CEHD History
The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas is established in 1876 after the United States Congress approved the Morril Act in 1862. This act provided for donation of public land to the states for the purpose of funding higher education whose “leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and mechanic arts.”
F.F. Bledsoe, class of 1880, graduates from A&M College. He is the first former student to record his occupation as ‘teacher’ in the Association of Former Students’ directory.
What is now known as the Administrative Leadership Institute begins as the “June Conference”. The annual week long conference is held on campus and brings together county superintendents, supervisors and city superintendents to discuss a variety of topics related to education.
The first courses in Agricultural Education are taught within the Department of Horticulture by Edwin J. Kyle, Dean of the School of Agriculture and namesake of Kyle Field.
The first course leading to teacher certification is offered in the Department of Horticulture.
E.J. Kyle, dean of the School of Agriculture, approves the creation of the Department of Agricultural Education. Prof. Martin Hayes serves as head.
The School of Vocational Teaching is established as its own administrative entity with three departments: Agricultural Education, Industrial Education and Rural Education.
The Board of Directors separates Physical Education from Athletics and places it in the School of Arts and Sciences led by Dana X Bible.
The School of Vocational Teaching is dismantled as an administrative unit due to lack of funding during the Great Depression. The school grants 364 degrees over a ten-year period. As a result, the Department of Rural Education is recreated as the Department of Education within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Penberthy is selected as head of the Department of Health and Physical Education while also serving as Director of Intramural Sports. He is known affectionally as Mr. Penny amongst the students. According to the yearbook in 1944 he is ‘one of the best known and most popular men of the A&M Campus.’ Penberthy went on to make lasting improvements in physical education and intramural athletics. Today, the Texas A&M intramural fields bear his name.
Physical education is required of all students in preparing them to join the war effort. “The new program requires each student, unless he is physically unfit, to take four hours of organized P. E. and to participate in a minimum of one intramural game per week. The P. E. classes are divided into regular physical training groups and swimming groups.”
George B. Wilcox takes over the newly combined Department of Education and Psychology within the College of Arts and Sciences.
A Corrective Therapy option is offered in cooperation with the Veteran’s Hospital in Houston. Graduate courses are approved and a minor in Physical Education was approved.
Carl E. Tishler succeeds Penberthy as the head of the Department of Physical Education.
A new program is established in the Department of Industrial Education to prepare students for supervisory and management positions in business and industry. This program evolved into a B.S. in Industrial Technology and soon becomes the largest component in the department.
Its mission is to guide the four departments tasked with preparing teachers: Agricultural Education; Education and Psychology; Industrial Education; and Health and Physical Education.
The Department of Education and Psychology is officially approved by the Texas Education agency “to offer programs for the preparation of secondary school teachers in subject matter areas and for the qualification of administrators, counselors, principals, supervisors, and visiting teachers for provisional and professional certificates.”
Dr. Frank Hubert is selected as the new dean of the School of Arts and Sciences after seven years at the Texas Education Agency. Prior to this, Dr. Hubert was musical director for the Bengal Lancers and Bengal Guards in Orange, Texas. He also served as assistant principal and principal of Lutcher Stark Senior High School.
Texas A&M becomes an official member of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
The Doctor of Education program is approved in Industrial Education. This is the first Doctor of Education approved by the Texas A&M Academic Council and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education of the State of Texas.