Edward Charles Elliott, Educator , livre ebook

Edward Charles Elliott, Educator
Edward Charles Elliott, Educator
by Frank K. Burrin

Purdue University Studies Lafayette, Indiana 1970
Copyright © 1970 by Purdue Research Foundation.
First printing in paperback, 2019.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55753-964-9
Epub ISBN: 978-1-55753-954-0
Epdf ISBN: 978-1-55753-953-3
This book was brought back into circulation thanks to the generous support of Purdue University’s Sesquicentennial Committee .
Library of Congress Catalog No. 69-11274
International Standard Book Number 0-911198-19-9
As president of Purdue I will not consider that I have met my responsibilities until the leadership and citizenship of the state of Indiana, of whatever class or occupation, continue to recognize that this University is their University; that Purdue University is an integral part of the public school system of the State ever working in its own distinctive and assigned fields; that Purdue is a worthy agency, ever at their disposal for aiding them to meet the needs that determine the happiness, the satisfaction and the ideals of their lives; until there is firmly established among students and teachers and alumni the enduring principle that the daily work of men makes education possible, and that education in turn must make the daily work of men possible and pleasurable.
Contents
Author’s Foreword
Introduction by Frederick L. Hovde President of Purdue University
  I. The Early Years
 II. The University of Wisconsin
III. The University of Montana
IV. Purdue University
 V. The Later Years
A Selected Bibliography
Author’s Foreword
Edward Charles Elliott was elected sixth president of Purdue University on May 16, 1922. Born in 1874, the same year Purdue opened its doors to students, he had spent twenty-three years as a high school teacher, school superintendent, university professor, and chancellor of a state system for higher education. Forty-seven years old and halfway through his professional career, Elliott spent the next twenty-three years as Purdue’s president.
In many ways his career at Purdue University was the culmination of his previous twenty-three years in education, for it enabled him to work as never before toward his personal goal: to discover and develop individuals of superior ability and to send them on to take part in the work of the world.
On the other hand, his pioneering scholarly activities in the areas of teacher training, school surveys, measuring teacher competency, and the grading of school work had already accorded him a prominent place among the educators of the nation. Thus his early work in the field of education together with his strong, sometimes brilliant, leadership as an administrator and consultant in higher education has mandated a careful review of his professional work. By any standards, Elliott had no small part in the development of American education during the first half of the century.
Any attempt to tell the story of Elliott at Purdue requires a review of his lifetime if a proper perspective is to be maintained. This account is, in part, a biography, although not a record of his personal life; it is, in part, an historical record of the institutions which he served (with particular reference to Purdue University) although not the complete story by any means; and finally, to a certain extent, it relates his career to the historical development of education in America during the period 1900-1950, and the issues faced by American educators during those years.
I first met Elliott in the spring of 1952, seven years after he had retired as president of Purdue. Robert Johns, then assistant to Purdue’s seventh president, Frederick L. Hovde, introduced me as the graduate research fellow who had been selected to make a detailed study of the papers and works of Elliott. Johns, along with G. Stanley Meikle, then vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation, and B. L. Dodds, then director of the Division of Education and Applied Psychology, had approached Elliott earlier and had received his approval and support of the project. Thirty minutes later the three of us had agreed that work on the dissertation would begin July 1, 1952.
During the next two years I shared his office, using his personal papers and files with absolute freedom, and asking hundreds of personal and impersonal questions which were answered in every instance. His complete cooperation and willingness to devote many hours to this work was a rich experience for me. His patience and consideration, while certainly understandable, went beyond what might have been and made the association a thoroughly delightful one.
Elliott was very reluctant, however, to discuss any matters relating to his own family. “This dissertation is not a biography,” he said on several occasions; and I did not visit him in his home until after the death of Mrs. Elliott. It was not until several years after his death that I met his brother, Benjamin, and his sons, John and Edward.
One morning when I came to “our” office, I found several pages which he had written for me headed, “The Personal Framework.” “It is self-evident that the working enterprises of a lifetime are carried on and determined within a personal structure,” he had noted, but he had gone ahead to provide only a sketchy outline of dates and events of a personal nature. We later agreed that the influence of specific individuals or certain personal events on the course of a career is at best difficult to determine; and once determined, even more difficult to place in balance.
When we talked about his professional relationships with his colleagues and associates, however, it seemed that he welcomed the opportunity to talk about people and places and events. Without question, his primary interests in life centered about his professional work rather than home and family. Although his family meant a great deal to him, he seemed to be always on a “work binge” and family vacations, for example, were rare events. Most of his so-called “extra curricular activities” really weren’t, because they usually involved, in one way or another, professional people with whom he worked.
Throughout all of our discussions Elliott kept bringing up what he called “the doctrine of chance.” His own review of his professional years would have placed a major emphasis upon time and place as the major determinants in a career. “Chance meetings, unexpected conversations, all play a more important part in an individual’s life than do most planned and carefully executed experiences,” he often reiterated. “Pure chance determines a life work.”
When I pointed out that there were always other elements involved in decision making, he invariably came back with examples to “prove” his point: “Chance took me to Leadville, Colorado, instead of Omaha in 1897,” he said; “A chance acquaintanceship with a student at the University of Wisconsin led to my moving to Montana; an unusually hot night in Illinois–you could hear the corn cracking in the fields–led me to accept a position in Madison (Wisconsin) rather than Urbana,” he continued. “The critical things in life happen without prevision, or are sheer accidents.”
I did not accept this point of view, however, because it seemed clear that more often than not, significant events in his life followed a perfectly logical sequence and were generally the results of his own interests and energies. Neither did the dissertation on which this book is based subscribe to his “doctrine of chance.”
The primary source of materials was Elliott’s collection of his papers and addresses. The collection, which dates from 1891, includes manuscripts, typed and mimeographed material, printed papers taken from the original publication, books, reports, letters, and press clippings. Of great value, of course, was the opportunity for extended conversations with Elliott; but there have been many other conversations with people who knew Elliott, worked with him, or had simply observed him in action. The anecdotes about this man are legion.
In addition, the Purdue Libraries have retained a copy of each of Elliott’s books and each of his separately bound reports as well as a collection of letters which were on file in his office. This together with Elliott’s scrapbooks of press clippings and photographs now belongs to Purdue University. A selected bibliography of Elliott’s works appears as an appendix to this volume.
When Elliott retired from Purdue on June 30, 1945, however, he removed from his office various personal items, a selected letter file, along with certain photographs and a memorial album and placed these in storage in a local warehouse. Also stored at this time were many items and furnishings from the Elliott home. A disastrous fire leveled the warehouse later that year destroying hundreds of letters, papers, and articles of inestimable value to the Elliott family. The loss did not affect the study of Elliott’s professional career to a great extent, but it did limit the search for personal information.
For their help and encouragement I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to President Frederick L. Hovde; Paul Alexander, dean of education; M. B. Ogle, dean of the School of Humanities, Social Science, and Education; J. H. Moriarty, director of libraries; and William J. Whalen, university editor, all of Purdue University. And there were many others, some of whom are mentioned from time to time in the text, who were most helpful. Special thanks, of course, go to John and Ed Elliott and other members of the family, as well as members of my own family.
It has seemed appropriate to us to publish this record of Elliott’s contributions to the nation because to review his career is to review many of the problems and issues which continue to face educators and educational institutions. When Elliott compiled a volume of selected papers of President Nicholas Murray Butler (of Col