Research On Presidents Of Wellesley College With Regards To Educational Concepts And Practice In The United States Of America During The Modern Times(1885-1949)

Wellesley College has orientated at providing young ladies with good education since its founding in 1870,targeting at their academic pursuit,life,career and noble life with fulfillment.Since its establishment,Wellesley College has adhered by Christian traditions as a school designed for upper-class young ladies with perseverance in liberal art education for nourishment of female college students'leadership and international vision by keeping pace with the times.This paper studies the evolvement and advancement of educational concepts,curriculum setting,teaching faculty,female college students and unparalleled campus culture,which have witnessed Wellesley College's notable development into“Top Women College of the United States”from a secondary education institution for women during the reign of presidents,supplementing the tertiary education worldwide with profound enlightenment and reference.The paper is categorized into the following seven sections:The first section primarily introduces the reason for my selection and historic stages,theoretical and realistic significance of the research,concept definition,domestic and international research and research methods,together with innovation and shortcoming of the research.The second section narrates President Henry Fowle Durant's participation in the establishment of Wellesley College in person at the initial stage.In this period,his concepts and practice of women education reflected the hardships of running a seminary and his overwhelming emphasis on the growth of young ladies.It can be easily summarized that Wellesley College developed curriculum of religion and traditional arts,initiated courses of fundamental science when appropriate,hired excellent young female teachers,and stressed physical education and health on the basis of Christianity.Nevertheless,the strong religious atmosphere had somehow suppressed the vividness and lively characters of young girls.There is no denying that President Henry Fowle Durant has been rewarded with eternal glory when it comes to Wellesley College.The third section discusses President Ada Howard's inheritance of liberal art education raised by President Henry Fowle Durant.Afterwards,she fulfilled fundamental subjects of liberal arts and science with improvement of all-round education and initial creation of campus culture by making the utmost of natural scenery on campus.The study uncovers the female president's emphasis on humanistic care and intercollegiate cooperation with research-based universities,witnessing the initial formation of campus culture at the early stage.The fourth section evaluated the background of Caroline Hazard's presidency.The booming Second Industrial Revolution,urbanization at the eastern coast and rising feminist movement facilitated the president's observance of the tide by taking her initiative.Meanwhile,she attached significance to religious ceremonies,development curriculum of gender studies and women leadership with improvement of academic institution,having paved way for the development of Wellesley with rational inheritance at the turn of the 20^th Century.The fifth section illustrates Ellen Fitz Pendleton's alteration into“nourishment of responsible and qualified citizens”with regards to educational concept,transforming female college students into qualified citizens from traditional roles of wives and mothers as well as advanced female professionals.Confronted with the dual crisis of campus fire and the Great Depression,the female president implemented her educational concept by introducing laboratories of psychology with crisis management as well as streamlining the scale for cultivating female undergraduates'awareness of citizens and leadership at critical moments,laying ideological foundation for the cradle of women leaders and the prestige of“Top Women College of the United States”after World War II.The sixth section elaborates Mildred McAfee Horton's transference into“nourishment of global citizens with international vision”concerning educational concept during her governance.The outbreak of Pearl Harbor Attack and the trend of co-education around World War II in the 1940s prompted the president to development female-based curriculum on international politics and current situation.Additionally,publicity of anti-aggression through campus activities was successively carried out,instructing young ladies receiving higher education to view wars and women higher education rationally as well as invigorating their parts in turbulence.President Horton,as an intellectual and social activist,sang high praise for the international vision and social commitment of female undergraduates,reflecting the reasons accounting for the invincible position of Wellesley College in co-education after World War II,together with mysteries of its accomplishments and reputation of“Top Women College of the United States”.The seventh section summarizes and reflects that the brilliancy of Wellesley College in the tide of co-education has been motivated by the common characteristics of presidents from generation to generation,shaping comparison with Ginling College of Modern China.It can be easily drawn that the development,prosperity and prestige of Wellesley College are to some extent attributed to the educational concepts and far-reaching vision of diversified curriculum,emphasis on teaching faculty and significance to female undergraduates'talents in accordance with the alteration of the epoch for over half a century since its founding.The success and brilliancy of Wellesley College have served a sharp contrast with the merge and disappearance of women colleges in the identical period,providing in-depth thinking and emulation for the advancement of women higher education throughout the world.