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Laura Zirbes (April 26, 1884 in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
– June 9, 1967 in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...
) was an American educator, an important figure in education and
reading instruction Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word re ...
.


Career

Zirbes began her teaching career at an
elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
from 1903 to 1919, and then went on to work at the experimental Lincoln School at
Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education affiliated with Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, Teachers College has been a part of Columbia University since ...
from 1920 until 1926. She earned her
doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1928. From 1928 she taught at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
, until her retirement in 1954. In all her teaching years combined, she taught for 61 years, including summer sessions until 1964. During so many years of teaching, Zirbes experienced some of the most important issues affecting education in the United States throughout the twentieth century. In Cleveland, she taught a class of fifty-six fourth graders that were all children of immigrants. During her time at Columbia, she listened to Edward L. Thorndike,
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...
, and William Bagley discuss the value of testing, and heard Bagley argue with
William Heard Kilpatrick William Heard Kilpatrick (November 20, 1871 – February 13, 1965) was an American pedagogue and a pupil, a colleague and a successor of John Dewey. Kilpatrick was a major figure in the progressive education movement of the early 20th century. ...
about Kilpatrick's Project method. Zirbes coauthored many articles with
William S. Gray William S. Gray (5 June 1885 – 8 September 1960) was an American educator and literacy advocate, who was commonly referred to as "The father of Reading". Life and career Gray was born in the town of Coatsburg, Illinois, on June 5, 1885. He ...
. Her dissertation made her one of the country's experts on teaching children to read. She never really considered herself an expert at reading because she did not believe in isolating one subject from other subjects. Zirbes founded the laboratory school at Ohio State, this school continued under her influence for over thirty years. She believed children learned things best when their interest was high. Zirbes supported the child-centered approach only if the teacher had a good understanding of the skills they wanted the children to learn, and carefully lead their class in that direction. The next step in learning was to provide good learning experiences that would enlarge children's
understanding Understanding is a cognitive process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of u ...
and their
vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...
. Zirbes believed that numerous other elements contribute to learning. The first, that the lesson should be meaningful to the child, and second, that learning should be intrinsically motivating. The final two elements of learning, as Zirbes saw it, were that the lesson should stimulate thinking and lastly it should be integrated with other subjects. As Zirbes neared retirement, critics like
Arthur Bestor Arthur Eugene Bestor Jr. (September 20, 1908 – December 13, 1994) was a historian of the United States, and during the 1950s a noted critic of American public education. Biography Early life Bestor was born on September 20, 1908, in Chautauq ...
attacked her beliefs on education. Her answer to this criticism came in the form of a book, ''Spurs to Creative Teaching'' (1959).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zirbes, Laura 20th-century American educators 1884 births 1967 deaths