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- Dr. Margaret Crickenberger
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Margaret Crickenberger
I can move on now to faculty because if it wasn’t for the faculty we hired, we wouldn’t have gone anywhere. We had all these faculty people coming down to USF interviewing who wanted to be in the sun in Florida. They came with their little packets of lesson plans. We were talking to them about a program that didn’t yet exist. The faculty we hired did not feel threatened to join a program that was not established. In addition, they didn’t have a big ego. We were successful with our faculty because they had such magnificent ideas and had shared a common philosophy.
Hugh Hoffman and I went to President Allen and asked him if we could require physical education majors to be in our program from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. each day. After we, explained to him that we would have students on campus three days per week and in schools two days per week. At the beginning of the students’ program each fall semester, we had students on campus for three weeks before they went out to the schools. While they were studying child growth and development and principles of movement, we also gave them an opportunity to know each other and what it means to be a teacher of physical education. Then they had a chance to choose their teaching partner for the semester. They were usually happy with their teaching partner because it was their choice. We assigned them to teach the same first graders and observe them in the classroom for the entire semester. It was challenging for them, but they did it. Many of them selected to teach at the elementary grade level because of that experience in their first year. In the senior year when it came time for the senior class picture, each student insisted that they be photographed with their teaching partner. Additional upper elementary grades were added in the second semester while they continued to teach their first grade class, which was very important for them to see growth over the whole school year.
In the same year, the students taught the middle school grades and then high school. We as professors went out after having them on campus for seminars on teaching to observe and provide feedback regarding their teaching. One of the things we believed as a faculty is that every child was unique, every child has value, and every child has individual differences in terms of development and learning. Secondly, we as a faculty decided that we would support our students in positive ways and minimize the negative. For example, when they completed teaching a class you only had to ask them how it went. They immediately told you all the things that went wrong, so you then told them about all the things that they did right and helped them correct mistakes. We were constantly aware of getting them to become extremely confident.
Lou, you have told me about graduates of our program who have become university professors, school system superintendents, school principals and of course many outstanding teachers of physical education. It’s remarkable what they have achieved in their career in their forties and fifties, but not surprising with the faculty, students, and program we had.
Now, let me move to the faculty and try to get it in the order in which they were hired. Jack Stovall and Hugh Hoffman joined me in 1965 and 1966 respectively as the first faculty of the Professional Physical Education Department. Then Lou, you joined our department with a focus on child development, and you also focused on students with disabilities. You had a doctorate from LSU, and we were so pleased to have you, this wonderfully bright young professor who had already achieved so much. We also had Dr. Chuck Smith join us. His focus was on the curriculum for the high school level and on teaching behavior. Those were marvelous additions to our faculty from the very beginning.