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SOCIAL STUDIES DIARY

Professor Richard E Gross and I

In 1968 I was teaching American history in Edina High School in Edina, Minnesota when I learned that I was the recipient of a Coe fellowship at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. At this time I was married with three children so we would be housed in the married student-housing complex on the Stanford campus. After arriving at Stanford I learned that the Coe Fellowship, for high school social studies teachers of American history, focused on modern trends in history and revisionist history. I took a course from Professor Kennedy, a young and eminent scholar and a course from a visiting Professor from The University of Washington.

While at Stanford, I learned of an exceptional Professor of Social Studies Education who had been elected as the president of the National Council for the Social Studies. He was Professor Richard E. Gross, who was called Dick by almost everyone. He was married to Jane, and he liked to make reference to “Dick and Jane,” the famous reading primer. One day I decided to go by the School of Education to meet Professor Gross. I checked his office hours and came back at an appropriate time. Several students were lined up outside his office were waiting to meet with Dick to discuss their unit projects. I stood in line and waited my turn and when it came I was ushered into his very large and long office. I was greatly impressed by the fact that the long wall consisted of a huge bookshelf that was completely full of books related to the social studies. Dick also taught a course related to the study of the history of education from a world perspective. Read More 
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