Local Civics with National Purpose: Civic Education Origins at Shortridge High School (Historical Studies in Education) 3030655806, 9783030655808

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Local Civics with National Purpose Civic Education Origins at Shortridge High School

J. Spencer Clark

Historical Studies in Education

Series Editors William J. Reese Department of Educational Policy Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA John L. Rury Education University of Kansas Lawrence, KS, USA

This series features new scholarship on the historical development of education, defined broadly, in the United States and elsewhere. Interdisciplinary in orientation and comprehensive in scope, it spans methodological boundaries and interpretive traditions. Imaginative and thoughtful history can contribute to the global conversation about educational change. Inspired history lends itself to continued hope for reform, and to realizing the potential for progress in all educational experiences.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14870

J. Spencer Clark

Local Civics with National Purpose Civic Education Origins at Shortridge High School

J. Spencer Clark Department of Curriculum & Instruction Kansas State University Manhattan, KS, USA

Historical Studies in Education ISBN 978-3-030-65580-8 ISBN 978-3-030-65581-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Harvey Loake This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To Fallon and Sydney, with much love!

Series Editor’s Preface

Civics education is a topic that gets far too little attention lately, even if our badly divided nation could sorely use it. But it does have a rich history, to which Spencer Clark has made a very interesting contribution. In this compact study, he explores the development of civics education at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, an institution that later became known for its high academic standards and robust college preparatory curriculum. Clark considers an earlier time, however, when civics education became a progressive focal point of curricular reform and educators began to acquire reputations for their subject expertise. The narrative focuses on two educators, Laura Donnan and Arthur W. Dunn, and Clark explores the time they both spent working at Shortridge in the early twentieth century. A rather substantial civics education program had appeared there, and he plays something of a sleuth in attempting to discern the roles of these characters in its development. He makes a case for Donnan as the principal architect, with Dunn building upon her work and perhaps later taking credit for her insights. The rub is that Dunn could utilize these ideas for career advancement in ways that Donnan could not, given the barriers to women’s advancement at the time. Whether she was, in fact, interested in such matters is yet another question. The result is a book that explores the dynamics of curricular development in civics education during this formative period, and the powerful gender distinctions that governed the professional lives of educators.

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Donnan and Dunn worked together for a decade, but his subsequent career took him up the administrative ladder and off to new cities and additional opportunities. Donnan apparently remained in Indianapolis. Dunn eventually was an author of at least half dozen books, and today has a (brief) Wikipedia article devoted to him. Donnan published one textbook and is hardly known today. Such were the vagaries of fate and gender in American education—and life in general—during the early twentieth century. Spencer Clark is an exceptional guide to the experiences of these important educators and to their times. Madison, USA Lawrence, USA

William J. Reese John L. Rury

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the professional support I have received on this project over the past 11 years. I would like to thank Dr. Keith Barton and Dr. Donald Warren for supporting and advising my pursuance of this topic in their respective courses in the Fall 2009 semester at Indiana University. I would like to remember the late Dr. Barry Franklin for his advice and perspective on this topic which advanced my inquiry while at Utah State University. I would like to recognize the financial and professional support at Kansas State University. The K-State University Small Research Grant (USRG) Program provided funds to visit research sites for this study in 2018–2019. Drs. Todd Goodson, Lori Goodson, and Thomas Vontz at K-State have also been very supportive of this project in countless ways. I would also like to thank all of the librarians who spent hours digitizing books, journals, newspapers, proceedings, reports, etc. Given that this manuscript was written mostly during the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, I relied heavily on online accessible materials, and had to cancel my in-person research visits. Lastly, I would like to thank the reviewers and editors of this series for their invaluable feedback and suggestions. My family has been supportive through this entire process. I would like to acknowledge the support of my spouse, F. Fallon Farokhi, and my daughter, Sydney F. Clark. They have provided daily encouragement and decompression, which is much needed to balance the time commitment necessary to complete this project. I would also like to thank my parents,

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Stan and Betsy Clark, and my in-laws, Saeed and Mariam Farokhi, for their love and unwavering support over the years. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge my grandmother, Anna Lee Clark, for her continued love and support, and honor my grandparents Joe Clark, as well as Virginia and Bill Morris. I would also like to honor my great grandmother, Vera Grimsley (nee Rodman), who I was fortunate enough to spend time with as a child. She graduated from the State Normal College at Maryville, Missouri in 1911,1 and like many female educators of the Progressive Era, she taught until she married but continued educating through 4-H and other community organizations the rest of her life.

1 Office of State Superintendent of Public Schools “Report of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri,” (Jefferson City: Carter & Regan, 1911).

Contents

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Introduction Chapter Overviews

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Contextual, Argumentative, and Theoretical Introductions Indianapolis and Shortridge High School Circa 1900 Shortridge High School Contributions to Understanding the Development of Civic Education Theoretical Framings

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The Context of Civic Education in the United States Around 1900 The Americanization Movement and Civic Education Civic Groups Interested in Civic Education The Creation of the Social Studies The Rise of Curriculum Ideologies Donnan, Dunn, and Shortridge as Illustration of the Progressive Era Laura Donnan Early Life and Influences Education and Early Teaching Positions

1 2

5 6 7 8 10

17 20 24 27 33 33 39 40 43 xi

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School Life Professional Life Outside of Shortridge Civic Life Epistemology and Worldview

45 47 50 50

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Civic Education at Shortridge High School The NEA Speech 1889 Primary Source and Text Analysis Discussion and Deliberation Experiential and Place-Based Learning Inquiry-Based Instruction Simulation The Extracurriculum Civic Education at Shortridge Decision Making Pluralism and Civil Rights Civic Activism Social Science Values and Moral Development Final Thoughts on Civic Education at Shortridge

59 60 61 62 64 64 65 66 66 68 68 70 71 72 73

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The Extracurriculum of Shortridge High School The Extracurriculum in Turn-of-the-Century Schools The Extracurriculum at Shortridge Donnan’s Extracurriculars The Shortridge Senate The Impact of the Shortridge Senate The Daily Echo Coverage of the Senate and Other Extracurriculars Student Columns, Editorials, and Opinions Comments on Courses, Teachers, and Arthur Dunn Significance of Extracurriculum at Shortridge

77 78 79 80 80 83 85 86 87 88 89

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Arthur Dunn at Shortridge 1900–1910 Arthur Dunn Before Shortridge: A Clarification of the Literature Arrival at Shortridge High School

95 96 98

CONTENTS

Dunn’s “Progressive” Teaching in History and Geography, Not Civics Connection to National Municipal League—1905 Dunn’s Emergence as Civic Expert in Indianapolis—1906 Textbook: 1906–1907 The Study: 1906–1909 Dunn’s Departure: 1910 Significance of Dunn’s Time at Shortridge 8

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Arthur Dunn on the National Stage: Local Civics for National Purposes Departing Shortridge Arthur Dunn After Shortridge: A Brief Review of the Literature Dunn and the National Municipal League: 1910–14 Dunn, the Bureau of Education, and the Reports: 1914–16 Dunn the Free Agent: 1916–20 Dunn and the Junior Red Cross: 1920–27 Dunn’s Ascension of the Educational Career Pyramid Donnan, Dunn, and Their Civic Education Implications Locating the Influence of Donnan on Dunn Local Civics for National Purposes Laura Donnan as Progressive Exemplar: Agency and Enacted Epistemological Practice Enacted Epistemological Practice Conclusion Revisiting the Main Arguments Final Thoughts on the Impact of Laura Donnan

Index

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99 102 103 105 107 110 111

117 118 119 119 120 122 124 124

131 132 136 139 142 145 146 150 155

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Abstract The introduction will introduce Shortridge High School and two of its faculty who will be the primary focus of this book: Laura Donnan and Arthur W. Dunn. These introductions will be followed by brief chapter overviews. Keywords Shortridge high school · Laura donnan · Arthur W. Dunn

This book will discuss the development of civic education in the United States, specifically through the examination of Shortridge High School and two of its teachers—one at the center of civic life in Indianapolis, and one at the center of civic education in the nation—during the period of 1883—1927. In the 1880s, an active and engaging civic culture would emerge at Shortridge as the result of teachers and students embracing educational and social trends of the time. Shortridge was like many other city high schools heading into the Progressive Era, as it experienced increased enrollments, course offerings, and community involvement. Yet, it was also unique in many ways, due in part to an exceptional group of faculty. Specifically, this book will examine two Shortridge faculty members— Laura Donnan and Arthur W. Dunn—who both had very different © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_1

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relationships to the school. Donnan was born and raised by a wellrespected family in Indianapolis, graduated from Shortridge, engaged in social and civic clubs, and taught at Shortridge from 1883 to 1927. Her career reflects deep concerns about the obligation of citizenship and educating citizens, within a democracy that was coping with rapid social change. She welcomed social change and her response to such change positioned her to advocate for values related to pluralism and equal treatment, to be innovative and distinct in her curricular orientation, and more committed to progressive educational ideals in action than many progressive scholars involved in social education. Her position as a social change advocate has been preserved in many records of the extracurricular activities she initiated, as well as recognition in local media and student memoirs or accounts. Donnan was a vital part of both Shortridge and Indianapolis for over forty-five years. This book will recognize Donnan’s innovations and achievements and her role in the history of civic and social education. Arthur W. Dunn arrived in Shortridge in 1900 and left in 1910. His position at Shortridge was the longest he had held in his career, typically moving from position to position every few years. Dunn is remembered for his role in the community civics curriculum initiatives, his community civics textbook, and his role in the creation of what we now refer to as the social studies. He is remembered as a progressive educator who was trained at the University of Chicago as a sociologist, to which many scholars have attributed his innovations in civic education curriculum. After Shortridge, he moved into more nationally prominent roles culminating at the National Bureau of Education as a Civic Education Specialist. However, most scholars have overlooked his time at Shortridge, choosing to instead look at his experiences before and after his time in Indianapolis because his experiences provide a logical trajectory and archetype for progressive educators of the era. This book will illustrate Dunn’s time at Shortridge and provide a better understanding of how his time in Indianapolis shaped his career.

Chapter Overviews Chapter 2 will provide a glimpse of Indianapolis and Shortridge around 1900, discuss the contributions of this book, and the theoretical framings used to examine the careers of Donnan and Dunn. Chapter 3 will provide an overview of the history of civic education in the United States

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around 1900. It will use literature to situate city schools at the-turn-ofthe-century and their interest in developing civic education, for several distinct Progressive Era purposes. Several influences will be examined that contributed to the development of civic education around 1900, specifically the Americanization movement, the influences of civic groups, the creation of social studies, and the progressive curricular ideologies. Chapter 4 will introduce Laura Donnan and her career at Shortridge. She was a well-educated teacher, aware of major educational trends and scholars of the time. She had developed a reputation in civic education before Dunn arrived at Shortridge in 1900. The literature on Donnan demonstrated she had both a local and regional reputation regarding her civic pedagogy and created a civic culture at Shortridge that influenced many. Chapter 5 will focus on Donnan’s NEA presentation in 1889 in which she outlined a framework for civic education in schools and developed a rationale for mandatory civics curriculum as a graduation requirement based on her own teaching and curriculum. In her speech, she outlined a range of progressive activities that comprised her innovative pedagogy. All of these activities contributed to the civic culture at Shortridge, by allowing multiple ways for students to engage with the content. Donnan’s presentation suggests that progressive “social studies” pedagogy was in classrooms well before 1916. Chapter 6 will discuss several activities that were part of the extracurriculum or, as we know them today, clubs, groups, and academic teams. Donnan was the sponsor for many of these extracurricular activities and created the Shortridge Senate, which gained nation-wide notoriety. These activities, especially the Senate, contributed significantly to the civic culture at Shortridge. Donnan’s sponsorship also included the Daily Echo, the first daily high school newspaper in the United States. The Daily Echo was a significant contributor to the civic culture at Shortridge, and provided invaluable detail about the civic culture at Shortridge. Chapter 7 will introduce Arthur Dunn, who is well documented in the existing literature. However, the literature focuses very little on his time at Shortridge and has focused more on his regional and national leadership roles. Dunn’s time in Indianapolis will be pieced together through multiple data points that include his publications and textbook, records kept at Shortridge, and the Daily Echo. Coupled with his research training, Dunn’s time at Shortridge was pivotal to his career.

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Chapter 8 will focus on Arthur Dunn and his rise to the national educational stage. This chapter will make connections among Dunn’s awareness of progressive trends, his arrival at Shortridge, and his elevation to the national stage. These connections raise new questions about Dunn and the correlation of his training, his position at Shortridge, and his quick rise to national distinction. His longest professional position was at Shortridge for ten years, and his arrival at Shortridge appears to be serendipitous, considering the impact it had on his career. Chapter 9 will discuss Donnan and Dunn comparatively, as contemporaries working toward the same goal, but from different ideologies. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of how Donnan’s distinct epistemology, shaped by the gender ideologies of the era and enabled by the Shortridge educational context, afforded her the ability to consistently achieve agency as an educator, citizen, and activist. Lastly, the conclusion will revisit the main arguments of the book and consider Donnan and Dunn comparatively. Utilizing newspapers of the time, the conclusion will also consider how each educator was remembered after their deaths. It is difficult to come to and concrete conclusion about Donnan and Dunn’s relationship. However, combined they individually had a major impact on the history of civic and social education in the twentieth century.

CHAPTER 2

Contextual, Argumentative, and Theoretical Introductions

Abstract This chapter will describe the changes and growth of Indianapolis and Shortridge High School around 1900. The introduction will also provide the arguments underlying this book. First, Laura Donnan’s pedagogy influenced the 1916 report, The Social Studies in Secondary Education, for which Arthur W. Dunn was the secretary. Second, Dunn’s time at Shortridge was much more pivotal to his career than other scholars have described. Third, Dunn’s rearticulation of Donnan’s pedagogy failed due to ideological discrepancies and his obligations to social efficiency advocates. Lastly, Donnan’s pedagogy was an articulation of her epistemology, shaped by the gendered ideologies of the Progressive Era. The theoretical framework in this chapter will further situate Donnan’s gender and epistemology in the Progressive Era. Keywords Indianapolis · Laura donnan · Arthur W. Dunn · Epistemology · Gender

This chapter will provide a brief overview of Indianapolis and Shortridge High School around 1900, introduce the book’s main arguments and contributions to the history of civic education, and discuss the theoretical frames this book will use to examine the careers of Laura Donnan and Arthur W. Dunn. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_2

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Indianapolis and Shortridge High School Circa 1900 Indianapolis was similar to many medium-sized cities around 1900. There was an influx of students in city schools from rural areas and European immigration.1 Indianapolis especially grew during the second half of the nineteenth century. From 1850 to 1900, the city’s population increased from 8091 to 169,164.2 During this time new neighborhoods and parks sprouted up along new boulevards, some with streetcars to connect citizens to the city center. Indianapolis transformed from its agricultural beginnings in the 1820s to an industrial center that was well connected to other cities via four railroad lines.3 The combination of railroads, and the growth of food processing, manufacturing, stockyards, and the natural gas boom allowed Indianapolis to endure the nationwide financial challenges leading up to the twentieth century. The increases in industry demanded new labor which encouraged migration to the city, with most new residents coming from rural areas, but also Black citizens migrating from the southern United States following the Civil War. Like many cities, Indianapolis opened its doors to immigrants from outside the United States. Indianapolis became home for predominantly English, Irish, and German immigrants, but also Italian, Greek, and Eastern European ethnicities predominantly from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Due to its growth in industry and population, by 1900 the leaders of Indianapolis found themselves at a crossroads of prosperity and social challenges. The growth allowed Indianapolis to become a prominent Midwest city on the rise, but with the growth came many associated social welfare challenges, such as low wages and child labor, polluted water and air, gender and minority discrimination, and limited civic capital for utility and sanitary modernization.4 To address many of these social welfare issues capable citizens formed numerous social clubs. Several of these will be discussed in the proceeding chapters, but some of the early groups included the Indianapolis Woman’s Club (1875), Indianapolis Literary Club (1877), the Century Club (1890), and the Commercial Club (1890). These groups encouraged civic engagement, personal development, and collective investment in civic projects.5 Ethnic groups in the city also developed social groups, most notable were German residents who had started schools and newspapers as well—often led by Clement Vonnegut who was the great-grandfather

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of author Kurt Vonnegut who was also a Shortridge graduate. An important part of the city’s civic and social life was the various newspapers, which provided rich data for the subjects of this book. The Indiana Journal was the city’s first daily newspaper in 1842, and the Indianapolis News began publishing Indianapolis’ first evening newspaper in 1869. The Indianapolis Leader was the city’s first Black newspaper and began publication in 1879, which was later replaced by The Recorder in 1895.6 The civic and social interest in the 1880s and 1890s, coupled with the growth of Indianapolis, led many to remember this period as the golden years. Indianapolis also gained national recognition and pride when its own resident, Benjamin Harrison, was elected to the US Senate in 1881 and then became president of the United States in 1889. As Indianapolis grew, the need for schooling also grew. In the early days of Indianapolis, private schools were created by either local residents or religious organizations, and were the main source of education until the mid-1840s when free public schools were established. Indianapolis residents approved taxes to pay for public schools in 1847. These schools were put on hold after the Indiana Supreme Court declared school taxes unconstitutional in 1857; however, the public schools reopened in 1861.7 The educational community grew with the city in the late 1800 s which included additional schools and a public library. Indianapolis had only one high school until 1900, when the city opened a second school in response to the need for a more skilled labor force. The Indianapolis Public Schools established Manual Training High School and its first manual training program. This move was representative of educational expansion in other major cities, and established Shortridge as the premier academic school in the city.8 Shortridge High School Shortridge is among the most famous high schools in Indiana, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. After several failed attempts, due to the political tax issue in the late 1850s and the Civil War in the early 1860s, a high school was started in 1864. In 1865, it began normal high school coursework and was named Indianapolis High School (from here on, it will be referred to as Shortridge High School). Abram C. Shortridge, the newly minted second superintendent of Indianapolis schools, initiated the founding of the high school one year after taking on the leadership role. This resulted in the school taking his name in 1900 upon the

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opening of Manual Training High School. Shortridge, along with Caleb Mills, was integral to the formation of schooling in Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. In his eleven years as superintendent, he expanded the schools to meet the needs of the population growth and created the Indianapolis Normal School to train teachers. Despite a state law forbidding tax dollars to pay for Black citizens’ education, Shortridge allowed Black students to attend Indianapolis schools, with some requisite academic requirements. The first Black student graduated in 1876, which made news across the nation.9 Shortridge High School remained racially integrated throughout Donnan’s entire career, with both racial integration and her career ending in the 1927–1928 school year. Superintendent Shortridge left Indianapolis in 1874 to become the second president of Purdue University and oversaw the first semester of regular coursework at the university.10 Shortridge High School continued to grow with the city in the late 1800s, which allowed the school to regularly add new faculty and courses. This growth included Laura Donnan, who joined the faculty in 1883 and taught a new course on citizenship and government. The prominence of Shortridge, coupled with the social capital and agency of Donnan, created a unique setting for educational innovation at the turn of the century.

Contributions to Understanding the Development of Civic Education This book will discuss four significant contributions to our understanding of the development of civic education in the United States, which will serve as the primary arguments underlying the chapters of this book. First, although not credited, Laura Donnan’s curriculum and teaching provided a model for the civics recommendations of the 1916 report The Social Studies in Secondary Education, for which Arthur W. Dunn was the secretary. Donnan developed a civic education curriculum and subsequent civic culture at Shortridge, outlined in her 1889 presentation at the National Education Association (NEA) and her publications,11 which possibly served as a blueprint for civic education later mandated by Dunn and others in the 1916 Report. Donnan’s work in the 1880 s and 1890 s supports Evans (2004) assertion that the 1916 Committee had many precursors representing trends that “were well in motion prior to their work.”12

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Second, I will argue that before his arrival at Shortridge, Arthur W. Dunn was not the progressive educator and civics expert many scholars have described him to be. This challenges nearly all interpretations of his work, with scholars citing his mentors at the University of Chicago as the source of his civics expertise. Many scholars have overlooked his arrival at Shortridge, his activities, the courses he taught, and the circumstances in which he became a civics expert while at Shortridge. While Dunn did have an appropriate academic background to advocate for a new social welfare focused civics curriculum, I assert that Dunn studied and appropriated aspects of Donnan’s civics curriculum and culture to develop his own Progressive Era curriculum and textbook, and used the popularity of these curricula for professional gain. He became involved with predominantly male civic and social clubs, such as the Indianapolis affiliate of the National Municipal League. His involvement in these clubs opened doors to opportunities in Indianapolis, such as Director of Civics for Indianapolis Schools, and then opportunities for positions outside of Indianapolis, leading to his role as Civic Education Specialist for the US Bureau of Education in 1914. Dunn’s professional standing waned following the 1916 Report, despite efforts to continue, repurpose, or repackage his civics curriculum. Third, I argue Dunn’s interpretation and articulation of Donnan’s curriculum and culture were unsuccessful due to ideological differences and his multiple associations and allegiances. Dunn represented an intersection of economic, social, and political influences, and his career illustrated what Julie Reuben described as “the ties between progressive reform organizations, the federal government, universitybased social scientists, and educational leaders that shaped the new civics curriculum.”13 Dunn appeased these influences—who acted as his benefactors after he left Shortridge—by tying his curriculum to the common progressive ideology of social efficiency. Dunn appropriated Donnan’s practice and trafficked in the social efficiency language of the era to indulge his various influences. The effect of Dunn’s adherence to social efficiency in his articulation of Donnan’s practice is best realized in the criticisms of his text and curriculum. Teachers, administrators, and academics commented that his curriculum lacked student action, lacked the use of controversial issues, lacked depth in content, promoted soft pedagogy, and resulted in blatant local chauvinism due to its ties to the city commerce clubs associated with the National Municipal League.14 Donnan’s civics curriculum and culture, on the other hand, was active,

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centered on controversy, offered in-depth content, and was inclusive of all students. Lastly, I argue that Donnan achieved a level of pedagogy that I will refer to as enacted epistemological practice.15 Enacted epistemological practice prioritizes student empowerment as a form of subversive social action. Donnan’s curricular purpose of empowerment was diametrically opposed to Dunn’s underlying curricular purpose of social control. In many ways, Donnan and Dunn’s opposing positions are related to their gendered realities in the Progressive Era. Donnan, like most women of her era, had an ambiguous relationship with citizenship16 —best illustrated in Donnan’s nearly fifty-year fight for women’s suffrage, from the age of eighteen until the 19th Amendment was passed at the age of sixty-seven. Donnan approached educating others as a means of subversively negotiating her own citizenship, by empowering future citizens to chip away at a system sustained by patriarchy. Donnan’s experiences, pedagogical or otherwise, can be seen as responses to a set of authentic, historical situations shaped by a cultural ideology around gender.17 In this way, her ideas and actions can be understood as her agency to challenge an order that undermined her ability to create a more equitable and inclusive social and educational future for her community.

Theoretical Framings Gender and epistemology will be the primary theoretical frames underlying this book, as introduced in the previous section. The cultural ideology around gender shaped much of Donnan’s personal and career choices. Margaret Crocco distinguished female educators concerned with social education from male social educators in several ways. For example, female educational leaders of the era developed their ideas not only from schools and universities but also in a wide range of other social, public, and private organizations such as clubs, activist groups, and professional associations.18 Furthermore, many female social educators developed social educational methods and practices prior to formalization of social studies in the 1916 Report on Social Studies, and thus, laid the groundwork for modern social studies—yet, they have never been considered theorists by educational scholars.19 This book will demonstrate that each of these distinctions based on gender ideology shaped Donnan’s career. Donnan’s career spans a period when social sciences and methods were evolving. New theories in philosophy, psychology, and sociology were all

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affecting educational ideologies regarding the role of schools and subsequently curriculum. The individuals developing and trafficking in these theories were all male. Many female educators’ practices influenced these ideologies (e.g., Ella Flagg Young) with relatively little recognition, while a few female educators tried to develop theories alongside their male counterparts (e.g., Julia Bulkley) and were met with harsh alienation.20 These examples demonstrate the ways that women were exploited in the development of education during the Progressive Era and highlight the gendered roles in the social sciences and education. Crocco described the consequences of these gendered roles as positioning women’s contributions to the development of educational ideas “as low-status ‘practice’ rather than high-status ‘theory.’”21 Crocco further illustrated this by pointing out that “Jane Addams” legacy is identified with social work rather than sociology.22 I use these examples of female social educators strategically, as Donnan interacted with Addams, Bulkley, and Young early in her career, to demonstrate Donnan was not necessarily an anomaly or “maverick” teacher. Like many female social educators of the era, Donnan chose a career that would grapple with the obligation of citizenship in a rapidly changing democracy. Nearly every position Donnan held in her public life—teacher, club organizer/member, activist—had purpose in social change and civic implications. Donnan’s position was often much more progressive in relation to her male counterparts who advocated for social change. This was typical of the era, as Crocco described, women’s positions were often “more accommodating to individual and group difference, less conformist and assimilationist in orientation, and overall more committed to progressive educational rhetoric in action”23 than the more commonly known progressive educators. As this book will demonstrate, Donnan was far more progressive than her colleague, Arthur Dunn, who is remembered for his progressive educational reforms. Progressive female social educators of this era were also typecast in several ways that furthered their alienation from mainstream leadership positions. In education, professionalization of teaching was expanded because many, including one of Donnan’s Shortridge principals, believed the profession was going through feminization.24 In order to minimize the authority of female progressive teachers, credentials became more important than experience as a basis for leadership in schools. In addition, a Normal School preparation for teaching became the most basic credential and limited female teachers’ opportunities for leadership. Women’s

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contributions to education have long been overlooked, undervalued, or marginalized, which led to them being remembered as followers, rather than innovators of original ideas or even simply leaders.25 Lastly, female teachers who were college graduates, such as Donnan and her sister, often remained unmarried and seemed devoted to their careers. However, this common scenario is more reflective of commonly held beliefs of the era that the scholarly and familial responsibilities would be in conflict for women. Nearly all female scholars’ contributions were challenged due to their unnatural existence outside the typical female spheres, and especially their “proper place” at home.26 Thus, the typecasting of women in the history of social education reflects the nation’s own history of gender discrimination, and illustrated the gendered social and professional roles that women, such as Donnan, had to negotiate in the Progressive Era. The gendered roles and positions female progressive educators had to negotiate played a role in shaping their epistemologies. For the purposes of this book, epistemology will be defined specific to teaching and learning, and thus, epistemology encompasses a philosophy of knowledge that influences one’s theory of learning and subsequently their approaches, designs, and delivery of curriculum. As Ladson-Billings stated, “An epistemology is a ‘system of knowing’ that has both internal logic and external validity,”27 and this is especially relevant for female social educators in the Progressive Era. Educators’ actions were influenced by their epistemology shaped by their personal experiences (internal logic), while also negotiating those actions in their roles and positions to be accepted by society (external validity). Just as female social educators’ epistemologies were shaped by their gendered roles and positions, it also shaped their worldview. As Ladson-Billings (2000) noted, one’s epistemology has a symbiotic relationship with their worldview: Worldview and systems of knowledge are symbiotic… how one views the world is influenced by what knowledge one possesses, and what knowledge one is capable of possessing is influenced deeply by one’s worldview. Thus, the conditions under which people live and learn shape both their knowledge and their worldviews.28

The gendered conditions of female social educators in the Progressive Era and their daily negotiations shaped their knowledge and worldview, which led to their work for social change. In this way, female social educators’

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epistemologies shaped their innovative practices and provided guidance for their agency. Teacher epistemology was vital to progressive educators’ work and it is equally important today. While teacher epistemologies are shaped by different experiences and ideologies than in the past, they are still a product of internal logic and external validity. Teachers informed by their epistemology understand a variety of educational knowledge based on contextual considerations and dually grasp the needs of their students.29 Teachers cognizant of their epistemology will prioritize context and contextualization in every aspect of their pedagogy. Interestingly, Dewey noted these contextual considerations and noted many traditional, humanist thinkers viewed knowledge as autonomous and independent of context.30 Dewey asserted that knowledge should not be considered outside of its relationship to other contextual knowledge. Dewey has been cited repeatedly for his description of how knowledge is taken out of its natural context in schools, and therefore lacks any meaningful connection to students and their experiences. A consideration of the relationship between context and a teacher’s epistemology underlies the argument of this book. Donnan created a civics curriculum based on her epistemology and the local context. Her efforts resulted in a unique civic culture at Shortridge. Outsiders, such as Dunn, simply viewed her curriculum as local civics that could be transferred, at least conceptually, to any school in the country, and subsequently taught by any teacher. Yet, the civics curriculum that Donnan created was a result of her own epistemology that was shaped by her gendered experiences as an educator, active citizen, and social activist. This book will examine the development of civic education at Shortridge High School, which burgeoned from one teacher’s epistemology focused on social change, shaped by the gendered ideologies of the era, and cultivated by the agency of Donnan and her students.

Notes 1. Paul J. Ramsey, The Bilingual School in the United States: A Documentary History (Charlotte: IAP, 2012). 2. Hester Anne Hale, Indianapolis: The First Century (Indianapolis, IN: Indianapolis Historical Society, 1987). 3. See note 2 above. 4. George W. Geib, Indianapolis: Hoosiers’ Circle City (Tulsa: Continental Heritage Press, 1981).

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5. See note 2 above. 6. David J. Bodenhamer and Robert G. Barrows, eds. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994). 7. Laura Sheerin Gaus, Shortridge High School, 1864–1981, in Retrospect (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society, 1985). 8. See note 7 above. 9. Staff, “The First Colored Girl Graduated,” Buffalo Weekly Courier (Buffalo, NY, July 5, 1876). 10. See note 7 above. 11. Laura Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” The Journal of Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association Annual Meeting 28 (1889): 512–520; Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the High School,” The Public-School Journal 9, no. 7 (1889): 314–315. 12. Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should we Teach the Children? (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2004), 21. 13. Julie A. Reuben, “Beyond Politics: Community Civics and the Redefinition of Citizenship in the Progressive Era,” History of Education Quarterly 37, no. 4 (1997): 402. 14. Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency,” (Ph.D., dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972). 15. Jacques Désautels, Stephen C. Fleury, and Jim Garrison, “The Enactment of Epistemological Practice as Subversive Social Action, the Provocation of Power, and Anti-modernism,” Counterpoints 210 (2002): 237–269. 16. Margaret Crocco, Introduction to Bending the Future to Their Will: Civic Women, Social Education, and Democracy, eds. Margaret Crocco and O.L. Davis (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999), 1–16. 17. See note 16 above. 18. See note 16 above. 19. See note 16 above. 20. See Kathleen Cruikshank, “In Dewey’s Shadow: Julia Bulkley and the University of Chicago Department of Pedagogy, 1895–1900,” History of Education Quarterly 38, no. 4 (1998): 373–406. 21. Crocco, 3. 22. See note 21 above. 23. See note 21 above. 24. See note 16 above. 25. See note 16 above. 26. Crocco, 9. 27. Gloria Ladson-Billings, “Racialized Discourses and Ethnic Epistemologies,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd ed.), eds. Norman Denzin and Yvanna Lincoln (London: Sage, 2000), 258. 28. See note 27 above.

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29. Joe L. Kincheloe, Getting Beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in the Twenty-First Century 16 (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2001). 30. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1916).

CHAPTER 3

The Context of Civic Education in the United States Around 1900

Abstract This chapter will provide an overview of civic education in the United States around 1900. It will draw upon existing literature to situate city schools and their subsequent interest in developing civic education for several distinct Progressive Era purposes, such as Americanizing new urban residents, social welfare, training citizens for self-government, and social efficiency. Several influences that contributed to the development of civic education will be discussed, specifically the Americanization movement, the influences of civic groups, the creation of social studies, and the progressive curricular ideologies. The overview of civic education around 1900 and the illustration of both Donnan and Dunn’s association with these influences will provide a framework for understanding chapters three-eight. Keywords Americanization movement · Civic groups · History of social studies · Curricular ideologies · Progressive era

The development of civic education in the United States was a complex curricular project, which captured the interest of an array of economic, social, political, and educational entities. There were a few defining periods for civic education when the American population was increasing, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_3

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citizen demographics were shifting, and all sectors of society were rapidly changing. The American Progressive Era, typically defined as 1890–1920, was one of civic education’s earliest defining periods. During this period, American cities and schools were responding to an influx of population as a result of rural Americans moving to urban areas, and immigrants arriving from all over the world.1 People were drawn to cities because they were evolving industrial and economic centers that offered the promise of consistent income to support their families. The rapid population growth and emphasis of economic priorities led to many new social issues in American cities— increased crime, poverty, health issues, etc. The progressivism, associated with Progressive Era, embodied a general spirit to respond to the challenges of a new era of industrial development and urban growth, or as Lawrence Cremin described, it was “a vast humanitarian effort to apply the promise of American life to the puzzling new urban-industrial civilization that came into being during the latter half of the nineteenth century.”2 Progressivism and early twentieth-century state-building, as a response to the challenges of a new urban-industrial civilization, would also serve as the driving force behind the intense focus on civic education during the Progressive Era.3 The burgeoning cities also became the engines of American democracy and developed into new concentrations of the electorate in each state. The education of a self-governing citizenry became a primary focal point for many city civic groups and organizations, as well as the “state builders.”4 In this way, civic education became a common interest and place of convergence for many of the economic, social, and political interests of the Progressive Era. The convergence of interests provided opportunities for many educators to play a role in the progressive reforms of the period. These educators made a clear case that the schools were potentially influential structures in the building of a new industrial state. Schools could be the primary institution for modernizing, as well as Americanizing, the youngest of the new citizens in the cities. The influx in city populations during this period caused fervor and debate over the curriculum and provided impetus for making civic education a cornerstone of the primary and secondary social science curriculum. Attendance in schools had significantly increased by 1900, especially for high schools, and this signaled a shift in American society and the ways in which youth were prepared for careers. Many adult Americans

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were leaving small rural towns for the American cities, which had significant implications for their children as students. Upon arrival in the city and enrollment in city schools, former rural students would be expected to spend more time at school than they would in their former rural agricultural communities. Schools played an important role in the evolving American economy and socializing new urban residents. Schools also provided child supervision for parents, while also preparing adolescent students for urban jobs that required basic skills. The increased role of schools in society also led to an increase in the schools’ obligations beyond the academic needs of students—and civic education programs became an integral part of the expansion of school obligations.5 Many educators and state builders wanted the school—instead of the family, church, or social group to which one belonged—to become a primary place of civic training. Many educators in the Progressive Era viewed civic education as a means to cultivate individuals capable of self-governance,6 and assume all the duties and responsibilities of selfgoverning citizens. The impetus for civic training in schools also resulted from the shifting demographics of cities and urban society. Many Americans found themselves living in close proximity with people distinctly different from themselves, and thus, they encountered new values, beliefs, and attitudes in regard to economic, political, and social issues. Schools, then, played an important role in the urbanization of America during the Progressive Era. The influx of immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries challenged the dominant views held by many “nativist” Americans, who considered fellow countrymen narrowly as White, Protestant, and of Teutonic heritage.7 The narrow, nativist, perspective of what constituted an American citizen was the basis for documenting changes in the demographics of society. The nativist demographic also could be used to describe the background of most of the educational policy makers and stakeholders in Progressive Era, with the addition of also being male. Since the social studies and civic education curriculum held potential to shape young citizens’ perceptions of society and the world, various stakeholders asserted influence to preserve certain aspects of American culture, and change other aspects through civic education curriculum. Civic education at the turn of the century was very much about preserving White, Protestant, and Western European culture and assimilating all-new city dwellers to this culture.

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The following sections will first examine the views regarding immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; more specifically, this section will look at how views of immigration were articulated into views about American citizenship. The next section will briefly discuss some of the civic organizations that attempted to influence civic education. This section will be followed by a brief examination of the creation of social studies as a response to calls for civic education. Lastly, the chapter will conclude by briefly discussing some of the curricular ideologies and their role in developing civic education.

The Americanization Movement and Civic Education In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the great economic and social changes in society served as a catalyst for many influential segments of the American population to seek a secure sense of civic identity, in order to protect the existing social order and their distinctive American character. Thus, these changes led to the establishment of citizenship laws that excluded those who did not fit a predetermined ideal American. During this period, urban school enrollments climbed along with the number of immigrants that attended urban schools. Educational policy makers realized that schools were vital spaces in the effort to shape new democratic citizens, both domestic and foreign-born. A majority of these efforts could be viewed as part of the movement that emphasized Americanization curriculum and activities. Under the broad category of Americanization, there were several different views in regard to what Americanization should entail in schools. This was partly tied to the differing notions of what attributes were required to be an American citizen. Jeffrey Mirel identified three distinct views on Americanization: Assimilationists, Cultural Pluralists, and Amalgamationists.8 Each of these views comprised differing degrees of foreign-born individuals discarding aspects of their own culture, and then adopting or contributing to a distinctive American culture.9 These views are important to consider as we examine the development of civic education in the United States. Assimilationists, as Mirel labeled them, were Americans who thought that immigrants should leave behind all of their own culture and adopt a sort of “anglo-american” culture.10 The assimilationists sought

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cultural uniformity and wanted to diminish immigrants’ cultural expressions. Thus, schools were a logical place to push the assimilationist ideals and begin the process by simply assimilating immigrant children through school socialization. Assimilationists even expanded their inculcative methods beyond K-12 schools during the Progressive Era, with some night schools focused on assimilating adults through education. The second Americanization group was the cultural pluralists. Mirel characterized the cultural pluralists as viewing the assimilationist perspective as a “narrow, ethnocentric vision of American culture and identity.”11 The cultural pluralists, as the name implies, wanted to preserve the immigrants’ native culture within the context of American society. Many cultural pluralists believed that it was the differentiation of culture that made America capable to progress as a nation and would only strengthen democracy. Some viewed America like an orchestra with many different instruments, which all contributed to one symphony.12 While the cultural pluralists did not want to take the immigrants’ culture from them, in terms of citizenship they thought immigrants should have a solid understanding of American democratic institutions and principles. Jane Addams provides an example of a practicing cultural pluralist in the Progressive Era. She thought that schools could help immigrants, especially if teachers were respectful of the immigrant cultures and incorporated their cultures into the classroom.13 Finally, the amalgamationists provided a third perspective on Americanization education. The amalgamationists were responsible for the over-touted idea of America as a “melting pot,” not necessarily the way we think of a melting pot today, but the basic idea that the mixing and remixing of various immigrant groups would create a culturally unique and strong new nation.14 Similar to the cultural pluralists, amalgamationists wanted schools to teach about the various cultural backgrounds of all immigrants, and additionally teach the best attributes of each culture, with the intention of creating a new dynamic culture.15 It should be noted that leaders of specific immigrant groups were opposed to the amalgamationists’ vision, mainly anxious about familial and religious concerns related to promoting intermarriage. Regardless, the amalgamationists provided the most cosmopolitan vision for American schools among the Americanization movement during the Progressive Era. The three views of Americanization provide a glimpse of perspectives underlying Americanization advocacy to promote social studies and civic education in schools. While they differed in many respects, each group

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believed that immigrants could become Americans, both in terms of culture and citizenship, one way or another. This distinction is important to consider because there were other Americans who felt that certain groups of immigrants could never become genuinely American or effectively participate in self-government.16 These views were reflected in much of the restrictive immigration legislation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (e.g., the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882). These views are what Mirel called Ethnic Nationalistic views, which were opposed to the Civic Nationalistic views comprised in the Americanization efforts.17 The Americanization efforts in schools drew upon several nationalistic ideals to attempt to clarify what exactly constituted an American citizen. Policy makers used these ideals, and they were in constant contention to determine which specific immigrant groups would be included and excluded as American citizens. Gary Gerstle identified two nationalistic ideologies that contended for social prevalence in the Progressive Era: Civic Nationalism and Racial Nationalism.18 Civic nationalism, similar to Mirel’s conceptualization, embodied a more liberal stance in regard to citizenship.19 A civic nationalist would see the nation “as a community of equal, rights-bearing citizens united in patriotic attachment to a shared set of political practices and values.”20 This ideal represented the goals shared by many of the Americanization movement groups, and they believed that most immigrant groups would be capable of achieving these goals. Racial nationalists, for Gerstle, believed there were groups of immigrants that were unfit for American citizenship, and thus civic education for these immigrant groups would be a futile endeavor. A racial nationalist would view the nation in “ethnoracial terms, as a people held together by common blood and skin color and by an inherited fitness for selfgovernment.”21 Like assimilationists, racial nationalists did not want all immigrants to adopt Anglo-American culture, and furthermore believed there were only certain immigrant groups capable of adopting AngloAmerican culture. Racial nationalist avoided explicit racialist terms and used social-Darwinist rationales to declare certain immigrant groups unfit for self-government because they did not have Anglo-Saxon heritage. The contradictory pursuit of civic and racial nationalist views sharply shaped American history, especially in the Progressive Era. The contradiction was best evinced in the politics of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was generally popular during the era. President Roosevelt believed in the

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principles of civic nationalism, but he also had deeply seeded reservations about certain races and nationalities gaining American citizenship.22 Zoe Burkholder, as well as my own work, has demonstrated that both the civic and racial ideologies were present in schools among Progressive Era administrators, teachers, and students. Educators and students used aspects of these ideologies to justify their beliefs about which groups were fit and unfit for American citizenship. Most, if not all, of these administrators, teachers, and students were white Anglo-Americans and they felt they were able to judge who was fit or unfit for American citizenship, due to their inherent ability to self-govern.23 The signification of fit or unfit for self-government was a popular way for people to discriminate against immigrants during the Progressive Era. Rogers Smith takes these ideologies further than Gerstle and Mirel, to look at their roots and how they contributed to Progressive Era American identities. Smith identified three different conceptions of American identity in relation to citizenship: liberalism, republicanism, and ethnocultural Americanism. Smith noted that these conceptions have never appeared in isolation and are nearly always in combination when asserted in American society.24 The goal of social homogeneity could especially be seen in Smith’s last conception of citizenship, ethnocultural Americanism. While liberalism and republicanism may have been rooted in distinct historical traditions, ethnocultural Americanism was distinctly American, as Smith defines it. Ethnocultural Americanism at its extreme was “nativism,” and advocates inevitably utilized aspects of the other two conceptions of citizenship, liberalism and republicanism, to justify their claims.25 The self-proclaimed ability to judge who was fit for self-government was seen throughout the Progressive Era literature regarding immigrants, especially regarding non-Anglo citizens, and tacitly permeated civic education initiatives in the early decades of the twentieth century. Many Americanization efforts, then, represented these varying perspectives regarding immigrants and citizenship. The distinctions among these Americanization perspectives, along with Progressive Era state-building efforts, contributed to curricular efforts to Americanize students from other cultures,26 to minimally instill an appreciation for the distinct American culture, if not fully embrace the distinct American character. Reuben noted these efforts were the result of Progressive Era debates that attempted to clarify exactly what constituted an American citizen and more specifically who was capable of democratic self-government.27 These debates were particularly important because they considered the

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citizenship not only of new immigrants, but also of previously excluded and disenfranchised groups. Many policy makers and social reformers looked to history and civic education courses, which in 1916 would collectively become known as the Social Studies, to undertake a major role in shaping young citizens. In this way, some social studies classrooms became experiments in the different approaches to Americanization, with many progressive reformers taking on the assimilationist view, and some teachers taking on more culturally pluralistic views.28

Civic Groups Interested in Civic Education In addition to the groups associated with the Americanization movement, and sometimes in collusion with the movement, were networks of civic organizations that took a sharp interest in education, and specifically civic education. While there were a great number of these organizations, two categories of these groups are of particular interest for the focus of this book, as they were groups that Laura Donnan and Arthur Dunn were associated with: Women’s Civic Groups and the National Municipal League. With the proliferation of schooling, many women became interested in their children’s schooling and the curriculum, and particularly the civic values that the schools were encouraging. In addition, as high schools increased enrollment, female students outnumbered male students in many schools. In some cases, high schools had enrollments of two females for every male student. For example, at Shortridge High School there were 1001 female students and 412 male students in 1902.29 Therefore, women’s civic groups provided a powerful lobby for not only the interests of their own children, but also for the interests and opportunities of their fellow young women. There were several types of women’s civic groups that took shape in the 1890s. Generally, there were women’s civic or city clubs, mothers and parent-teacher associations, and women’s suffrage groups. Depending on the city or context, all of these groups would interact with schools at the local level—whether it was women’s city club socials with the female teachers, mother’s and parent–teacher groups working with school administration to provide more offerings or services, or women’s suffrage groups developing curriculum on voting rights.30 To demonstrate the sheer size of these groups, in the 1910s, a group emerged called the

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Department of Women’s Organizations, which comprised nearly onemillion women from various clubs, from around the United States. It provided a way to coordinate women groups and their volunteers to lobby school reform activities.31 The Department of Women’s Organizations was large because it included several national women’s organizations, such as the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Council of Jewish Women, and the Southern Association of College Women. The Department of Women’s Organizations had a strong presence at the National Education Association (NEA) conferences in the 1910s (NEA membership was only around 5700).32 The Department of Women’s Organizations provided lobbying power beyond the local level to influence school curriculum, structure, and teaching. Women’s civic groups worked in tandem with progressive educators to spread reforms throughout the United States, as one clubwoman described, they could “greatly increase the speed with which the progressive movement passes from the NEA mountain-top to the valley and plains.”33 The result of women’s associations work during the Progressive Era could be seen most prominently in education about community reform and welfare. Long-lasting impacts could be seen in the various curricular programs and services they institutionalized. For example, women’s groups promoted social service innovations in education, including what we would today call summer schools, home economics, and vocational education.34 These innovations are relevant to the history of civic education because the new civics curriculum moved away from the mechanics of government and focused on habits at home and in the community. The women’s groups that worked to spread progressive education reforms often referred to the school as an extension of the home. The associations between the women’s group, and primarily The Department of Women’s Organizations, and the NEA were well known. In 1914, the Department of Secondary Education met with the women’s organization representatives, which was timely for the development of civic education.35 The next section will discuss the Committee on the Social Studies’ writings on community civics in 1915 and then the social studies in 1916. However, some of the issues that women’s groups advocated for were found specifically as examples in the 1915 report on community civics and confirm the women’s groups roles in

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city reforms and civics curriculum.36 Therefore, women’s groups represent a major influence on the curriculum, and specifically civic education reforms during the Progressive Era. There were also male-dominated civic clubs that took an interest in civic education during the Progressive Era. One of the largest and most visible in the history of civic education was known countrywide as the National Municipal League (NML), but could also have had affiliates in cities with different names (e.g., city club, commerce club, commercial club, etc.). The NML is possibly so visible in the history of civic education because ten members of the 1916 Committee for The Social Studies in Secondary in Education were also members of the socially concerned, yet private organization - more than were members of the NEA. The NML members were typically White men who were businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and academics. The NML was particularly known for their efforts to sanitize the cities and initialize “beautification projects,” which were also popular in this period.37 Arthur Dunn became a regular presenter at the NML conferences because his community civics curriculum—which included social welfare and city beautification—fit well with the NML goals and initiatives. The NML provided a forum for a variety of people to present and discuss potential civic education programs for schools and their societal outcomes. Educational practitioners (e.g., school administrators, teachers, etc.) concerned with civic education had a captive audience with the NML and were welcomed at the NML’s annual meetings, which was not the case at the American History Association (AHA) or the American Political Science Association (APSA) conferences.38 While the educational practitioners often disagreed among themselves about the scope and sequence of civic education, they were creating a movement away from a type of civic education that was mostly disciplinary political and historical content. Following the AHA and the APSA, the NML held its own Committee on Instruction in Municipal Government in 1905. The NML’s committee recommended that both the elementary and high school civic education programs focus heavily on the content that affected the students’ lives most closely—the local government—and reported that “moral and civic instruction should permeate the entire school life of the child.”39 The NML’s members and early efforts to promote civic education, apart from the AHA and APSA, situated them to have significant impact on the reports by the NEA committee to Reorganize Secondary Education and shape what would become known as the Social Studies.

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The Creation of the Social Studies Around 1900, clearly more and more civic-minded individuals and entities became interested in the purpose, format, and curriculum of schools— particularly what we now consider the social studies curriculum: history, civics, geography, and economics. The new interest in school curriculum sparked a series of national committees, which were composed of a variety of stakeholders, and tasked with defining the curriculum.40 Between 1892 and 1916, six different committees of educators made recommendations concerning what would become the social studies curriculum in American schools. One of those committees was the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education (CRSE) of the National Education Association (NEA). The CRSE of the NEA consisted of sixteen different committees. Each committee published at least one report on some aspect of the secondary curriculum or administration in American schools.41 Historians of education agree that the final reports of the Committee on Social Studies, The Teaching of Community Civics (1915) and The Social Studies in Secondary Education (1916), were among the most influential documents produced by the CRSE. The recommendations of the Committee on Social Studies resulted in establishing the scope and sequence of social studies instruction for grades 6–12, which has remained virtually unchanged into the twenty-first century. The most important committee report, for the purposes of this book, was The Social Studies in Secondary Education (1916) report by the Committee of Social Studies of the CRSE of the NEA (referred to from here on as the 1916 Report and the 1916 Committee). The 1916 Committee and all previous committees were part of larger efforts to reorganize the school curriculum across the United States due to increased enrollments and the changing demographics of the city populations. Committees, like the 1916 Committee, were given the task of “modernizing” the curriculum and creating a more uniform scope and sequence of courses for schools across the country to follow. The CRSE committees were also tasked with creating semi-unified entrance requirements for colleges and universities, which were to be accomplished by creating a more cohesive high school curriculum across the country.42 Leading up to the 1916 Report, there was increased criticism about schooling and the results of previous committees. The increased criticism guided the NEA at its 1912 meeting to create the CRSE, in which

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they charged several committees with the task of making recommendations about every high school subject area. These committees included the social studies, which was the first time the discipline was formally recognized by the NEA. By 1912, there were a couple of common criticisms regarding the “social studies” school curriculum, resulting from the recommendations of the nearly twenty-year-old Committee of Ten (1894) report. These common concerns strengthened the committee’s case for a more prominent civics presence in the curriculum. Primarily, they were concerned with outdated subjects, such as Ancient History, which could keep civics out for the curriculum.43 Secondarily, the committee was concerned with the lack of basic moral or ethical training for students, which they deemed important for decision making as citizens.44 These two criticisms opened the door for advocates of civic education to campaign for making social studies courses more focused on civics, and less focused on traditional history. Additionally, in 1913, when the NEA appointed the committees, several national and international issues were pressing and would have influenced the committee’s conduct and outcomes. For example, World War I contributed to the influx of immigrants, especially the great wave of Eastern and Southern European immigrants. Many Americans viewed these immigrants very differently than Western Europeans who had constituted the previous great wave of immigrants.45 The new immigrants provided the manpower for the sweatshops and factories, which eventually grew into larger powerful corporations. Working conditions were poor and dangerous, with children and adults losing their lives while working long hours. Many cities saw urban slums become so overcrowded that diseases spread rapidly, which presented many social problems for the rapidly growing cities. Settlement houses and other private social welfare agencies arose to meet the needs of this exploited under class, but many wanted schools to take on a larger role. Thus, an underlying focus for the committee was creating a curriculum that could impact young students before they became working age. Schools in many cities had already begun addressing these national issues as they had welcomed children who immigrated with their parents and lived in the same conditions. Many believed that schooling the children of immigrants was not only an opportunity to educate them about sanitary living, but also an opportunity to indirectly educate their parents and greater communities. In this way, the Americanization movement’s

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influence overlapped and contributed to the 1916 Committee’s Report. Thus, many educational policy makers believed the schools would need to provide children of immigrants with the “knowledge of language, custom, health practices, and economic consumerism.”46 If the schools could provide these types of knowledge and behaviors, then policy makers hoped students would understand their civic duties as both citizens and immigrants. The Americanization influence provided the catalyst for the 1916 Committee to shift and advocate for the social studies, instead of a more history-based curriculum, to more socially and civically based courses.47 In consideration of these issues and many more facing the growing urban school systems, the 1916 Report had to consider a lot of intended outcomes and accommodate many interests. The combination of social science disciplines comprised in the social studies, with the anchor course of Community Civics, was meant to appease these interests.48 The 1916 Report, and the committee that wrote it, have generally been given credit for the creation of the national sequence of social studies disciplinary courses (e.g., history, geography, civics), which have changed only incrementally over the past century. While many credit the 1916 Committee with creating the social studies, others have suggested that the committee was just responding to the trends already in motion.49 Regardless of possible trends already in motion, Evans noted the significance of the report: The 1916 report proposed a new synthesis of social studies subjects and suggested a pattern of courses that was different from what existed in most schools prior to that time. In its report, the committee recommended greater emphasis on current issues, social problems, and recent history and a greater emphasis on the needs and interests of students.50

The new distinguishable focus on current issues, social problems, and recent history was a sharp contrast from the current scope and sequence in most schools, and especially distinct from previous committees—like the AHA and APSA—recommendations. The traditional history curriculum, which had been advocated by previous committees, had become unpopular in part because it focused on the individual agency of historical figures. In 1913, trends had accumulated in calling for a “social centered education,” which was an approach that grew out of psychology, the social sciences, and philosophy.51 Evans asserted that “the work of the

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committee was a compromise, influenced by multiple camps, all of which were represented in the final report”52 including the various social sciences, which had become popular at this time and advocated for social efficiency, social welfare, and a progressive version of history teaching. A compromise among these multiple camps signaled a successive shift in thinking about the social science curriculum because it had been dominated by the AHA and APSA. Many analyses of the 1916 Report described a definitive shift in social science curriculum and even common views of society.53 However, Evans partially dissented and wrote, “Commission reports are almost always an expression of change already under way”54 as teachers and schools had begun adapting their curriculum to the needs of their growing school population. The school efficiency movement and the school progress movement were consistently influencing a majority of schools in the United States by 1912.55 The focus of attention was to make schools more efficient, eliminate waste, and reform the teaching of subject matter that lacked practical value. Despite these nationwide movements, Evans noted that the most substantial influence on the 1916 Committee was John Dewey. In particular, it was Dewey’s prioritization of the students’ needs over the coverage of the subject matter.56 For example, Dewey would have advocated for history coursework to be more functional for the student, as he wrote, “past events cannot be separated from the living present and retain meaning. The true starting point of history is always some present situation with its problems.”57 The 1916 Report took a definitive stance on students’ present interests and needs, and clearly tried to align with Dewey.58 The authors of the 1916 Report also made clear their priorities in developing the group, over the individual, writing “individual interests and needs were secondary to the needs of society as a whole.”59 This focus on society was a major departure from the previous reports, which focused on individual intellectual development of students. The new focus on society as a whole was possibly the best philosophical indication that the 1916 Committee aimed to promote students’ civic knowledge and skills, while moving away from the development of the individual student’s knowledge of government and rights, for the purpose of reforming society. Another major indication of the 1916 Committee’s shift toward a focus on civic education was two new courses they introduced, which they recommended to be part of the school curriculum. One such course was Community Civics, which emerged as a direct product of discussions at

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the turn of the century and focused on the need to improve and expand citizenship education in schools. Advocates of this focus intended to purify American politics and solve social problems by developing students’ skills to be citizens. Advocates of Community Civics distinguished the new course from the older civics instruction by its audience, its pedagogy, and its subject matter. The 1916 Committee intended for Community Civics to be taught, at the very least, in the eighth grade because during the Progressive Era many students did not finish high school.60 Thus, the committee members believed the course would have its greatest impact on the community and society if taught at this point in the sequence of the curriculum. It is at this point where the history of the social studies and the subject of this book overlap. The teaching of civics had been advocated for and taught in some high schools since at least the mid-1880s.61 The history of civics and civil government will be discussed in depth in the following chapters of the book. However, the designers of Community Civics believed that their new course was a drastic improvement on traditional civics instruction. As mentioned above, it was to be taught to younger students. In many high schools, civics had typically been offered in the senior year of high school. This was because many believed that learning about the functioning of government required a more mature mind, not to mention, older students would soon be assuming political responsibilities. Arthur W. Dunn was one of the primary advocates of this course on the 1916 Committee, and also one individual who developed a textbook to support the course, called The Community and the Citizen.62 Dunn and other advocates of Community Civics also emphasized the benefits of the courses’ pedagogy, which resembled many progressive reforms. Their prescribed pedagogy moved away from the recitation method, in which the teacher asked a student a question and the student responded with an answer. Instead, Dunn and others advocated more student-centered activities based on inquiry. Dunn and others argued, “that teaching civics through recitation undermined the goals of civics because it did not train students to reflect upon social and political problems.”63 The advocates of community civics wanted to incorporate various methods to engage students actively in the subject matter. The 1916 Committee also recommended another new course, which was called Problems of Democracy. This course was apparently invented by the 1916 Committee to replace the civics courses already in place

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during the last year of high school. The course, Problems of Democracy, was also an attempt to fuse several of the social sciences together into one course. The 1916 Committee wanted to utilize the students’ knowledge they had gained from other history and social studies courses and developed the course curriculum to be centered on social problems.64 The course represented a compromise for all of the social science interests in the new social studies curriculum, and the curriculum advocated social science inquiry methods to engage students in the social problems of their community and country. This was a radical departure from the typical methods and practices in schools. The Problems of Democracy course content would be selected based upon student interest and importance to society. The textbooks of the course demonstrated, “the course tended to fuse content from three main disciplines, government, economics, and sociology, with a smattering of historical backgrounds or other contents.”65 Regardless, the new Problems of Democracy course represented the culmination of interests in education for social betterment, and fused subject matter from several social science disciplines, to focus on the process of reflective social thinking. Many of the 1916 Committee reflected the distinctive American character described by Smith,66 and in part, the impetus for social studies reform during the Progressive Era came from a desire to Americanize the masses, spurred by fear of foreign ideologies and cultures. Educational leaders hoped that schools could help address modern problems of the urban areas, industrialization, and immigration while supporting the general status quo of liberal capitalist democracy. This would create allegiance to the state and the appearance of progress. Even though it was aimed at social betterment and improvement, the 1916 Report on Social Studies was created by White middle-class men of northwest European descent who generally assumed the hegemony of their own group, and ignored race or ethnicity as an issue.67 The members of the 1916 Committee wanted to develop a practical and flexible curriculum that would improve the teaching of social studies subjects in schools, and address educators’ concerns for social improvement. Beyond appearance, the 1916 Report attempted to reconcile competing visions between social efficiency and traditional history instruction.68 This reconciliation resulted in curricular recommendations that were progressive, socially motivated, and civically focused. While this compromise signaled a shift in national policy, many of its components were already being implemented in schools.

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The Rise of Curriculum Ideologies At the turn of the century, the school curriculum had undoubtedly became a major focal point in American schools and society. It became apparent that schools could serve as major socializing institutions and curriculum could be the means to shape, control, or influence the ways schools socialized students. Just like the Americanization movement, there were several prominent perspectives regarding the priorities of socialization. Herbert Kliebard provided the most widely used framework for understanding the curriculum ideologies of the Progressive Era. He identified four distinct curriculum ideologies—humanist, child-centered or developmentalists, social efficiency, social meliorists, or reconstructionist. Kliebard also identified Dewey as unique, and perhaps his own curricular ideology, which each of the other four ideologies tries to appropriate for their own purposes. Kliebard frames the humanist perspective as the traditional view of education, in which teachers are the experts there to fill the children who are empty vessels. Kliebard framed the other three, as well as Dewey, as progressive challenges to the humanist perspective.69 Kliebard and other educational historians have characterized these curriculum ideologies as constantly in a state of debate and comprise, trying to find consensus on the best ways to educate and/or socialize students. Kliebard has described the debates among curricular stakeholders as “struggles,” while Evans has called the debates, specifically in the social sciences, “wars.”70 While these descriptions may be dramatic, they demonstrate ideological battles that arose at the turn of the century over the control of schools through the curriculum. Social studies curricula and, specifically, civics curricula were at the heart of these battles due to the confluence of the Americanization movement, urban development, and civil society’s interest in schools.

Donnan, Dunn, and Shortridge as Illustration of the Progressive Era This chapter has provided a brief overview of the groups that were working to influence civic education around 1900, and the ideological forces at play. The following chapters will illustrate the struggles over curriculum, and specifically civics curriculum, in one Progressive Era high school. Shortridge High School served as a curricular laboratory for two progressive educators who had different priorities for civic education in the era. Laura Donnan represented a female social educator approach,

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focused on social reconstruction for the purpose of social change, while Arthur Dunn represented the social efficiency approach advocated by a cross-section of stakeholders for the purpose of social control. Their stories, as well as their intersection between 1900 and 1910, offer a unique look at the curricular ideologies in play during the era. Their stories will also provide an opportunity to examine the societal ideologies that drove Donnan’s curriculum and pedagogy, and equally enabled Dunn’s professional achievements. Lastly, their stories will provide a chance to integrate how we think about curricular continuity and/or change in the history of curriculum.

Notes 1. Jeffrey Mirel, Patriotic Pluralism: Americanization Education and European Immigrants (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010). 2. Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957 (New York: Knopf, 1961), vii. 3. Julie A. Reuben, “Beyond Politics: Community Civics and the Redefinition of Citizenship in the Progressive Era,” History of Education Quarterly 37, no. 4 (1997): 399–420. 4. See note 3 above. 5. Alexander Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens: A History of Civic Education in Indianapolis, 1900–1950” (phd dissertation, Indiana University, 1996). 6. Rogers Smith, Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in US History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). 7. See note 6 above. 8. See note 1 above. 9. See note 6 above. 10. Mirel, 26. 11. Mirel, 28. 12. See note 1 above. 13. See note 1 above. 14. Mirel, 33. 15. Zoe Burkholder, Color in the Classroom: How American Schools Taught Race, 1900–1954 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). 16. See note 6 above. 17. See note 1 above. 18. Gary Gerstle, American Crucible (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). 19. See note 1 above. 20. Gerstle, 45. 21. Gerstle, 4.

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22. Gerstle, 59. 23. Zoe Burkholder, Color in the Classroom; J. Spencer Clark, “Notions of Citizenship: Discussing Race in the Shortridge High School Senate, 1900–1928,” in Histories of Social Studies and Race, eds. Christine Woyshner and Chara Bohan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). 24. See note 6 above. 25. Rogers Smith, “The ‘American Creed’ and American Identity: The Limits of Liberal Citizenship in the United States,” Western Political Quarterly 41, no. 2 (1988): 225–251. 26. See notes 1, 16, and 19 above. 27. See note 16 above. 28. Zoe Burkholder, Color in the Classroom; J. Spencer Clark, “Notions of Citizenship: Discussing Race in the Shortridge High School Senate, 1900–1928,” in Histories of Social Studies and Race, eds. Christine Woyshner and Chara Bohan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Andrea Makler, conclusion to Bending the Future to Their Will: Civic Women, Social Education, and Democracy, eds. Margaret Crocco and O. L. Davis (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999). 29. Indianapolis Public School, “Annual Report of the Secretary, Business Director, Superintendent of Schools, and the Librarian” (report, Indianapolis, 1902). 30. William W. Cutler, Parents and Schools: The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000); William J. Reese, “Between Home and School: Organized Parents, Clubwomen, and Urban Education in the Progressive Era,” School Review, 34 (1978); Christine Woyshner, “Women’s Associations and the Origins of the Social Studies: Volunteers, Professionals, and the Community Civics Curriculum, 1890–1920,” International Journal of Social Education 18, no. 2 (2004): 15–26. 31. Woyshner, “Women’s Associations and the Origins of the Social Studies.” 32. See note 31 above. 33. O. Shepard Barnum, “The Work of the Coming Year,” National Education Association (proceedings, 1910), 1078. 34. Reese, “Between Home and School: Organized Parents, Clubwomen, and Urban Education in the Progressive Era.” 35. See note 31 above. 36. Woyshner, “Women’s Associations and the Origins of the Social Studies”; Arthur W. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1907). 37. Michael B. Lybarger, “The Political Context of the Social Studies: Creating a Constituency for Municipal Reform,” Theory & Research in Social Education 8, no. 3 (1980): 1–27; Jeremy Kelton Williams, “Interpreting Civic Education in American Educational Thought from

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38. 39.

40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46.

47. 48. 49.

50. 51. 52. 53.

54. 55. 56. 57. 58.

59.

Progressivism through Multiculturalism” (phd dissertation, Texas A & M University, 2012). Thomas S. Vontz, “Perspectives on Civic Education, 1898–1916” (report, Washington, DC, 1997). William H. Maxwell and J. J. Sheppard, “Instruction in Municipal Government in Secondary and Elementary Schools,” in Proceedings of the New York Conference on Good City Government and of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of National Municipal League, ed. Clinton Rogers Woodruff (Philadelphia: National Municipal League, 1905), 257. Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004); Herbert M. Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958 (New York: Routledge, 2004). Michael B. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1981). Evans, The Social Studies Wars. See note 43 above. See note 39 above. Gerstle, American Crucible; Smith, Civic Ideals. Murray R. Nelson (Ed.), “The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Reprint of the Seminal 1916 Report with Annotations and Commentaries” (Bloomington: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1994). See note 48 above. See note 3 above. Evans, The Social Studies Wars; J. Spencer Clark, “Cultivating Individual Agency in Progressive Times: The Civic Education Program at Shortridge High School 1883–1928,” American Educational History Journal 38, no. 1/2 (2011). Evans, 21. Saxe, 110. Evans, 22. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum”; David Warren Saxe, Social Studies in Schools: A History of the Early Years (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991). Evans, 22. Evans, The Social Studies Wars; Kliebard, Struggle for the Curriculum. Evans, The Social Studies Wars. Dewey in Saxe, 124. Arthur W. Dunn, “The Social Studies in Secondary Education, Bulletin no. 28 of the Bureau of Education” (report, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1916). Evans, 23.

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60. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum.” 61. Laura Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” The Journal of Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association Annual Meeting 28 (1889). 62. Dunn, Community and the Citizen. 63. Reuben, 404. 64. Evans, The Social Studies Wars. 65. Evans, 24. 66. Smith, Civic Ideals. 67. Evans, The Social Studies Wars; William Henry Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865–1954 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001). 68. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum.” 69. Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum. 70. See note 57 above.

CHAPTER 4

Laura Donnan

Abstract This chapter will provide an introduction to Laura Donnan and her celebrated career at Shortridge High School. It will begin by describing her upbringing and the various influences on her early life. It will examine her education from the Normal School at Indianapolis, to the University of Michigan, to professional development at the University of Chicago and Columbia University—coincidentally following Professor John Dewey. The chapter will also describe Donnan’s teaching and extracurricular activities at Shortridge. Donnan was very popular with her students, which resulted in a vibrant civic culture at Shortridge. Donnan’s work and civic associations outside of Shortridge will also be discussed in relation to her pedagogy. The literature on Donnan demonstrated she had both a local and a regional reputation regarding her civic pedagogy and created a civic culture at Shortridge that influenced many, inside and outside the school. Keywords Laura Donnan · Shortridge High School · Civic culture · Suffragist

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_4

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Laura Donnan was well known in Indianapolis as a civic educator, activist, and devout citizen. Donnan was an educator for more than fifty years (1873–1874; 1879–1927), in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, during the most progressive changes to American education, especially at the high school level. Donnan taught a variety of what today would be considered social studies courses, but her primary expertise was teaching courses on civil government. Recitation of the constitution was a popular classroom practice during her time; however, Donnan’s pedagogy involved only minimal recitation and instead emphasized the development of her students’ knowledge and skills for active citizenship.1 Donnan’s pedagogy demonstrated one of the shifts in curricular ideology during a period of intense curricular debate. Her courses and pedagogy embodied what we now consider to be the social studies curriculum, which was a major shift from its history-laden curricular precursor that was common in the 1890s. By providing insight into her classroom practice prior to the 1916 Report, Donnan’s career illustrates some of the “trends” that “were well in motion” preceding the committee meetings that led to the creation of the social studies in 1916.2

Early Life and Influences Laura Donnan was born to abolitionist parents in 1854. Her father, David, was from Scotland, grew up in Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis in the mid-1830s. Her mother, Barbara, was raised in Pennsylvania by German-born parents and moved to Indianapolis in the late 1830s. David and Barbara were married in 1841 in Indianapolis and settled a few blocks from the Indiana state capitol on North Capitol Avenue. David Donnan was remembered in a city historical publication as well-regarded builder in Indianapolis and a high-degree Mason. David died two months before his 40th birthday and was survived by his wife, by forty-five years.3 Laura Donnan was only six months old when her father passed away, from a job-related accident. She had five older siblings that would fill the void left by her father’s death. She had two older brothers, Wallace (1846–1901) and Theodore (1848–1910), and three older sisters named Margaretta (1842–1912), Caroline (1844–1925), and Emma (1852– 1936). Donnan continued to live at her parents’ house for most of her life with her brother Theodore, a tradesman, and her two sisters, Caroline, a dressmaker, and Emma, an elementary school principal in

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Indianapolis. Her sister Margaretta, a housewife, married another prominent builder, and Mason, in Indianapolis who became fire chief for the entire city, and never had children. Her brother Wallace, a tradesman, was married to Mary (May) Winters Donnan (1858–1913), and had two children.4 Personal correspondence, from Emma Donnan to a relative about genealogy, indicated all of the Donnan children were “educated well.”5 Emma, Laura, and their niece Margaret all attended courses at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, with Margaret graduating from the University of Chicago in 1902.6 The Donnan family was full of well-skilled, well-educated, as well as socially and civically respected individuals who undoubtedly would have influenced Laura in her early years. In particular, it seems her sister, Emma, and her sister-in-law, May W. Donnan had, at the very least, shared interests. Emma Donnan was born in Indianapolis two years before Laura, attended Indianapolis elementary schools, and Indianapolis High School, graduated from the Indianapolis Normal School in 1874, and even took courses at the University of Chicago and Columbia University with Laura. She began teaching in the Indianapolis Public Schools in 1874.7 She taught in a number of elementary schools, was a district supervisor for several years, and spent the latter part of her career as a school principal. Emma was among a small group of educators, including Laura, who were forced to retire by special action of the Board of School Commissioners in 1928, as they were beginning a new tenure policy.8 At the time of her retirement, Emma Donnan had been an educator in the Indianapolis Public Schools for fifty-four years, which was a record for length of service in the District. Emma was the last of her siblings to pass away, and most of her estate was given to Indianapolis Public Schools, except for scholarships to be awarded each year to the top student of School #18 (now the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School), and students at both Crispus Attucks High School and Shortridge High School.9 There is currently one school in Indianapolis that carries her namesake, Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School. Emma and Laura experienced a lot together, including a trip to New York to attend the famous Chautauqua Institution, which was the “Mother Chautauqua” of the various Chautauquas around the country.10 May Winters Donnan was known for many things in Indianapolis and around the state. She was an elementary teacher until 1889, a regular contributor—mostly poetry and short stories—to the Indianapolis Journal newspaper (1890–1910), an active member of Indianapolis Free

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Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Societies, and co-founding editor of The Kindergarten Monthly—a city-wide periodical highlighting the need and programming of free kindergarten in the city. However, she was most known for her work as a literature teacher and was considered “one of the most successful teachers of literature in the state.”11 May was well known in Indianapolis for leading literature classes at the Art Institute and in other nearby cities—something her daughter Margaret would do after her mother’s death. There are also numerous newspaper advertisements for a Tudor Hall School for Girls, advertising college preparatory certificates for prestigious colleges that centered around the English literature instruction of May W. Donnan.12 Margaret published a book of her mother’s poetry posthumously in 1914, titled Various Verses.13 Margaret was also an English literature teacher at Manual High School, and privately like her mother. May and Margaret would accompany Emma and Laura on professional learning trips to Chicago and around the region.14 The four Donnan women had a major impact on the educational milieu of Indianapolis at the turn of the century through their work and volunteerism, even serving on societal committees (e.g., the Contemporary Club) with the Superintendent of Indianapolis Schools, C.N. Kendall, and the President of the Indianapolis Normal School, Mary E. Nicholson. In addition to her family influences, as a teenager, Laura listened to speeches and ethical debates at the capitol during and after the Civil War. She held Abraham Lincoln in the highest regard and was party to the abolitionist discussions held by her family at her house. Though still young, the Civil War years must have been a formative time for her because she wrote her first book about the governor of Indiana during this period, titled The War Governor of Indiana about Governor Oliver Perry Morton.15 The short book was meant to be a resource for the classroom, yet it demonstrated Donnan’s value for local government and leadership, American federalism, and American democracy. Laura would continue to discuss the Civil War educationally in her spare time, providing talks for children at Indianapolis’ John Herron Art Institute and Public Library.16 Growing up in a large family that was educated and socially active, Laura was raised in an environment that prepared her well for the discussion-based and active teaching she would become known for at Shortridge. Fittingly then, Laura Donnan spent most of her life in close proximity to the civic center of her city and state, where her family had developed

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notoriety in a relatively short time. Her house was also well known by her students, colleagues, and associates of all of her and her family’s civic and societal organizations, as the house served as meeting place, event space, and discussion parlor. A former student and later friend, Claude Bowers, remembered her home and some unique characteristics in his memoir, writing: The old family home where she and two unmarried sisters still lived would have seemed quite in place in the Concord of Emerson, Alcott and Hawthorne. A frame house, plainly and comfortably furnished, it had a library rich in the volumes that live on. I recall busts of Emerson and Lincoln, whom she loved. Being an individualist, she refused to measure her conduct by the tape of fashion. Because she did her own marketing and found it irksome to carry the packages, she bought a boy’s toy wagon, and her friends smiled and strangers stared when they saw this woman in her plain gray tailored suit nonchalantly drawing it along the sidewalks.17

Laura Donnan had many experiences that shaped her unique, individualist perspective and worldview, which all began with her environment as a child and influences as an adolescent and young adult.

Education and Early Teaching Positions Laura was possibly the most educated person in her family, considering all of her experiences and degrees. In 1872, Laura graduated from Indianapolis High School, which would become Shortridge High School in 1900, in a class of six females and two males. After high school, Laura attended the Indianapolis Normal School for one year, just as her sister Emma.18 Up until 1890, one year was the typical course of study at the Normal School, and consisted of mostly observation, practice teaching, and collaboration.19 The Indianapolis Normal School was opened in 1867 by A.C. Shortridge, the second superintendent of Indianapolis schools, the second president of Purdue University in 1874, and the namesake of the high school. Shortridge was an early teacher educator and as superintendent of Indianapolis he wanted to create a quality training school for all elementary teachers. At the time it was only one of eight such teacher training centers in the country.20 After completing her year at the Normal School, Laura taught at elementary School #3 in Indianapolis for the 1873–1874 school year and then resigned in December

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of the 1874–1875 school year to attend the University Michigan in Spring 1875.21 Laura began attending the University of Michigan in 1875 and received her bachelor’s of arts degree in 1879 in the classical course of study. She was a member of several clubs or “secret societies” on campus.22 Laura then returned to Indianapolis and began teaching at elementary School #11, where her sister Emma was the principal.23 She was appointed to elementary School #4 in 1880 and then resigned just before the school year started to take a high school position in Knightstown, IN.24 She was at Knightstown for one year before moving to Cambridge City, IN in 1881 and teaching at the high school for two years.25 In 1883, she returned to Indianapolis to teach at her alma mater, where she remained for forty-five years.26 Laura then continued her education and enrolled in a master’s of arts program at the University of Michigan in absentia. It appears she was able to take courses during the summer and in a personalized manner of study during the school year, as Laura received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1887.27 For her master’s, she majored in constitutional history of the United States and minored in Latin and English literature. She defended her thesis on June 21st, 1887, which was titled, “Duties of a Private Citizen in a Republic.”28 Thus, Laura completed her thesis while she was teaching at Shortridge and also working on other writing projects—thus establishing herself as an educator-academic in Indianapolis. Laura also engaged in regular professional development through active involvement in organizations and through university coursework. She attended several National Education Association (NEA) conferences, and even presented at the 1889 NEA conference, which will be discussed in depth in the next chapter. She also was an active member of the Indiana History Teachers Association and Indiana Teachers Association. Laura published in both the history teacher and education journals and often served as the representative for Shortridge High School at city and statewide educational committees and functions.29 Laura also attended the University of Chicago via extension lecture study courses in the mid-to-late 1890s. She often went with her sister Emma, and sometimes with her sister-in-law May. The Donnans frequented Chicago more when Laura and Emma’s niece,30 Margaret, was attending the University of Chicago. Many of these courses offered

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by the University of Chicago were on Saturdays to accommodate practicing educators.31 Instructors for these courses included well-known progressive educators: John Dewey, Frank and Charles McMurry, Charles De Garmo, Frank Manny, Ella Flagg Young, and Julia Bulkley.32 It is not clear what courses Donnan took, but she was clearly a regular at the university. For example, she attended social events for the women’s dorms, which were headed by Professor Julia Bulkley, and was also a multiyear officer for the Indianapolis chapter of University of Chicago Alumni Club.33 Laura, Emma, and Margaret also reportedly took courses at Columbia University, but did not attain a degree; however, May is the only Donnan documented in the summer coursework register.34 It appears Columbia University quit listing summer student registration around 1910 due to increased enrollments. For example, when Margaret reportedly attended in 1915, there were 94 students enrolled from Indianapolis out of the 3407 non-matriculated students who took summer courses.35 Therefore, it was popular for educators and students alike, from across the country, to take summer courses at prestigious universities. It should be noted that while there is no evidence of interaction between Professor John Dewey and the Donnans, all four Donnan women took coursework at the University of Chicago and Columbia University while Dewey was on active faculty at each university. In addition, Laura also finished her thesis during Dewey’s time at the University of Michigan. While the University of Chicago and University of Michigan are in regional proximity to Indianapolis, Columbia University is not, and would probably have been chosen for a specific purpose considering the burden of travel. Regardless of whether any of the Donnans took courses with Dewey, he had largely shaped the pedagogy courses in those departments, especially at the University of Chicago.36 More importantly, it indicates that Laura and her family of educators were aware of educational trends and movements of the time and wanted to be current in their pedagogy.

School Life When Laura arrived at Shortridge in 1883, she quickly became very popular with her students. From student accounts, newspaper articles, and evidence of her pedagogy, her popularity could probably be attributed to her role in extracurricular activities she initiated and sponsored, the student-centered focus of her pedagogy, the relevancy of the classes she

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taught, and her presence at most school functions. Laura had sponsored nearly every school activity, at one time or another, over the span of her career. Laura’s devotion and effort were very apparent, as noted regularly in the school newspaper.37 Among these, Donnan was most famous for her creation, the Shortridge Senate, which existed at the school for nearly one hundred years, starting in 1883 in her classroom and then becoming an extracurricular activity in 1887. Word of the Senate spread and its format was eventually duplicated by schools across the country.38 In addition to the Shortridge Senate, Laura Donnan founded and sponsored several other activities, including the Shortridge Oratorical Society; the John Quincy Adams Club, which provided a forum to debate school and governmental issues pertinent to students in an impromptu manner; the Keyes Association, which discussed patriotic topics and coordinated patriotic events and activities in the community; and the Shortridge Daily Echo, which was the first daily high school newspaper in the country. Laura also partook in nearly every field trip to chaperone the girls as, “she did not want the girls to miss out on anything,” while she could be seen at nearly every sporting event and other school activity, showing her support.39 Laura began developing a civic culture as soon as she arrived at Shortridge and demonstrated participation in a civic culture through her school involvement. In 1887, four years after Laura began teaching at Shortridge, Civil Government became a required course for graduation.40 Until this point, the Civil Government course had been taken by freshmen students and served as the foundation for a broader civic education program instituted by Laura. Therefore, after 1887, Laura would have had most, if not all, students who began their high school experience at Shortridge. Laura’s constant presence and leadership in school activities allowed her to build relationships with students she did not have in class, and deepened relationships with those she did have in class. In many ways, her different approach to education drew many students to the activities she led. Shortridge students remembered Laura’s pedagogy as being starkly different in method from their other teachers: She taught American Constitutional History…. On the first day of her class she directed that all notebooks be placed on the left side of the students’ desks with name and seat number clearly marked. Then she would produce a market basket, walk up and down the aisle and telling the students that

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the knowledge they acquired in her class was to reside in their minds, not their notebooks.41

Her students’ description of Laura’s practice in the classroom provides a glimpse of her epistemology, which served as the basis of civic education at Shortridge for forty-five years and will be discussed in depth in Chapters 3 and 7. With the forced retirement s of her and her sister Emma in 1928, Laura left an unwavering mark on Shortridge pedagogy and the Indianapolis community during the Progressive Era. An excerpt, following Laura’s death, demonstrates her remembrance by the Indianapolis community and succinctly her impact on the community through civic education: For almost half of a century a teacher of civil government, she created in thousands a fine civic consciousness.… A woman of intense convictions on the civic and political problems of the time, she welcomed hot opposition to her views. She knew that democracy means debate and free speech. No student ever suffered by disagreeing with her. All she asked was that he or she be honest in his or her opinion and be able to submit reasons for it. She thought more of one who always disagreed than of one who always agreed. The latter she expected.42

While her teaching and activities at Shortridge were her primary contributions to civic life, she also contributed to civic life in other ways.

Professional Life Outside of Shortridge Laura Donnan was a published author developing manuscripts for both book and journal publications. She developed two books, one reader, mentioned earlier—The War Governor of Indiana—and one textbook titled, Our Governments: Brief Talks to the American Youth on Our Governments, General and Local .43 Her textbook was published by a national publisher and advertised in teacher publications across the country. Laura’s textbook was seen as part of the second wave of teaching civics that moved away from the formal teaching of civil government.44 Laura presented the book in this manner in the preface, by writing: This book, which is the result of seventeen years’ experience in teaching the subject of civil government, has two purposes: To instruct the youth in

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regard to the origin, character and practical working of our governments; to arouse the civic conscience. To the student of botany, a real oak leaf is worth more than pages of description of the oak leaf, written in language however suggestive. True students like to come in contact with actual examples.45

Laura asserts her experience teaching and the need for students to authentically engage in civics as the basis of the book, and introduces a fairly new term and idea in civic education: civic conscience. Civic conscience signals Laura’s departure from the traditional civil government course. It was a term only seen in social religious texts, with the exception of one other publication by Edmund J. James at the University of Chicago, titled Teaching Duties of Citizenship in Public Schools.46 James was a Professor of Public Administration and Director of the University Extension School at the University of Chicago; therefore, it is possible Laura took a course from him. Regardless, Laura provided the first instance of civic conscience. However, her new colleague Arthur Dunn used a similar idea in his own publication in 1907, civic consciousness, which would become popular in the new social studies literature that followed.47 Interestingly, Dunn also uses the same verb—“arouse” civic consciousness—in the purpose statement of his book, just as Laura. The first two sections of Laura’s book served as more of a primary document resource, with commentary and contextualization, for her students to analyze and use. The third section introduced the roles of local and state governments, and their purposes in a federal system. She noted in the preface that she organized the book in this fashion so that teachers could teach either federal or local first. Interestingly, Arthur Dunn’s textbook would focus nearly entirely on the local aspects, with only a few chapters on state and national government near the end, and an appendix of the constitution and other documents, similar to Donnan. The local emphasis would be a defining aspect of the community civics curriculum he would become known for in civic education. While Laura’s textbook probably had sparse adoption in civic education classrooms outside her own, it was an early example of the trends that would become mainstream over the next fifteen years in civic and social studies education. Laura published in several journals also. The most relevant and significant articles were related to her presentation at the National Education Association (NEA) in 1889. She had a series of four articles in volume IV of The Public-School Journal (1889–1890), all about teaching civil

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government in grades K-12.48 In two of these articles, Donnan advocated the teaching of the American civil government history, in elementary school (K-8), through literature to seemingly develop empathy for “other citizens.” Her articles demonstrated a holistic approach to civic education starting in kindergarten for the purpose of enhancing her own high school course. For example, she suggested students to read such works as, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Voices of Freedom, so that, “the children become morally stronger and in a fit condition to begin the formal study of civil government.”49 These articles are important because they demonstrate a vision Laura had for civic education within the district, which is something her future colleague Arthur Dunn would also research and write about while in Indianapolis. Dunn would come to emphasize civics in elementary schools, similar to Henry W. Thurston in Chicago, and also focus on the use of literature. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Donnan was also the primary member of the Shortridge faculty that founded the Shortridge Free Night High School (SFNHS) in 1898. As mentioned in Chapter 1, free night schools were common in the Progressive Era and served as ways to educate adult immigrants. Many in the Americanization movement saw it as an opportunity to assimilate adult immigrants into the culture. Laura served as the SFNHS principal for several years and administered a pluralist approach to educating the night school students. The SFNHS was actually open to anyone in the Indianapolis community, as there were no exclusions due to age, race, or sex.50 The enrollment appeared to fluctuate around one hundred students, from 1898 to 1902, with Laura reporting a total enrollment over 400 total in 1902.51 The SFNHS graduated its first student in 1902 from Shortridge, for which Laura held a party at her house and invited students from her civil government classes to attend.52 Laura received no compensation for her time at the SFNHS, nor did any other teachers, as Laura did not want colleagues teaching the night school students purely for monetary gain. No compensation was one of seven conditions put forth in her creation of the school.53 Laura’s creation of and work at the SFNHS is not surprising because Laura truly viewed teaching as a means of social change, and learning a means of social transformation.54 Laura was also one of the inaugural instructors at the Indiana Law School, which was the closest she got to her early aspiration of practicing law.55 Not much is known about her role here, but it is assumed she taught foundational courses on the constitution—as it was the topic of her

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master’s thesis. A fellow instructor at the law school was Indiana Supreme Court Justice James B. Black, who Laura acknowledged in her textbook, visited on class trips to the courthouse, and socialized with at civic and literary clubs. Her role and connections to the Indiana Law School further demonstrated her place in the civic and social fabric of Indianapolis.56

Civic Life It has already been mentioned that Laura Donnan was a member of many civic, literary, and social clubs in Indianapolis. In addition to her school and civic committees, she was a member of several Women’s Clubs, the Contemporary Club, the Shakespeare Club, the University of Chicago Alumni Club, the Red Cross, and Suffrage groups in Indianapolis.57 These clubs constituted social and civic networks, not to mention family connections, that empowered Laura to teach confidently as an active civic leader and social member of Indianapolis—and in a sense, it is representative of the culture she created at Shortridge. Laura, first and foremost, was regarded as a feminist and early advocate for women’s suffrage. Donnan founded the Indianapolis Suffrage Society in 1872 when she was eighteen years old, along with Captain and Mrs. Horace McKay.58 Captain Horace McKay was known for his leadership of the 15th US Colored Troops during the Civil War.59 Laura’s epistemology, worldview, and professional potential could be seen in her actions in this one year alone. In 1872, Laura would graduate high school, cofound a suffrage organization with fellow abolitionist, attend the Indianapolis Normal School, and prepare to begin her teaching career the following year.

Epistemology and Worldview It is clear that there were many experiences that shaped Laura’s epistemology and worldview. Yet, her early devotion to fighting for equal rights of all citizens stands out and appears to be the primary intention behind her achievement of agency in each context. Whether it was advocating for Black citizens and students, teaching immigrants at the night school, or advocating for women’s suffrage, Laura was focused on amplifying the denied rights of marginalized citizens and she thought education, and specifically civic education, was the best way to promote social change. Laura’s agency was probably a product of the environment in which she

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was raised and the support of her family and various personal associates who also advocated for marginalized citizens’ rights. However, despite her supportive environment, Laura positioned herself in contexts and took actions that she would undoubtedly have been confronted by colleagues, peers, students, and others who would challenge her perspective. By all accounts, Laura welcomed these challenges as part of her regular interactions and a means to evolve her own knowledge and understanding, which would become part of her identity and worldview for which she was remembered.60 Laura’s worldview was demonstrated throughout her teaching and work. She was very outspoken in advocating equality for all students, as a former student remembered, “She was a strong advocate for the rights of blacks.”61 Laura was involved in the only racial confrontation recorded at Shortridge during its integrated period, prior to the de facto segregation of Indianapolis schools in 1927, in the spring of 1904. The incident happened in Laura’s civil government course and involved a White male student unwilling to take an assigned seat aside a Black female student. The White student disobeyed Laura in front of the entire class, and she dismissed him from the class. The White student contested Laura’s actions and appealed to the Shortridge principal and the school board, and made headlines in the Indianapolis newspapers. Despite the appeal and public attention, both the principal and the school board upheld and supported Laura’s actions and decisions. Despite the triumph for Laura’s agency regarding Black students in her classroom, the attention from the incident resulted in both students transferring out of her class due to embarrassment, and leading to the White student eventually leaving Shortridge.62 The fact that there were no other major racial incidents, which were recorded, at Shortridge is surprising. It suggests Laura and potentially other teachers were particularly inclusive of all students in their classrooms, while some of their colleagues may not have been as inclusive and catered to their White students’ preferences. In this period, a Black student in a predominately White school probably would not have appealed to the principal about ill treatment from White students. Remember, Black students were not supposed to even be in White schools, due to Indiana State policies; however, Superintendent Shortridge set a precedent in defying these policies in the 1870s and allowed “qualified” Black students to attend the secondary schools. Furthermore, students had much more choice over their coursework in this period and

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students could select the courses and teachers they preferred. Therefore, other incidents were either not reported because Black students were the victims, or White students had self-selected to avoid teachers who were inclusive to Black students. Evidence of this could be seen in the 1906 Shortridge Annual, which was the yearbook. 1906 was one of the first years that they published pictures of the clubs and their members. Only a handful of clubs had Black students in them, and most of those clubs were sponsored by Laura. This was evident in the following years of Annual that also published pictures of the clubs.63 However, in 1927, all Black students left Shortridge and attended the new Black high school, Crispus Attucks—which was also the last year Laura and her sister Emma taught full time in the district, due to forced retirement. Each of Laura’s activities at Shortridge was well known to be inclusive of all students regardless of their age, race, or sex. The Senate was one of the best examples of inclusion on a large scale at Shortridge, as it was the most popular extracurriculum, as Cox wrote, “The Senate was very inclusive, barring none on account of race or color…The equality of persons that is so sought for in governments was prevalent in the Senate.”64 As has been written about previously,65 Black Shortridge students debated controversial issues about their own race in the Senate, including the bounds of their own citizenship. While Shortridge was integrated for Black students, there were very few immigrants that attended Shortridge during the day. However, Laura was the driving force behind opening the Free Night High School at Shortridge for immigrants who worked during the days. She also made it very clear that night school was inclusive of everyone also, as her advertisement in the Daily Echo read, “There is no limitation to age, race, or sex.”66 Laura made sure that every learning opportunity she created, whether it was coursework or extracurriculum, was visibly and undoubtedly inclusive of all students. Lastly, Laura made women’s suffrage a consistent issue at Shortridge. In the following chapters, you will read about the ways that Laura worked suffrage into her coursework, the Senate, and the Daily Echo. Women’s suffrage, and the associated gender ideologies, had shaped her epistemology and worldview her entire career, and probably defined her intentions for social change. The struggle for women’s suffrage was also representative of her struggle for recognition of her innovative theories and practice. The marginalization of her voice as an active and engaged citizen paralleled the marginalization of her voice as a progressive educator, and put a ceiling on the amount of influence she could have

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in both areas of her life. The constraints on her voice, in both contexts, made her resolve and agency even stronger in advocating for women’s suffrage through her curricula at Shortridge. In total, Laura’s epistemology and worldview can be characterized best by one student, Claude Bowers, who wrote about Laura in two of his published works. Bowers, who was a politician and US Ambassador to various countries, wrote: She did more to make citizens, and to make them fundamentally American, with a reverence for American institutions and the American way of life, than anyone else I have ever known.… She was vigorous and vivid in her teaching…. In her classes she encouraged argument, and, since she had powerful convictions and some prejudices, the student trying to curry favor and escape her sarcasm by simulating agreement had her contempt…. She believed in a robust discussion of controversial subjects. She would have despised the now growing trend toward mildness and conformity in thinking. It was this mutual spirit of combat and independence that made us the closest friends.67

Bowers wrote that he often disagreed with Donnan in class and in the Senate, and would challenge her ideas, which never seemed to phase her. Bowers and Donnan stayed in close contact for the remainder of her life. Laura accompanied Bowers to the Democratic National Conventions in 1920, 1924, and 1928 and she would introduce him at speaking engagements in Indianapolis.68 In Bowers, as well as in many other students, Laura was able to realize her influence beyond the Shortridge community, which fed her epistemology and enlarged her worldview, despite the constant constraints on her voice both civically and professionally. After all, Laura wanted to develop civic conscience in her students with wellreasoned perspectives, so that they could robustly discuss the controversial topics of the day with anyone who challenged their views.

Notes 1. Laura Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” The Journal of Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association Annual Meeting 28 (1889): 512–520. 2. Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004), 21.

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3. Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Indianapolis and Vicinity: Containing Biographical Sketches of Business and Professional Men and of Many of the Early Settled Families (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Company, 1908). 4. See note 3 above. 5. George Donnan, “Donnan Family History 1750–1934,” donnans.org, updated August 2015, Retrieved June 23, 2020, http://donnans.org/ SLText/SLtext.txt. 6. “University Register” (report, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1898). “University Register” (report, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1902). 7. Staff, “Board of School Commissioners,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), February 8, 1873; Staff, “School Board,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 19, 1874. 8. Staff, “Board Will Take Up Retirement,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), April 24, 1928; Staff, “Miss Emma Donnan Honored at Exercises,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), June 14, 1928. 9. Laura Sheerin Gaus, Shortridge High School, 1864–1981, in Retrospect (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1985). 10. Staff, “no title,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), August 18, 1923. For more information see the Chautauqua Institution (https://chq.org/) and Social Movement at the turn of the century. 11. Indiana Magazine of History, “Reviews and Notes” 9 no. 4 (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1913); Staff, “A Kindergarten Monthly,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), November 6, 1896. 12. Advertisement, “Tudor Hall,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), September 17, 1913; Staff, “Classes Opened,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), October 2, 1909. 13. May Winters Donnan, Various Verses (Indiana: Riverside Press, 1914). 14. University Record (newsletter, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1899); Staff, “New Teachers in Public Schools,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), June 13, 1903. 15. Laura Donnan, The War Governor of Indiana (Indianapolis: Echo Press, 1878). 16. Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis (bulletin, Indianapolis: John Herron Art Institute, 1911). 17. Claude G. Bowers, My Life: The Memoirs of Claude Bowers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962), 35. 18. Staff, “School Board,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 19, 1874; Staff, “School Commissioners,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 8, 1872; Staff, “Indianapolis Training School,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 21, 1873. 19. Indianapolis Normal School. Indianapolis Normal School (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Normal School, 1921).

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20. See note 19 above. 21. Staff, “School Board,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 20, 1874; Staff, “School Board Meeting,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), December 19, 1874; University of Michigan, General Register (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1874–75). 22. University of Michigan, General Register (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1878–1879); The Michigan Argonaut (Michigan: University of Michigan, 1879). 23. Staff, “School Board,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 21, 1879. 24. Staff, “Instructions in the Educational Shooting Galleries,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 15, 1880; Staff, “School Board Proceedings,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), September 4, 1880. 25. Staff, “Cambridge,” Hagerstown Exponent (Hagerstown, IN), August 10, 1881; Staff, “Teachers Institute,” Richmond Item (Richmond, IN), August 25, 1882. 26. Virginia Cox, “Laura Donnan,” The Indiana Magazine of History 32, no. 3 (1936): 261–265. 27. University of Michigan, General Register ( Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1886–1887). 28. Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan: With Accompanying Documents, for the Year (report, Michigan: Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1888); The Michigan Argonaut (Michigan: University of Michigan, 1887); Cox, “Laura Donnan.” 29. Laura Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” The Journal of Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association Annual Meeting 28 (1889); Laura Donnan, “Civil Government in the High School,” The Educator-Journal 4 (1904): 446–449. 30. Staff, “No title,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 24, 1897. Laura Donnan’s niece, Margaret Donnan, attended the University of Chicago from 1898 to 1902 and studied to be a high school English teacher. Therefore, it is possible she would have taken courses form John Dewey. Margaret taught English at Manual High School in Indianapolis from 1903 to 1914. She left Manual High School to attend Columbia University and studied English Literature off-and-on before marrying in 1927. 31. University Record (newsletter, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1897– 1898). 32. University Record (newsletter, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1898– 1899). For more about Professor Julia Bulkley and her battles with John Dewey as a young female professor, see Cruikshank (1998).

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33. University Record (newsletter, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1897); Annual Register (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1899); University Record (newsletter, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1901). 34. Staff, “No title,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), March 3, 1915; Staff, “No title,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), September 11, 1915; Columbia University, Catalogue (New York: Columbia University, 1902–1903). 35. Columbia University, Catalogue (New York: Columbia University, 1915– 1916): 246. 36. Cruikshank, Kathleen, “In Dewey’s Shadow: Julia Bulkley and the University of Chicago Department of Pedagogy, 1895–1900,” History of Education Quarterly 38, no. 4 (1998): 373. 37. Gaus, Shortridge High School; Editorial Staff, Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 8, 1899. 38. Gaus, Shortridge High School. 39. Gaus, 30. 40. Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens.” 41. Elliott in Gaus, 104. 42. A Woman Who Served The Nation. The Evening World (Indianapolis, IN), August 25, 1930. 43. Laura Donnan, Our Governments: Brief Talks to the American Youth on Our Governments, General and Local (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1900). 44. A. W. Brown, History, Aims, Content, and Measurement in the Senior High School (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1924). 45. Donnan, Our Governments, v. 46. Edmund J. James, “Training for Citizenship,” Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools in the Middle States and Maryland (proceedings, Philadelphia, 1898). 47. Arthur W. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1907). 48. Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the Kindergarten and in Lower Primary Grades,” The Public-School Journal, 9 no. 2 (1889): 65–66; Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government Below the High School,” The Public-School Journal 9, no. 3 (1889): 111–112; Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the High Schools,” The PublicSchool Journal 9, no. 4 (1889): 161; Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the High School: II,” The Public-School Journal 9, no. 6 (1889): 258–259; Laura Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the High School: III,” The Public-School Journal 9, no. 7 (1889): 314–5. 49. Donnan, “Teaching Civil Government in the High Schools,” 111. 50. Staff, “The Free Night High School,” The Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 1, 1900.

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51. Staff, The Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 18, 1899; Indianapolis Public Schools, “Annual Report of the Secretary, Business Director, Superintendent of Schools, and the Librarian” (report, Indianapolis, 1902). 52. Cox, “Laura Donnan”; Gaus, Shortridge High School. 53. Indianapolis Public Schools, “Annual Report of the Secretary, Business Director, Superintendent of Schools, and the Librarian” (report, Indianapolis, 1902). 54. Claude Bowers, Holman Hamilton, and Gayle Thornbrough, Indianapolis in the ‘Gay Nineties’; High School Diaries of Claude G. Bowers (Indianapolis: Indiana State Library, 1964). 55. Jacob Piatt Dunn, Greater Indianapolis: The History, the Industries, the Institutions, and the People of a City of Homes (Indianapolis: Lewis Publishing Company, 1910). 56. Donnan, Our Governments; Staff, “Trip to Federal Building,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), December 22, 1908. 57. Marie Cecile Chomel, Red Cross Chapter at Work (Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1920); Staff, “No title,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), October 11, 1914. Staff, “Local Club Year Opening,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), September 28, 1895; Annual Register (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1899). 58. L. A. Sloan, Some Aspects of the Woman Suffrage Movement in Indiana (Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 1984); Staff, “Pioneer Suffragists,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 21, 1919. 59. Katy Mulder, “Digital Diaries: Wandering Off Course,” Indiana Historical Society. Retrieved 6/20/20: https://indianahistory.org/blog/digitaldiaries-wandering-off-course/. 60. Staff, “Laura Donnan,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), August 23, 1930. 61. Walter B. Hendrickson, The Indiana Years, 1903–1941 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1983): 131. 62. Gaus, Shortridge High School; Staff, “Called to a Halt,” The Recorder (Indianapolis, IN) February 20, 1904. 63. For access to the Shortridge Annual, see www.digitalindy.org. 64. Cox, 3. 65. J. Spencer Clark, “Notions of Citizenship: Discussing Race in the Shortridge High School Senate, 1900–1928,” in Histories of Social Studies and Race, eds. Christine Woyshner and Chara Bohan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). 66. Staff, “The Free Night High School,” The Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 1, 1900. 67. Bowers, My Life, 34–35. 68. Bowers, My Life; Bowers, Hamilton, and Thornbrough, “Indianapolis in the Gay Nineties.”

CHAPTER 5

Civic Education at Shortridge High School

Abstract This chapter will focus on Donnan’s 1889 National Education Association (NEA) presentation, in which she outlined a framework for civic education in schools and developed a rationale for mandatory civics curriculum as a graduation requirement based on her own teaching and curriculum. In her presentation, she outlined progressive methods and skills that were innovative for the period, and still advocated by teacher educators today, such as: primary source analysis, experiential and placebased learning, simulation, role-play, inquiry and project-based learning, discussion and deliberation, and extracurricular activities to support her teaching in the classroom. All of these activities contributed to the civic culture Donnan created at Shortridge, by allowing multiple ways for students to engage with the civic content, and resulting in five outcomes specific to civic and social education, even today. Keywords Laura Donnan · Civics · Curricular change · Civic culture · Epistemology

Donnan’s NEA speech in 1889 outlined a framework for civic education in schools and developed a rationale for mandatory civics curriculum as a graduation requirement based on her own teaching and curriculum. In © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_5

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her speech, she outlined methods and skills teacher educators still want teachers to engage students with today. All of these activities contributed to the civic culture Donnan created at Shortridge, by allowing multiple ways for students to engage with the content.

The NEA Speech 1889 The 1889 National Education Association’s (NEA) Annual Meeting was in Nashville, Tennessee. Laura Donnan attended and presented a paper titled, “The High School and the Citizen,” which provided a purpose for teaching civil government, or civics, in high schools. She begins by problematizing her course, “there should be taught some subject whose object is to give pupils a knowledge of the rights and duties of citizenship, and to inspire them with the moral courage to demand their rights and perform their duties.”1 Donnan was not offering an opinion but describing her own pedagogy and professional agency. After four years at Shortridge High School, Donnan was able to make civil government a required course for graduation in 1887.2 At the NEA conference, Donnan was working to justify the place of civil government among what was otherwise a history-dominated social science high school curriculum. Ten to fifteen years later, the contention that civics should have equal footing in a history-dominated social science curriculum would be in full effect.3 Therefore, Donnan was at the forefront of the movement to make civics a regular part of the curriculum. Donnan initially used statistics to justify the need for the civil government course in high schools. She sent her own surveys (circulars) to school superintendents to see how commonly civil government was taught. She also used census data, college and high school data, as well as the demographics of congressmen as examples. Donnan received survey responses from 93 school districts and found that 72 of these districts taught some form of civil government, and 64 schools required it. However, she found that only fifteen percent of the students in these schools took civil government, presumably because it was offered in either the junior or senior year.4 Therefore, Donnan makes the case that the course in civil government should be taught early in high school to have the maximum impact on students and civil society, which would become a major idea in the new social studies twenty-five years later. Donnan used the statistics to rationalize her own practice because she had taught the

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course to mostly freshmen, which also served as a prerequisite for many of her other civic activities at the school. Speaking at NEA, Donnan knew she was on to something significant and proceeded with assertive language. She had been teaching civil government for six years and had seen the high levels of engagement from her students. Student engagement and value for Donnan’s course was noted in an article in the school newspaper the Daily Echo, ten years after Donnan’s address to the NEA, “In the Civil Government classes germs of good citizenship are instilled into the minds of the young people…what better training is there in the settlement of difficult social problems than in the debates held every Friday in these classes.”5 The student’s account of the civil government course, which highlighted the goal of “good citizenship” for the purpose of addressing “social problems,” sounded as if it could have been taken from one of the many of the reports created by committees concerned with history, civics, and social studies curriculum.6 Donnan and her students demonstrated the focus on civic ideas at the time, and these ideas were being put into action well before the curriculum reports of the early twentieth century. To further justify the civil government course in her NEA presentation, Donnan provided a framework that essentially outlined a “progressive” version of a civil government course. In her framework, Donnan began by discussing her methods of instruction, starting with her students’ foundational knowledge of the constitution, and building upon their constitutional knowledge by developing skills that would enable her students to engage in their duties as active and participatory citizens. Donnan illustrated each aspect of her methodology to provide her colleagues with a glimpse of her classroom. She discussed progressive methods, such as: primary source analysis, experiential and place-based learning, inquiry-based instruction, discussion and deliberation, simulation, and extracurricular activities. Primary Source and Text Analysis Donnan advocated for the study of primary sources in many of her texts. The texts of primary concern for civil government courses, for Donnan, were the constitution and any documents that led to its creation.7 Donnan advocated for students to engage with the actual texts that led to the constitution, instead of just learning about it in general. In her presentation at NEA, she added, “Great attention should be paid to the

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meaning of words and explanation of the text…The work should be made as real as possible.”8 Donnan continued and elaborated on specific ways for teachers to engage their students in discussion of the constitution, and wrote, “special days should be set apart for the discussion of such questions as taxation, representation, protection, free trade, right of trial by jury, and suffrage.”9 In many ways, it was probably Donnan’s strong belief in primary text analysis that led to her developing a textbook in 1900. The first section of her textbook is nearly all primary documents that each led to the development of the US Constitution. The second section of her textbook is primarily the US Constitution, along with Washington’s Farewell Address. Therefore, her textbook was created to support her progressive pedagogy, by providing a constitutional primary document reader for her students to analyze, and a foundation for her other pedagogical methods. Donnan also advocated for the weekly use of newspapers for students to analyze and discuss. In her presentation, she described her classroom use of newspapers to further illustrate her use of text analysis. She recommended having a student manager procure the newspapers and have student assistants with particular areas of interest to share excerpts with the class.10 Donnan stated in her presentation that the overall goal was for students to be exposed to multiple and competing political views on one topic, as she described, “the two greatest benefits derived from this work are that pupils are encouraged to read the daily newspapers, and that they become accustomed to hear both sides of a question presented.”11 Donnan hoped her students would be able to develop their own perspectives based on their analysis and consideration of constitutional and contemporary perspectives and texts. Discussion and Deliberation Donnan hoped the issues comprised in the constitution and newspapers would provide a springboard for discussion and deliberation in her classroom. She would set aside days in the class primarily for the discussion of questions, such as taxation and representation, gerrymandering, the Civil War amendments, and suffrage. Donnan believed that the discussion of constitutional questions would help students make connections to the constitution. She wanted her students to develop opinions on constitutional issues in a personal way, as she noted in her presentation, “the pupils should be encouraged to express fully their opinions,

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however unusual or unpopular they may be.”12 Students in Donnan’s courses regularly engaged in discussion, which was uncommon in this period, when recitation pervaded classrooms. Donnan’s persistence on discussion and its effect on students could be seen in the school newspaper. An editorial article considered the relevance of discussion in the classroom and cited Donnan’s course as a reference: The question came up the other day of the good and the real benefit that is derived from arguments in class. We think most assuredly that discussions about a subject in class are helpful in many respects—as we are sure to get our own ideas enlarged by other people’s views, and have new light thrown upon some subject that we were rather in the shade about.13

The student editorial account implies that perhaps discussion was a rare occurrence in most classrooms and possibly could be viewed as a pedagogical innovation. Furthermore, this suggests that Donnan was not only trying to justify a new course in civil government through her NEA speech, but perhaps progressive modes of pedagogy, such as discussion. Donnan’s intention to develop her students’ opinions would then be further facilitated through weekly debates and deliberations of local, state, and national contemporary constitutional questions. Donnan organized debates in her civil government classroom, as well as in the Senate. The classroom debates were not as formal as the deliberations in the Senate, but from the multiple newspaper articles, in both the Daily Echo and Indianapolis papers, the interactions were equally heated. The debates in Donnan’s classes were so heated at times that visitors were allowed to observe the classes, and participants were allowed to provide further commentary in the school newspaper. In part, the intensity and subsequent popularity were the result of the controversial topics being discussed. In the classroom, many controversial topics were discussed and debated on Fridays, and the more traditional constitutional questions were discussed on other days. Specific controversial topics discussed in the Friday sessions included topics such as lynching, immigration, women’s suffrage, annexation, and vivisection. Controversial issues appeared to be at the center of Donnan’s pedagogy. She had obviously orchestrated the use of issues that would require citizens to make difficult decisions, while also promoting the development of deliberative skills in speaking about those issues, including “…the art of keeping still while others with opposite opinions from your own are speaking.”14 The controversial issue

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aspect of Donnan’s pedagogy was even more prominent in the Shortridge Senate—which will be discussed at length in the next chapter. Experiential and Place-Based Learning Donnan continued in her presentation and described the importance of promoting students’ awareness of the local and state government entities within their own communities. Donnan encouraged listeners to take classes on field trips, or have guest speakers. Donnan took her own civil government classes to visit various civic offices, to meet the officials, and gain a better understanding of their roles. It helped that Donnan had family within some of these roles in Indianapolis, but nevertheless, she emphasized the willingness of city officials to engage with young citizens. The Daily Echo documented that her civil government classes visited the city jail, police headquarters, state offices, city offices, the waterworks, and various other city entities.15 The civil government class visits to the city and state offices acquainted students with the leadership in their communities. It also helped the students realize that regular citizens, like themselves and their families, were able to contribute to addressing social issues at their city and state levels. It allowed them to see themselves in civic practice, and potentially civic leadership. Inquiry-Based Instruction In addition to visiting the places where local and state offices addressed social issues, Donnan also wanted her students to have experience problematizing social issues, asking questions, and compiling data to address those questions through an inquiry process. In her presentation, Donnan illustrated a few ways she engaged students in inquiry with the issues or questions they were discussing in her course. For example: If you live in a State where the citizen is practically disfranchised by the existence of the gerrymander, take a map of the Congressional districts and let the class redistrict the State on the basis of justice. If you are so fortunate as to live in a State in which the Congressional districts are laid off on an honest basis, then borrow a map of one of your less fortunate neighbors, and by contrast show the evil influence of the gerrymander.16

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Donnan demonstrated how local issues could be used to spark student interest in active citizenship and promote civic consciousness through inquiry into actual problems related to the constitution. Donnan also used essential questions to frame the topics in her courses. A brief comment in the Daily Echo used one of Donnan’s questions as a joke in the newspaper, “The daily question on Miss Donnan’s board asked, ‘What is more important to a republic, the individual or the state?’ …and I say it is the state of the individual.”17 Essential questions are common practice in schools today and used to promote inquiry with students of all ages. They are distinguishable from regular questions in that there are many possible answers depending on the rationale behind the answer. Inquiry was at the center of Donnan’s pedagogy and it took on many forms in her practice. Simulation Donnan was a strong advocate for simulating civic processes. In addition to the Shortridge Senate, which simulated the US Senate, and the Daily Echo school newspaper, which simulated free speech and press, she also engaged her students in one mock trial per semester, and one per year in the Senate. Donnan felt that her students’ understanding of such vital processes to democracy was paramount. Donnan believed staunchly in students simulating the entire trial process, from the preparation to the justification of a verdict. Her value for the process could be seen in her presentation at NEA, as she stated, “No more real work is done in any branch of study in the same time, than is accomplished in preparing and conducting the trial.”18 Donnan justified this simulative pedagogy, and said, “it is reasonable to suppose that justice is sometimes, at least, defeated from the fact that witnesses are not familiar with the customs and forms of the court-room.”19 She went on to demonstrate the popularity of the mock trial for students also, explaining the common setting in which the trial took place, “it is no unusual thing for fifty or a hundred pupils who are not studying civil government, but who have a vacant hour at the time of the trial, to be in attendance.”20 For Donnan, understanding the processes and procedures of democracy were among the most important outcomes in her courses, and she wanted her students to have the skills to effectively undertake their role in these processes.

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The Extracurriculum As will be discussed in the following chapter, Donnan was involved in many extracurricular activities at Shortridge that contributed to the civic culture. The Shortridge Senate was probably the best known, not only in Indianapolis, but also across the country. It was her own creation and was meant to supplement the civil government course. In comparison, the Shortridge Senate had slightly different procedures and goals than the debates in the civil government classroom. Yet, it was still centered on discussing the controversial constitutional issues of the day, as Donnan outlined in her 1889 presentation: The purpose of the senate should be three-fold: to teach them the duties of a legislator; to keep them informed as to who are the United States Senators; to interest them in what is being done in the United States Senate.21

Although the senate was an extracurricular activity, students were still able to recognize its value as part of their educational experience, as one student wrote in the Daily Echo, “The Senate is a place for learning and debate, and is decidedly an educational feature of our school.”22 Therefore, Donnan had created an extracurricular activity in which the whole school could participate, and provided students the deliberative experience of a legislative process.

Civic Education at Shortridge All of the strategies identified by Donnan in her NEA presentation provide important insights into practice inside and outside the classroom prior to the committee reports of the early 1900s. The framework provided insights into one civic educator’s rationale and justification for not only teaching, but requiring a civil government course in high schools. In 1887, as mentioned above, civil government became a required course at Shortridge for freshmen students. The move by Donnan and Shortridge contrasted the recommendations of the Committee of Ten and Committee of Seven, coming only a few years later in the 1890s, which recommended teaching civil government, alongside American history, to senior-level students. For Donnan, teaching civil government to freshmen was imperative for students, in order for them to engage in the civic culture at Shortridge. The prerequisite for

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participating in many of Donnan’s extracurricular activities—most of which were concerned with discussing, debating, and deliberating about problems and controversial issues facing society—was passing her civil government course. While Donnan’s framework for civil government was dissimilar to the Committee of Ten recommendations, it was more similar to the recommendations and major changes contained in the 1916 Report—discussed in Chapter 2—which came more than twenty-five years later. For example, the authors of the 1916 Report introduced two new courses, Community Civics and Problems of Democracy. The authors of the 1916 Report recommended that Community Civics be taken in eighth grade and focus on civically acquainting students with their community and cultivate habits of good citizenship; while they recommended the Problems of Democracy course be taken in the twelfth grade and focus on inquiring into social problems and relying on integration of content from other courses.23 Both courses intended to develop citizens through more socially motivated means and are characteristic of the 1916 Report and the authors definitive shift from the more history-laden suggestions of the Committee of Ten and the Committee of Seven. When analyzing the effect of the 1916 Report and other committee reports on schools and classrooms, scholars have not identified much evidence that classroom practice changed much. The most consistent response to the reports seemed to have resulted in changes to the scope and sequence of already established courses.24 Donnan’s NEA presentation and framework, as well as the accounts of her career, provide some indication of actual practice before, during, and after these reports. In this way, Donnan’s career provides a sense of continuity instead of the theoretical and conceptual shifts indicated in the reports. While Donnan identified more as a teacher of political science and constitutional history, her practice was more representative of what early social studies advocates were proposing in the 1916 Report, and the reports leading up to it. Furthermore, Donnan’s pedagogy would be considered common and accepted practice in social studies classrooms today, and representative of strategies in social studies methods textbooks. To examine this idea, the next section will examine accounts of Donnan’s practice and the civic culture she created at Shortridge in five broader areas that are commonly accepted as areas of importance in developing citizens as part of social studies education.

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Decision Making Decision making was an outcome for much of Donnan’s pedagogy. Everything, from her text analysis to simulation, was preparing students to develop a perspective in order to make well-reasoned decisions as citizens. Donnan’s curriculum utilized social issues and problems to illustrate and discuss the questions that arise in the contemporary interpretation of the constitution. In the 1880s and 1890s, humanist views of curriculum were predominant, which saw children as empty vessels that needed to be filled with knowledge.25 There was not much emphasis on preparing students to make decisions and using the knowledge until they left school. However, Donnan wanted students to apply their knowledge to social problems. While Donnan’s students spent a lot of time learning perspectives in preparation to make decisions, they also had the opportunity to develop decision-making skills in their classroom debates, in their classroom and senate mock trials, and in the Senate. In each context, students were required to gather information on the issue, draw upon their experiences, utilize their knowledge of national and/or state constitutional law, and make a decision on the issue based on their critical analysis. Evidence of Donnan’s focus on decision making can be found in the accounts of her classroom debates that have been shared above already. The classroom debates promoted so much thinking that the discussion even leaked into the hallways where students could be seen demonstrating their decision making and providing justification. A writer in the Daily Echo mentioned walking through the hallway and hearing multiple groups still debating the issue of women’s suffrage, and stated, “it must be a vital question, from the looks on their faces… only a civil government debate, it is… we are becoming interested in their discussion of Women’s suffrage.”26 The significance of the topic being discussed cannot be understated, at this time a majority of the school population was female and therefore, the debates over women’s suffrage would have real currency in the decisions her students would make in future years, when suffrage became an issue to be voted upon. Pluralism and Civil Rights During most of Donnan’s teaching career, Shortridge drew students from all over Indianapolis, which does not mean it was diverse, but that it at least had some students from non-white, low socioeconomic, or

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illiterate families. Over the course of Donnan’s career, the student population included some racial and ethnic diversity, mainly Black students and students who had recently immigrated from Europe. Donnan would have been considered a pluralist and advocated for the rights of all citizens publicly, especially through her pedagogy at Shortridge.27 It is difficult to determine whether Donnan explicitly taught about gender, racial, and ethnic issues. While gender, racial, and ethnic issues were frequently discussed—in her classroom, the Senate, and occasionally in a trial—the extent or depth of discussion is hard to determine. Her students were well aware of her allegiances though; the students in her Oratorical Association Club purchased a portrait of the well-known abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher as a gift for her classroom.28 Regardless, Donnan’s advocacy for the rights of all people would make it plausible that these discussions were for the purpose of acquainting her students with gender, racial, and ethnic issues. Yet, it is also plausible that these discussions were just a consequence of engaging with controversial citizenship issues concerning the constitution. In both the Senate and the classroom, racial and ethnic issues centered on the rights of Black citizens were often discussed, possibly due in part to Donnan’s abolitionist upbringing. For example, in the Senate, students proposed bills that dealt with education for Black citizens, enfranchisement, and lynching. The fact that students proposed these bills indicates they had probably discussed the issues in Donnan’s Civil Government course. Student perspectives regarding Black citizens that were recorded in the Senate range from egalitarian to simply racist. Student egalitarianism could be seen when discussing issues such as disenfranchisement of Black citizens in the Southern US, a student stated, “Our country…can never lay claim to a representative government so long as white legislators represent the negro citizens.”29 Interestingly, racist perspectives were captured publicly in a school newspaper article that covered the debates in the civil government class: ‘Lynching’ is now under discussion, and Miss Donnan is well nigh shocked at the anarchist views of her youthful presidents and suffragists. In the second hour ‘Lynching’ is ardently supported by the best speakers in the class.30

The most commonly discussed issue—equal education of Black citizens— was fervently discussed year after year with seemingly split perspectives

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on the issue.31 More ethnic groups were discussed in both the Senate and the classroom in terms of immigration and annexation, with the most common being the Chinese, Japanese, Eastern Europeans, Filipinos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans. It is clear Donnan allowed and potentially fostered the identification and discussion of racism in the Indianapolis community. Yet, since most of these discussions were recorded by students, Donnan’s planning or purpose is not clear. While Donnan’s pedagogy may be considered progressive by discussing these issues in a secondary classroom, we have to understand that if it was purely student initiated, these discussions could have been equally marginalizing, and served to compound the racism. Therefore, the discussions may not have been necessarily for the purpose of pluralistic understanding, but instead a way to initiate the conversation and include multiple perspectives. Regardless, students left Donnan’s classroom having discussed issues of racism, and at the very least, heard one perspective different from their own—Donnan’s. Civic Activism The Progressive Era saw the advent of many civically concerned groups, focused on a variety of causes. As discussed in Chapter 3, Donnan was a member of several of these groups and demonstrated to her students the role of civic activism. For example, when Donnan was barely graduated from high school herself, she founded the Indianapolis Suffrage Society in 1872 at eighteen years old—with Captain and Mrs. Horace McKay.32 Since Donnan was such an activist for women’s suffrage, this probably accounted for the frequency in which the topic was discussed in all of Donnan’s curricular activities. The frequency was noted in the school newspaper: Miss Donnan’s civil government classes are indulging in debates on Women’s Suffrage. Next to the trial this is the most exciting time in the half year’s course. This question is being discussed in a lively manner and at great length…as this is the same question now under discussion in the Senate…33

Other Shortridge teachers were involved in other civic groups too, such as the commercial club for men, which sponsored civic education initiatives in the city. Donnan demonstrated civic activism in other ways, as well.

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For example, as a teacher and the principal of the night school, she would hold graduation at her house and invite her Shortridge students to attend and witness the social benefit of the night school for people all over the community. Donnan also was part of the Red Cross during World War I and used it as an opportunity to engage her students, too. Donnan’s examples of civic activism illustrated an application for the knowledge students were learning in her classroom. Social Science The social sciences were evolving during the Progressive Era, and respect for social science was on the rise, with many new disciplines sprouting out of what was traditionally known as philosophy. Namely, psychology and sociology were the newest disciplines that had an effect on education and the role of education in society.34 Donnan recognized the need for students to understand the impact and effect of actions by both citizens and governments on the city, state, and country as a whole. More importantly, Donnan seemingly wanted her students to know how to empirically understand the social problems facing their society, and then take steps to alleviate these problems through the proper channels. Donnan described one activity her students would do in her NEA address, and demonstrated her students taking on the role of sociologists: If you live in a State where mob violence is of frequent occurrence, you will have at hand numerous illustrations of the all-pervading injury inflicted upon a community by the insecurity of life; but if you live in a State where mob violence does not occur, show by contrast how security of life increases the population, enhances the value of property, and blesses a community with an all-pervading confidence.35

After having students develop a deeper understanding of the social issues through inquiry, Donnan would then often follow up with her class visits to various civic entities so students could discuss these issues with public officials. By combining activities, Donnan wanted to develop her students’ understanding of the issues through causal relationships between citizens and their community, while then being able to see how these relationships are negotiated in the public forum by officials. Donnan did not necessarily rely upon a strict emphasis on social science, but her methods demonstratively comprised exercises that would develop their basic inquiry skills, a deeper understanding of social problems, and how they are addressed in a society.

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Values and Moral Development Based on the discussion of Donnan’s teaching and activities at Shortridge, Donnan’s pedagogy included teaching values for the purpose of identification and clarification, and subsequently to critically analyze value conflicts that arise in considering social welfare. By centering much of her pedagogy on controversial issues, Donnan encouraged a value-based discussion and guided her students in their understanding of their constitutional application and interpretation. While there is no evidence of Donnan creating curriculum about values, all of her pedagogy appears to provide for a continuous process of value identification, clarification, and conflict through thinking about controversial and social welfare issues. For example, several issues would have been related to religious value identification and clarification, such as capital punishment, temperance, and vivisection. Some examples of values in conflict are best exemplified in the frequent discussions of women’s suffrage. Women were often the majority in both the classroom and the Shortridge Senate. However, this did not result in nearly unanimous agreement in the classroom or Senate bills regarding women’s suffrage being passed regularly. In fact, it was quite the opposite, with opinions usually split among the women of the Senate.36 However, this was common in broader society, too. Charity Dye, one of Donnan’s well-educated and respected colleagues in the history department at Shortridge, was a leading anti-suffrage activist in Indiana.37 Therefore, female students would have had an advocate at the school regardless of their perspective. The men of the Senate were also split and provided conflicting perspectives on the women’s suffrage issues.38 While the men’s and women’s views are probably representative of the adults in the community to some extent, they demonstrate the consistent contrasting values in terms of gender equity and the political discussion of women’s suffrage. Donnan also addressed issues dealing with values and morals in the mock trials she held regularly. Trials were held in her classroom twice a year and once a year in the senate. Most of the trials in the civil government classroom focused on civil and criminal cases that involved local and state issues, ranging from murder to property disputes. In the Senate, most of the trials concerned issues involving rule of law, and involved trying senators for crimes such as bribery, smuggling, anarchy, slander, and treason.39 Donnan’s mock trials simulated the democratic process of

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a trial by jury, providing students a space to identify, clarify, and prioritize their values socially with their peers. The examples of civic education at Shortridge demonstrates these five areas—decision making, pluralism and civil rights, civic activism, social science, values and moral development—and provide a broad view of the potential outcomes that Donnan was trying to achieve with the framework she developed and presented at the NEA conference.

Final Thoughts on Civic Education at Shortridge As she began to conclude her NEA presentation, Donnan hinted at the portentous educational milieu she was confronting with her framework for civic education. Through her presentation, she demonstrated awareness of her unique pedagogy, and the possibility that it may be labeled as hypothetical by her colleagues. Donnan stated, “the course in civil government traced in this paper is not mere theory, is proven by the fact that in at least one city in the United States it is realized in its minutest detail.”40 In this one sentence, Donnan was addressing several ideological challenges she faced as a female social educator because she was theorizing a mode of learning and describing it in practice. By doing so, she connected theory and practice and smashed the gender binary that maintained the notion that theory was developed by male educators, and practice was developed by women. It is difficult to know if her presentation had any impact, not knowing who was in attendance, but it would definitely capture the attention of progressive educators in the years to come, and primarily Arthur Dunn.

Notes 1. Laura Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” The Journal of Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association Annual Meeting 28 (1889): 515. 2. Alexander Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens: A History of Civic Education in Indianapolis, 1900–1950” (phd dissertation, Indiana University, 1996). 3. Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004). 4. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen.” 5. Staff, “The Civil Government Debates,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 28, 1899.

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6. Arthur W. Dunn, “Chapter XVIII: The Trend of Civic Education” (report, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1914); Arthur W. Dunn, “Civics Education in Elementary Education as Illustrated in Indianapolis, Bulletin no. 17” (Bulletin, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1915); Arthur W. Dunn, “Report on Civic Education, on the Work of the Committee during the Past Year,” The National Municipal Review 4 (1915): 178–179; Arthur W. Dunn, “The Social Studies in Secondary Education, Bulletin no. 28 of the Bureau of Education” (report, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1916). 7. Laura Donnan, Our Governments: Brief Talks to the American Youth on Our Governments, General and Local (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1900). 8. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 516. 9. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 516. 10. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen.” 11. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 517. 12. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 515. 13. Staff, “About Discussions,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 19, 1900. 14. Staff, “The Civil Government Debates,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 28, 1899. 15. Staff, “A Second Trip,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 28, 1901; Staff, “At the State House,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), January 20, 1902; Staff, “Civics I Classes Visit Atkins Saw Works,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 22, 1906; Staff, “Civil Government Tour,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), June 10, 1901; Staff, “In Jail,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), November 1, 1901; Staff, “Police Headquarters,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), November 18, 1901; Staff, “State Officers,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), January 13, 1902; Staff, “Visit the Mayor,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 21, 1901. 16. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 516. 17. Staff, “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 6, 1903. 18. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 518. 19. See note 17 above. 20. See note 17 above. 21. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 517. 22. Staff, “Order in the Senate,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 15, 1899. 23. Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972). 24. R. D. Barr, J. L. Barth, and S. S. Shermis, Defining the Social Studies (Arlington, VA: National Council for the Social Studies, 1977); Ronald W. Evans, The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004).

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25. Herbert M. Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893– 1958 (New York: Routledge, 2004). 26. Staff, “Scenes in the High School Hall,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), January 18, 1899. 27. Bowers, Hamilton, and Thornbrough, “Indianapolis in the Gay Nineties”; Cox, “Laura Donnan”; Gaus, Shortridge High School; Jeffrey Mirel, Patriotic Pluralism: Americanization Education and European Immigrants (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010). 28. Staff, “Portrait,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), September 19, 1905. 29. N. B. Scott, “Senate Student Records, 1900–1902,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2395) (archive, Indianapolis: Indiana State Historical Society, 1902). 30. Staff, “Debates,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), May 9, 1899. 31. Staff, “Bill on Negro Education Discussed,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), April 20, 1900. 32. L. A. Sloan, Some Aspects of the Woman Suffrage Movement in Indiana (Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 1984); Staff, “Pioneer Suffragists,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 21, 1919; Staff, “Pioneer Suffragists,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 21, 1919. 33. Staff. “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), April 28, 1899. 34. Louis, Menand, The Metaphysical Club (New York: Macmillan, 2001). 35. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 516. 36. A. Efroymson, “Senate Student Records, 1908–1911,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2393) (archive, Indianapolis: Indiana State Historical Society, 1908); R. McCord, “Senate Student Records, 1908–1911,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2393) (archive, Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1910). 37. Lindsey Beckley, “‘Leaving Party Politics to Man:’ How Some Hoosier Women Worked Against Suffrage,” Indiana History Blog, August 13, 2020: https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/womens-suffrage/. 38. H. Bross, “Senate Student Records, 1908–1911,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2393) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1910); J. W. McDonald, “Senate Student Records, 1906–1908,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2390) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1907); E. W. Pritchard, “Senate Student Records, 1900–1902,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2395) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1900). 39. J. R. Hawley, “Senate Student Records, 1900–1902,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2395) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1902); J. W. McDonald,

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“Senate Student Records, 1906–1908,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2390) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1907); Staff, “Senator Bate Tried for Bribery,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), May 15, 1901; J. White, “Senate Student Records, 1900–1902,” Shortridge High School Collection, 1870–1981, 1995 (Bound Volume BV2395) (Indianapolis, Indiana State Historical Society, 1901). 40. Donnan, “The High School and the Citizen,” 518.

CHAPTER 6

The Extracurriculum of Shortridge High School

Abstract This chapter will discuss several activities that were part of the extracurriculum at Shortridge or as they are known today: clubs, groups, sports, and academic teams. Donnan was sponsor for many of these extracurricular groups and was creator of the Shortridge Senate, which gained nationwide notoriety. These groups, especially the Senate, contributed significantly to the civic culture at Shortridge. There is an extensive amount of data on the Senate that provides a distinct view of student engagement and Donnan’s effect on the school’s civic culture. Similarly, the daily student newspaper, the Daily Echo, was a major extracurricular undertaking, and while it is a significant data source, it is also an important aspect of the civic culture at Shortridge. Donnan’s devotion to the extracurriculum also highlights her struggle with gender ideologies, in both her and her students’ lives, at Shortridge High School in the Progressive Era. Keywords Laura donnan · Extracurriculum · Shortridge senate · Daily echo · The boy problem

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_6

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The extracurriculum—or as they are known today clubs, groups, sports, and academic teams—was an important part of the civic culture at Shortridge. Donnan was sponsor for many of these extracurricular groups and was creator of the Shortridge Senate, which gained nationwide notoriety. These groups, especially the senate, contributed significantly to the civic culture at Shortridge. Similarly, the Daily Echo was a major extracurricular undertaking, and while it is a significant data source, it is also an important aspect of the civic culture at Shortridge.

The Extracurriculum in Turn-of-the-Century Schools The extracurriculum is sparsely discussed in the history of education, but had an interesting role in the development of high schools during the Progressive Era. There is a range of research on the extracurriculum, yet several studies have outlined specific developments in the sports, social, and literary extracurriculum that increased in participation along with high school attendance. Thomas Gutowski discussed the extracurriculum of Chicago high schools, starting in the 1880s, and described clubs and teams that were initiated and managed exclusively by students. He found that nearly all of these organizations had been institutionalized by the schools and run through teachers by 1900. Gutowski wrote that the school administrators and teachers felt it necessary to reestablish adult control as the high school students became more diverse, primarily in terms of gender and socioeconomic class.1 Likewise, in many cities, high school athletics began as club sports initiated by students, but appropriated by administrators. Similarly, David Tyack and Elizabeth Hansot described the growth of the extracurriculum in the Progressive Era but added that the activities were a way for schools to address relatively low attendance rates and poor academic performance of boys in high schools.2 School leaders in the Progressive Era sought greater influence over their students’ lives through school-wide assemblies, homeroom periods, and supervised extracurricular activities. Sevan Terzian asserted that school leaders thought that through these activities, they could create an appearance of unity and social harmony within the high schools.3 They also hoped that influencing students into these activities with more diverse students would ultimately cultivate new social and civic values in all students. This hope fit the common notions of citizen responsibilities in a republic, and extracurricular activities offered a path to teach students

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to follow authority and sacrifice individual preferences for the common good of the team, school, and community. In this way, the creators of the comprehensive high school had socially efficient motives for controlling the extracurriculum, as they thought, “clear rules and regulations set by adult educators would mold a generation of young adults who would carry on the cultural priorities of the middle class in an industrial age.”4 Some scholars have suggested that the extracurriculum had the task of offsetting the deterministic curricular differentiation of the social efficiency curriculum through social unifying extracurricular activities that brought all students at the comprehensive high school together. However, the extracurricular activities have never lived up to their promise of social unification, and some would argue have only contributed further to the divisiveness of differentiated and social hierarchized curriculum. While scholars have made these larger assertions about the role and purpose of the extracurriculum in the Progressive Era, and subsequently the struggle for control over them, the fact remains that the extracurriculum was very context specific to the high school and its community. The extracurriculum at Shortridge High School offers yet another example of a contextualized high school extracurriculum. While there is no evidence of a struggle over control of the extracurriculum, all data available indicated the teachers and administration had influence over the students and their activities, and played a major role in shaping the activities—especially Laura Donnan.

The Extracurriculum at Shortridge At Shortridge, the extracurriculum was a prominent feature of the student experience. This could be seen in the yearbooks, student memoirs, and in the Daily Echo. The extracurriculum at Shortridge definitely had social and civic outcomes, whether purposefully or not, and it served to support the social unification goals of the times. Social unification may have been achieved more easily because Shortridge did not have a very differentiated curriculum like many other city schools. This was in part due to Manual Training High School opening in 1900, which, in a way, created differentiated schools and made differentiated curricular paths at each school unnecessary.5 Regardless, the extracurriculum at Shortridge was inclusive and served as a social adhesive for most students. The extracurriculum also served as a means for students to apply what they had learned in their coursework, and at the center of many of these activities was Laura Donnan.

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Donnan’s Extracurriculars Donnan was very popular with students due in part to her involvement with the extracurricular activities she initiated and sponsored. Donnan sponsored or helped with nearly every school activity over the span of her forty-five-year career at Shortridge.6 Her efforts were very well documented in the yearbooks, and regularly noted in the school newspaper, for example, “I need not tell you what Miss Donnan is doing for the Echo, Oratorical Association and the Senate.”7 Donnan was founder and longtime sponsor of several clubs: the Shortridge Oratorical Society, in which students developed speeches on current issues and practiced oratory skills; the John Quincy Adams Club, which provided a forum to debate school and governmental issues pertinent to students in an impromptu manner; the Keyes Association, which discussed patriotic topics and coordinated patriotic events and activities in the community; the Shortridge Senate, a simulative legislative body; and the Shortridge Daily Echo, which was the first daily high school newspaper in the country. Donnan was reported to be present on nearly every field trip, school event, or sports event to chaperone the girls because “she did not want the girls to miss out on anything.”8 Donnan also coached the women’s basketball team for five years, and served over twenty years on the school and city athletic boards. The Daily Echo is full of brief accounts of Donnan’s participation in a wide range of school events, but most notably featured—at least weekly—was the Shortridge Senate. The Shortridge Senate Donnan developed the Shortridge Senate, beginning in 1883, when she started at Shortridge. The Senate quickly became the most popular club in the school, and drew participants from each grade-level, as well as observers from inside and outside of the school.9 Donnan set up the Shortridge Senate to imitate the processes of the actual US Senate. Students would even take on the names of actual senators and often imitated their publicly known characteristics. In the weekly sessions, the Senators would propose bills and resolutions, deliberate them, and then decide their fate. In this way, the Shortridge Senate’s extracurricular and academic purpose was to provide a venue for students to apply the knowledge they learned in Donnan’s civil government course, and extend the time and space of the weekly debates conducted in civil

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government course. It is clear from the coverage of the Senate by newspapers, and others, additional intended outcomes of the Senate included preparing students to be better informed on the issues facing the nation, participating in voting, and ultimately being active citizens. The Shortridge Senate is unique and interesting as an extracurricular activity for several reasons. First, the proceedings were recorded in the minutes of the Senate sessions, by a student who was elected secretary. Depending on the student, and the quality of their handwriting, the Senate minutes provide rich glimpses of the interactions of students in the Senate. The minutes also demonstrate the sense of value the students and school community had for the activity. The volumes of Senate minutes that remain do not start until the year 1897. Therefore, over that fourteen years the students must have developed a sense that they were doing something important enough to record for reference later. The recording of the minutes also demonstrated the degree to which Donnan had planned these simulations. Procedurally, the exercise of recording meetings mimicked nearly all official meetings in public and private organizations. Second, the Senate was well known outside of the group of participating student Senators. The Senate happenings were not only recorded in the minutes of the Senate sessions, but also weekly—typically on Mondays—in the school newspaper the Daily Echo. The Indianapolis newspapers would even cover the happenings in the Senate from time-totime. The coverage of the Senate happenings in the newspaper made it a public body of influence on the school. The newspaper coverage expressed the values implied by the Senators, in regard to controversial issues of the day, to an audience well beyond the participants in the Senate. It is hard to determine the influence of the Senate’s happenings on the Shortridge student body, and inversely, how publicly publishing the Senate happenings influenced the Senators’ actions. Yet, it is clear the Senate provided an extracurricular activity dedicated to decision making on controversial social problems—in a self-governing body where students were publicly accountable to their peers—which is remarkable in terms of creating a culture within a school setting. Third, the sheer size and demographics of the Senate made it unique as an extracurricular activity. Weekly, on Friday afternoon, the Senate averaged around one-hundred students, and from 1905 to 1915 the Senate would sometimes approach one-hundred fifty students. The Senate was not only unique in its size, but it was also a unique association of students.

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The Senate may have imitated the US Senate in its processes and issues, however, the students who took on the names of the White male senators were in some cases not White, and in many cases not male, with female students often constituting a majority. The primary requirement to participate in the Senate was passing Donnan’s civil government course, which was a freshman-level course and required for graduation in 1887. Thus, only a small group of students would have been excluded each year based on their academic achievement.10 Fourth, the Senate provided a space to discuss the most controversial issues of the period, which included Black citizen’s rights, immigration issues, and women’s suffrage. Countless other issues were deliberated in the Senate. Interestingly, many of these issues are still debated today as political issues, either literally or in principle. For example, here are some of the most commonly discussed issues: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

anti-trust legislation, dealing with monopolies; industry bail-outs, proposing government financing of the railroads; regulation in the buying and selling of futures; taxation issues, distinguishing between flat and progressive taxes; capital punishment; Native American rights, in terms of their quality of life on the reservations and their sovereignty; vivisection, and the boundaries of science; substance control, regulating alcohol and tobacco consumption; child labor, proposing ban on interstate trade of goods produced with child labor; campaign finance, corporations and personal contributions; censorship, mainly of anarchist or mature content; preserving the environment and setting up national parks; representation in government, such as proposing direct election of senators, abolishing the electoral college, and mending gerrymandered areas.

When students discussed these issues they were able to consider the economic, political, and social implications of each controversial issue. For example, the students in the Senate regularly discussed issues related to exclusion, and while being a relatively inclusive body of students, it provided a context for Donnan’s pedagogy and purpose in promoting

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democratic and pluralistic citizenship, at a time when the most basic rights of many Americans’ citizenship were highly contested. The Impact of the Shortridge Senate Donnan and her Senate had a lasting impact on many students’ lives, and several former students attest to it in their memoirs, diaries, journals, and scrapbooks. Along with the Senate minutes and the Daily Echo, these sources are all valuable in providing a glimpse of authentic student perspectives on major social issues in the Progressive Era, the interplay between their views and their social milieu, as well as the educational culture that facilitated their discussion. However, what was the significance, currency, or real value of the Senate that maintained its popularity with the students? Primarily, the Senate provided students a place to exercise their public voice. The opportunity for students to share their thoughts and rationales on some of the most pressing issues of the period would have been exciting for many students. Schools, and much of society, still viewed children and adolescents from a traditional humanist perspective that considered students’ minds empty vessels that needed to be filled with knowledge.11 In other words, students were viewed as having very little worth in the learning process, knowledge flowed in one direction from the classics and teachers to the student. Therefore, the school was to prepare the student for society, and their voice was not valued until they had been formed and shaped by society. The Senate was a place where the students’ voice was valued and unrestricted by adults. Donnan presided over the Senate, but she merely observed, as the Senate was completely student run. Thus, the students’ voice was not only active, but also generative in that the deliberations were not bound to any script or intended outcomes. Deliberations of the bills would often span over three or four sessions, demonstrating that multiple students wanted to engage and share their perspective on the issue. While the students’ arguments were sometimes iterative of the actual senators they were portraying, each perspective prompted another perspective to be shared and considered by all. The sharing of perspectives would ultimately lead to the group, as a whole, collectively making judgments and decisions, and voting to pass bills. In this way, the students’ voices were generative and could produce a larger consensus of either agreement or dissent. This undoubtedly was something none of them had ever experienced.

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In relation to student voice, the audience that the Senate provided also played a role in its significance. Students’ public voice needs an active audience to engage in deliberations. A passive audience would neither result in one-hundred to one-hundred-fifty students participating every Friday afternoon, nor topics being discussed over several sessions or weeks. Therefore, Donnan had created a self-engaging and sustaining body, which was at the core of its success. Most importantly, the Senate’s popularity also created audiences beyond its participants and Donnan. As mentioned earlier, the Daily Echo covered the happenings of the Senate weekly in its Monday edition. With this coverage, the Senate participants were also engaging with the entire school community. Furthermore, the Indianapolis newspaper would cover the Senate happenings monthly and brief the city on the issues they had discussed. The possibility of being in the city newspaper and engaging with the adult public was even more motivation for students to use their voice. Lastly, teachers and students from other schools would visit Shortridge to observe the Senate happenings and consider a similar extracurricular activity for their school. There is even correspondence between students at Shortridge and other schools discussing its value for their school.12 Students who participated in the Shortridge Senate felt like they were part of something larger than themselves, and they could use their voice to be seen by a broad, diverse audience. When students used their public voice and engaged with an audience in the Senate, it also triggered students to critically reflect on their society and community. When students engage with an audience they not only carefully consider what they voice and how they voice it, but they also critically reflect on how the audience responds to their voice. The critical reflection on the deliberations became an important part of the generative process for students using their public voice. The reflective process that proceeded in the Senate is similar to what Dewey was describing in How We Think, and wrote, “Thoughts that result in belief have an importance attached to them which leads to reflective thought, to conscious inquiry into the nature, conditions, and bearings of the belief.”13 The context of the Senate allowed for the reflective process to happen organically as students asserted beliefs, justified those beliefs, and then would reflect on those beliefs as others shared their own beliefs. Overall, the Shortridge Senate provided a venue for students to share their public voice with multiple audiences and reflect on their own beliefs. Donnan had created a civic culture at Shortridge and the Senate was

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a pivotal part of that culture. The Senate provided the application and experiences that shaped the civic culture and students were able to shape, describe, and sustain the culture through their engagement in the Senate. Therefore, the extracurricular nature of the Senate enabled Donnan to achieve what she could not achieve with her classroom pedagogy. The Daily Echo As mentioned above, the Daily Echo was a significant extracurricular activity because in many ways it supported and enhanced most of Donnan’s efforts, especially the Senate. Donnan shifted the Echo to the Daily Echo in 1898 and created the first daily school newspaper. After several years of sharing the advisor and editorial responsibilities with one other teacher, Donnan and four other teachers took turns advising and editing, each taking one day of the week. This is a remarkable feat for the period, the printing process alone would have been enough to prevent a daily newspaper at most schools,14 but the spirit and determination of the Shortridge faculty and students made it happen. The Daily Echo serves as an excellent historical body of documents about Indianapolis history and later became famous because of a prominent student editor, Kurt Vonnegut. Under the tutelage of primarily Donnan, but also other teachers, the Daily Echo became the voice of Shortridge students and documents many of the unique and remarkable aspects of the school, faculty, and students. In this way, the Daily Echo offered a spotlight on the entire school culture, much like social media does today. The Daily Echo provided invaluable detail about the civic culture at Shortridge High School by enabling the entire school to be engaged in the civic culture passively and/or actively, to various degrees. The Daily Echo had a regular format with several broader types of content within the four-page periodical. First, there were non-regular events happening at the school that were covered and discussed either pre- or post-event. For example, this would include visitors to the school, guest speakers, tragedies, field trips, etc. Second, much coverage followed the extracurricular activities of the school. Extracurriculars were a constant source of interest for students because students could passively take part in the clubs by following the coverage in the Daily Echo. Third, editors filled extra space with columns of student comments, reflections, jokes, and commentary on teachers and courses. These columns illustrated much of the culture of Shortridge and the character of the students. Fourth,

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like regular newspapers there were editorial and opinion pieces about various issues around the school. Fifth, the editors published poems and short literary pieces from Shortridge students or actual authors. Lastly, there were general school and school district announcements. The school district announcements were for teachers at all schools, often from the Superintendent, which demonstrated that the Daily Echo had an audience and purpose well beyond Shortridge. Coverage of the Senate and Other Extracurriculars The Daily Echo covered all of Shortridge’s activities, but it covered the Senate the most. The Senate was probably covered weekly because it had the most regular participants of any activity. Each weekly session was an actual event because there was no practice, and it was an open-ended simulation with infinite possible outcomes. The fact that it was the most popularly attended event in school distinguished it from other activities, and its popularity meant that students talked about it well after it was over. The Daily Echo contributed to this and carried the conversation from Friday afternoons when the Senate met, to Monday when the coverage of the Senate session was published every week in the Daily Echo. In this way, the Daily Echo also contributed to the continuity of the Senate deliberations, both in the Senate and outside in the hallways. The continuity provided by the Daily Echo only added to the relevance of the Senate to the Shortridge civic culture, and aided in maintaining student engagement, both actively and passively. Also contributing to the Senate’s consistent presence in the Daily Echo and its popularity was the fact that each week was a live event; there were no practices, like sports or academic teams. The Senate’s weekly live event was mutually beneficial to it and the Daily Echo because it provided consistent drama that kept students participating, as well as students reading. The energy the Senate seemed to create would be comparable to having a football game each week with a well-known and competitive rival, of which nearly the whole school would want to know the outcome. It is probably no coincidence that Donnan was the faculty editor on Mondays and was able to maintain the Daily Echo’s role in retaining interest in the Senate and Shortridge’s civic culture. In addition to being live and in action every week, the simulation of the Senate was open-ended and led to the possibility of many different topics to cover in the Daily Echo. Coverage was never reduced to simply winning or losing, but had all sorts of possible outcomes with the constancy

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of new bills and debates, ongoing bills, committees, trials, and many theatrics. The open-endedness made the Senate an unpredictable and messy learning experience, in what was an otherwise well-ordered school week. This, again, added to the popularity of both the Senate and the Daily Echo’s coverage of the Senate sessions. Since the Daily Echo was read beyond the walls of Shortridge, it added another layer of significance to the proceedings of the Senate. The student Senators realized that the community was following their actions and deliberations, especially when the city newspaper would occasionally share the Daily Echo articles in the city section. Students were perhaps more engaged in the Senate and authentic in their interactions knowing that adults might read about their work. Interestingly, when the Daily Echo or city newspapers covered the proceedings in the Senate, they did not add any commentary or opinion, but simply covered what students did, unlike in sports. Covering the senate in this way demonstrated the level of engaging activities that happened in the Senate. Student Columns, Editorials, and Opinions The editors of the Daily Echo appeared to fill the extra space of the fourpage paper with short comments, reflections, jokes, and other perspectives on the school. These were in addition to the regular editorials and opinion sections. Combined, these provide a unique glimpse at the culture of the school and the character of the students. The regularity of the Daily Echo, and thus these columns, make these comments feel like a lightly edited version of social media today. These columns were filled with sarcasm, jokes at other’s expense, and sometimes just generally giving students and teachers a hard time. This sort of column makes the Daily Echo fairly unique in comparison with the more formal school newspapers around the country, and provided a lot of unique data for understanding the civic culture at Shortridge. For example, in the November 21st, 1905 issue the following four passages were shared in the column: • We haven’t heard the voice of Senator Beveridge (Merritt Posler) in the Senate for a long time. What has become of him? • Raymond Kiser is very furious because Paul Ragsdale has been changed from his history class. He declares it a mean trick. • It has been found necessary to give Miss Wright’s special school another room on the first floor of the Annex. Consequently Mr.

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Dunn has had to give up his room and is now a wanderer hearing recitations where he can. • Bob Hughes certainly does make a fine president. The Seniors should be proud of him.15 These commentaries display a fraction of the range of topics covered in these columns on any given day. These specific quotes were chosen among forty others due to their relation to either Donnan, Dunn, or Social Studies content. These quotes demonstrate how the Senate was part of the social fabric of the school, how students got to use their voice to politely air their grievances and praise their classmates, and also passively make judgments about school policies and teachers’ methods. The Daily Echo provided space for authentic student voice, which contributed to the civic culture of the school in unique ways. Comments on Courses, Teachers, and Arthur Dunn The student’s coverage of the daily happenings in courses and the school provide a unique view of schooling and curriculum in the Progressive Era. Donnan was discussed extensively in the Daily Echo, both formally and informally in the student columns. These articles served to verify many of the methods she promoted and used in her classroom. While some of these have been discussed already, there are others that shed unique light on her teaching. For example: If the spirited discussion by some of the girls in the second hour a.m. Civil Government class Monday, might be repeated in Senate there would be no foundation for the statement that girls are the majority in numbers only.16

This commentary demonstrated that Donnan’s courses were very public, and students saw it as part of their culture at Shortridge. It also demonstrated the connection between Donnan’s teaching and her extracurricular activities and the constant sexism that her female students faced when actively participating in the civic culture of the school. The students also wrote about Arthur Dunn on many occasions, casting doubts about his progressive educator identity, and many of these will be shared in the following chapter. However, even in his last year at Shortridge, and beginning to be known as a progressive educator and author of a popular civics textbook, Dunn still struggled as a teacher in the eyes of his students. In 1909, the students wrote about his frustration

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with his History course and reference room. The history reference room was really his only achievement specific to Shortridge. He had presented on the progressive nature of it several times in his early years at Shortridge. However, it seemed to be a joke that the Daily Echo covered several years in a row, despite it being Dunn’s crowning achievement at Shortridge. For example, his students wrote: When all of the history pupils shuffled into the History Reference for the first day they found their fellow sufferers much piled up….Mr. Dunn looked worried because of the amount of talking he had to give everyone. You would have thought Tom Hendricks was a freshie from the amount of instruction given him…Mr. Dunn’s scheme of sending a part of the pupils to the Study Hall did not work though. They kept on coming back to their dismay…not wanted in either place.17

The coverage of Dunn in the Daily Echo presented his teaching and methodology in a very different manner than he has been described by other scholars. It is difficult to discern the true day-to-day occurrences as the Daily Echo only provided a glimpse of the teachers’ practices. Yet, Dunn was consistently described as a traditional teacher, with little control over his classes, and only praised for his accomplishments, speaking engagements, and the extracurriculars he oversaw. While Donnan was consistently described as the active and engaged educator that her students wrote about in their memoirs and diaries, the coverage of Donnan and Dunn in the Daily Echo highlighted some inconsistencies in Dunn’s significance, and the marginalization of Donnan as a female social educator.

Significance of Extracurriculum at Shortridge In thinking about the significance of the extracurriculum at Shortridge it brings about an interesting contradiction, which also highlights the gender ideologies at play in the Progressive Era, and specifically what Donnan faced at Shortridge. Like many high schools across the country, the male leaders at Shortridge believed they had a “boy problem” because there were significantly more female students at Shortridge. The “boy problem” was not a prioritized problem until George Benton became principal of Shortridge in 1903. For example, Benton began many of his reports to the superintendent about the increased enrollment of male

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students during his tenure at Shortridge from 1903 to 1910. He also wrote about the feminization of the teaching profession, and his concern that it kept highly qualified male teachers out of the profession and may lead to less male students in schools in general.18 Benton’s focus on the “boy problem” was made apparent in the Daily Echo also, when a 1909 article titled, “S.H.S. Enrolls Many More Boys: Study Hall More than Filled by the Masculine Element,” provided context to Principal Benton’s agenda, and read: Shortridge is becoming a boys school to a greater extent every year. Last year Mr. Benton said that contrary to popular opinion the number of boys coming to Shortridge was on the increase. His statement was proved beyond a doubt Tuesday at the meeting in which Mr. Benton lectured on “School Etiquette”. It seemed impossible to get them all seated and they kept coming until the study hall was more than filled. …Shortridge is not a girls school and never has and never will be. Efforts are being made all the time to make it more attractive to the boys and the numbers besides the enthusiasm shown at that meeting clearly point out the fact that not only are boys being attracted here but also they are having a good time after they get here. We feel sure however that the real sport is to come latter in the school athletics.19

This story in the Daily Echo demonstrated the collective conversation around gender enrollments as schools were expanding. Furthermore, it demonstrated Tyack and Hansot’s assertion that the extracurriculum had been prioritized because of the perceived “boy problem” in city high schools. From the Daily Echo writer’s perspective, there was a concern over boys having fun at school, and the extracurriculum appeared to be the way that Principal Benton characterized fun, among academics and school etiquette. While Principal Benton prioritized the extracurriculum due to the “boy problem,” and embraced the expansion of the extracurriculum, Donnan appeared to use the extracurriculum for her own purposes to engage female students, Black students, and some male students in her civic culture. Examining the Shortridge extracurriculum through the lens of the “boy problem” also shed new light on the multiple phrases used by Donnan’s former students to describe her agency, such as always looking out for the girls and making sure the girls were included.20 Several of the quotes in this chapter, from the Daily Echo, demonstrated the constant deficit and sexist perspectives regarding female students at Shortridge,

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and Donnan was equally constant in her quest to create opportunities for marginalized students in the extracurriculum. Donnan even served on the Indianapolis city Athletic Board for high school sports for nearly twenty years, making sure female students had athletic opportunities also. Students recognized her efforts on the Athletic Board in a Daily Echo comment: We, however, would like to speak a word in commendation of the person who apparently originated the idea, or at any rate, whose activity in its interest caused its success, and helped place the newly formed Athletic Association on a firmer financial basis. This person is Miss Donnan, and the whole school, and especially those athletically inclined, are indebted to her.21

Specifically, this rather passive thank you note is acknowledging that Donnan had helped secure funds to ensure that girls sports could continue to be funded as well. It is quite remarkable that Donnan was able to wield the extracurriculum to her own purposes, despite a concerted effort to use the extracurriculum to attract White male students to Shortridge. This is perhaps one of the more extraordinary ways that she achieved agency in working toward social change within the constraints of her gender. The impact of her agency in regard to the significance of the Shortridge extracurriculum was summarized well in a Daily Echo article. The December 8th, 1911 issue honored several teachers as part of the Shortridge Hall of Fame, and of course, Donnan was included. Her excerpt read: Miss Donnan should have a large space in the Shortridge Hall of Fame. Her services among us have been long and faithful and she has given us her best. Her teaching of Civics, Latin and History has helped to bring Shortridge to the forefront. Her former active assistance in sports and her present membership on the Athletic Board have helped to make Shortridge athletics well known. Another of her little quiet kindnesses is that of helping to fit students for college free of charge. She has written a textbook on Civil Government, which aside from being a good book certainly reflects honor upon Shortridge. Then, for the aid of Shortridgers she has started the debating and oratorical clubs, but greater than all of these was the founding many years ago, of the Senate, and organization to which many great students owe their knowledge of parliamentary law and their

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ability to speak in public; the Senate has made Shortridge known far and wide. Miss Donnan has more friends among young voters than any teacher on the faculty.22

While Donnan was remembered for her teaching, what equally stood out in students’ minds was all of her work with extracurricular activities and the life skills she developed. The extracurriculum was not only an extension of her pedagogy, but another platform to work for social change and combat the gendered ideologies that constrained the opportunities for females in the Progressive Era.

Notes 1. Thomas W. Gutowski, “Student Initiative and the Origins of the High School Extracurriculum: Chicago, 1880–1915,” History of Education Quarterly 28, no. 1 (1988): 49–72. 2. David Tyack and Elizabeth Hansot, Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1992). 3. Sevan G. Terzian, “The Struggle for the American Extracurriculum at Ithaca High School, 1890–1917,” Journal of Curriculum & Supervision 20, no. 4 (2005). 4. Tezian, 321. 5. Kyle P. Steele, Making a Mass Institution: Indianapolis and the American High School (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020). 6. Laura Sheerin Gaus, Shortridge High School, 1864–1981, in Retrospect (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1985). 7. Staff. “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), March 6, 1899. 8. See note 5 above. 9. See note 5 above. 10. Alexander Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens: A History of Civic Education in Indianapolis, 1900–1950” (phd dissertation, Indiana University, 1996). 11. Herbert M. Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893– 1958 (New York: Routledge, 2004). 12. Staff, “Another Senate,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), February 1, 1900. 13. John Dewey, How We Think (Indiana: D.C. Heath & Company, 1910): 5. 14. This was possible because at some point a printing press had been installed at the school to teach printing as a vocation. Echo Press, actually published the first version of Dunn’s textbook, The Community and the Citizen, in 1906. 15. Staff, “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), November 21, 1905.

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16. Staff, “Chat,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 3, 1900. 17. Staff, “Oh! You History Reference,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), September 24, 1909. 18. Indianapolis Public School, “Annual Report of the Secretary, Business Director, Superintendent of Schools, and the Librarian” (report, Indianapolis, 1910). 19. Staff, “S.H.S. Enrolls Many More Boys,” Daily Echo ( Indianapolis, IN), September 24, 1909. 20. Virginia Cox, “Laura Donnan,” The Indiana Magazine of History 32, no. 3 (1936): 261–265; Gaus, “Shortridge High School.” 21. Staff, “Editorial,” Daily Echo ( Indianapolis, IN), November 15, 1906. 22. Staff, “Shortridge Hall of Fame,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), December 8, 1911.

CHAPTER 7

Arthur Dunn at Shortridge 1900–1910

Abstract This chapter will provide a full introduction to Arthur W. Dunn, who is well documented in the existing literature on civic education, the social studies, and community civics. However, the literature has focused very little on his time at Shortridge and has focused more on his role as Director of Civic Education at Indianapolis Public Schools, his civic education roles for the National Municipal League while in Philadelphia and New York, and his role as Civic Education Specialist for the US Bureau of Education, where he contributed to the 1916 report The Social Studies in Secondary Education. This chapter will provide a deep look at Dunn’s time in Indianapolis. Coupled with his research training, Dunn’s time at Shortridge was pivotal to his career due to the connections he made, as well as the work of Laura Donnan and the civic culture she had created at the school. Keywords Arthur W. Dunn · Shortridge High School · Community civics · Progressive education · Social efficiency

Arthur Dunn is well documented in the existing literature on civic education, the social studies, and community civics. However, the literature has focused very little on his time at Shortridge High School and has focused © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_7

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more on his positions after Shortridge. Much of the existing literature has also focused on Dunn’s research training at the University of Chicago (UC) with two influential sociologists. This chapter will piece together Dunn’s time in Indianapolis and demonstrate how it shaped his career.

Arthur Dunn Before Shortridge: A Clarification of the Literature Dunn was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on March 12, 1868. Both of Dunn’s parents died while he was a teenager and he moved in with an older brother. Similar to Donnan, Dunn’s parents had abolitionist leanings, and his father was reportedly a “conductor” for the underground railway.1 His father had operated a general store in Galesburg, and he and his brother continued to run his father’s store after his passing. Dunn finished high school in Galesburg in 1886 and then worked for a couple years in the family store. He enrolled at Knox College in Galesburg in 1888, where he chose the classical course of study rather than the Scientific. Dunn graduated from Knox College in the Spring of 1893. Little else is known about Dunn and his upbringing in Galesburg.2 In October of 1893, Dunn went to Chicago and enrolled at the newly established University of Chicago (UC). Dunn began his graduate work, with the primary aim to achieve a Ph.D. in a social science. Dunn’s specific disciplinary focus was difficult to determine during his initial year at the UC. Interestingly, he received his master’s from Knox College in 1896, where Dunn was also serving as a faculty member. However, there is some evidence the degree was purely honorary, serving as distinction for his oft-mentioned sociological study of Galesburg.3 Dunn never described it as such, and therefore, it is unclear if he took coursework at both schools from 1894 to 1896, while working at Knox College. It is possible, since the Donnan family were able to take courses at the UC, while living in Indianapolis, not to mention Laura received her master’s in absentia from the University of Michigan. Regardless, at the UC, Dunn enrolled in a variety of courses his first couple of years (1893–1895), which included history, ethnology, archeology, sociology, and zoology. However, Dunn was not enrolled for the Fall semester 1895, probably to complete his research in Galesburg to satisfy his master’s requirements at Knox College, where he was also an instructor for the Fall 1895 semester.4 In Spring 1896, Dunn was teaching introductory level sociology courses for the Extension Department at the UC. It has been

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discussed widely that while at the UC, Dunn enrolled in sociology courses with Albion Small and George Vincent and was, at the very least, familiar with their work. Dunn cited Small and Vincent’s textbook as the methodological basis he followed in his study of Galesburg, “An Analysis of the Structure of a Western Town,”5 demonstrating some synthesis between his studies and work at both schools. Dunn took a two-year absence from the UC and took a position at the University of Cincinnati. Previous scholars have written that he was a lecturer in English and Sociology, which he was from 1897 to 1898, but only in addition to his role as Secretary of University Extension and Lecturer in Ethnology from 1896 to 1898.6 Dunn was charged with expanding the University’s extension program, which he appeared to do in Kentucky and Tennessee. For example, he gave a series of lectures at a club-woman’s home in Knoxville, TN on the topic of the Races of Europe.7 Dunn returned to the UC in 1898, this time as a fellow and taught a course titled, the Nations of Europe in the Sociology department.8 As a fellow, Dunn was primarily required to engage in original research under the direction of a professor, while also devoting some service to the university. He also taught Anthropology in the College for Teachers and provided free lectures through the UC Extension, one in October 1899 was titled, “Anthropology and its Value in General Education.”9 Dunn did not enroll at the UC in the Winter Quarter 1900, and in the Spring and Summer Quarters of 1900 his studies shifted, and he took courses in political economy and political science. Sivertson asserts that Dunn’s shift was probably in preparation for his new teaching position at Shortridge; however, he did not start at Shortridge until October 3rd, 1900, after the school year had already begun.10 Dunn replaced Henry L. Cannon, who resigned on Sept. 28th to become an assistant professor in history at the University of Cincinnati. Cannon began teaching at Shortridge in 1899 and was only there for one year. He had a Ph.D. in History from the University Pennsylvania and went on to become a professor of history at Leland Stanford University in 1903. Cannon’s sudden departure and Dunn’s arrival raises some questions regarding previous scholars’ assumptions about Dunn’s eagerness to teach civics. When did Dunn know he would be teaching at Shortridge, or why did he change his course of study if he did not know he would be teaching at Shortridge? It appears Dunn’s most likely connection to Shortridge was a history teacher named Junius B. Roberts, who was also from Galesburg, and

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will be discussed in the next section. Furthermore, Roberts’ son-in-law, William E. Henry, was a fellow in English and librarian at the UC the same time as Dunn in 1894–1895, and it is possible there was some correspondence between them. Henry went on to become the Indiana State Librarian in 1897.11 Roberts and Henry are the only identifiable means for Dunn to have found out about the position at Shortridge, either prior to or upon Cannon leaving. Yet, Dunn could have heard about the position through other channels. Shortridge had a strong relationship with the UC, as one of their “accepted secondary schools” in the 1890s, and sent both teachers and students there for educational purposes. Indianapolis also had an active UC Club, of which the Donnan’s were officers.12 It should be noted, it is possible Dunn and Donnan crossed paths during their experiences through the UC, particularly through extension courses in the 1890s.13 However, it is also possible that Dunn simply applied for positions in large high schools in the Midwest, but the leap to a premiere academic high school such as Shortridge,14 as well as the uncommon timing, suggests there was some sort of connection to the school. Regardless, Dunn never finished his Ph.D. at the UC, and did not complete enough courses, or the exam, to even achieve candidacy. His departure from the program could be due to the dual costs of his daughter’s birth in April 1900 and an appendectomy in Summer 1900, and developed financial need for the job at Shortridge.15 In the Fall of 1900, Dunn leaped onto the K-12 educational career ladder16 and began as Head of the Department of History and Civics at Shortridge.

Arrival at Shortridge High School Previously, scholars have made the argument that Dunn had a significant impact on the history and civics curriculum at Shortridge.17 However, the research on Donnan’s career has demonstrated an already wellestablished civic education curriculum in place when he arrived. In fact, Dunn barely taught civic education courses during his ten years at Shortridge, and instead taught mostly history, geography, and special topic courses related to his experience teaching anthropology and ethnological. Since researchers in the past found little evidence as to Dunn’s actual activities at Shortridge and Indianapolis, they concluded he left an impression upon the social sciences curriculum, and particularly upon the civic education program of the district, based upon his positions, publications,

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and presentations during his time there. Dunn’s ideas and activities can primarily be found in various publications, especially journals and reports of the proceedings of various meetings, but also his textbook. He also frequently took part in teacher organization meetings and was often noted as a speaker and consultant during this period. Regardless of his academic activities, Dunn only taught civics twice during the regular school year at Shortridge, and sometimes during Summer school.18 Overall, there is little evidence that Dunn impacted civics instruction at the high school level in Indianapolis, despite his later role as Director of Civics. Dunn’s “Progressive” Teaching in History and Geography, Not Civics When Dunn arrived in the Fall 1900 to head the history department at Shortridge, he was hired by Principal George Hufford. Dunn was given charge of a department with three veteran teachers—Josephine Cox, Laura Donnan, Junius B. Roberts—who were each very accomplished in their own right and each had nine years’ experience or more. Due to their extensive experience, Donnan and Roberts might have been promising choices for head of the department. Roberts was Dunn’s apparent connection to the job at Shortridge and had an interesting career of his own. He was a graduate of Dunn’s alma mater Knox College (1855), Superintendent of Galesburg Schools (1862–1874), Principal of Indianapolis (Shortridge) High School (1874–1881), Private Academy owner in Indianapolis (1881–1887), and history teacher at Shortridge.19 Dunn and Roberts were close professionally, covering each other’s classes and were mentioned together in more than ten Daily Echo articles, most notably when they co-hosted an event recognizing the anniversary of the LincolnDouglas Debates, which Roberts had reportedly attended in person.20 Yet, Roberts also interacted with Donnan socially and attended the same local women’s suffrage events. Donnan was also very close with Principal Hufford, and his wife Lois, who also taught at Shortridge. Donnan would even give Principal Hufford’s dedication upon his passing. There are a variety of reasons Dunn was possibly chosen to lead the department, despite the qualified veterans on staff. Regardless, he was walking into a new position with very little social capital and potentially little authority within his department to make changes to the courses or curriculum. For the first two school years (1900–1902) Dunn taught history courses only, and not full-time. Previously scholars only knew about Dunn’s teaching through his presentations and the examples in his

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publications. However, the most revealing references to Dunn’s time at Shortridge are scattered in the school newspaper, the Daily Echo. These accounts of his teaching are mainly from students, and contradict much of what he advocated for in his publications and presentations. In practice, Dunn appeared to be a facilitator of recitations and monotonous lectures, for example, “Mr. Dunn has been reading to his history classes….It is really affecting to hear him read…while with a pointer in hand he directs the listeners gaze as if he were assisting at a geometry demonstration.”21 Interestingly, Dunn later criticized this sort of teaching in recommendations to other school districts,22 since he considered himself, as have scholars, a progressive educator. Potentially related to his traditional teaching methods, Dunn appeared to struggle with classroom management, too, “Mr. Dunn…quite startled them with a lecture in which he laid down the rules for the future and the penalty which would, without exception, follow their violation….”23 Dunn’s lack of experience was evident in the student descriptions of his teaching, during his first few years at Shortridge. Dunn did attempt new methods from time-to-time, but it seemed that Dunn could not escape being compared to the well-established practices of Donnan. For example, a student in the Daily Echo wrote, “He [Dunn] wishes to stimulate discussion among the students, as a means of arousing interest as is done in Miss Donnan’s Civil Government classes.”24 Instances of Dunn’s teaching suggested Donnan’s practice had at least a minimal level of influence on Dunn, or at the very least, that he was aware of her popular pedagogy during his short time at Shortridge. If Donnan did influence Dunn’s teaching in the early years, it was short-lived. Even after six years at Shortridge, Dunn was still portrayed as a teacher who relied heavily on recitation, “Mr. Dunn has some ability as a punster. In the progress of a recitation in American History, the other day, he made this casual remark: ‘Now Miss ––, show Mr. Wright where he is wrong’.”25 Students continued to commonly associate him with recitations, “Jennifer Schaub is so frightened when Mr. Dunn calls on her that it is with the utmost difficulty that she is able to regain sufficient composure to stand and recite.”26 Dunn’s continued reliance on recitation is surprising since recitation was one of his, as well as his colleagues, major arguments for a new civics curriculum. As Reuben described: Dunn and other advocates of community civics…continually disparaged the recitation method, in which the teacher asked a student a question, and the

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student responded with a set answer. They said that recitation introduced concepts that students could not understand and that were never explained. Furthermore, it demanded that students memorize information but did not demonstrate the value of the material memorized. They argued that teaching civics through recitation undermined the goals of civics because it did not train students to reflect upon social and political problems.27

Dunn still relied on traditional humanist methods of teaching even after he had more than five years experience at Shortridge and did not seem to prioritize progressive methods or pedagogical change. Principal Hufford retired in 1902, which prompted a national search for a new principal. Superintendent C. N. Kendall hired Lawrence Hull, who had been a Principal at Detroit High School, as well as other schools across the country.28 Principal Hull only lasted one year, it seemed he did not have much rapport with the students, affinity for the school culture, or involvement with the community,29 and subsequently did not improve Dunn’s chances of teaching civics. Superintendent Kendall hired George Benton in 1903. Benton was a science teacher at Shortridge, who had taken a year of leave during the 1902–1903 school year. He would be principal at Shortridge until Dunn left in 1910, leaving the principalship to be an editor for a local publisher. The hiring of Principal Benton was a turning point in Dunn’s career, in several ways. Though Principal Benton was a Shortridge veteran, he was also well connected outside of the school to both the academic community and the club community. Benton was a physicist and had a deep appreciation and vested interest in science and the new methods of inquiry. He often presented at science, non-education conferences and published articles in science journals. Benton would probably have appreciated Dunn’s work at the UC and the new turn in social science methodology. Principal Benton was also connected to the clubs of Indianapolis and in particular, the Century Club and the Commercial Club. The Century Club was a literary group that Benton was the president and/or officer for several years, which was formed “as a protest against exclusiveness and old fogyism in club life,” which hinted at more progressive club aims.30 On at least two occasions Benton asked Dunn to present to the club on “Prophets” and “The influence of the Animal World in the Development of the Race.”31 Benton, at the very least, found Dunn’s knowledge and approach worthy enough to share with colleagues. In an article, about improving the teaching profession, Benton demonstrated

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Dunn’s influence on him and identified civic education as one of two major weaknesses facing high schools, the second being teacher training. Benton wrote: The first [weakness] is the failure of the school to develop in the child those high ideals of citizenship which the public has a right to expect irrespective of other courses required for college entrance by specific institutions and which are permitted to crowd out courses in civics, political economy and ethics, which should be the cornerstone of public education.32

Benton goes on to describe more views on civic training, similar to Dunn’s views, arguing that schools should prepare students for society, not college, and illustrated his points with examples of social welfare issues. Benton and Dunn were in ideological agreement and found support for their ideology through men’s clubs’ audiences. The Commercial Club was the Indianapolis affiliate of the National Municipal League (NML). The Commercial Club was interested in educational issues, and primarily civic and early childhood issues. Benton became a committee member in the club once he became principal, but had been a member of the club since the late 1890s. Benton also was able to help Dunn join the club in 1905. The club provided access to many influential people in Indianapolis, including access to Superintendent C. N. Kendall, who was a longtime member of the club. The connection to both Superintendent Kendall and the NML would be quite beneficial to Dunn and his civic education aspirations. Benton must have found some interest in Dunn, or it was mutual, as in the Fall semester 1903 Dunn received permission to start creating new history courses with civic and political themes. For example, “Mr. Dunn, teacher of American History, is making arrangements to teach a new subject next year, covering the political development in American history…as a course in advanced senior work.”33 Dunn seemed to have found an advocate in Principal Benton, and by joining the Commercial Club, and subsequently the NML in 1905, Dunn found an audience that supported the civic work he purportedly wanted to do. Connection to National Municipal League—1905 While the role of the NML in Dunn’s career will be discussed in more depth in the next chapter, it is important to note the beginning of

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Dunn’s relationship with the NML through his participation in the Indianapolis Commercial Club, beginning in 1905. When Benton became principal in 1903, Dunn was able to begin conceptualizing his vision of civics. With the creation of new courses at Shortridge, as well as more speaking engagements and presentations, Dunn was developing his voice as an advocate for the new civics. Membership in the Commercial Club provided Dunn with a captive audience who had resources to support his efforts. Furthermore, it provided exposure to Superintendent Kendall, who would appoint Dunn as Director of Civics for Indianapolis Schools in 1906. Dunn began pursuing his vision for civics in several ways. During this same period, Dunn would be completing his textbook, The Community and the Citizen, which his colleagues in Indianapolis would begin using for eighth grade civics in 1906. After national distribution of his book in 1907, Dunn would take on his first leadership and committee roles in the Commercial Club, on the Education and Civic Affairs committees, from 1907 to 1910.34 These would be a stepping-stone for his future positions in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Dunn’s Emergence as Civic Expert in Indianapolis—1906 Dunn seemingly vied to teach civics at the high school level, but was restricted in a few ways, primarily Donnan’s reputation as the civics teacher. It appears that Dunn attempted to influence the civics curriculum at Shortridge and was repeatedly denied opportunities,35 until Principal Benton took charge of the school. Over the next three years, under Benton’s tutelage inside and outside of Shortridge, and along with his textbook, Dunn was channeled into the role of Director of Civic Education for Indianapolis Schools in 1906. It is during this time that Dunn’s perspective begins to evolve in regard to civics, made apparent by all his activities outside of Shortridge. For example, Dunn presented at a meeting of the North Central History Teachers Association in 1907, and described his attempts to modify the teaching of history at Shortridge. To address the typical problems of large class sizes and inadequate equipment, Dunn suggested two innovations: (1) a conference period at the end of each day to engage with students, and (2) a history reference room with a range of maps and primary sources to enhance student learning.36 The presentation was an evolved version of the paper he read in 1903 to the English Teachers Association, that advocated for a full year of American History.37 Several

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scholars have noted that Dunn’s reference room was perhaps mimicking Henry W. Thurston’s model at the laboratory school in Chicago. Dunn’s history laboratory was to enable students to work on historical texts, collections of pictures and maps, drafting tables for drawing maps, and other social science resources. Yet, Dunn stated the primary purpose of the reference room at Shortridge was to provide students with an opportunity to discover their interests and then contribute generatively to the class discussion. Dunn said: It is possible here to deal with pupils as individuals in a way that cannot be done in the regular classes. The effect of this work upon the class recitations is excellent; for it tends to make the recitation a period of discussion. We are trying to develop a type of recitation the standard of which is not “How much knowledge have I stored up in my mind?” but “What can I contribute to the advancement of the class.38

Dunn also modified Shortridge’s history curriculum and suggested more time to social, economic, and industrial history. Despite Dunn’s apparent interest in improving the teaching of history, it was clear history was not his first choice of teaching assignments at Shortridge. Therefore, in 1906–1907 Dunn’s interests distinctly shifted and he began to move his expertise in the direction of teaching of civics and particularly, community civics. In 1908, Dunn gave a speech to the Ohio Valley Historical Association titled, “The Civic Value of Local History,” which discussed the merger of his day-to-day reality and his interest in civics as Director of Civic Education. Dunn clearly envisioned using local history as a means of supporting civics instruction, especially at the elementary level. Dunn criticized the current attempts to use local history “as a mere appendage to general history,” since it was usually seen as an afterthought in the general scope and sequence of history content.39 Furthermore, the current history scope and sequence was so dense, it would be impossible to create a separate local history course. Dunn advocated for utilizing local history in the existing curriculum to supplement and enrich the existing scope and sequence of courses. This idea was also probably inspired by his time in Chicago, as Dunn described the effective use of local history in a fourth grade classroom, echoing Thurston’s work a few years earlier.40 Sivertson summarized this well, and noted that Dunn developed a text, Pioneer Indianapolis, to supplement the elementary curriculum, which was the first in a series of similar materials which

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Dunn edited.41 Both Donnan and Thurston had created similar texts to supplement their civics curriculum years earlier. Despite these examples of the utilization of local history in other courses, it was Dunn’s primary purpose in his address to illustrate how local history could be utilized in civics instruction. At the time of his presentation, Dunn had finished his book and had begun the study of civics in the Indianapolis elementary schools. In 1907, he began teaching some civics courses at Shortridge, teaching only parttime, and was teaching summer courses in civics at both Shortridge and Butler College. The book, study, and auxiliary civics courses were important for building his credibility because he had become a civic expert mainly through his academic and social networks. In other words, Dunn had stepped into a role as a civics expert without actually teaching civics. Textbook: 1906–1907 In the 1906–1907 school year, Dunn became Director of Civic Education of the Indianapolis Public Schools. An important step in becoming director was finishing his textbook, The Community and the Citizen, in the Spring of 1906. The textbook provided some legitimacy for his specialization, as a civics expert. He was not able to secure a national publisher at first because most schools did not have a related course.42 Therefore, the early edition was published by The Echo Press at Shortridge and was published a year later in 1907 for national distribution by D.C. Heath & Co. For the 1906–1907 school year, Dunn was able to get thirty to forty eighth grade teachers to use the early edition of the book in their classes.43 Scholars have generally agreed that the publication of The Community and the Citizen in April 1907 began a new era in civic education.44 Dunn was at the forefront of the movement, and perhaps the first to effectively synthesize and formulate a program of civic education that focused on elements of social welfare that were agreed upon as important to sustain and enhance a community. While Dunn’s textbook was at the forefront of the movement for new civics, Dunn had synthesized some existing conceptions of civics to create his vision. He was very aware of educational trends, and as Reuben points out, “Dunn’s career illustrates the ties between progressive reform organizations, the federal government, university-based social scientists, and educational leaders that shaped the new civics.”45 However, Reuben and other scholars overlooked the influence of practicing teachers on Dunn, and namely Donnan. The last section of Donnan’s textbook is very similar

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in content to Dunn’s book, and the practices he advocates could all be witnessed in Donnan’s civil government courses. In some ways, Donnan’s textbook was a stepping-stone for Dunn, as it synthesized the traditional civil government course with progressive methods, and bridged the traditional civil government content with the new social welfare-focused civics, related to Thurston’s and Dewey’s ideas about civics education.46 Dunn’s textbook even mentions one of Dewey’s essays specifically to better align his civic perspective with Dewey’s.47 The alignment with Dewey served to associate civics with a broader progressive purpose and develop a notion of citizenship that went beyond the operational stereotypes of voting and obeying the law. As Reuben noted, “It introduced many themes that would be important in later civics programs, including the complexity of modern society, the elements of welfare necessary to community life, the limits of individualism, and the importance of cooperative attitudes and government action.”48 Thus, the textbook was Dunn’s way of appropriating support for the new civics by drawing on his academic training in the social sciences, citing Dewey, appeasing the NML, and drawing upon practices happening in actual classrooms. In his textbook, Dunn demonstrated the popular belief during the Progressive Era that the enduring function of the public school was to train the youth for citizenship. Citizenship in this conceptualization was not narrowly focused on political activities, but instead, forming the youth into efficient members of the community. Similar to Donnan, Dunn wanted to focus on the civic consciousness of the youth, and develop a habit of thinking as a member of a community. As many scholars have noted, Dunn was very clear in distinguishing himself from the traditional civil government instruction, which consisted of learning about the government machinery with little connection to the students’ actual community. Dunn’s textbook differed from Donnan’s textbook mainly in that it sought to begin instruction from the student’s positionality as a member of the community, instead of the students analyzing how the community meets the needs of its members or citizens. Dunn wanted students to observe the arrangements of the community, and the norms of interacting within those arrangements, in order to most efficiently satisfy their collective needs. Dunn wanted to emphasize the individual’s dependence upon the community to satisfy their needs; whereas Donnan wanted to emphasize the individual’s independence to shape their community to best meet

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their needs. Both emphasized the individual’s responsibility and obligation to the community, but these meant very different things from the perspective of dependence or independence. Dunn thought that urbanization and industrialization had eroded the concept of community, and considered the redevelopment of a sense of community vital to the goal of civic education, and more broadly, the mission of schools. It appears others felt similar to Dunn, as the text became very popular across the country. What started out as a textbook for Indianapolis students would become a national text that would go through several printings and versions (e.g., Community Civics and Rural Life), and be adopted by numerous school districts throughout the country. The Study: 1906–1909 The textbook enabled Dunn to implement a civics curriculum in Indianapolis. Since he had experience conducting social science research, he decided to study his textbook and curriculum with thirty to forty Indianapolis teachers in eighth grade classrooms. Community Civics was required of Indianapolis students from 1906 to 1909 and was implemented in the second half of the eighth grade. Dunn’s implementation process was much like modern-day curriculum implementation. He engaged teachers in professional development, almost weekly for the Fall semester, to prepare them to use the text and curriculum in the Spring. The meeting reminders were published in the Daily Echo. For example, To 8A Teachers of Civics: Before going to the meeting next Monday with Mr. Dunn, please read carefully the preface and the first four or five pages of “The Community and the Citizen.” Respectfully, C. N. Kendall, Superintendent of Schools.49

Interestingly, then, with little or no experience teaching civics, let alone eighth grade, Dunn prepared the teachers to teach the community civics curriculum before beginning his study in Spring 1907. In 1909, Dunn published his first report with evaluations of the curriculum. He focused on four primary outcomes: the conduct of the individual pupil, the life of the school, student interest and participation

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in community activities, and student home life.50 According to Dunn, citing examples from teachers, the conduct of individual pupils improved through learning civics. The examples illustrated how particular sections of the book changed students’ behavior in regard to their community and home. Second, Dunn reported that students’ behavior regarding their time in school also changed as a result of the civics curriculum. Teachers reportedly cited that students required less rules, kept the school cleaner, and that good citizen clubs were created by students to cooperatively improve conditions of their school. Dunn also reported that elementary schools changed their commencements and cited several schools as examples—Lincoln Elementary, where Emma Donnan was principal, was not mentioned. Third, Dunn described ways in which the civic curriculum increased student interest and participation in community activities. He cited examples of schools developing community gardens, coordinating efforts with the Commercial Club, and repairing neighborhood fences. Dunn boasted the schools were quickly becoming the centers of civic influence in their communities as a result of the civics curriculum.51 Lastly, the effect of the civics curriculum on students’ home life was the last area Dunn evaluated. Again, Dunn cited behavioral changes in students at home in regard to cleanliness and even discussing civic topics with parents at home. Not surprisingly, parents unanimously liked the civics curriculum too. As Reece wrote, “Dunn must have been pleased. The schools were picking up the slack in community formation that had been eroded by the coming of modern, urban society.”52 The findings of the report, while overly and suspiciously positive, would serve as a significant prerequisite for Dunn’s future positions after Shortridge. The report on the civics program was published several years later in 1915, by the US Bureau of Education, under the title, “Civic Education in Elementary Schools as Illustrated in Indianapolis.” In the report, Dunn noted that despite community civics only being implemented in the eighth grade, civics-related topics were emphasized throughout the elementary schools, in grades one through eight.53 Dunn attempted to integrate the civics topics, predominantly through the existing social studies framework (geography, history, and civics) in elementary schools, and described how the entire elementary curriculum was “socialized” and articulated from grade to grade to further the civic training of students. In addition, other subjects were brought into the fold of civic training,

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such as English, math, health or hygiene, the school activities (e.g., playground activities and school gardening), and morning exercises were “all utilized as a part of the civic education of the child.”54 Dunn’s study further demonstrated that content was not the primary mode of civic training. Instead, the emphasis was put upon the method and procedure to attain the four immediate goals in teaching civics. For Indianapolis elementary schools, the aim was to move away from the silos of subject-based curriculum and move toward a more socially-based integrated curriculum that promoted, “a process of living, of growth, during which the various relations of life are unfolded—civic, geographical, historical, ethical, vocational, and so on.” The report also indicated that ethics and pre-vocational topics were also prioritized in the Indianapolis curriculum. While there was no specific course in ethics or moral education in the schools, moral training was apparently integrated throughout the coursework.55 Moral training resulted in learning about concepts like conduct, respect, obedience, punctuality, thoughtfulness, service, industry, and cleanliness. These concepts are repeated throughout the report, and while the promotion of such dispositions may have been intended for all students, it seems possible, given the social movements of the Progressive Era, that these dispositional concepts were primarily for those students who lived in particular parts of the city. In many of Dunn’s writings he alludes to, though not specifically, aspects of community civics intended to have the most impact in parts of the city where home and community conditions did not mimic traditional American values, such as cleanliness, frugality, and industriousness.56 The report fully demonstrated Dunn’s allegiance to the shared goals of the Americanization movement and progressive education movement, specifically assimilation and social efficiency. Dunn’s concern for Americanization of immigrants apparently started during his time in Galesburg, working on his study and teaching at Knox College. Dunn’s son shared with Sivertson that his father’s concern regarding the changing values and behavior patterns in American society could be solely attributed to the influx of a “foreign element of laborers” because among these groups there were a lack of “the American concepts of self-government, civic pride, and even our type of social amenities.”57 Dunn’s personal sentiment regarding foreign groups was also apparent in his writings during his time at Shortridge, writing in his textbook, “different nationalities not only tend to live in groups, but they also think and act in groups.”58 Dunn’s background as a lecturer on race and ethnicity

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at both the UC and the University of Cincinnati probably provided some validation for his allegiances to assimilation and social efficiency. These allegiances made him very amenable to groups like the NML, who would fund his work upon leaving Shortridge. Dunn’s Departure: 1910 Dunn was very busy in his last year at Shortridge and in Indianapolis in his various roles. Dunn was finally able to change the name of the department at Shortridge to the Department of Civics in the 1909–1910 school year. While he changed the name, it appears he still was not able to fully change the curriculum at Shortridge. The only civics-related course he taught at Shortridge in 1909 was called, “Municipal Civics,” and focused only on local topics as the name implies.59 Interestingly, Dunn also taught civics at Manual Training High School in the 1909–1910 school year.60 He even continued his role as Professor of History and Anthropology at the Normal College of the North American Gymnastic Union,61 which he had begun in 1907, and even contributed a section to their handbook, titled, “The Civic Function of the School.”62 Dunn would have also been writing up his initial report of his community civic study in Indianapolis as the school year began. The final year was rather typical for Dunn outside of teaching, he gave speeches at various clubs and schools, like he had been doing for the past three years. In each of these speeches, he was introduced as either Director of Civics for Indianapolis Schools or President of the Indianapolis Civic League, but never both. Though, both of these titles served him well in attaining his future positions outside of Indianapolis, and also demonstrated his ability to dually commit to each role. In both roles, his speeches became more nationally focused over his last couple years in Indianapolis, perhaps signaling his ambition to leave. One speech he repeatedly gave was titled, “The Participation of Children in the Civics Movement,” which hinted at the merging of his two worlds, schools and municipal civic improvement.63 He was able to experience the national organizations through his presentations outside of Indianapolis, namely, the NML, which reconfigured his goals to the national level.64

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Significance of Dunn’s Time at Shortridge Dunn’s time at Shortridge transformed his career, and probably parts of his personal life. His various roles outside of Shortridge were pivotal in attaining his future positions discussed in the following chapter. It is easy to understand how previous scholars failed to examine this part of his career, but in doing so, they missed an important phase in the development of civic education in the United States. While Dunn’s education, academic pedigree, presentations, publications, and associations provided a clear trajectory for his roles and accomplishments, his time at Shortridge would be the only time that he was exposed to sustained practices that could have influenced his theories. He evidently had some exposure to Henry W. Thurston’s teaching while in Chicago, yet it would not have been as impactful as the daily experiences at Shortridge, witnessing the civic culture Donnan had created. Dunn could be characterized as someone who was dually enterprising and opportunistic. He clearly had initiative and the ability to identify significant ideas and trends. Yet, on the other hand, his publications clearly overlapped with others’ ideas and practices, around the same time—namely Donnan and Thurston. Dunn cited Thurston, who had abruptly shifted his career away from civics in 1905. Yet, Dunn’s gentle exploitation of Donnan’s ideas for his own professional gain was supported by the gendered ideologies of the era, and in a general sense could be justified as academic, since his civics curriculum did not use Donnan’s work verbatim. Dunn was dually enterprising and opportunistic because he saw an opportunity to capitalize financially and professionally on social and educational movements, by being positioned well to appease several stakeholder interests65 ; yet, he also exploited the work of Donnan, who would never be able to achieve the professional notoriety and acclaim that he could through the male-dominated networks. It is difficult to say whether he was more motivated by financial need or professional aspirations. He seemed to be motivated by his financial situation in several junctures of his life, leaving school and holding multiple positions at once; however, he also never fully grasped progressive teaching methods and seemed more comfortable as a lecturer and speaker, which would have motivated him to seek positions outside of teaching. Both motivations were likely at the forefront. At best, Dunn was an enterprising lecturer; at worst, he was an opportunistic academic; and in all probability, he was simply

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someone who capitalized on the opportunities his circumstances afforded him, enabled by his privilege as an educated White male.

Notes 1. Sidney Sivertson, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972). 2. See note 1 above. 3. See note 1 above. 4. See note 1 above. 5. Arthur Dunn, “An Analysis of the Structure of a Western Town” (masters thesis, Knox College, 1896). 6. Staff, “No Title,” Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH) July 19, 1896. 7. Staff, “Races of Men,” Journal and Tribune (Knoxville TN) January 17, 1897. 8. “University Register” (report, Chicago: UC, 1898). 9. “University Record” (newsletter, Chicago: UC, 1899/1901): 195. 10. Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency”; Staff, “The Question of Fuel,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), October 6, 1900. 11. “University Register” (report, Chicago: UC, 1895); William E. Henry, “Biennial Report of the Librarian of the Indiana State Library” (report, Indianapolis, 1900). 12. “University Register” (report, Chicago: UC, 1895): 131–132; “University Register” (report, Chicago: UC, 1900). 13. “University Record” (newsletter, Chicago: UC, 1896, 1899, 1900). 14. David Labaree, “Career Ladders and the Early Public High School Teacher,” in American Teachers: Histories of a Profession at Work, ed. D. Warren (New York: MacMillan, 1989). 15. “University Register” (report, Chicago: UC, 1899); Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency.” 16. See note 14 above. 17. Michael B. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1981); Murray R. Nelson (Ed.), “The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Reprint of the Seminal 1916 Report with Annotations and Commentaries” (Bloomington: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1994); Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency”; Alexander Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens: A History of Civic Education in Indianapolis, 1900–1950” (phd dissertation, Indiana University, 1996). 18. Staff, “Will Open Normal School,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN) April 24, 1908.

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19. Staff, “No Title,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), July 29, 1874; Staff, “No Title,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 4, 1881; William Lucas Steele, Galesburg Public Schools: Their History and Work, 1861–1911 (Galesburg: Board of Education, 1911); Staff, “Hall of Fame,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), December 8, 1911. 20. Staff, “Anniversary Celebrated,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), February 10, 1909. 21. Staff, “Editorial,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), February 5, 1901. 22. Thomas D. Fallace, “Did the Social Studies Really Replace History in the Local Curriculum? The Case of Elyria, Ohio and the North Central States,” Theory & Research in Social Education 37, no. 4 (2009): 458– 483. 23. Staff, “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), February 5, 1901. 24. Staff, “American History II,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), January 4, 1901. 25. Staff, “No Title,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), October 22, 1906. 26. See note 22 above. 27. Julie A. Reuben, “Beyond Politics: Community Civics and the Redefinition of Citizenship in the Progressive Era,” History of Education Quarterly 37, no. 4 (1997): 404. 28. Laura Sheerin Gaus, Shortridge High School, 1864–1981, in Retrospect (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1985). 29. See note 25 above. 30. Allen Hendricks, “The First Years of the Century Club; A Paper” (Indianapolis: The Century Club, 1937). 31. Staff, “No Title,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), February 4, 1902; Staff, “Meeting of the Century Club,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), December 5, 1905. 32. George W. Benton, “The Wage Problem in High Schools,” EducatorJournal 5, no. 6 (1905): 236–237. 33. Staff, “No Title,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), December 20, 1903. 34. “Reports of Officers, Articles of Association, By-laws: List of Members and Stockholders, House Rules, Etc” (Indianapolis: Carlton & Hollenbeck, 1907–1909). 35. For example, Principal Hull’s Appointment Book for 1902–03 Had Several Days Where Both Dunn and Donnan Had Meetings with Him, a Few Times Back-to-Back, About “Courses”; “Visitors’ Register,” Shortridge Archives, Bound Volumes (BV2396), 1902–1903. 36. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen. 37. Staff, “Educators End Sessions,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), April 26, 1903.

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38. Arthur W. Dunn, “Discussion,” North Central History Teachers’ Association, Proceedings of the North Central History Teachers’ Association, Ninth Annual Meeting (Chicago: Published by the Association, 1907): 26. 39. Arthur W. Dunn, “The Civic Value of History,” Indiana Magazine of History (1908): 172. 40. Dunn, “The Civic Value of History.” 41. Sidney Sivertson, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972): 231–232. 42. Sivertson, “Community Civics.” 43. See note 38 above. 44. David Warren Saxe, Social Studies in Schools: A History of the Early Years (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991). 45. Reuben, 402. 46. Reuben, “Beyond Politics”; Sivertson, “Community Civics.” 47. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen, iii. 48. Reuben, 402. 49. Staff, “Official Notices,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), September 13, 1906. 50. Alexander Urbiel, “Civic Education in Indianapolis during the Progressive Era,” in Hoosier Schools: Past and Present, ed. William J. Reece (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998). 51. See note 46 above. 52. Reece, 92. 53. Arthur W. Dunn, “Civics Education in Elementary Education as Illustrated in Indianapolis, Bulletin no. 17” (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915). 54. Dunn, 9. 55. Thomas S. Vontz, “Perspectives on Civic Education, 1898–1916” (report, Washington, DC, 1997). 56. Reuben, “Beyond Politics.” 57. Sivertson, 234. 58. Dunn, Community and the Citizen, 36. 59. Staff, “Indianapolis School Notes,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), May 26, 1910. 60. Staff, “Woodworking Department,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), September 11, 1909. 61. The Normal College of the American Gymnastic Union was the oldest college devoted to the training of physical education teachers. Much of the coursework was also initially in German, and duly trained German language teachers. In 1941, it became the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation of Indiana University. 62. “Normal College of the American Gymnastic Union” (Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1908).

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63. Staff, “Council of Women to Give Noon Luncheon” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), September 18, 1909. 64. Staff, “Plan of Teaching Civics,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), May 3, 1909. 65. Reuben, “Beyond Politics.”

CHAPTER 8

Arthur Dunn on the National Stage: Local Civics for National Purposes

Abstract This chapter will focus on Arthur W. Dunn’s rise to a nationally known civic educator after leaving Shortridge. This chapter will make connections among Dunn’s awareness of progressive trends, his arrival at Shortridge, and then his elevation to the national stage. These connections raise new questions about Dunn and the coincidence of his training, his position at Shortridge, and his quick rise to national distinction. In hindsight, Dunn’s arrival at Shortridge appeared to be serendipitous, considering the impact it had on his career. Keywords Arthur W. Dunn · National municipal league · Community civics · Social studies in secondary education · Social efficiency

After leaving Shortridge, Arthur Dunn rose as a national civic education expert due to his accomplishments while in Indianapolis, his work for the National Municipal League (NML), and his work at the Bureau of Education (BoE). The positions Dunn took following his stint at the BoE suggest his perspective had lost value in educational policy, but, nevertheless, he continued to push the community civics idea through publications at the Junior Red Cross, where he was director from 1921 to 1927.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5_8

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In hindsight, Dunn’s arrival at Shortridge appeared to be opportune, considering the impact it had on his career.

Departing Shortridge In June 1910, an announcement in an Indianapolis newspaper noted that Arthur Dunn would be returning to Shortridge for the next school year.1 He even provided a farewell speech for his friend Principal Benton who decided to step down in 1910. In front of the student body, as described in the Daily Echo: What Mr. Benton has done for Shortridge, Mr. Dunn said, was done because he was a good citizen and will always be remembered so. Mr. Dunn then told the seniors that more would be expected from them by Shortridge, as citizens than as students.2

While honoring his friend and colleague who had connected him to the NML, Dunn exercised some self-promotion making sure to use the word “citizen” as much as possible. Perhaps he was foreshadowing his own resignation in the near future, and his new role. Dunn would announce he was leaving Shortridge nearly a month later in July 1910, and resign after nearly 10 years at the school.3 Donnan became head of the Shortridge Civics Department and the school district never named a successor to Dunn’s role as Director of Civic Education.4 The fact that Dunn’s director position was never filled by the district, potentially indicated the cronyism under which the position was created, as well as the lack of district need for such a position. Interestingly, all three men involved in the creation of the position—Dunn, Principal Benton, and Superintendent Kendall—all left the school district in 1910 or 1911, possibly leaving a void of institutional knowledge about the rationale for the position. As far as could be known, Arthur Dunn returned to Shortridge only one time, in 1915, when he was lauded for his accomplishments outside of Shortridge in the Daily Echo.5 Although he would not have been familiar with any of the students, there was apparently not much of a remembrance of him at Shortridge, in comparison with when other teachers visited under similar circumstances.

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Arthur Dunn After Shortridge: A Brief Review of the Literature When Dunn leaves Shortridge, this signifies his entrance onto the national stage of civic education. This is the phase of his career that has been discussed most by previous scholars because it leads to his role of secretary for the 1916 Report on the formation of Social Studies.6 Dunn left Shortridge for a position in Philadelphia at the City Club, where he would serve as Civic Secretary. His role at the City Club was the first in a series of positions that would be sponsored, at least in part, by the NML. Dunn’s life following Shortridge, from 1910 to 1921 would come to resemble his life prior to arriving at Shortridge, moving every one to two years, and sometimes taking on multiple roles. Dunn and the National Municipal League: 1910–14 Dunn’s roles on committees at the Commercial Club, his role as Chairman of the Indianapolis Civic Commission (also referred to as Civic League), and his role as Director of Civic Education had primed him for a larger role concerned with civic improvement. His connections through the NML provided a fortuitous position in Philadelphia, where he would become acquainted with Lynn Barnard, who would play a major role in promoting community civics and help author the 1916 Report on Social Studies with Dunn. The NML first took up the cause of civic education in K-12 schools in 1903. Despite earlier scholarship that described the creation of a Civic Education Committee in 1903, there is no evidence of that until 1910 when Dunn is the Chairman of the Civic Education Committee.7 Up until 1910, civic education in K-12 schools would have been under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Instruction in Municipal Government in American Educational Institutions, which was separate from the Higher Education Committee. This was noted in the 1903 Proceedings of the NML: We then took up the subject of civic education in the educational institutions of the country, first in the higher institutions. In that we have done a great deal of work. We have now continued our committee, for the purpose of taking up the subject of municipal instruction in the secondary schools.8

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While Dunn was neither a member of these early committees, nor a member of the NML, Indianapolis was represented on the committee by their Superintendent C. N. Kendall from 1903 to 1905. The committee disappeared in 1906, and then went through a series of name changes in 1907 and 1908–1909. Dunn did not show up in the NML records until 1909 when he presented a paper, but became a regular name in the program as Chairman of the Civic Education Committee from 1910 to 1915.9 During his involvement with the NML, Dunn jumped to different positions. After one year as Civic Secretary at the City Club in Philadelphia, his initial position after Shortridge, Dunn took a position as Executive Secretary at the Public Education Association of New York from 1911 to 1913. During this time, he was also working as chairman for the Civic Education Committee for the NML and courting the BoE to support the NML’s civic education efforts. Interestingly, as Dunn left his position in New York, he had coordinated a paid committee secretary position at the NML and the BoE in Washington D.C. as a Specialist in Civic Education.10 In 1915, the funding for Dunn’s committee secretary position was discontinued at the NML. The discontinuation of his position may also signify the end of Dunn’s relationship with the NML, or at least his participation in League events, as his name does not appear in the proceedings after 1915. Dunn, the Bureau of Education, and the Reports: 1914–16 When Dunn begins as Specialist in Civic Education at the BoE, it begins a period in which Dunn’s work achieves its most influence. It is also his work from this period that has been discussed the most by previous scholars. Scholars have focused on his work in this period due in part to its relation to the work on the 1916 Report on Social Studies and the increased popularity of community civics. It is also a period in which he publishes several bulletins through the BoE. Sivertson, in correspondence with Dunn’s son, described that the opportunity to publish at the BoE’s expense was the primary motivation in Dunn taking the position, as the compensation was not comparable to his other positions.11 Dunn was paid $10.00 per diem for his work at the BoE. To supplement his income, he also developed civic education curriculum for school districts, while also receiving significant royalties for his textbook. Dunn continued to demonstrate both financial need and professional want.12

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While there were several important publications during this short period, three are of particular importance in regard to Dunn, while two are regarded as the most influential produced by the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Schools. First was Dunn’s Bulletin discussing the civic education curriculum in Indianapolis, which he had first reported on in 1909. This was titled, “Civic Education in Elementary Schools as Illustrated in Indianapolis” and was published in 1915. As discussed in the previous chapter, Dunn made the case for civics to be taught in elementary schools by integrating it throughout the subjects, due to his success in eighth grade. The goal of this work was to demonstrate that civics should be a continuous process as highlighted in the next few manuscripts. The real significance of this work was that Dunn saw this as his original contribution to the community civics movement, building on the work of Thurston in Chicago. Second, Dunn also published, “The Teaching of Community Civics” in 1915 along with Barnard, Carrier, and Kingsley as part of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education.13 The work in the Bulletin was from teacher training sessions in 1914 conducted by Barnard. In many ways it represents a fuller articulation of Dunn’s writing, as well as the other authors, but offers little new rationale for community civics. However, the Bulletin is important for several reasons concerning Dunn. It lays the groundwork for making community civics a part of the 1916 Report on Social Studies by the committee. In this regard, it also creates a national concern for his textbook to be used in classrooms across the country. Lastly, in relation to his time at Shortridge, it signifies his first recommendation that Community Civics should be taught the first year of high school. In Indianapolis, Dunn was only able to affect the elementary school and did most of his work with eighth grade students. While the difference between eighth and ninth grade may seem minimal, it illustrates the jurisdiction of Donnan’s influence in Indianapolis, and another potential reason for Dunn’s departure. Third was the 1916 Report on Social Studies in Secondary Education in which he was the secretary and main author of the report for the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. However, as Sivertson asserted, Dunn was nearly not part of the committee. It appeared his attendance at the various committee meetings required not only letters from himself to Secretary of the BoE Claxton, but also members of the committee, to request the need for his presence. Regardless, the 1916 Report asserted that the purpose

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of schools had increasingly become understood as preparing students for life as productive contributors and citizens in a community. Therefore, the goal of the report and new scope and sequence of curriculum was to require that all students understand their formal and informal obligations as citizens. It is agreed upon that the 1916 Report on Social Studies is influential to the social studies curriculum in general, as most of the courses in the report, and even the course sequences, are still representative of the scope and sequence of social studies coursework in school districts across the country. Another new course, developed somewhat in conjunction with Community Civics, by Dunn, was Problems of Democracy. It was also included in the 1916 Report on the Social Studies. Problems of Democracy extended a deliberative approach to civics by encouraging students to engage with each other and discuss challenges that citizens encounter in a democratic society. While popular at the time, the Community Civics and Problems of Democracy courses enjoyed less application in the decades to come. Nevertheless, this report established Community Civics as a recommended part of secondary curriculum and further legitimized Dunn’s work and textbook. Dunn the Free Agent: 1916–20 Despite the limited success of the Community Civics course, as well as the Problems of Democracy course, the model of social or community citizenship presented in the 1916 Report on the social studies was a product of educational theories and historical trends at the turn of the twentieth century. These trends were now approaching twenty years old and were potentially losing their relevance to educational stakeholders. Dunn’s Community Civics course and subsequent textbooks gained increasing popularity through the first two decades of the twentieth century. The popularity of the course received national attention and was implemented in classrooms across the country between 1916 and 1921. The financial success of his original book and other versions of the textbook allowed Dunn to continue to work for the BoE. Newspapers recorded his title at the BoE in several ways (e.g., special agent for civic education, specialist in community civics, director of the bureau of school activities, assistant secretary, assistant commissioner), but it appears he was probably still a specialist for civic education. He was also developing civics curricula for districts in Massachusetts and Delaware at the same time.14 Dunn was

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also recorded in the newspapers across the country discussing community civics in small towns and villages, which was probably in anticipation for his book, Community Civics and Rural Life.15 Moreover, there were instances of him still promoting Community Civics, and even getting some push back from history teachers in Nashville, Tennessee.16 In his role as Specialist in Civic Education for the BoE, Dunn was a surveyor as part of an effort to conduct dozens of studies by teams of educational experts following the NEA committee recommendations in the early part of the twentieth century. School districts invited these teams of researchers to collect and analyze data on their curriculum and administration, which would result in a series of recommendations by the researchers on how to “increase the educational and social efficiency in their schools.”17 One particular school visit was to Elyria, Ohio in 1916, shortly after the 1916 Report, and Dunn was tapped to survey the history or social studies curriculum and courses.18 In the recommendations for Elyria, which are assumed to be from Dunn, there are direct references to his work on the 1916 Report, as well as his study in Indianapolis.19 Dunn was noting the Elyria district’s lack of adherence to the new NEA recommendations, and thus their failure adopt the new scope and sequence of the social studies curriculum. Dunn was promoting the community civics curriculum and recommendations of the 1916 Report in every facet of his work, and across his various roles. Due to Dunn’s marketing, there were some encouraging signs for community civics too. In New Jersey, where Dunn’s former superintendent, C. N. Kendall was at the helm of the state education department (leaving Indianapolis one year after Dunn), a course in Community Civics was required in the first two years of high school, and a course in Problems of American Democracy in the last two years. Other states which had passed legislation requiring varying amounts of specific civics instruction or training in citizenship were Minnesota (1917), Massachusetts (1917), New York (1918), and Delaware (1919). Community civics seemed to have lost its luster after being mandated in 1916 and during the initial years of World War I, and Dunn was searching for his next endeavor. In 1920, newspapers indicated he was splitting his time between talking about community civics in village life and Junior Red Cross. The Junior Red Cross would provide his next position, and potential for continuing his civics curriculum on a new path.20

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Dunn and the Junior Red Cross: 1920–27 In 1920, Dunn was still identified as working at the BoE, sometimes in general as a representative and sometimes as a specialist. About halfway through 1920, newspapers began referring to Dunn as Director of the Bureau of School Activities for the Junior Red Cross and Specialist in Civic Education for the BoE.21 Dunn became the Director of the American Red Cross in November 1921 upon the resignation of the former director. Dunn would be in this position until his death, a heart attack, in 1927.22 Junior Red Cross may seem like a strange leap from community civics, but it is more logical if you consider the wartime context of the United States. With the emphasis upon service and cooperation, the Junior Red Cross activities were often considered an integral part of the community civics course, providing an opportunity for students to engage in activities for the benefit of others, which was a major goal of civic training. Dunn tried to evolve community civics within the Junior Red Cross program, and created a “world civics program.”23 The concept of a world civics program did not develop the fervor that the original community civics had two decades earlier. His death in 1927 might have been symbolic of the state of his career. Dunn published about ten short articles on the Junior Red Cross after his last textbook in 1921, and his last published article commemorated ten years of the Junior Red Cross in 1927.24 This would be his last contribution to civic education in the United States.

Dunn’s Ascension of the Educational Career Pyramid Dunn’s career, as well as Donnan’s, can be better understood when related to the educational “career pyramid,” which both ascended in particularly unique ways.25 Labaree used the pyramid to describe three common career ladders for educators, which included moving from rural schools to city schools, moving up school levels, and moving from teaching to leadership. He noted that educators who stayed in the profession often climbed all three ladders for advancement, and signified these educators as ambitious. For example, Donnan would be considered ambitious for moving up all three of these typical career advancement ladders because she attended Normal School and began teaching at the elementary level, moved to a rural secondary school, moved to a city secondary

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school, and took on some leadership roles. She was also atypical for female educators in that she had a four-year undergraduate degree, a master’s degree, publications, and a 50-year career. Dunn was typical of male educators of the era because he had a college degree, he was given leadership roles with little experience, and moved up the leadership ladder to the top of the pyramid and beyond in a relatively short period of time. Dunn was atypical in that he climbed only one career ladder, began his teaching career in higher education, and taught at a premiere academic secondary school for his first K-12 position where he was also head of his department and paid relatively well. In fact, his salary was equal to or greater than colleagues with far more experience at Shortridge.26 Dunn’s educational attainment potentially enabled his quick advancement and mobility,27 just as Donnan’s education helped her climb all three ladders. Yet, Donnan’s mobility as a result of her education would always be constrained due to her gender, while Dunn would have had career mobility free from any constraints.28 An understanding of the common career advancement ladders, and the subsequent career pyramid, raises even more questions about Dunn’s arrival at Shortridge, and under what auspices he may have been hired. Dunn was able to bypass the common entry-level positions (e.g., rural or elementary) typical for educators in Progressive Era, by landing at Shortridge, which would have been atop the career ladder or pyramid for many educators. Dunn seemingly made the most of his leap on to the career ladder, and did not take it for granted. Dunn’s time at Shortridge represented perceivably the most stable period of his career, and resulted in some of his most fruitful work—his textbook and the study. Both of these accomplishments led to professional notoriety and some means for stable income during the ten years between leaving Shortridge and becoming Director of the Junior Red Cross, in which he existed outside the K-12 career pyramid. However, his lack of K-12 experience, or leap to the top of the career ladder, as well as his lack of doctoral degree limited his opportunity to climb the career ladder outside K-12. If we consider the group that was assembled for the 1916 Committee, they were most similar in their intellectual pedigree. As Lybarger described, they were all students of the new sociology, especially Dunn.29 Yet, if you compare Dunn to the other members of the 1916 Committee in terms of career experience, there were two distinct groups and Dunn fit squarely in neither. One group were school leaders or teachers at city high schools who had climbed the career ladder in the various traditional ways,

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either starting in rural or elementary, to attain those positions. The second group were those who held academic positions at post-secondary institutions and held advanced degrees from prestigious institutions. Some committee members had both the teaching experience and advanced degrees, including the chair Thomas Jesse Jones.30 Dunn would not have only lacked experience in comparison with the rest of the committee members, but his sole K-12 experience had been at one of the premiere academic high schools in the Midwest region.31 Thus, Dunn’s K-12 experience would have been very different than many of his committee members, from the caliber of students he taught to how he spent his time as an educator. It is important to remember that Dunn began teaching at Shortridge as head of his department, and became Director of Civic Education for the Indianapolis School District in 1906, both of which resulted in course load reductions.32 Therefore, Dunn was a part-time teacher for nearly half of his K-12 experience, which made his limited and privileged experience even more unique in comparison with this colleagues. Dunn’s lack of experience also explains his apparent reliance on other educators for his civic instructional ideas, as a means to compensate for his absence from the civics classroom. As described in the previous chapter, his sustained exposure to Donnan’s practices had an undoubted influence on the development of his community civics curriculum. In addition to Donnan’s influence, Dunn cited the influence of Henry W. Thurston in his textbook. Thurston also had extensively more experience than Dunn, which started in a one-room school house.33 Thurston and Dunn’s timelines are interesting because Thurston began working on civics curriculum during his time at Hyde Park High School in Chicago in the 1890s.34 Furthermore, Thurston was focusing on civics at the elementary level during his time at the Chicago Normal School from 1900 to 1905. In particular, he published an article in 1904 that summarized the manual he had created for the Normal School in 1903 titled, “Chicago Normal School Outline for Teaching Civics in Elementary Schools.”35 Thurston outlined several ideas that would be found in Dunn’s writings, and probably based on Dewey’s ideas.36 In addition, he wrote two small books on civic services in Chicago to use in teaching civics to elementary schools, which were similar to the local history readers Donnan and Dunn had both written. Thurston undoubtedly had an influence on Dunn, and possibly on Donnan, as they were all frequenting the University of Chicago in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

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Thurston is an interesting part of Dunn’s story also because he leaves the Chicago Normal School in 1905 to work at Hull House as a juvenile court advocate. His move sets Thurston’s career on a new path for social work with youth, and departure from his work on civics. At the time Thurston is departing from his work on civics, Dunn was working on his community civics textbook and would initiate his study a couple years later. In a way, Dunn continued Thurston’s work, or at the very least built upon it, by writing his textbook and conducting his study. Thurston would be one of the first reviewers of Dunn’s textbook in 1909, and noted his familiarity with Dunn in the review before offering both praise and criticism. Thurston criticized Dunn’s text for referring to students as developing or “coming citizens” instead of as actual citizens, which was a distinct point in Thurston’s work and something Dunn would publicly correct until the next edition of his book.37 Despite his new role in social work, Thurston would also continue to serve on civic and history education committees through the 1920s. Both Dunn and Thurston would continue to acknowledge each other until their deaths.38 It is clear Dunn relied on his colleagues’ experiences to compensate for his lack of experience in schools. However, the perspectives and ideas Dunn absorbed from Thurston and Donnan could only pull him so far up the career ladder, after leaving Shortridge. Dunn was ambitious in taking a variety of positions to make the most of his accomplishments, and persistent enough to push his way on to the 1916 Committee and acquire funding for some of his other positions. In reality though, he may have been relegated to positions where writing, collecting data, and marketing were his primary focus instead of influencing actual classroom practices, due to his lack of significant K-12 experience. Dunn’s failure to complete his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago would also limit his opportunities to attain a faculty position at a significant university or college. He had held adjunct or lecturer positions at various universities and colleges prior to or during his time at Shortridge; however, his stint at the University of Cincinnati had demonstrated he needed to finish his doctoral degree to attain a faculty position at such an institution. Dunn’s limited K-12 experience, as well as his failure to attain a doctoral degree, constrained the possibilities for career advancement outside of the K-12 career pyramid. While Dunn was successful and had attained some influence in his niche of education, he never attained the legitimate career status of his fellow 1916 Committee members or other contemporaries, such as Thurston. The evolving development of community civics, and his role in the 1916 Report, would define Dunn’s career in the field education.

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Notes 1. Staff, “Shortridge High School,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), June 18, 1910. 2. Staff, “School Assembles,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), June 13, 1910. 3. Staff, “Dunn to Direct Quaker City Civics,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), July 8, 1910. 4. Staff, “Urges Women to Study Constitution,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), February 13, 1913. 5. Staff, “Mr. Dunn Returns,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), December 18, 1915. 6. Michael B. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1981); David Warren Saxe, Social Studies in Schools: A History of the Early Years (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991); Alexander Urbiel, “The Making of Citizens: A History of Civic Education in Indianapolis, 1900–1950” (phd dissertation, Indiana University, 1996). 7. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum”; Murray R. Nelson (Ed.), “The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Reprint of the Seminal 1916 Report with Annotations and Commentaries” (Bloomington: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1994). 8. “Proceedings of the Conference for Good City Government, Annual Meeting of the National Municipal League” (Philadelphia: The National Municipal League, 1903): 304. 9. “Proceedings of the Conference for Good City Government, Annual Meeting of the National Municipal League” (Philadelphia: The National Municipal League, 1907–09, 1910–15). 10. Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972). 11. See note 10 above. 12. Siverston, “Community Civics”; Staff, “Twentieth Century Club,” Washington Times (Washington, DC), October 28, 1916. 13. J. Lynn Barnard, Frank W. Carrier, Arthur W. Dunn, and Clarence D. Kingsley, “The Teaching of Community Civics, Bulletin No. 23,” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1915). 14. Bulletin, National Association of Corporation Schools (New York: The Association, 1915). Staff, “Officers Named at Convention of Teachers,” Fall River Globe (Fall River, MA), October 28, 1916. 15. Arthur W. Dunn, Community Civics and Rural Life, (Boston: D. C. Heath & Company, 1920); Staff, “Will Hold Conference on the Village School,” Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ), February 20, 1920. 16. Staff, “Prof. A. W. Dunn Speaks,” Nashville Banner (Nashville, TN), April 17, 1917.

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17. Thomas D. Fallace, “Did the Social Studies Really Replace History in the Local Curriculum? The Case of Elyria, Ohio and the North Central States,” Theory & Research in Social Education 37, no. 4 (2009): 458– 483. 18. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, “Educational survey of Elyria, Ohio” (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918). 19. See notes in Fallace, 480. 20. Staff, “Red Cross Work to be a Factor,” Evening News (Harrisburg, PA) May 8, 1920; Staff, “Village School Subject of Conference,” FayettvilleObserver (Fayetteville, NC), February 19, 1920; Siverston, “Community Civics.” 21. Staff, “Two-Day Conference of Junior Red Cross,” The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), May 6, 1920. 22. Staff, “Junior Red Cross Director Dies,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), November 15, 1927. 23. Arthur W. Dunn, “World Civics in Schools,” The Survey 51 (1923): 205–207; Staff, “Name Pittsburgh Man President,” Wilkes-Barre Record (Wilkes-Barre, PA), December 31, 1925. 24. Arthur W. Dunn, Community Civics and City Schools (Boston: D. C. Heath & Company, 1920); Arthur W. Dunn, “Ten Years of the Junior Red Cross,” High School Service, September (1927). See the Arthur W. Dunn Collection at Knox College for full description of published and un published work during this period. 25. David Labaree, “Career Ladders and the Early Public High School Teacher,” in American Teachers: Histories of a Profession at Work, ed. D. Warren (New York: MacMillan, 1989). 26. Indianapolis Public Schools, “Annual Report of the Secretary, Business Director, Superintendent of Schools, and the Librarian” (report, Indianapolis, 1902). 27. Labaree, 177. 28. Labaree, 178. 29. Michael B. Lybarger, “Origins of the Social Studies Curriculum” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1981); Murray R. Nelson (Ed.), “The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Reprint of the Seminal 1916 Report with Annotations and Commentaries,” (Bloomington: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1994). 30. Stephen Correia, “Thomas Jesse Jones—Doing God’s Work and the 1916 Report,” in The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Reprint of the Seminal 1916 Report with Annotations and Commentaries, ed. M. Nelson (Bloomington: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1994). 31. Kyle P. Steele, Making a Mass Institution: Indianapolis and the American High School (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020).

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32. “Indianapolis Public Schools General Notices” (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Public Schools, 1906–08). 33. Sidney Sivertson, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972): 231–232; Staff, “In Memoriam Henry W. Thurston, 1861–1964,” Social Service Review 20, no. 4 (1946): 580–581. 34. Henry W. Thurston, “An Inquiry Relating to Training for Citizenship in the Public Schools.” The School Review 6, no. 8 (1898): 577–597. 35. Henry W. Thurston, “Civics in the Elementary School.” The Elementary School Teacher 4, no. 7 (1904): 471–476; Chicago Normal School Outline for Teaching Civics in Elementary Schools. Prepared by the Department of History and Sociology (Chicago: Chicago Normal School Manual Training Press, 1903): 3–5. 36. Sivertson, 207. 37. Henry W. Thurston, “Review of the Community and the Citizen,” The School Review 17, no. 8 (1909): 573–574; Louise Connolly, “Some Methods of Civic Education,” National Municipal Review 13 (April 1914): 340–345. 38. Henry W. Thurston, The Education of Youth as Citizens: Progressive Changes in Our Aims and Methods (New York: R.R. Smith, 1946).

CHAPTER 9

Donnan, Dunn, and Their Civic Education Implications

Abstract This chapter will discuss the actual influence of Donnan on Dunn’s career, and why his rearticulation of her curriculum failed, due to his adherence to social efficiency. It will also use the example of Laura Donnan’s enacted epistemological practices to think about the underlying implications of Donnan’s work, and the concepts of epistemology and agency. Her epistemology guided her agency and led to innovative practices that engaged generations of students. Keywords Laura donnan · Arthur W. Dunn · Social reconstruction · Social efficiency · Gender

How did Laura Donnan influence Arthur W. Dunn during his time at Shortridge High School? While their purposes for civic education may have seemed similar, their curricular ideologies highlight some distinct differences in their intended outcomes for students and society. The chapter will conclude by discussing Donnan as an exemplar progressive educator, focusing on her agency and epistemology.

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Locating the Influence of Donnan on Dunn Unfortunately, there is not much evidence to verify Donnan and Dunn were in the same room often, but they served on the athletic board together, were on a faculty bowling team together, played in various student-faculty sports tournaments, served on a committee for the Senate, Dunn’s debate team debated Donnan’s Senators for practice, and an occasional assembly or celebration.1 When they were in the same room, it was typically related to sports or a competition, or potentially at conferences for Indiana teachers. Interestingly, for as active as each was in local civic and literary organizations, there is no mention in the local papers of them attending any of the same clubs or organizations, nor any multiclub or organization events. They appear to have socialized in different circles outside of Shortridge, not to mention, both were busy with their responsibilities outside of school. In addition to Shortridge, Dunn began almost immediately providing professional development for history teachers all around the state2 ; taught frequently at Butler College after becoming Director of Civics in 19063 ; and taught at the Normal College of the North American Gymnastics Union starting in 1907.4 Donnan, on the other hand, was busy with the Free Night High School, her various district-wide committees,5 and all of her sports and activities she sponsored at Shortridge. While their activities at Shortridge demonstrate some convergence of interest around activities—or possibly just their competitive nature—how Donnan and Dunn spent their time outside of Shortridge demonstrated their differing worldviews and purposes in their careers. More specifically, their activities illustrated their intentions for civic education in schools. The textbooks that Donnan and Dunn wrote have many similar features that would imply similar purposes. Both Donnan and Dunn’s textbooks were concerned with the idea of civic conscience or civic consciousness, and their actions outside of Shortridge illustrate their differing perspectives of civic conscience in their civics curricula. They both discuss this idea of a civic consciousness at nearly the same point in the prefaces of their books. In her textbook, Donnan noted that she wanted to “arouse a civic conscience” in students.6 Outside of Shortridge, Donnan would spend her time empowering others by engaging in practices that promoted the social change she sought in her community. She demonstrated her own civic conscience and actively sought to empower those who were marginalized, relying on her own experiences

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to guide her actions. Donnan wanted her students to develop their own civic conscience, based on their own experiences, some of which Donnan would provide as their teacher. Donnan wanted to create experiences that would develop the ethical and moral principles that would guide her students’ civic actions. In his textbook, Dunn described the need to “arouse the pupil’s consciousness of the meaning of community life and his relations to it.”7 Outside of Shortridge, Dunn spent his time influencing others through his positions and writings that promoted social conformity in urban communities and across the nation. He defined what he thought should constitute civic consciousness and actively pursued structures to assimilate the civic consciousness of marginalized members of the community. Where Donnan wanted her students to develop their own principles to guide their actions, Dunn wanted students to realize his prescribed meaning of civic consciousness and, thus, the civic actions they should take with this prescribed consciousness. Based on his allegiance to social efficiency and assimilative Americanization, Dunn provided students with a defined sense of self in the community shaped by the priorities of his White male associations—self-government, civic pride, and respect for social or municipal amenities. For Dunn, there was a civic understanding and obligation deficit among members of the community, and community civics was the way schools could address closing that deficit with the youngest members of the community. While both Donnan and Dunn exercised progressive views about actively engaging students in learning, their views of students and what they brought to the classroom were completely opposite. With his deficit thinking, Dunn would be forever stuck in the social efficiency curricular ideology that assumed the student was missing what society valued and needed their coming civic actions to be modeled and rationalized for them. Donnan, was on the other side of the curricular ideology spectrum, teetering between learner-centered and social reconstructionist. She believed that students had what society valued and could think like a citizen, they just needed learning experiences to develop rationales for their actions. This is where Donnan was more learner-centered in her curricular ideology, as she was more concerned with the internal processes of her students and guiding the development of their minds. Whereas Dunn was fully devoted to social efficiency ideology and concerned with the external processes of students and focused on the development of

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their behavior. He used the community civics curriculum to illustrate who students should become and how they should act. Looking at Donnan and Dunn’s work through the lenses of curriculum ideologies begins to explain why Dunn’s community civics curriculum was short-lived nationally, while Donnan’s continued successfully at the local level. Donnan and Dunn were both in line with current progressive trends that focused on students actively engaging in learning, which could be seen at Shortridge. However, Donnan believed students to be the starting place of her teaching, individuals to be the foundation of society, and the outcomes of her pedagogy would benefit students’ thinking and ability to make informed decisions in a democracy. In comparison, Dunn, like many policymakers of the time, thought the curriculum was the starting place of teaching, relations among groups were the foundation of society, and outcomes of the curriculum should benefit, and be seen in, society. On the surface, and through the lens of progressive education, the name “community civics” implied a deeper relation to students’ individual lives and their community—yet that was not the case. As Reuben described: The purpose of community civics, however, was not to promote strong attachment to a particular local community. The program viewed ‘community’ more as a ‘point of view’ than a geographical locale. The local community was a device to help students understand their relations to others. Once the course helped students understand the implications of community membership, it could also help students see themselves as part of the larger national community.8

Dunn, and community civics advocates, focused on moving students away from an idea of individualism and independent action to new modes of relations with fellow citizens, highlighting the ways all citizens were dependent on each other. If we imagine an ideological debate over the civics curriculum, between Donnan and Dunn, the shift from individualism to group relations and welfare would be at the heart of the debate. The new community civics that Dunn and other stakeholders promoted actually moved away from individual activism and to state activism, and characterized the individual as a cooperative citizen who supported government services and programs as part of their responsibility as citizens. As Rueben asserted, “the authors of the new civics implicitly discouraged political activism by redefining citizenship in largely nonpolitical terms.”9 For Dunn and his

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colleagues, an individual’s citizenship was defined through their specific role in society and cooperation with the government, as well as others in their community and nation. Since community civics defined activism as state or government behavior, the only individuals that could engage in activism would be government officials, and other citizens should follow their lead and trust their actions are for the common good. Dunn and his colleagues could not imagine both active citizens and an active state. Donnan, who had been an activist and supported the government, did believe both could be active and strong, but that first you had to develop the individual in order to have a strong, active state or government. The distinction between individual activism and individual cooperation with state activism was the primary difference between Donnan and Dunn in their ideological perspectives. To further distinguish between Donnan and Dunn, an example of Dunn’s views of citizenship can be seen in a discussion at the National Municipal League conference in Toronto, 1913. A female presenter, Miss Louise Connolly, asked Dunn about the irony of women training students for citizenship, since they themselves could not vote. Dunn responded: One of the greatest mistakes that we have been making in training for citizenship has been in assuming that we are training the children to be citizens sometime in the future, instead of training them to be citizens now. The children are citizens, and their women teachers are citizens, not only by a broad acceptance of the term, but by the Constitutional definition. The task of the teacher is not to make citizens out of non-citizens…To give the child the idea that citizenship consists merely in the right or power to vote, and that until that right is possessed there can be no citizenship, is doing him, or her, a grievous injury, and is doing the community a grievous injury since it causes the growing citizen to believe that he will have no privileges or obligations of citizenship until he shall possess the right to vote. Even from the standpoint of the woman suffragist, it would seem that the position of the woman teacher would be much stronger if the children under her care were impressed with the truth that she, like themselves, is a citizen, and as a citizen is looking forward to the time when she may possess the additional privilege and obligations of the suffrage.10

Dunn, while mildly sympathetic to the plight of the suffragist, clearly wanted to define citizenship outside of political rights and terminology.

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His goal was to define citizenship as individual cooperation with the state, regardless of your political status and power to voice your opinion. In other words, Dunn wanted immigrants, female citizens, Black citizens, and other marginalized citizens to consider themselves citizens, and meet their obligations, even without the fulfillment of their rights. Thus, the role of public schools was “to produce a good type of citizenship” as Dunn stated in his textbook, which represented the cultural conception of citizenship, not the legal conception of citizenship.11 Dunn wanted a culture of citizenship similar to the civic culture of Shortridge. Local Civics for National Purposes Since Donnan and Dunn differed ideologically, how did Donnan influence Dunn and the community civics program? The civic culture at Shortridge offered the sort of group relations that Dunn sought to promote through community civics. Donnan’s civic government course provided not only instruction in civics, but the norms for participation in the civic culture at Shortridge. Dunn imagined community civics working much in the same way as a course that prepared students for the norms of American culture and society. However, Donnan was preparing students to think and rationalize as individuals at Shortridge and provided an array of extracurricular opportunities for them to further develop their individual perspective and activism. The norms that Donnan taught focused on modes of reasoning and deliberating in relation to those outcomes discussed in Chapter 3. Donnan wanted her students to learn how to reason and deliberate to develop their decision making, awareness of rights, activism, social science inquiry skills, and values or moral clarification. The achievement of these outcomes could be seen in the extracurricular activities at Shortridge. Thus, Dunn was only interested in, and influenced by, Donnan’s pedagogy and the impact it had on her student’s behavior. Dunn witnessed how Donnan had shaped her students’ skills for participation in her Shortridge and Indianapolis communities, and he wanted to have the same impact, but with social efficient and assimilationist outcomes. In his initial years at Shortridge, Dunn was able to identify the currency of Donnan’s pedagogy by recognizing the impact it had on her students and evidenced in the civic culture of Shortridge. He was able to exploit Donnan’s pedagogy, as well as her textbook, to appeal to the values of influential Progressive Era forces that could support his

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efforts academically, financially, and ideologically. As mentioned previously in Chapter 5, Dunn represented an intersection of economic, social, and political influences that were operating in the Progressive Era. Dunn connected economic, social, and political influences with his education and experiences. He appeased these influences by tethering his curriculum to the common progressive ideologies of social efficiency and assimilative Americanization, in part because he was indebted to the National Municipal League associations who had been his benefactors, starting in 1905 while at Shortridge, and continuing after leaving. Dunn offered them a new civics curriculum that could structurally assimilate large portions of the population into cooperative citizens, obliged to follow the state activism for the welfare of all citizens. The pedagogical effectiveness of Donnan’s civic culture at Shortridge truly appealed to Dunn’s socially efficient and assimilative vision for students across the nation, but in translating the curriculum for national dissemination, he discounted the pedagogical value of the extracurriculum at Shortridge. Dunn more than likely viewed the extracurriculum as simply the behavioral result of Donnan’s pedagogy in her civil government course. Regardless of how he viewed the extracurriculum, it was not something he could include in the community civics curriculum. The pedagogical outcomes of the extracurriculum were far too open-ended and developed the kind of individualism that community civic advocates were moving away from ideologically. Furthermore, for these reasons, the extracurriculum was not marketable to Dunn’s various allegiances and benefactors who prioritized social control and assimilative Americanization. For Donnan, the extracurriculum was the ultimate articulation of her pedagogy, and provided invaluable assessment of her civic curriculum. While Dunn’s curriculum had a short-lived popularity in the nineteenteens, the criticisms of Dunn’s textbook and curriculum highlighted the effect of Dunn’s adherence to social efficiency and assimilative Americanization on Donnan’s pedagogy. A variety of stakeholders publicly commented that Dunn’s new civics curriculum lacked the sine qua non of all civic education—authentic, action-based, and informed application of the curriculum—all things Donnan’s civics pedagogy prioritized, and evidenced in the civic culture at Shortridge through the extracurriculum.12 These were not things that Dunn could prescribe as part of his community civics curriculum, and likely, he did not want to prescribe them. His goal was to spark other types of action through the curriculum that would lead to supporting municipal amenities. His vision can be seen

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in an article for the Commercial Club of Indianapolis magazine, Forward! The title page of his article has a photograph of ten children with snow shovels and the caption, “A Detachment of the Snow Army,” followed by the article title, “Making Good Citizens of Children: How an Army of 1,000 Young People Is Giving the Grown-Ups a Practical Illustration of Progress.”13 The article describes his work as Director of Civics in Indianapolis, and talks about his methods of civic education in public schools, which, “is to give the children opportunity to participate, so far as possible, in real activities for the community’s good. By participating in civic activities they are fixing civic habits.”14 Dunn hoped the community civics curriculum would engage students in care of their community, not so much their own development as individuals. The outcomes he sought from his curriculum were to be visible within the community, as Dunn elaborated further: It should be understood that whatever the children in the schools are encouraged to undertake in the way of civic activity, it is primarily for the purpose of their own education in civic matters and civic principles. The concrete results in the way of real improvement of civic conditions are merely incidental, though none the less real.15

Thus, Dunn hoped to implicitly develop civic attitudes and inspire these civic behaviors through the community civics curriculum, just as Donnan had developed her students’ civic behaviors in the culture of Shortridge. The civic behaviors that Dunn sought never took shape as a result of the community civics curriculum in other cities, despite it happening in his Indianapolis study. Dunn had miscalculated several local variables in his effort to exploit Donnan’s pedagogy for his national purposes. First, he viewed Donnan’s curriculum, textbook, and methods simply as tools that any teacher could pick up and use, instead of them all being intimately tied to her epistemology. Dunn would have never recognized Donnan’s unique epistemology because he did not have strong awareness of his own epistemology. He was able to simply adopt progressive ideologies during his time in Chicago and use those as lenses to shape his work. Dunn assumed other teachers would be able to simply adopt the ideological and epistemological assumptions of the community civics curriculum, just as he had.

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Second, Dunn did not understand students and their need to shape their own identities and culture. Donnan understood students’ interests in this regard and her purpose of shaping individuals catered to her students’ developmental needs. The popularity of her extracurricular activities, namely the Senate and the Daily Echo, allowed students to be generative in their own civic culture, and empowered them as future citizens. Dunn was far too focused on social control to understand the empowering nature of student-centered learning and engagement. Lastly, Dunn failed to account for the true value of Donnan as an authentic model of individual activism in her pedagogy. Donnan neither represented the average teacher, nor did she teach at an average school. Thus, it would be impractical to expect another teacher to be effective in implanting a curriculum that was developed from Donnan’s epistemology and context. Furthermore, she was the bridge that connected the curriculum to the Indianapolis community. She demonstrated what it meant to be civically active and provided students the opportunity to develop skills to be similarly active if they chose. Donnan is what made the civic curriculum authentic, active, and applicable. Dunn was very prescriptive to teachers, especially in preparing teachers in Indianapolis to teach his book for the first time16 ; however, he could not prescribe to teachers of community civics what Donnan brought to the curriculum, in Indianapolis or nationally.

Laura Donnan as Progressive Exemplar: Agency and Enacted Epistemological Practice The book began by discussing the role of Donnan’s gender and positionality as a primary factor in developing her epistemology for teaching, based upon socially-situated practices. Like many female educators of her era, Donnan achieved agency in unique ways as a teacher and activist. This was no surprise, as agency was a central issue in the development of citizenship education trumpeted by female social educators in the Progressive Era.17 Modern conceptions of agency are well-suited to frame the actions of female social educators because they account for the past, current, and future contextual factors that shaped their actions.18 Female social educators of the Progressive Era all experienced constraints on their agency in the past as the result of their gender, which shaped their actions, as well as their plans for action in the future. For example, the civic culture

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Donnan created at Shortridge was a result of her imagining possibilities for empowering students and others, by achieving agency within the societal constraints placed on her own gendered positionality. The theoretical framework for this book identified several ways that gender constrained Donnan in the Progressive Era, yet Donnan achieved agency in personally meaningful ways regardless of these constraints. From achieving a master’s degree, to providing frameworks for practice based on theory, to writing a textbook, Donnan achieved agency within male-dominated structures for the purpose of civic and social change. Like many female social educators of the Progressive Era, Donnan was able to identify spaces (e.g., the extracurriculum) for her to achieve agency toward social change. Shortridge had always been a space where Donnan felt free to achieve agency, beginning with her own schooling, and for many female social educators, schools were spaces of possibilities within the male-dominated societal structures. Female social educators used schools and other educational spaces to not only gain education credentials, but also to promote their own educational initiatives to empower other marginalized citizens.19 Donnan would never gain recognition within the male-dominated structures of society and education. Her impact would be resigned and confined to the local community, to spaces she created, while Dunn would be enabled to rise through the societal structures. The possibilities for Donnan’s agency, and subsequently her recognition, were limited to the opportunities she generated for herself. Dunn never mentioned Donnan once, or even recognize her work, in all of his manuscripts and presentations. In 1910 when Dunn left Shortridge, Donnan and Dunn had virtually the same credentials and achievements (e.g., a master’s degree, a textbook, multiple journal articles, regional and national presentations, social (club) capital, etc.). The major distinction between their careers was teaching experience, Donnan had over thirty years and Dunn only had ten years. Women like Donnan, and their experience, were not given recognition because they threatened the normative male structures. Their actions were ideologically social reconstructionist, and simply by staying in the profession they “disrupted cherished assumptions of male superiority and long-established social norms, professional conventions, and accepted practice in several spheres.”20 The failure to recognize female social educators’ achievements is perhaps the best demonstration of blatant marginalization of women in the field of education, which is no more evident than in the case of Donnan and Dunn. For example, it

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is highly probable Donnan desired neither the professional life nor the positions that Dunn so avidly pursued. Hypothetically, then, if Donnan’s recognition was not a competitive threat to Dunn’s career, then her contributions to the field of civic education, which deserved recognition, must have been an intellectual threat to Dunn’s credibility as an academic and a progressive educator. Whether Donnan gained recognition for her achievements or not, the ways she chose to achieve agency directly resulted in developing a civic culture at Shortridge. For her students, Donnan opened possibilities for achieving agency despite society’s many constraints, especially for her female students. She demonstrated that women could leave the city and go to a university, start a club based on their civic interests, write books, and be innovative in their work. Through her achievements and daily actions, Donnan showed that women could develop a public voice, enrich their voice, and find ways to use their voice in civic and social spaces. While Donnan was not the only example of a woman using her voice, she potentially had more influence through her roles at Shortridge and the civic culture she had created. It was well-documented that Donnan involved herself in most school activities to make sure females were represented, due to at least one principal with misogynist leanings. It is probable that Donnan involved herself in so many school activities to also demonstrate how women should assert their agency for social change, frequently and regardless of others’ recommendations. Donnan created a civic culture at Shortridge that allowed students to develop skills by achieving agency. Donnan’s civil government course was valuable to progressive educators because she prepared her students to participate in a civic culture, specifically Shortridge, but eventually their community. Donnan believed in her students’ capabilities for citizenship, this was demonstrated initially in her NEA presentation, which highlighted her epistemology and intended outcomes for her authentic civic activities. As Makler described, female social educators prioritized student experience and thinking because of their own experiences. They were independent thinkers and initiated new teaching practices that respected and trusted their students’ capacities, while valuing personal and practical hands-on experience as educative.21 Donnan’s pedagogy was similar, but went even further than many progressive educators because it connected to specific outcomes for participating in the school extracurricular activities, and ultimately, society.

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Donnan’s pedagogy demonstrated her awareness of progressive educational trends and theories of practice. Based on student comments in the Daily Echo, Donnan’s pedagogy was truly innovative in comparison with her colleagues’ more traditional epistemologies (e.g., recitation). Donnan’s innovation among colleagues practicing more traditional forms of pedagogy was another distinctive way Donnan achieved agency. Acting innovatively could potentially trigger challenges from colleagues, as Makler wrote, “For a woman to assert herself publicly on a matter of politics…to depart from traditional teaching methods, or to challenge received academic certainties was a radical action that challenged the structure of social organization in far-reaching ways.”22 Donnan acted innovatively despite the inherent constraints of traditional colleagues, and the uniformity of normative epistemologies. Enacted Epistemological Practice Donnan’s epistemology shaped the ways she achieved agency in the Shortridge context, and her awareness of her epistemology sustained her pedagogical focus on social change. Her intentions for social change were quite apparent in many of her choices and actions, reflected upon in the students’ documentation of her pedagogy. In hindsight, and aside from her pedagogy, the fact that she helped start a women’s suffrage organization at age eighteen probably provided useful foreshadowing of her intentions for student empowerment and social change. Like other female social educators of the era, Donnan chose her role in social change, fully accepting the challenges and constraints she would face. As Makler described, “Despite social norms meant to inhibit women from assuming visible public roles, each [female social educator] chose such a role for herself, causing us to ponder what enabled each of them to construct a sense of agency resilient enough to overcome disappointment, lack of public recognition, and discrimination.”23 Donnan’s epistemology was formed by all of the gendered constraints that contoured the ways she achieved agency on a daily basis. Every decision she made in regard to civic education and social change, in both her career and personal life, demonstrated her awareness of her epistemology. Donnan understood that her epistemology was the product of situated social practices, and that knowledge was derived from the discourse around the circumstances of those practices. Donnan constantly pursued new experiences and opportunities to further inform and shape her epistemology through

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coursework, events, and volunteering, which eventually strengthened her epistemological awareness, and resulted in enacted epistemological practices. Amazingly, Donnan displayed enacted epistemological practices toward social change for over forty-five years at Shortridge. The civic culture of Shortridge, supported by Donnan’s enacted epistemological practices, enabled her students to generatively engage in their own learning and understand its application in their community. Donnan’s pedagogy and epistemological practices allowed students to think in ways that others did not think were possible for teenagers at this time, especially for her teenage female students. Her practices empowered her students to participate in a culture at Shortridge because they developed skills to rationalize their own actions. Thus, Donnan’s enactment of epistemological practices was a form of social action that served to subvert the normative social hierarchies that defined the Progressive Era.

Notes 1. Staff, “Second Round,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), November 20, 1901; Staff, “Tennis Notes,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), May 23, 1902; Staff, “Celebration,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), December 5, 1905; Staff, “Senators,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), October 23, 1905; Staff, “Debating Team Entertainment,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), March 9, 1906; Staff, “Election of Athletic Board,” Daily Echo, (Indianapolis, IN), October 17, 1906. 2. Staff, “City News Notes,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN) October 28, 1902. 3. “Indianapolis Public Schools General Notices” (Indianapolis, IN: Indianapolis Public Schools, 1906–1908). 4. “Normal College of the American Gymnastic Union” (Indianapolis, IN: Hollenbeck Press, 1908). 5. See note 24 above. 6. Laura Donnan, Our Governments: Brief Talks to the American Youth on Our Governments, General and Local (Indianapolis, IN: Bowen-Merrill, 1900), v. 7. Arthur W. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen (Boston, MA: D.C. Heath, 1907), iv. 8. Julie A. Reuben, “Beyond Politics: Community Civics and the Redefinition of Citizenship in the Progressive Era,” History of Education Quarterly 37, no. 4 (1997): 404. 9. Reuben, 402.

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10. Louise Connolly, “Some Methods of Civic Education,” National Municipal Review 13 (April 1914): 340–345; Ruth A. Nieboer, “Arthur Dunn: Civic Visionary from the Heartland,” (Report, Washington, DC: ERIC, 2000); Michael Lybarger, “The Political Context of the Social Studies: Creating a Constituency for Municipal Reform,” Theory & Research in Social Education 8, no. 3 (1980): 1–27. 11. Dunn, iii; Reuben, 406. 12. Sivertson, “Community Civic.” 13. Arthur W. Dunn, “Making Good Citizens of Children: How an Army of 1,000 Young People is Giving the Grown-ups a Practical Illustration of Progress,” Forward! (1910): 12. 14. See note 13 above. 15. See note 13 above. 16. See note 3 above. 17. Andrea Makler, Conclusion to Bending the Future to Their Will: Civic Women, Social Education, and Democracy, eds. Margaret Crocco and O.L. Davis (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999). 18. Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta, and Sarah Robinson. Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), 11. 19. See note 6 above. 20. Makler, 262. 21. Makler, 264. 22. Makler, 262. 23. Makler, 268.

CHAPTER 10

Conclusion

Abstract The conclusion will briefly discuss and summarize the main arguments to contextualize them holistically with the data contained in the book. It will also consider the end to Donnan and Dunn’s careers, which both happened in the same school year. Lastly, a brief discussion of Donnan’s remembrance in the Indianapolis newspapers, following her death, is used to fittingly summarize her impact on the community. Keywords Laura Donnan · Arthur W. Dunn · Civic education · Indianapolis · Shortridge High School

Laura Donnan and Arthur Dunn’s civic education careers both ended in the 1927–1928 school year. Donnan was forced into retirement by the district and continued working part-time, retiring fully in 1929. Dunn died of heart failure on November 7, 1927 after a long trip around the country supporting the Junior Red Cross initiatives. His death was reported across the country through the Associated Press (A.P.). Indianapolis newspapers used the same A.P. article, which was very short and mentioned nothing of his time in Indianapolis.1 A student wrote a brief remembrance in the Daily Echo titled, “Former History Head Dies”:

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Arthur Dunn, former head of the History Department at Shortridge died last Monday of heart failure, at Washington D.C. Mr. Dunn was known as a pioneer in civics. He wrote a book called “The Community and the Citizen,” which was used in the Indianapolis grade schools.2

The remembrance in the Daily Echo was representative of Dunn’s time at Shortridge. He was a History teacher and head of the department who became known for civics. No obituary could be found in a nationwide search of newspapers. However, two weeks later, in the Daily Echo, a more detailed remembrance of Dunn was published, which cited all of his teaching before Shortridge, his positions after Shortridge, and major authorships, including the 1916 Report. The article ended by writing, “He was a very competent and able man and was well known in educational circles throughout the country.”3 The style and detail of this article suggested it was written by a faculty member. It could have been Donnan, but surprisingly there were four other teachers in 1927 who were at Shortridge with Dunn—therefore it is hard to say who wrote it. The circumstances of Donnan and Dunn’s careers and their priorities in the 1920s indicate some clear distinctions in their perspectives and highlight the fading popularity of Dunn’s curriculum at a national level. Upon becoming Director of the Junior Red Cross in 1921, Dunn continued to repackage his community civics curriculum for new generations and social circumstances. Even though the curriculum addressed a different time and circumstances, Dunn was still attempting to shape young citizens’ civic behaviors from afar. Dunn’s work at the Junior Red Cross represents the culmination of a series of poorly aligned appropriations to create a civics culture on a national level, just as Donnan had created locally at Shortridge. After Dunn’s departure in 1910, the civic culture continued at Shortridge through the 1920s, with the Senate at the center and Donnan at the helm, even in her late sixties and early seventies. The continued popularity of Donnan’s curriculum at Shortridge demonstrated the value of focusing on the students, and the students continued to value opportunities to engage authentically in their own learning.

Revisiting the Main Arguments The introduction of the book identified four main arguments that provide contour to the content of the book. First, there is evidence that Laura Donnan’s pedagogy influenced at least one of the primary authors of

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the 1916 Report, The Social Studies in Secondary Education, Arthur W. Dunn. Specifically, Donnan developed a civic education curriculum, textbook, and subsequent civic culture at Shortridge that provided a model for Dunn’s own civic curriculum and text. Dunn’s curriculum and text became a major part of the community civics movement that is fully articulated in the 1915 bulletin on community civics and the 1916 Report, both authored by Dunn. Donnan was informed of trends in progressive education well before Dunn’s arrival at Shortridge, evidenced most notably by her coursework at the University of Chicago, trends that Dunn would have equally been aware of due to his time at the same university. Therefore, it would have been an uncomplicated process for Dunn to exploit Donnan’s curriculum and text for his own progressive (social efficiency and assimilative Americanization) purposes. Donnan provided a valuable model and steppingstone in Dunn’s quest for developing a national civics curriculum. Donnan ’s influence on Dunn is also significant because it illustrated a contour of gender ideologies operating in the Progressive Era. As Crocco and Davis’ edited volume demonstrated, Donnan’s story was somewhat common for female social educators focused on social change.4 While the male-dominated structures of society shaped her gendered experiences in the mid-to-late 1880s that ultimately shaped her powerful epistemology, the same male-dominated structures also relegated her status as an influential educator and imposed a horizon on her professional agency.5 Even though Donnan created new spaces for her agency to take shape (e.g., Free Night High School, the Senate, Athletic Board, etc.) and sustain her fight for social change, she could never get the academic or national recognition that Dunn would receive as an “enterprising” progressive educator. Dunn’s relatively unassuming decision to teach at Shortridge in 1900 was amplified by his privilege, as an educated White male, to the most opportune, and potentially best, decision of his life—due to the work of Laura Donnan. Second, a deeper examination of the circumstances surrounding Arthur Dunn’s career before arriving at Shortridge demonstrated that he was not the progressive educator and civics expert many scholars have characterized him to be. While this assertion challenges most of the previous interpretations of Dunn’s career and work, many scholars have overlooked his arrival at Shortridge, the activities he engaged in, the courses he taught, and the situations that led to his civics leadership while at Shortridge. Previous scholars had simply looked at Dunn’s trajectory to the

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Civic Education Specialist position at the Bureau of Education, which was sufficient for past inquiries focused on his work with community civics, the creation of the social studies, and civic or social education in general. On a basic level, Dunn’s credentials and experiences fit the common profile of a progressive educator policy maker during the Progressive Era—a Master’s degree, university association and teaching experience, appreciation for and experience with new social sciences, some K-12 teaching, social organization affiliations, national publications and presentations, and an awareness of progressive educational trends. While Dunn did have an appropriate background to advocate for a new and progressive social welfare-focused civics curriculum, Dunn’s time at Shortridge was much more fortuitous than previous scholars have asserted. Evidence from Dunn’s time at Shortridge demonstrated that he was not very involved with civics at Shortridge, especially early in his tenure. Dunn benefited from the new leadership of George W. Benton at Shortridge in 1903, who likely introduced him to Superintendent Kendall through club participation, and primarily the Indianapolis Commercial Club—the National Municipal League (NML) affiliate. In these first years at Shortridge, Dunn’s only association with civics was heading the history and civics department at Shortridge and simply witnessing the civic culture Donnan had created. Dunn most likely observed and studied aspects of Donnan’s civics pedagogy and texts in order to develop his own Progressive Era curriculum and textbook. Dunn finished his textbook in 1906 and became director of Civics for Indianapolis Public Schools in 1906. Armed with a new title and textbook, Dunn began his campaign for community civics in Indianapolis, utilizing the school district’s eighthgrade classrooms for his study, and the Commercial Club for economic and political support. His involvement with the Indianapolis affiliate of the NML opened doors to opportunities outside of Indianapolis, and led to his departure from Shortridge in 1910 and his eventual role as Civic Education Specialist for the US Bureau of Education in 1914. Dunn’s time at Shortridge was far more integral to his career than previous scholars have noted. His opportune arrival at Shortridge benefitted him in multiple ways, from witnessing Donnan’s experience, practice, and curriculum to the economic and political backing he received from his introductions at the NML by prominent Indianapolis educators. Dunn’s time at Shortridge was the longest he had ever held a position by far, which raised further new questions about his professional trajectory.

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Third, Dunn’s exploiting of Donnan’s curriculum failed to ever have the national impact that Donnan had locally at Shortridge. Dunn had enough acumen regarding progressive educational trends to understand the significance of Donnan’s pedagogy, if not initially, then after observing her teach those first few years at Shortridge. Dunn witnessed Donnan teaching freshman a variety of civic and social skills in her civil government course and then saw those skills exercised in the civic culture of Shortridge, and subsequently the community. Dunn wanted to create a curriculum with similar outcomes but within the larger community. Dunn viewed Donnan’s curriculum simply as training students’ behavior for participation in a community. Dunn’s interpretation and re-articulation of Donnan’s curriculum was due in part to his own epistemology and ideological perspective—rooted in social efficiency and assimilative Americanization—but also his multiple associations and allegiances to colleagues, organizations, and employers. Dunn represented an intersection of economic, social, and political influences, and his career illustrated a constant appeasement of these influences, several of which acted as his benefactors after he left Shortridge. Dunn appropriated Donnan’s methods and trafficked in the social efficiency and assimilative language of the era to appease his various influences. Using the lens of social efficiency, Dunn wanted to prescribe civic behaviors for students through his curriculum and inculcate American values for self-government, civic pride, and municipal amenities. For Dunn, the role of public schools was “to produce a good type of citizenship,” which represented a cultural concept of citizenship, not the legal concept of citizenship. The ideological difference in Donnan and Dunn’s civic curricula was the key distinction in their approach. Both Donnan and Dunn wanted to have students engage in active learning that would ultimately shape their actions in their community, yet Donnan believed students entered her classroom with a good understanding of civic issues and focused on developing students’ internal processes, trained their minds, and appreciated their individual character and identity. However, Dunn believed students had little understanding of civic issues and focused on students’ external processes, prescribed their behaviors, addressed their deviations from the norm, and illustrated the type of citizen students should become. Donnan was learner-centered, as well as a social reconstructionist, and allowed civic culture to take shape through student application of her curriculum in coursework, extracurricular activities, and the Daily Echo. Dunn on the other hand wanted to simply prescribe civic culture through

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the curriculum and relished in the role of determining specific paths for students. Dunn’s adherence to social efficiency in his re-articulation of Donnan’s practice is best realized in the criticisms of his text and curriculum. Teachers, administrators, and academics commented that his curriculum lacked student action, lacked the use of controversial issues, lacked depth in content, promoted soft pedagogy, and resulted in blatant local chauvinism due to its ties to the city commerce clubs associated with the NML.6 Donnan’s civics curriculum and culture, on the other hand, was active, centered on controversy, offered in-depth content, and was inclusive of all students. Furthermore, Dunn’s devotion to social efficiency led to an approach based on a deficit mentality, while Donnan’s curriculum and methods were created from her own epistemology, based on her marginalized experiences, which prioritized student empowerment for the purpose of social change. Finally, while the first three arguments have relevance for rethinking the gendered history of civic and social education , what is the value of this history for current teachers and educators? In the last chapter, it was argued that Donnan achieved a level of pedagogy referred to as enacted epistemological practice,7 which prioritizes student empowerment as a form of subversive social action. Donnan’s curricular purpose developed from her own epistemology and combined to shape her agency at Shortridge and in her community. Teachers today could learn from Donnan’s example to become more aware of their epistemology and refocus their curricular efforts on the empowerment of their students. Much of the curriculum in today’s schools is developed from a deficit mentality, similar to Dunn’s perspective, and from afar. The context of the school and the relation of the teacher, to both the context and their students, is ignored. While many teachers do their best to make the curriculum fit their students and classrooms, it is difficult to sustain because of national testing, mandates, and online curriculum that maintains teacher control.

Final Thoughts on the Impact of Laura Donnan Donnan approached her pedagogy as a way to discursively negotiate her own citizenship, through the empowerment of future citizens and reshaping a system that rewarded patriarchy. Donnan’s experiences at Shortridge and in her community were responses to the cultural ideology around gender that had structured her world. Her entire life was devoted

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to challenging ideas and an order that undermined her ability to help her students imagine the possibilities of a more equitable and inclusive future for their community. Donnan’s impact on her community was echoed through numerous remembrances in the Indianapolis newspapers, with each noting in some way her devotion to Shortridge and teaching government, equality, and service to her community. In comparison with Dunn, Donnan ’s passing received major coverage. Donnan had at least ten distinct articles or remembrances in four different newspapers, which included two articles in the Black newspaper, The Recorder. Many of these were on the front page of the newspaper. Coverage of her funeral in one Indianapolis newspaper aptly summarized her impact on the community: With a service marked by its simplicity, and surrounded in death as in life by friends from all walks and stations…a former student referred to her as one “whose hand has guided many a man and woman to honor and fame, and whose useful life has been spent in defending and teaching others to defend that law which has ever been the highest ideal of the human mind, that of liberty, justice and equality,”… In the few days following Miss Donnan’s death the home has been the mecca for the constant stream of friends from all walks of life and all races and creeds,… Telegrams were received from all over the country, hundreds of tributes from those who laid their measure of success to her teachings.8

Another remembrance noted her generational impact on the community: A part of Shortridge itself seems to have gone with the passing of Miss Laura Donnan. Her death no more than her retirement from active teaching two years ago, however, can alter the tradition which links her name with this oldest of the city’s high schools. She witnessed the educational development of parents and children during nearly fifty years. Occasionally the grandchild of some former pupil would carry her thoughts back through the years… The fullness of her life was expressed in many associations and in the pleasure of noting the climb to success of those who had been enrolled in her classes. When Miss Donnan retired the senate presented her with a bronze plaque which read: “A true woman leading a life of service and devotion, beloved by those who have been privileged to know her and honored by all. One who has brought so much sunshine into the lives of others could not but have sunshine in her own.9

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A former Black student, David C. Venerable, who was a Reverend and city leader, provided two remembrances of Donnan for the Black newspaper in Indianapolis, The Recorder: She has done what she could. Such, would be a fitting summary to the life of Miss Laura Donnan, veteran teacher of Shortridge High School, who was laid to rest, Monday, after 50 continuous years devoted to the uplift of human society. Mrs. Donnan was a strong patriot, and it was this love of law, the respect of the rights of others and above all that justice should be given to all men, regardless of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude, that caused this woman to play such an important factor in molding the character of so many men and women, who today are famous in their various walks of life.10

Another paper focused specifically on her educational impact on her students and community: [Donnan] was an admirable teacher of great inspirational power. Her ideals, both of scholarship and public service, were high – and they were never lowered. The young people who studied under her recognized in her both leader and friend. She never lost her touch with young life, or her love for it. Young in spirit herself, she was able to understand and sympathize with youth. Miss Donnan met every test by which the merits of a teacher are measured and judged. Intellectually she was thoroughly equipped for what was her life work. Her mind was well stored and vigorous, her interests were wide…a faithful public servant, and a great force for good… She kept up a particular interest in her former students who served in the world war and could call most of them by name. Her circle of friendships knew no barriers of race or creed. She was a leader in the fight for teacher pensions.11

It is important to consider each of these public remembrances because they demonstrate the dynamic ways that Donnan advocated for social and educational change, and highlight the distinct impact of her advocacy. Furthermore, these remembrances are important because they collectively represent the most significant recognition she would receive for her innovation and dedication to individual empowerment. Laura Donnan , like many female social educators of the Progressive Era, found space in society to influence social change within the maledominated structures of society. She realized that her own rights were

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dependent upon fellow citizens’ understanding their rights and responsibilities in society, and found civic education the most empowering way to influence her fellow citizens. While she was well-respected for advocacy and influence, her work was never easy, and represented an enduring challenge that she wholeheartedly accepted. A simple byline for a class photo of a female student in the 1915 yearbook represents Donnan’s constant struggle, “One of those quiet, unassuming girls who was almost turned into a militant suffragette under the tutelage of Miss Donnan.”12 While this byline is likely tongue-and-cheek, or laced with some sarcasm, it demonstrated the normative ways Donnan was positioned as a result of her gendered perspectives, and inherently strong advocacy. As noted by many that knew her, she did not want everyone to agree with her, and was satisfied with students who could respectfully and reasonably disagree. Therefore, the challenge was not getting everyone to agree, but to engage everyone in understanding the validity of the pluralistic perspectives on an issue. The challenges that Donnan welcomed her entire life notably served to shape her agency and epistemology, which led to an inimitably engaging and student-centered civics curriculum that impacted her local community.

Notes 1. A.P., “Red Cross Director Dies,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), November 15, 1927. 2. Staff, “Former Head Dies,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), November 15, 1927. 3. Staff, “A.W. Dunn, Former Civics Teacher, Dies,” Daily Echo (Indianapolis, IN), November 29, 1927. 4. Margaret Smith Crocco and Ozro L. Davis Jr, “Bending the Future to Their Will”: Civic Women, Social Education, and Democracy (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999). 5. For more on horizon of agency, see Nancy Fraser, Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (London: Taylor & Francis, 2017). 6. Sidney Siverston, “Community Civics: Education for Social Efficiency” (phd dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972). 7. Jacques Désautels, Stephen C. Fleury, and Jim Garrison, “The Enactment of Epistemological Practice as Subversive Social Action, the Provocation of Power, and Anti-modernism,” Counterpoints 210 (2002): 237–269. 8. Staff, “Services Simple for Miss Laura Donnan,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), August 25, 1930.

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9. Staff, “Miss Laura Donnan,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), August 23, 1930. 10. David C. Venerable, “City Mourns as Laura Donnan Is Laid to Rest,” The Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), August 30, 1930. 11. Staff, “Laura Donnan,” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN), August 23, 1930. 12. Staff, “Class Photos,” Annual (Indianapolis: Shortridge High School, 1915): 96.

Index

A Americanization movement, 20 amalgamationists, 21 Assimilationists, 20 Civic Nationalistic views, 22 cultural pluralists, 21 Ethnic Nationalistic views, 22 B Beecher, Henry Ward, 69 Benton, George, 89, 101, 118 Bowers, Claude, 43, 53 boy problem, 90 Bulkley, Julia, 45 Burkholder, Zoe, 23 C Cannon, Henry L., 97 Captain Horace McKay, 50 Century Club, 6, 101 Chautauqua, 41 civic education

development of, 17 Civic Nationalism, 22 Columbia University, 45 Commercial Club, 6, 101, 102, 148 Forward!, 138 1916 Committee, 125 Committee of Ten (1894), 28 Council of Jewish Women, 25 Cremin, Lawrence, 18 Crocco, Margaret S., 10

D Daily Echo, 46, 85, 86 Arthur Dunn, 88 comments on courses and teachers, 88 Senate coverage, 86 student columns, 87 Daughters of the American Revolution, 25 Department of Women’s Organizations, 25

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. S. Clark, Local Civics with National Purpose, Historical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65581-5

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INDEX

Dewey, John, 45 How We Think, 84 Donnan, Emma, 41 forced retirement, 47 Donnan, Laura, 1, 2, 8–10, 14, 40, 42, 152 ambitious teacher, 124 Athletic Board, 91 civic conscience, 48, 132 civic life, 50 Civil Government teaching, 46 death, 151 early influences, 40 Education, 43 epistemology, 13, 142 epistemology and worldview, 50 extracurriculum, 80 forced retirement, 47 ideological difference to Dunn, 149 ideology, 134, 136 influence on Dunn, 132, 147 life outside of Shortridge, 47 mobility, 125 NEA presentation, 60 Our Governments: Brief Talks to the American Youth on Our Governments, General and Local , 47, 48 racial incident at Shortridge, 51 school life, 45 student agency, 141 The High School and the Citizen, 60 The Public-School Journal , 48 The War Governor of Indiana, 42 University of Chicago (UC), 44 University of Michigan, 44 women’s suffrage, 52 Donnan, May Winters, 41 Dunn, Arthur W., 1, 2, 9, 26, 31, 95 after Shortridge, 117 arrival at Shortridge, 98

career, 125 City Club, 119 civic consciousness, 48, 132 Civic Education in Elementary Schools as Illustrated in Indianapolis, 121 Community Civics and Rural Life (1920), 107 death, 145 departure from Shortridge, 110 Director of Civic Education for Indianapolis Schools, 103 failure to recreate civic culture, 138 free-agent, 122 ideology, 134, 136 impact of Shortridge on, 148 Junior Red Cross, 124, 125 National Municipal League, 119 Public Education Association of New York, 120 Significance of time at Shortridge, 111 social efficiency, 150 Specialist in Civic Education in the U.S. Bureau of Education, 120 teaching at Shortridge, 99 textbook, 105 The Community and the Citizen, 103 the study, 107 The Teaching of Community Civics, 121 University of Chicago (UC), 96, 97 University of Cincinnati, 97 upbringing, 96

E Enacted epistemological practice, 10 Evans, Ronald, 29 extracurriculum, 78 significance at Shortridge, 89

INDEX

G gendered history of civic and social education, 150 General Federation of Women’s Clubs, 25 Gerstle, Gary, 22 Gutowski, Thomas, 78 H Harrison, Benjamin, 7 Henry, William E., 98 I Indiana Journal , 7 Indianapolis early schools, 7 History of, 6 Indianapolis Leader, 7 Indianapolis News , 7 Indianapolis Normal School, 43 Indianapolis Woman’s Club, 6 J James, Edmund J., 48 K Kendall, C.N., 42, 101, 102, 118 Kliebard, Herbert, 33 curriculum ideologies, 33 Knox College, 96 L Labaree, David, 124 M Makler, Andrea, 141, 142 Manual High School, 42 Mirel, Jeffrey, 20

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N National Congress of Mothers, 25 National Education Association (NEA), 25, 44, 60 National Municipal League, 26, 102 Nicholson, Mary E., 42 Normal College of the North American Gymnastics Union, 132

P Parent-Teacher Associations, 25 Problems of Democracy, 32 Progressive Era, 18

R Racial Nationalism, 22 The Recorder, 7 Reuben, Julie, 23, 134 Roberts, Junius B., 97, 99

S The Social Studies in Secondary Education (1916), 27 Shortridge, Abram C., 7 Black students, 8 Shortridge Free Night High School, 49 Shortridge High School, 33 early history (Indianapolis High School), 7 Enrollment, by gender 1902, 24 Shortridge Senate, 46, 80–82 impact of, 83 Small, Albion, 97 Smith, Rogers, 23 ethnocultural Americanism, 23 liberalism, 23 republicanism, 23 Social Studies in Secondary Education, 121

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Southern Association of College Women, 25 T Teacher career ladders, 124 The Teaching of Community Civics (1915), 27 Terzian, Sevan, 78 Thurston, Henry W., 111, 126 U University of Chicago Alumni Club, 45

V Venerable, David C., 152 Vincent, George, 97 Vonnegut, Clement, 6

W Women’s Organizations interest in schools, 24

Y Young, Ella Flagg, 45