Ellwood Patterson Cubberley

Ellwood Patterson Cubberley (June 6, 1868 – September 14, 1941) was an American educator, a eugenicist, and a pioneer in the field of education management. He spent most of his career as a professor and later served as the first dean of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education in California.

Biography

Cubberley, who was born in Andrews, Indiana, was the son of Edwin Blanchard Cubberley and Catherine C. Biles. He graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1891 after studying physics.

He began his career in education teaching in the one-room schoolhouse in Rock Hill, Indiana. He then took a position as a science professor at Ridgeville College (which closed in 1901) and Vincennes University.

He served as president of Vincennes University from 1893 until 1896.

On June 15, 1892, he married Helen Van Uxem, a fellow student he had met at Indiana University. He was superintendent of schools in San Diego, California from 1896 until 1898. He joined the faculty of Stanford, then went to Columbia University where he earned a Ph.D. in 1905. He returned to the Stanford faculty in 1906 as a professor of education. He was the dean of the Stanford school of education from 1917 until he retired in 1933. Much of his work on "educational efficiency" was tied to the idea of eugenic intelligence, and in his work, he propagated racist views about fundamentally lower intelligence in non-white races.

Work & influence

For much of the 20th century, the dominant historiography of schooling in America was exemplified by Cubberley. His many textbooks emphasized the rise of American education as a powerful force for literacy, democracy, and equal opportunity, and a firm basis for higher education and advanced research institutions. He advocated enlightenment and modernization over ignorance, cost-cutting, and traditionalism in which parents tried to block their children's intellectual access to the wider world. Teachers dedicated to the public interest, reformers with a wide vision, and public support from the civic-minded community were the heroes. The textbooks helped inspire students to become public school teachers and thereby fulfill their own civic mission.