New Kid on Campus

By Jeanne Ponessa

New York

More than a century ago, a young education-reform activist became the first president of a school to prepare teachers of poor children in New York City. That young man, Nicholas Murray Butler, was a prodigy of sorts: By the age of 23, he had already earned a doctorate and a college teaching position in philosophy. By his 25th birthday, he had helped launch the education school.

According to historian Diane Ravitch in her book The Great School Wars , Butler was the "field marshal of the educational reform movement," who became known around the country as an "incisive and outspoken advocate of the professionalism of education." And his school, Teachers College, Columbia University, went on to become the grandfather of all education schools and one of the leading intellectual influences on the development of the teaching profession...