Seated at desks arranged in a large circle, about 25 students in Professor of Education Lisa Smulyan’s class are about to put psychologist B.F. Skinner’s theory of education to the test. Skinner viewed learning as a process of making a desired behavior more likely to recur through reinforcement, both positive and negative.

The class—Introduction to Education—is quickly transformed into a “Skinner box.” One student volunteers to leave the room while the rest of the class chooses a behavior they would like him to exhibit. Suggestions include singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and doing a headstand, but the students ultimately decide that he should erase the chalkboard.

When the subject of the experiment returns, the class “reinforces” his behavior by saying “yes” when he approaches the chalkboard at the front of the room. After a few missteps—such as turning off the lights and clapping the erasers together—the student responds to a chorus of yeses and erases Skinner’s definition of learning that Smulyan had written on the board.

But this is only the beginning of the class’s work with Skinner’s ideas. For the next hour, Smulyan leads her students through various aspects of Skinner’s views on learning. Lecture blends with discussion as she encourages students to think about how they have seen his theory applied, both in their own educational experiences and in the classrooms where they are observing as part of the course’s required field placement.

Soon it becomes clear that the students are skeptical of Skinner. Although Smulyan occasionally plays devil’s advocate, pointing out ways in which aspects of Skinner’s work might be useful for teachers, the students question Skinner’s rote, step-by-step method of learning, which they say stifles creativity, fails to allow for different learning styles, and does not promote an understanding of the concepts that underlie a particular skill.

Still, the students have no trouble recognizing that Skinner is describing the real world of education. One student saw Skinner’s ideas reflected in a Chester kindergarten classroom, where children are learning to read in incremental, mechanical steps. Another student recalls helping a child with a math worksheet that broke down fraction writing into a sequential series of more basic skills.

Providing students with a grounding in theory and an opportunity to observe in Philadelphia-area schools, Smulyan’s introductory course is in many ways representative of the entire Education program at Swarthmore, which aims above all “to help students learn to think critically about the process of education and the place of education in society,” according to program literature.

When most people think of Swarthmore, the Education program is not what first comes to mind. Although in 1996–97, the third highest number of bachelor’s degrees awarded nationally went to education majors, and, at the graduate level, there were more master’s degrees in education than in any other discipline, educating teachers has traditionally been regarded as the province of large universities and teachers’ colleges, not liberal arts institutions such as Swarthmore.

Although Swarthmore’s program may be small—with three tenured faculty members, one additional full-time professor, and generally one or two part-time adjuncts—one out of three Swarthmore students takes Introduction to Education sometime during his or her undergraduate career, and several hundred students enroll in one of the other 15 or so education courses and seminars offered each year.

As a result, many Swarthmore students who had not considered teaching discover education at the College. According to Professor and Program Director Eva Travers, only three or four incoming students per year express interest in the program on their applications. “But I think Intro to Education has such a good reputation that people hear about it, take it, and get interested in education,” she says. She described it as a “polished” course that over the years has remained similar in terms of structure and core readings. Focusing on teaching and learning during the first half of the semester and education and society during the second, the course “has its own kind of energy.”

Allison Young ’87, now an assistant professor of education at Western Michigan University, recalls that she “pretty much stumbled into the education program” at Swarthmore. During the spring semester of her sophomore year, she needed a fourth credit and decided to take Intro to Education because it fit into her schedule.

“For the first time in my Swarthmore experience, I felt like I actually knew some things and that I had something to say in class,” she says. “I had Eva Travers for that course, and it kicked my butt in a lot of good ways.”

For Thomas Crochunis ’81, Intro to Education deepened an existing interest in the field. Crochunis earned a degree in English with teaching certification, went on to teach first high school English and then college writing and literature courses before entering the field of education research publishing. Although interested in education in high school, he became “engaged” in the field after taking Intro to Education and teaching physical education during his field placement at a school for children with special needs. “That hooked me,” he says.

Like many aspects of Swarthmore, the study of education is linked to the College’s Quaker roots. In An Informal History of Swarthmore College, Richard Walton writes that part of the founding mission of the College was to train Quaker teachers for elementary and secondary schools. Friends such as Martha Tyson, one of the College’s founders, feared that Quakers would assimilate into the larger culture if their children were not educated by teachers who shared the values of the Society of Friends.

Although Swarthmore dropped education courses from its curriculum in the 1930s, the program was revived in the 1950s by the late Alice Brodhead, a Friend and the former head of a Quaker school. Brodhead became the first director of the new Education program at Swarthmore; she and one other professor were the only faculty in the program until the early 1970s.

Then, in 1969, a change in Pennsylvania law made it possible for small, liberal arts institutions like Swarthmore to award teaching certification. Previously, only large universities and specialized teacher training programs could offer the range of courses needed for certification.

Swarthmore’s program expanded in the 1970s with the arrival of Travers, who specializes in educational policy and urban education, and Bob Gross ’62, now dean of the College. Joining the program in the 1980s were Ann Renninger, with a specialty in educational psychology, and Smulyan, a 1976 graduate of Swarthmore whose expertise is in social and cultural perspectives on education. Diane Anderson, now a full-time nontenure-track professor, specializes in literacy and is also the faculty adviser for Learning for Life, a volunteer program that encourages students to work with staff members on topics such as literacy and computer skills. In addition, adjunct faculty members teach two or three electives each year, including Environmental Education, Counseling, and Special Education.

Despite this growth, the study of education at Swarthmore remains within a program rather than a department. Students cannot major solely in education. Travers says the reason is primarily philosophical. “We think that education informed by another discipline is a more effective way of thinking about education,” she says, “especially at the undergraduate level.”

Gross, who taught in the program for six years before leaving the College from 1983–89, expressed a similar sentiment. “I’m not keen on a major in education,” he says. “I would argue there’s a power and relevance in connecting [the study of] education with the rest of a student’s educational program.” The study of education “forces students to go further,” says Gross. “They must become self-conscious learners—more effective learners across the board.”

In this regard, Swarthmore is similar to other institutions belonging to The Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Education, which was founded in 1983 and whose 20 members are selective, private liberal arts institutions in the Northeast. Unlike many universities and teachers’ colleges, consortium members generally do not offer education as a major; instead, work in education is integrated into the broader liberal arts curriculum.

But Swarthmore differs from most consortium schools in that teacher certification is not the primary or sole focus of its education program, according to Travers. Instead, the College offers more broad-based studies in educational theory, policy, and practice. Students may develop a special major that combines education and a second discipline—an option that involves a culminating exercise, such as a thesis, that brings together both areas of study.

Still, an important component of Swarthmore’s education program is teacher certification, which requires practice teaching. For half a semester, students teach full time, develop lesson plans, and assess curricula. According to Travers, supervised practice teaching enables them to “have a much more effective beginning teaching experience...;. Teaching is not all intuitive; some teachers can be made much better. Knowing the discipline is necessary, but it is not sufficient, especially in elementary and secondary schools with students from a variety of backgrounds.”

Travers says, in a typical year, the Education program generally has 20 to 25 special majors, 6 to 8 Honors students, and 12 to 16 student teachers seeking certification. Most Swarthmore education students earn certification in social studies or English; a few get certified in science and math and occasionally in a foreign language. Approximately one-quarter of students earning certification do so in elementary education through a joint program with Eastern College.

Recently, Travers says she has seen increased student interest in the Education program. The number of special majors has risen in the past 10 years, though it is difficult to make comparisons with the early years of the program, when certification was the main goal for students. Moreover, changes made in the Honors program five years ago have allowed students pursuing Honors majors in other disciplines to incorporate a minor in education into their programs.

Education courses tend to attract a fairly diverse group of students. According to Travers, the percentage of students of color in education classes is at least as high as that in the College as a whole, where about a third of the student body is nonwhite. Yet just as women teachers continue to outnumber men in elementary and secondary education, the ratio of women to men in most of Swarthmore’s education classes is generally two to one.

Students who receive certification graduate with excellent job opportunities, Travers says. In recent years, all who wanted to teach, no matter the subject, have been successful in finding jobs immediately after completing the program.

Although the study of education often leads to a job teaching in an elementary or secondary school, this is not always—or even predominantly—the case for Swarthmore alumni. Many students take education courses with an eye toward a broad range of careers and life experiences, from public policy to parenting.

Gil Rosenberg ’00, a math major who earned teaching certification, is currently a graduate student in math and a teaching assistant. Rosenberg highly recommends undergraduate work in education for students who intend to become teaching assistants in graduate school and then professors at a college or university. “There is little official educational training for these positions,” he says, “so having some theory and practice really goes a long way. I’m sure we’ve all had professors who we wished had taken an education course or two at Swarthmore.”

Barbara Klock ’86, a psychology major who received certification in elementary education, taught at Swarthmore’s elementary school for several years before going to medical school. Now, as a pediatrician, Klock says she finds herself teaching “every day.”

Those who do choose the elementary or secondary school classroom have all felt the widespread attitude that teachers are undervalued by society. But, says Kate Vivalo ’01, who graduated with a special major in sociology/anthropology and education, “Swarthmore students and students of that caliber are exactly who you want in a classroom.”

Vivalo experienced firsthand prevalent attitudes toward teaching when she returned to her hometown recently. People asked about her plans for the future, and their response was: “‘You’re just going to teach? You had so much potential,’” says Vivalo, who is now working for Youth, Inc., a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that provides event planning and management services to nonprofit organizations that serve the needs of children.

For some students who choose not to teach, one issue is the relatively low pay teachers receive versus the high cost of education at schools like Swarthmore. Allison Young says that when she called home from college to tell her parents—who were teachers themselves—that she planned to earn her teaching certification in social studies, her father hung up on her. “He really didn’t want me to be a teacher, and he was pretty angry,” she says. “I wonder now if the issue was about the financial stuff—going to Swarthmore to become a teacher is an expensive proposition, whereas most states have a couple of local universities that deal mostly with teacher education.” But while saying she “understands his response much more now,” Young also says she learned things at Swarthmore that could not have been duplicated at a state university.

Many students and alumni also say that education fits into their liberal arts curriculum because of the way it is taught at Swarthmore.

“I see it as a discipline,” says Eve Manz ’01, a psychology and education special major who is now student teaching in Philadelphia. “The department teaches education not as a career but as a field of inquiry.”

“It’s a much more intrinsic perspective on education,” Young says, “studying education for the sake of studying it and maybe having ideas about how to make it better.” Even the certification process uses the metaphor of “‘teacher as thinker’ as opposed to ‘teacher as technician,’” Young added. “This is so powerful because in the teacher-thinker model, you keep learning.”

The interdisciplinary nature of education at Swarthmore brings together many different disciplines in the social sciences and even humanities. About a third of the education courses listed in the College catalog are cross-listed with other departments. In addition, the program provides an opportunity to combine theory and practice because most education courses include a field placement, which may involve observing, tutoring, teaching, or research.

“This is where the theory is lived,” Gross says. “It functions in the way that a lab in science does. How do you know how the theory works unless you see kids struggling with it and preferably struggle along with the kids?”

Now an assistant professor of education at Trinity College, Jack Dougherty ’87 majored in philosophy and earned teaching certification in social studies. “Sometimes I felt like a misfit at Swarthmore,” Dougherty says. “The book learning seemed so distant from the reality learning, and I felt that the world didn’t make sense unless I could merge the two, and that wasn’t happening in my term papers and blue-book exams.” Dougherty saw Intro to Education, with its “combination of academics and participant-observation in schools,” as a course in which this synthesis could occur.

But the study of education is also integral to the liberal arts curriculum, according to those interviewed, because it allows students to reflect on their own education and to learn about the educational experiences of others. Although easy to take for granted, students’ educational experiences have played a significant role in their lives for the past 15 years, shaping who they are and their outlook on the world.

Chela Delgado ’03, an Honors history major and education minor, says, “You’re able to look back at your experience and compare/contrast that with what you’re actually learning in terms of theory.”

Education courses have also enabled students to examine their more recent experiences in Swarthmore classes. Nicole Bouttenot ’01, a math and education special major, says she had “a bad experience with the math department at Swarthmore,” and her education classes helped her understand why she struggled in some math classes.

There is not even a stoplight in the rural Florida town where Melanie Phillpot Humble ’86 has taught for much of her career. “The kids I teach will probably not get the chance to go to a Swarthmore,” says Humble, who majored in English and earned teacher certification. “I can bring a little bit of it to them. I can bring those great books, those great professors, the lessons I learned from my peers, the critical thinking to them. It seems a serious responsibility of elite colleges and universities to spread the intellectual wealth that way.”

Humble says she has been teacher of the year both on the school and county level and believes these accomplishments are “a direct result of the preparation I got from Eva and Lisa.”

The approach she learned toward teaching has played a greater role than any specific skill, Humble says.

“You must be willing to look at [teaching] from many different perspectives, to analyze and think creatively,” she says. “You must be willing to collaborate but also to challenge the status quo. You must be willing to see that the process is the product. And what I learned about teaching is that it is worth doing.”

Pointing to the difficulties of teaching, such as the low pay and constant criticisms from government officials, Humble says, “I’m not a Pollyanna about education, far from it—but, at the end of the day, Swarthmore gave me the tools to do a job that seems significant to me.”

Sonia Scherr is a reporter with The Valley News in Norwich, Vt. This article first appeared in The Phoenix (March 1, 2001) and is reprinted with permission.