June 20, 2003 Feature Story
A
Legacy of Educational Commitment
 Generations
of northern Utah children have benefitted from the lab school
concept initially established in 1927 and now known as the Edith
Bowen Laboratory School. Soon, more than 70 years since its
founding, through the generosity of the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation,
the Edith Bowen Laboratory School at Utah State University will
move to a new, larger, modern structure.
 In
the beginning the lab school — the teacher training center
for Utah State University — was housed in the Whittier
School building in Logan. Later, in 1957 and in cooperation
with the Logan City School District, it was moved to the Utah
State University campus to be housed in the newly constructed
Edith Bowen Laboratory School building. The namesake of the
school, Miss Edith Bowen, was an influential Utah educator,
counting among her close and personal friends many of the great
in the field of education in the United States.
Edith Bowen developed a passion for reading and education at
a young age. After her graduation as valedictorian from Brigham
Young College in Logan, Miss Bowen began her distinguished teaching
career in an ungraded school in Samaria, Idaho. Following that
she taught in various schools in Logan where, in 1920, she was
appointed to the position of elementary supervisor for Logan
City. Believing that education should be continuous and ongoing,
Edith continued her formal education by attending summer sessions
at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Utah State, and eventually
received a master's degree from Teacher's College at Columbia
University in New York. Miss Bowen accepted the position of
elementary supervisor at the Whittier School, then the teacher
training instructor position at Utah State University in Logan
— which she filled with distinction from 1932 to 1947.
Miss Edith Bowen's influence in the laboratory school was far
reaching and life changing — both for teachers and for
students. At the dedication of the school in 1957, hundreds
of former students, friends and fellow workers greeted Miss
Bowen. Dr. Lawrence G. Derthick, then United States Commissioner
of Education, remarked, "Never in all my experience have
I seen such devotion to a teacher!"
 One
former student who had been influenced by Edith Bowen was Emma
Eccles Jones. Emma, the fifth child of David Eccles, the highly
successful western businessman and promoter, moved to Logan
at the age of eight. Enrolled in Logan City schools, Emma encountered
the legendary Logan teacher, Miss Edith Bowen. Even at this
early age Emma had an interest in education. She remembered
contemplating during her elementary education how to develop
better teaching methods.
After pursuing an education at Utah State, Emma Eccles decided
she wanted to work in the field of early childhood education.
She continued further education in that area first at Berkeley
then, like her former teacher, at Columbia's Teacher's College
in New York.
Like Edith, Emma was strongly influenced by John Dewey's child-centered
philosophy of education. The classroom, according to Dewey,
should be a place that focuses on children's natural interests
and abilities — a place where children can solve problems
of the real world. Teachers should not be despots, but should
support and nourish children's aspirations. The learning environment
one encounters at Edith Bowen Laboratory School today is consistent
with the Dewey Method.
When Emma returned to Logan in the late 1920s after marrying
LeGrand Jones, she found she had time on her hands and a desire
to teach. Fortunately, at this juncture Edith Bowen approached
her about teaching kindergarten in Logan. At that time, the
concept of a kindergarten was opposed by local school boards
and many parents. But Mrs. Emma Eccles Jones, after making certain
stipulations, one of which was the donation of her own salary
for classroom supplies, enthusiastically began her kindergarten
career. Emma Eccles Jones's class proved highly successful and,
during the next decade, she continued to teach in the high-ceilinged
rooms of the Whittier School.
After LeGrand's death in 1936, Emma moved to northern California
where she eventually teamed up with another innovative educator
and colleague, Dr. Louisa Wagner of Mills College in Oakland.
Here, for the next several years, she taught and directed an
innovative program of early childhood day care.
In her later years, Mrs. Emma Eccles Jones turned to philanthropy,
where her generosity strengthened educational endeavors. Among
her contributions were a scholarship trust for African American
and Hispanic students, the establishment of the first endowed
chair at Utah State University and the funding of a new and
modern education building in the late 1980s. In 1998 a significant
donation established the Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early
Childhood Education, including the first endowed chair in the
College of Education and Human Services. And the soon-to-be-completed
Edith Bowen Laboratory School building is another testament
to her unselfishness.
While Edith Bowen was working as elementary supervisor for
Logan City, and shortly before Emma Eccles Jones began her innovative
educational career, another influential woman made connections
with Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University).
Anne Carroll Moore, the outspoken and well-known children's
librarian of the New York Public Library, was invited by Utah
State President E.G. Peterson to speak at Utah State University.
President Peterson hoped that Miss Moore, with her "liveliness,
and acumen," could inspire the students at Utah State to
read more extensively.
During June and July of 1927, on the first of several visits,
Miss Moore spoke to students, faculty and the general public,
where she preached her beliefs that "children should be
free to access books in public libraries, without hindrance
of age or capacity to read, and with minimal concern for clean
hands."
Anne Carroll Moore, herself an author of a Newberry honor book,
was also a legendary critic of children's literature. She sent
great boxes of books — those she considered indispensable
— ahead of her visit to Utah State. These books became
the basis for the Anne Carroll Moore Library, housed, appropriately,
in the Edith Bowen Laboratory School.
The librarians who have since operated the Anne Carroll Moore
Library have remained faithful to Moore’s vision of a
child-centered library. Today the Moore Library provides the
best in children's literature, instructs students in technological
literacy and teaches them how to be critical consumers of information.
Each of these three women, in their own unique way, contributed
significantly to the betterment of children and the cause of
education in Cache Valley and at Utah State University and taught
young children to love school and learning.
Contact: Tim Vitale (435) 797-1356 tim.vitale@usu.edu
Writer: Melanie Stein (435) 797-1472, mstein@coe.usu.edu
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