The Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, 1905-2005

In 1905, as the University of Virginia inaugurated him as its first president, the revered southern educator Edwin Anderson Alderman proposed an education school, despite the thriving existence of normal teachers' colleges, primarily female, throughout the state. John D. Rockefeller Sr. donated $100,000 in support, and the Curry Memorial School of Education was born. In the century since, the Curry School of Education has grown and solidified, struggled and diversified, and raised its expectations and its visibility. It has steered a dedicated course through the challenges of depression, war, student disaffection, and faculty debate by holding true to the visions of Jefferson and Alderman. Always attuned to and often leading the discussion about current educational theories, Curry School faculty, students, and graduates represent the evolution of American education during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. From its original founding in 1905 to the visions it is now creating for the teachers and children of tomorrow, the Curry School of Education has a distinguished and significant history. In this centennial volume, Eleanor Vernon Wilson chronicles the decisions, responses, programs, initiatives, and accomplishments that together form the panoramic history of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.