Early life

Frank Morton McMurry (1862–1936) was an American educator, educational theorist, pioneer in American Herbartianism, and brother to Charles Alexander McMurry. In 1862, McMurry was born in

Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville is a city in Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The city is the county seat of Montgomery County, the only char ...

. Following the death of his father, his mother moved the family to rural Illinois, settling in

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

Career in Education

McMurry's education and career began with attending

Normal schools A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

, eventually graduating from Illinois State Normal University's model school program in Normal,Illinois in 1879. Following his graduation, he attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1881 to 1882. In 1886, McMurry enrolled in universities in Halle and

Jena, Germany Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, with interest in studying educational theories and psychology. McMurry studied the works of Karl Stoy and Willhelm Rein, who were two of the leading German Herbartian educators at the time. This influenced him further to adopt and study the pedagogy of Herbartianism. In 1889, he received his Ph.D. and returned to the United States. In 1891, McMurry returned to Illinois State Normal University and became a professor of pedagogy as well as a training teacher for the university's model school, where he began to incorporate Herbartianism into his educational models and lessons. McMurry participated in the National Herbart Society, as well as the National Education Association, where he and other Herbartianists submitted their educational findings. In 1895, McMurry returned to Germany to further study education and pedagogy. He returned to the United States and was hired at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

where he was appointed professor in 1898. While at the

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...

, he introduced the "practice-teaching" method,which is now commonly known as "student teaching" and is found in most teacher training programs across the country. With

Ralph Stockman Tarr Ralph Stockman Tarr (January 15, 1864 – March 21, 1912) was an American geographer. Biography He was born at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard, where he graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School in 1891, and worked as an ass ...

he published the ''Tarr and McMurry Common School Geographies'' (1900), and with his brother Charles, ''Method of the Recitation'' (1903). McMurry also was the author of ''How to Study and Teaching How to Study'' (1900) and ''Elementary School Standards'' (1913).

References

External links

* *
''How to Study and Teaching How to Study''
from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

* 1862 births 1936 deaths University of Illinois faculty Columbia University faculty American non-fiction writers American expatriates in Germany Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni University of Jena alumni University of Michigan alumni {{US-edu-bio-stub