School of Education celebrates 100 years at IU

After 100 years, there is still a struggle to reach students, but there’s hope for the future, IU administrators, School of Education faculty and education students said Monday.

They represented the past and the future of education at the School of Education’s 100 year commemoration.

Dean Gerardo Gonzalez announced Deborah Meier donated her papers to the Lilly Library. Meier was the founder of the small-school movement, which is the idea behind Bloomington’s Harmony School and the Bloomington New Tech High School.

The commemoration featured speeches from several prominent Bloomington figures, including IU President Michael McRobbie, Provost Karen Hanson, IU Trustee Sue Talbot and Mayor Mark Kruzan.

It also featured speakers who are the future of education.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” said senior Danya Greenberg, president of the dean’s advisory council in the School of Education.

She credited IU and the School of Education with helping to make her a lifelong learner.

She said she’d take the “tools and resources” given to her to change the future and make her students lifelong learners as well.

McRobbie stressed the impact of teachers on students’ lives. He also said the school has a great history of reaching long distances – across the state and across the world.

But, he said there are still challenges.

He said there ware still lapses in math and science education, which he said “without exaggeration put the whole country at risk.”

He said everyone looks forward to a century that exceeds this century in education and scholarship.

But graduate student Evelyn McCall Hamilton said there is still much to be done. She spoke about social justice in education, saying teachers are losing the war to educate all children. She urged the audience to empower its students.

“While it may not be easy, we must remember that nothing worth doing has ever been easy,” she said.

Talbot spoke about the “cutting edge” of education at her high school in Bloomington – University High School.

The school featured teachers who are closely connected with the University and are interested in research developments. It also featured a diverse student body.

“It helped us understand the world around us,” she said.

She said it is unfortunate there just isn’t enough money for that type of thing.

But Gonzalez stressed how far education has come in the past century, despite its shortcomings.

“Today we stand in a modern building with a modern view of education,” Gonzalez said.