the entire period of 1929-32, but it was to continue at a lesser level well into the 1940s. A renewed need for teachers in the Chicago public school system would be necessary before the possibility of closing the College was eliminated. Such a condition was not realized until the post-World War II period. But in spite of the growing number of Normal graduates placed on the unassigned list, the demand for entrance to the College increased after the mid-thirties. To cope with this increased entrance pressure, the Board proposed to alter the entrance requirements and to establish a stricter admissions policy. The entrance examination had been last altered in 1922, changing it from an examination in all subjects to one covering two optional subjects. The proposal now called for a return to a full examination. In 1922 changes had been made when a teacher shortage existed; now, facing the reverse situation, it was believed that a return to a full examination was justified. Still enrollment rose.
Not only did the number of students admitted to the College increase, but a most interesting sociological phenomenon developed. During the 1930s the College was increasingly a haven for students not interested in teaching careers. Thus the College performed a needed and generally unknown civic service, one that was to lay the basis for a few brief years of academic glory in the late thirties and early forties and provide a base for the abortive attempt to break out of the normal college world and join the national trend toward state-controlled four-year teacher colleges.
The depression years forced many students who otherwisewould, have continued their education at out-of-town schools to look for commuter schooling. Beginning in 1938 Normal was the only tuition-free, four-year degree-granting institution in the city. While it is true that the Chicago Junior Colleges took up most of the depression burden, the role of the Normal College nevertheless was a significant one and is generally overlooked. Particularly among male students, the number who went on to careers in medicine, law, higher education, and industry is significant. Hundreds of successful professionals, today in their fifties and sixties, owe their careers to this fortunate juxtaposition of place and program in the midst of economic crisis. If future radiologists and college professors were forced to suffer through "music methods, grades 1-3" in order to study organic chemistry or Chaucer, perhaps the price was not too great in view of the ultimate rewards. The city neither planned, nor did the Board of Education encourage, such a use of the school—but that such a use was made is readily apparent from looking at Chicago and the nation.
The development sketched above was made easier as a result of the impact of the Strayer report commissioned by the Chicago Board of Education in October 1931 and published some months later. The report was completed by a Columbia University team and constituted a massive survey of the Chicago Public Schools. Only the section of the report dealing with the Normal College need concern us here.
The Strayer report recommended that the College be made the apex of the City school system and be converted into a four-year, degree-granting institution. With both accuracy and understatement the report held that "Chicago views its Normal College as an elementary or high school might be viewed and organizes and operates it accordingly." It recommended that the College be given internal autonomy and a large degree of independence. More immediately it recommended that a president be appointed (replacing the principalship) who would be directly responsible to the Superintendent.
Curricular revision was strongly urged, particularly replacement of the numerous methods courses with professionally treated subject matter courses. Upgrading the staff was called for with a Master of Arts degree to be made minimal for appointment to the faculty. Reduction of class load and the substantial increase of salaries, including the provision for the removal of faculty stipends from their linkage to other units in the school system, were among other recommendations of the report.
Again the issue of a relationship to the State was raised. The report recommended that the City seek State aid. The instructional costs of the five state-controlled teachers colleges, it was suggested, should serve as a basis for computation of cost and provide a formula for aid. The report did not recommend State control "inasmuch as the institution serves the City primarily and can be made to render many services other than the preparation of teachers." While it was theoretically true that the College could serve more extensive purposes, the report's expectation ignored the obvious fact that the Board of Education viewed the College as only a very minor part of its overall respon sibility and one that, if necessary, could be easily sacrificed to the needs of financial expediency. Moreover, the depression year of 1933 was scarcely the year to expect the State to expand its educational Commitment.
Succeeding Butler Laughlin at the helm in September 1936, Dr. Verne 0. Graham brought his pleasant smile and genial disposition to the office of the President at the Normal College. Dr. Graham had made a long climb from his first position as a teacher in Ohio rural schools to his now three-fold duties as President of Chicago Normal College, Dean of Woodrow Wilson Junior College, and Principal of Parker Practice School. His achievements included the chairmanship of the Conservation Council of Chicago and membership in the Chicago Academy of Science. It was rumored among students that he was interested in mushrooms—in fact, he was quite an authority on the subject. During the summers, Dr. Graham conducted extensive biological and horticultural surveys. It was not long before faculty and students alike realized that an eminent scientist was their leader.
Dr. Graham's tenure as President of Chicago Normal College was short, just two years. But under his leadership the school was again reorganized and successfully met the necessity of change by extending its program into a four-year college, granting a degree that would enable graduates to do advanced work at other colleges. The first two years exposed students to general college instruction, while the last two years dealt with professional education and electives.
The Strayer report had not been forgotten, and when, by 1938, the City had weathered the worst of the depression era, the Board of Education under a new President and the school system under a new Superintendent revived many of its proposals. Officially renamed Chicago Teachers College, the school was placed under the administration of President John A. Bartky and began to confer the Bachelor of Education degree. Bartky's administration was creative and dynamic, and, again, the College appeared to be on the verge of, if not a return to the Golden Era of the Parker regime, at least a break-through to real eminence. John Bartky was not, of course, without his critics, both those who opposed his emphasis on the liberal arts, and others who accused him of being too "political" in order to achieve his objectives within the framework of the bureaucracy. The former charge may be dismissed as a matter of educational philosophy with the note that Bartky anticipated the currents of teacher education by a generation; to the latter, if true, one might respond that he operated successfully within a bureaucracy that had frustrated others.
Building around the theme of "teacher participation in the community," the curriculum under Bartky combined an emphasis on philosophic experimentation and new commitment to the liberal arts. The program achieved national prominence. It called for an emphasis on the basic survey courses in the first semester, and in the second semester planned field trips were injected into the course of study. After completing these field trips, students were placed in community organizations in order to observe the sociological characteristics of the areas in which they would eventually teach. Each semester stressed a particular theme, and, where possible, community activities were interspersed with traditional subject matter. Practice teaching was increased one hundred percent in duration to a full twenty-week semester. Finally, the fourth year was devoted entirely to electives, allowing a student to build a major and a minor in designated fields.
Changes also extended to the graduate program, where a Master of Education degree was offered. This degree was indicative of the creativity of Bartky's newly assembled staff. Admission to this program was generally restricted to liberal arts graduates selected for training to teach in the metropolitan area. The substance of the program is reflected by the fact that it required full-time participation for 1 1/2 years. Most importantly, these curricular changes were devised by the faculty and not imposed by the Board of Education.
Under Bartky the faculty experienced a sweeping upgrading. In a three-year period the size of the teaching staff grew well over fifty percent and the number of instructors with the doctorate increased from five to fifty-three. Such a revolution in the character of the school was accompanied by a radical improvement in the quality of the student body.
President Bartky received a degree of cooperation from the Board of Education that none of his predecessors had enjoyed. He and his youthful faculty used their freedom effectively, and, by 1940, only two years after it had become a degree-granting institution, the College received full accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. There can be little doubt that his vision of the College's future was an ambitious one—one that could well have transformed the school into a multi-purpose institution serving the broad needs of the entire community. In view of its traditional conservatism, whether the Board of Education would have pursued such a policy is dubious; whether the priorities established by the realities of Chicago's machine politics would have permitted such an exciting venture to materialize is even more questionable. It is sufficient to note that under Bartky a moment of possibility existed.
The ultimate accomplishment of a Bartky tenure can never be known, for, in the midst of this institutional transformation, the United States entered World War II. Unlike 1917, the school had a very large male enrollment, and, by late 1942, male students and faculty members had entered the armed forces in substantial numbers. By 1943 men had almost disappeared from the campus; most of the twelve men who entered that year were drafted by Christmas. An early loss to the war effort was President Bartky himself who entered the Navy in 1942 as a Lieutenant Commander.
With Bartky's strong presence removed, the Board of Education proceeded almost immediately to a mutilation of the 1938 curriculum. Ignoring faculty protests and prerogatives, firing the most vocal opposition, and dismissing many of Bartky's innovative appointees, the Board and the General Superintendent imposed, by fiat, a methods-oriented curriculum leaving the student but fifteen hours of free electives. The new course of study emphasized techniques and skills and almost totally renounced the liberal arts.
Under Acting President James I. Swearingen, the College managed to survive the reduced enrollments of the war years. Gone, however, were the student vitality and the faculty dynamism of the pre-war period. But these were not tranquil years either. For decades,
James I. Swearingen
charges of political favoritism within the school system had been common. These charges ranged from rigging of the principal's examination to nepotism and the fixing of entrance examinations at the Teachers College. Since from the 1930s, graduation from, or at least graduate attendance at the College, was a requirement for certification, this latter charge was a most serious one.
Responding to a rising demand from civic organizations and the press, a report by a committee of the National Education Association on the Chicago public school system was published in October 1945 entitled A Report on Certain Personnel Practices in the Chicago Public Schools. It outlined in detail undemocratic policies of the Chicago Board of Education in hiring, firing, promoting, and transferring its teachers. The report implied that politics and education were inextricably intertwined in Chicago.
The furor mounted in 1946 with the direct possibility of the loss of accreditation by all the city's schools, including the Teachers College. In the face of unprecedented civic outcry, political realism dictated a reform of the educational system. The Board of Education was reorganized; a new General Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Harold C. Hunt of Kansas City, was appointed. Reorganization of the Chicago Teachers College followed. Bartky had chosen not to return to the College after the war and resigned on August 31, 1945. Swearingen remained Acting President until February 1948. He served these 2'n years without a clear mandate, as the Board sought to withstand the rising demand for reform. It is a tribute to this unassuming man that he performed with distinction the difficult feat of providing reassuring leadership to the faculty and the student body, both naturally apprehensive about their academic future.
Indeed, the College's academic future was more than clouded since the institution did not benefit from the surge of post-war enrollments. Although providing higher education for the returning veterans was a burden, it did force other schools into curricular and physical expansion which ultimately transformed their character. Veterans who had had their education interrupted did return to Chicago Teachers College, but most veterans armed with the G.I. Bill of Rights went elsewhere. They now could choose widely and were not under the pressure of the pre-war student to choose Chicago Teachers College because of financial reasons. Without a boom in student enrollment, the Board of Education could and did continue to rely upon the same physical plant and essentially the same curriculum. To the College, the loss of the calibre of students who had enrolled in the Bartky years was irreparable.
