Then and Now
Teacher Education
David Baxter
Many former elementary pupils who attended Concord Training School will remember Mrs. Virginia Sizemore as their Fourth Grade teacher, and so it is perhaps fitting that we are again instructed by her words, this time concerning the role of the school in teacher education. In her thesis The History of Concord College by Virginia L. Sizemore, "A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Education of Marshall College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, Marshall College, 1950," she wrote:
The State Board of Control executed a long lease of the old (Concord Normal) school site to the Board of Education of Plymouth District, on which that Board was to erect a public school building. Under the terms of the lease, the school was to be used as a training school for Normal School students and furnish them full opportunity to obtain all such work required. The district built a modern eight-room building.
In 1914 the Training School had an enrollment of 145 pupils, representing the eight grades. It was maintained for practice and observation of the pupils in training. All but ten of the training school pupils were from the town of Athens. They paid the regular Normal School enrollment fee of $6.00 per year.
Accordingly, the 1923 – 24 Concord State Normal School catalog carried the following additional description of the training school:
Arrangements have been made with the Board of Education of Plymouth district, and with the State Board of Education, whereby the Graded and Junior High School of Athens is to open to Normal School seniors for observation and practice teaching. The school is maintained jointly by the State and local district. It is actually a public school composed of pupils under the usual conditions, and with the usual problems to be found in public schools, and the experience gained there is of direct value to the student for the preparation of future work.
The aim of the Training School is not to be different from the public school, but to be like the best of them. The student teacher then is gaining the working knowledge of public school conditions that is essential to make his vocation a success.
The Concord Training School provided an opportunity for the senior college students who majored in Education to practice their future role as teachers. During our years they were called "student teachers" or "practicing teachers."