When Practice Goes Local: The Homer Pittard Campus School of MTSU and Educational Reform in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1930-2000

Abstract

Following the Civil War, education in the South underwent a major reform movement, resulting in a much more thorough public education system and teacher training program to improve the education of the citizens and reduce the illiteracy rate. In the early twentieth century, Tennessee passed legislation that established three post-secondary teacher training “normal schools” in each of the major regions of the state, along with a laboratory school at each site. This thesis examines the progressive architectural origin of Middle Tennessee State University’s Campus School and how it managed the challenges of the Great Depression, school desegregation, and school overcrowding and also chronicles the impact of its association with the University. Since 1929, Campus School has been housed in a Neoclassical Revival building that has been able to adapt to meet the educational needs of its pupils and the university’s students. Campus School has also weathered significant events of the twentieth century, has benefitted from its association with the University, and has emerged as a valuable educational resource to the University and Rutherford County.