Teachers College was founded in 1887 by the philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge and
philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler to provide a new
kind of schooling for the teachers of the poor children of New York City,
one that combined a humanitarian concern to help others with a scientific approach to human development. From its modest
beginnings as a school to prepare home economists and manual art teachers for the children of the poor, the college soon became
affiliated with Columbia University and went on to become the
leading intellectual influence on the development of the American teaching profession.The founders early recognized that professional teachers need reliable knowledge about the conditions under which children
learn most effectively. As a result, the College’s program from the start included such fundamental subjects as educational psychology and educational sociology.
The founders also insisted that education must be combined with clear ideas about ethics and the nature of a good society; consequently programs were developed in the history of education and
in comparative
education. As the number of school children increased during the twentieth century, the problems of managing the schools
became ever more complex. The college took on the challenge and instituted programs of study in areas of administration, economics, and
politics. Other programs developed in such emerging fields as counseling, curriculum development and school health care.Today, Teachers College is providing solutions to the difficult problems of urban education, and reaffirming its
original mission in providing a new kind of education for those left most in need by society or circumstance. The college
continues its collaborative research with urban and suburban school systems that strengthen teaching in such fundamental areas as
reading, writing, science, mathematics, and the
arts; prepares leaders to develop and administer psychological and health care programs in schools, hospitals and community
agencies; and advances technology for the classroom, developing new teaching
software and keeping teachers abreast of new developments. |