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STUDEBAKER, MABEL 1901-1983

EDUCATOR, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Early Activities

In 1925 Mabel Studebaker became a teacher in the Erie, Pennsylvania, public-school system, where she taught science at various levels for many years. During this time she gradually became active in local, state, and national teaching organizations. She eventually became a champion for the rights of educators, whom she felt were underpaid and over-worked. She wrote many articles for various publications about the general need for improvement of educational standards in the United States. She felt that teachers needed to unite nationally in order to improve conditions and standardize salaries. She believed that improved conditions for teachers would have a beneficial effect upon democracy in general.

Tour of the United Kingdom

In the fall of 1945 Studebaker was asked by the British government to visit eighty-five primary schools in Great Britain in order to encourage greater understanding between elementary teachers in Great Britain and the United States. She and three other American teachers met with their British counterparts to discuss how best to educate children. The result was a pamphlet, written by Studebaker and the three teachers, called "Boys and Girls of the United Kingdom."

NEA President

At the annual National Education Association (NEA) meeting in 1948 Studebaker was elected president. At the time the organization included approximately 450,000 members. Under her leadership the NEA became more organized in an attempt to remedy the deplorable conditions of teaching, including an adoption of a minimal salary schedule. This action created a schism in the organization, whose membership was then dominated by school administrators opposed to Studebaker's attempts to reform compensation for teachers. This idea became so unpopular that Studebaker was replaced in 1949 by Andrew David Holt, a move that represented a considerable defeat for Studebaker and her supporters.