The School of Schoolmasters

In 1848, University of Missouri President John Lathrop, the university’s first president, declared himself in favor of an academic teacher preparation program within the university. In his annual report to the University of Missouri Board of Curators, he stated the following:

The university is best accomplishing its mission when it becomes the school of schoolmasters, when the greater portion of those who enjoy its instructors devote themselves to the great object of the increase and defusion of knowledge among their fellow men.

Despite early support, it would take another two decades before the university founded the “College of Normal Instruction” in 1867, making Mizzou one of the first public universities in the country to establish a college specifically for the development of teachers.

• The term “normal instruction” was widely used in the late 1800s because teacher preparation schools established teaching standards or norms, hence the name. The university’s College of Normal Instruction would later become Missouri Teachers College, the University of Missouri College of Education and now the College of Education & Human Development.

Below are a few highlights about the college’s rich early history:

• • Four students (all males) enrolled in the college the first year, and none embarked on a teaching career.

• • Women were first admitted to the university in the academic year 1868–69 and included the enrollment of 22 “ladies” in the Normal College.

• • The first female dean at the College of Education was also the first female dean at the University of Missouri. Grace C. Bibb served as dean of the Normal College from 1878 to 1883.

• • The College of Education becomes The College of Education & Human Development in 2021. This name change coincided with the addition of the Department of Human Development & Family Science (HDFS). The new name captures the depth and breadth of academics, programs, and research occurring in the college.

Deans of Education