History of Education: A Southern Exposure

Abstract

ITHE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS is one of the freer forms of professional communication currently in use in the American academic community. One can get a glimpse of freedom of the form by briefly perusing the presidential messages published in various historical journals over the past five or so years. A president may, like William Bouwsma, touch on a current in his own specialty because it is ofconsiderable importance for historians and for the larger culture of which we are a part. And, using his own expertise in Renaissance history, he proceeded to identify changes in Renaissance historiography, with the larger theme ofthe collapse of the traditional dramatic organization of Western history. (1) Other options which have been exercised by historian presidents include the challenge to improve teaching offered by Gilbert C. Fite to his colleages in the Southern Historical Association or the consideration of the effects of the federal government on all aspects of the historical profession offered by Richard W. Leopold to the Organization of American Historians. (2) The addresses of my predecessor presidents of the History of Education Society over the last five years are a further testament to the diversity of the form. One may, like Michael Katz or Clarence Karier, choose to defend vigorously one's own work against what is considered unfair or unknowledgeable criticism. Or one may, like John Calam or Jurgen Herbst, choose to recommend a topic or topics worthy of attention by one's colleagues in an effort to move the field in what they consider to be a more fruitful direction. Or one may, like Geraldine Clifford, offer examples from one's own ongoing research as an indicator of the value of the particular approach employed. (3) The common element, if there is such, in all of these examples is that