ISU’s former Laboratory School celebrates its history and enjoys a renaissance

Laboratory School postcard

By Cinda May

The University Hall that has resulted from the renovation of what originally was the Laboratory School at Indiana State is a re-polishing of a longtime campus jewel. The building’s renaissance into an unrivaled teacher education facility provides a resource appropriate to the College of Education’s stature.

Designed by the architectural firm of Miller & Yaeger in 1933, the Laboratory School is an excellent example of the Jacobean Revival style, featuring brick cladding, decorative quoins, limestone cornices, belt courses and casement windows. Grotesque faces peek from the corners of doorways surmounted by pediments and dentils. Two bays on the front façade flank the oak doors of the main entry that is capped by “Indiana State Teacher’s College” carved into the limestone lintels. The murals of Terre Haute native Gilbert Wilson grace the interior of the entrance.

The Laboratory School, the design of which is quadrangle based, sits on a stone foundation and is two stories on a raised basement. The building occupies a city block and consists of two separate construction projects. Funded by Public Works Administration grants and completed at a cost of $1 million, the primary area of the Laboratory School welcomed students in 1935. The two gymnasiums and the auditorium (Sycamore Theatre) that made up the second phase of construction opened in 1937. In its heyday, educators from all over the United States visited the Laboratory School as it represented the most modern of educational facilities.

The legislation that established the Indiana State Normal School in 1865 to prepare teachers for Indiana’s common schools also made provisions for the creation of a Model School in which future educators learned management, organization and pedagogy. Established in 1870, the Model School offered tuition-based elementary instruction that took place in four rooms located on the first floor of the Normal School building. By 1904, these facilities were deemed inadequate, and a $100,000 construction project resulted in a separate four-story structure that housed the Model School. The school offered secondary-level courses beginning in 1907 thus furnishing education for grades one through 12. From 1907 to 1935, the enrollment at the Model School averaged 250 pupils selected from a pool of applicants.

When the Laboratory School opened in 1935, it served as the center of the teacher training program at what had become Indiana State Teachers College. Its mission focused on experimentation, research and the application of pedagogical theory based on the principles of progressive education as espoused by John Dewey and his contemporaries. Admission to the faculty required a master’s degree and two or more years of experience. Students from all socio-economic backgrounds attended classes for grades one through 12.

The 1940s saw the development of the remedial reading and speech clinics that became an integral part of the Laboratory School. In addition to helping children experiencing difficulties in these areas, the programs provided instruction and practice teaching for educators who worked with students in the public schools. A decade later the College participated in a Carnegie Foundation-financed project to initiate citizenship education into the curriculum of teachers colleges across the United States.

The citizenship education program stressed social studies and student councils for secondary schools. Dr. Elmer J. Clark represented ISTC at Columbia University during the 1950 fall semester, where he received instruction on behalf of his colleagues, returning to campus in January 1951 when the citizenship program was implemented. During the early 1950s, the citizenship program grew to a point where more than 500 laboratory schools across the United States took part in the endeavor. The addition of a course in psychology to the curriculum and an emphasis on youth clubs and other extra-curricular activities also took place in the 1950s.

Through the ensuing decades the Laboratory School continued to innovate and incorporate the most advanced educational techniques into its classrooms and clinics. Outdoor education, classes for gifted students, foreign language instruction, closed circuit television, the development and use of audio-visual materials all attest to the vision of the school’s faculty and its willingness to embrace new ideas and technologies. Sadly, sagging attendance and soaring costs helped bring about its closing in 1992. Since then, the Laboratory School has quietly awaited its renaissance.

Today, University Hall welcomes a new generation of students and faculty. The $29.8 million renovation project is the largest investment of its kind in the history of the state of Indiana and demonstrates Indiana State University’s commitment to green technology and environmental sustainability. The reconstruction incorporates recycled materials, natural sunlight and an efficient heating and cooling system. Inside are state-of-the-art classrooms, micro-teaching labs that provide cutting edge technologies to enhance K-12 instruction, incidental learning spaces for teachers to informally interact and share experiences with students, conference areas, administrative and faculty offices and a stunning enclosed atrium.

The Leadership Hall that overlooks the atrium celebrates the foresight and imagination of educators who walked the halls of the Laboratory School past and present. The re-opening of University Hall heralds a new phase in the life of the college and the continuation of the tradition of training educators in the most advanced clinical techniques and pedagogical theory.

(Cinda May is chairperson, University Digital & Archival Services, and project manager, Wabash Valley Visions & Voices, for ISU’s Cunningham Memorial Library. To find out more about the College of Education, please visit its website at http://www.indstate.edu/coe/.)

Tags: College of Education, Laboratory School

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.