D. Webster Davis, Educational Leadership,
and the Secondary School Study

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, and the careers of the Colsons—a sister and brother who were members of what could be considered the "first" family of Virginia State College—served as an important and interesting dynamic in school and higher education administration. Further, the close "family" relationship between school and college, principal and director may well explain one dimension of D. Webster Davis and Virginia State College's leadership in the Secondary School Study, a site that served to host many project meetings.

Cortlandt Matthew Colson served as principal of D. Webster Davis Laboratory School, working closely with his sister, Edna Meade Colson, who served as the director of the Department of Education. E. M. Colson completed her doctorate at Teachers College (Columbia University), and C. M. Colson completed his doctorate at Ohio State University (where other Secondary School Study leaders were enrolled in doctoral studies). Both were directly involved in progressive education tradition and, clearly, provided leadership for the Secondary School Study.

Edna Meade Colson

“Principal Colson treated me and other students like members of the D. Webster Davis family. He knew that I was uncomfortable, being a new student. My family had lived in a rural area, and I was coming to this new school. He was sensitive to my feelings and he made me feel welcomed. Mr. Colson was fatherly and kind—but that also meant we did what he said because, at that time, we followed our parents’ wishes.”
Dorothy T. Burhanan

Principal Colson with students

from Secondary School Study documents:

Mr. C. M. Colson, principal of the D. Webster Davis School,
makes the following statement about the school’s philosophy:

 “The faculty as a whole here at D. Webster Davis High School has developed a concern about a number of common problems. Some of them you have heard about; others we only felt a concern about recently and others are still in the formative stage. I say, without hesitation, that the study has done more than any other single thing to set the entire staff thinking about and working on common problems. Success is not always counted in terms of the end product, but may be weighed in terms of the attitudes built up toward things and procedures which, in time, may result in desired outcomes.”  
from To and From Our Schools, Vol. 1 January, 1942 No. 2

“Mr. Colson was a wonderfully nice and kind man. He could be stern but not in a harsh way; at that time, principals expected discipline but got along well with the students. He displayed his love and care for the children.”
Isabel Berry

Isabel Berry

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