Teacher Development and Teacher Training

“The teachers made a point of drawing the best from the students—
getting the best of academics but also manners and morals.
The school taught morals in their own unique way. In the
various courses, teachers would act like parents. They did more
than teach academics.” Sedonia C. Johnson

The Secondary School Study was establishing new roles for educational administrators and leaders. Democratic ideals served to define the experimental efforts of schools. The principal provided direction and instilled confidence while also fostering flexibility and extending authority among the staff. Articulating and achieving such a balance of strong leadership with diffused authority proved difficult but was clearly a goal for the Demonstration School staff as teachers accepted administrative tasks and administrators continued to conceive of themselves as teachers. In fact, Southern University President F. G. Clark describes the experiment in democratic administration when Principal Gray left the school in 1942.

“Shortly before Mr. Gray left us, the Demonstration School faculty came to this office and presented to me a number of matters to which my attention should be directed. . . .  I said to them, ‘you are going to have an opportunity to really show how interested you are in meeting these issues for we are not having a principal for the remainder of the year. We are going to let the faculty of the Demonstration School operate the school.’

The next day, Dean Cade and I went to the Demonstration School and met with the whole faculty, allowing them to suggest the type of administrative organization that they would like to have. After a long period of free discussion I suggested that we use parliamentary procedure in order to become definite. The result of such procedure is the decision that the entire faculty of the Demonstration School will establish all of the policies for the institution. . . .  It is difficult to imagine a more democratically chosen and functioning group.”
March 11 correspondence from President F. G. Clark, President of Southern University, to W. A. Robinson, Director of the Secondary School Study.

Principal A. Almira Boley (1890-1968)
Boley served as principal of the Demonstration School from 1942-1958. Southern University named a residence hall in her honor.

 
“When we went to Southern High, we had such a sense of pride. In fact, we were taught to act as if we were representing the entire school. Mrs. Boley instilled in us the belief that we were supposed to act with dignity and thoughtfulness. We were not necessarily scared of her . . . . but we were 'particular.' We were careful and made certain that we acted properly when she was nearby.” Sedonia C. Johnson

“Great teachers made the difference in our lives. Think about the homework, the assignments, the chastisement, the punishment, the hard work which we all endured—and we now thank our teachers for every moment of it. Oh, I can hear Ms. Almira Boley telling me, Huel—the word is going, not 'goin.' It ends with a 'g.' We know that they were concerned with us as persons but also regarded us as their children. They only wanted the very best for those of us who attended the Lab School.”
Huel D. Perkins

“Mrs. Banks demanded much but we were never afraid of her. I will never forget the way she expected us to fold our pages and submit our work. Detail was important and I have remembered that throughout my life.”
Gloria Murray Handy

Julia Bradford Moore

“The professors at Southern and the teachers at Southern High were quite innovative. They came up with the rural school teaching training concept where they placed selected students from grades 1-7 together in a laboratory setting and used this one room classroom as a site for helping education majors to get an opportunity to have hands-on experiences. Miss Manning was the principal, and the participants would teach all of the grades during their training. It was modeled after the one room Rosenwald Schools throughout the state.”
Julia Bradford Moore

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