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ACADEMICS: Education

Home > Academics > Majors > Education > A Word from the Department

{ A Word from the Department }

In 1854, when Ripon College was known as Brockway College, the contemporary version of a mission statement was written to describe the college's commitment to the preparation of public school teachers: "To meet the present educational wants of youth in this community, a Preparatory and a Normal Department have been organized, and are in successful operation. ... Particular attention will be paid to those preparing to teach ... and the best methods of imparting instruction."

For the next 150 years, schooling expanded in many ways: As the percentage of students attending school increased, so did the number of school districts. The number of teachers, grade levels and courses increased. Attendance in grades Kindergarten through 12 has become so complete that the one rite-of-passage shared by the vast majority of Americans is high school graduation. It now takes three million prepared teachers to meet the "wants of youth" in the United States.

Ripon College has adapted to the growth in education while striving to meet the standards of the early mission statement. Though many reforms have been introduced during the past century, often concentrating on one aspect of teaching and learning, Ripon College has maintained a tradition of teacher preparation established in historical practice and reaffirmed by social scientific research. The program's three-part model was and is this: 1) Teachers will be centered in the liberal arts, this bringing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary knowledge of the mind and the world to their students at any grade level in all subject areas. This liberal education includes a foundational knowledge of education itself: To be effective teachers and citizens, teachers should know how schooling evolved with, influenced and was changed by all of the other social institutions.  2) Teachers will be grounded in a deep knowledge of a discipline, sharing with their students both the knowledge of a subject and processes by which new knowledge is acquired. And, 3) Teachers will learn about and practice "best methods" (now called best practices) both theoretically and in practice.

Teaching and learning are the two faces of education. In its dialectical nature, education is an ever-changing, dynamic and complex set of processes to be studied and practiced as both a science and artform. Teachers using "best methods" should convey to students the love and interest in learning that is naturally derived from the fusion and fission of teaching and learning.

Ripon College has expanded the mission statement of 1854. The "youth" are no longer only in our community. Our student teachers and graduates teach locally, state-wide, nationally and internationally. The course work and knowledge base of Educational Studies has expanded to minors and full majors in the field and related sub-fields. But the tradition remains true: In the Ripon/Brockway model, the best teacher is liberally educated, rooted in disciplinary knowledge and pedagogically prepared to help youths everywhere and anywhere to learn.