More than a ‘training site’
Edith Bowen Laboratory School aids more than just elementary education students at Utah State University, Kaye Rhees, the school’s principal, said Tuesday.
“This isn’t just an elementary education training site,” Rhees said.
While the majority of USU students working at the elementary school are from the elementary education department, students studying special education as well as nutrition students benefit greatly from the programs offered through the elementary school located on campus, Rhees said.
Nutrition students have the opportunity to acquire the volunteer hours they need to graduate by doing food preparation in the cafeteria at the facility. USU students studying special education are also able to get training at the elementary school, Rhees said.
Each faculty member mentors 29-31 elementary education students, she said, 22 of which are usually level-one students, although most teachers request level two.
It’s not an academy or a prep school, Rhees said, but the lab school appeals to parents because they can tell the experience is different and unique. The school’s mission is to provide quality education while conducting research on learning techniques. The teachers are always looking for cutting-edge techniques and the large number of college students help to keep them fresh, she said.
Admission to the school is in such high demand, a waiting list is necessary. It used to be that parents could get their children on the waiting list before they were even born, Rhees said. Application forms for fetuses could be filled out, with the rest of the information like date of birth and gender to be filled in upon the fetus’s birth, she said. The method was hard to manage as names were hard to find, and it was hard for students who move into the area to get admitted, so the current admission process involving a lottery was adopted.
The current method also creates “a more level playing field,” Rhees said.
Incoming kindergartners who are 5 as of Sept. 1 can have their names placed on the waiting list. An open lottery from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28 commences, though siblings of students already enrolled are automatically accepted, Rhees said. Children applying to go into grades other than kindergarten are also placed on the waiting list, though their admittance depends on the current gender and diversity ratios, availability and their position on the list.
The $12.5 million school was funded entirely by the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, Rhees said. Emma Eccles Jones was a student in Logan city schools and later taught kindergarten in Logan. She and Bowen became good friends, Rhees said, and had a very wonderful relationship.
According to an essay titled “Ladies and Legacies,” the Edith Bowen Laboratory School has its roots from what was known as the Whittier school in Logan. The school was established in 1927 and was where USU elementary education students got their training.
Melanie Stein, the editor of a magazine by the College of Education, wrote the essay which states that Edith Bowen was a teacher at various schools in Logan before being appointed to the position of elementary supervisor.
“Miss Bowen accepted the position of elementary supervisor at the Whittier School, then the teacher training instructor position at Utah State University in Logan – which she filled with distinction from 1932 to 1947.”
Having elementary school students mix with college students has made it a dynamic place to work, Rhees said. The Edith Bowen Laboratory School mascot is the “little blue Aggies” and the children know the words to the “Scotsman” and the fight song, she said.
-mof@cc.usu.edu
