The following article was researched and written by COE historian and professor emeritus William Sosnowsky and Associate Professor Frances LaPlante-Sosnowsky along with Dean Paula Wood. It briefly chronicles the Detroit Board of Education's establishment of the Detroit Normal Training Class (now known as the Wayne State University College of Education), the appointment of the founder and first principal of the school, Amanda Parker Funnelle, and includes highlights of her outstanding career. In addition, it provides an historical perspective on the COE's early beginnings and, interestingly, what began then in many ways continues now.

Miss Funnelle, the tenth child of thirteen, was born April 22, 1842. She began her professional career at the age of 14 assisting a teacher, and by age 17 she was appointed as a teacher in Long Island, NY. In spring 1861 she entered the inaugural class of the Oswego Normal Training Class (now State University of New York at Oswego). Upon graduation in 1862 she was appointed as normal training class teacher of methods and principal of the practice schools.

Appointed as teacher-in-charge in 1864, Miss Funnelle created the training component for the model primary department and organized practice at the Albany State Normal School (now SUNY at Albany). In 1867, the Indianapolis school board appointed Amanda Parker Funnelle as founding principal of the Indianapolis Normal and Training School, which after 54 years was shared by Purdue University and University of Indiana. That board said: "...Miss Funnelle, who comes with very high evidences of her qualifications, but bears her highest in her countenance, conversation and refined manners...." "Miss Funnelle's performance has won the confidence of the Board...." She accepted appointment to the faculty of the Terre Haute (Indiana) State Normal and Training School (now Indiana State University) in 1870, as a teacher of methods of primary instruction and critic teacher in the model school.

On July 28, 1881, by a six to three affirmative vote, the Detroit Board of Education adopted, after several years and in addition to the high school normal class, The Plan for the Normal Training Class. The preamble to "The Plan" states that "... believing that the best interests of the public schools imperatively demand that young persons seeking to become teachers in our corps should be required, before appointment, to pursue a thorough course of professional training, and recognizing that it is impossible for many of the most earnest and gifted candidates to incur expense of obtaining normal instruction away from their homes, submit and recommend the adoption of the following plan for the establishment of a training school for teachers." It went on to include: "(1) Declare, as the fixed policy of the Board, that in future, except perhaps in certain special departments, no persons lacking both successful experience and special training for school work, shall be appointed to positions in the corps of teachers. (2) Appoint a normal teacher, the best that can be obtained, and designate a suitable room in the high school or elsewhere as a normal classroom." And, "A school established upon the plan outlined above will be self-sustaining. The amount saved to the city by the service of the pupil-teachers under supervision will meet current expenses and speedily pay back into the treasury of the Board of Education the amount which it must advance for the first half-year's salary of the normal teacher. The service rendered by pupil-teachers will be on account of a half-year's special instruction, and the constant supervision of the normal teacher be of much greater value than that rendered by young teachers as now appointed, and the advantage to them to pay in service for normal instruction is too evident to need discussion."

Thus began the Detroit Normal Training School. And on August 25, 1881 the Board of Education of the City of Detroit appointed Amanda Parker Funnelle to be its founding principal, and to execute The Plan. The outline of the course of study pursued by the normal training class was as follows: First half year--Educational Psychology, the study of mind in its threefold activity of thought, feeling and will to find the conditions and laws of mental growth and the application of these laws to the instruction and training of children and youth. History of Pedagogy, historical development of the principles of education as shown in the writings of great thinkers and reformers in education. Study of the Public Schools, 1) Its function as part of the organism of society. 2) Its course of instruction as detailed study of each subject taught in the lower grades to find a) what facts should be taught; b) how these facts are related to each other, to other subjects and to the knowledge which the child already has; c) by what mental processes the child must gain a knowledge of these facts; and d) through what feelings or motives an abiding interest may be aroused in the study of each subject. This work includes such review of parts of subjects to be taught as may be found necessary to clear and thorough teaching. It includes the examination of textbooks, juvenile literature, and other appliances for schoolroom work. It includes the writing of plans of lessons for pupils of different grades, showing selection and arrangement of matter and methods of teaching. 3) Its organization and discipline (immediate and remote ends): relation of instruction to discipline; means by which school discipline may be realized, i.e., how the whole of school work may be made a means of training pupils in habits of true self-direction and self-control. Drawing - Practical Work, 1) Observation of the work of experienced teachers. Analysis and discussion of work observed to find principles involved. 2) Teaching of class under supervision. Preparation of lessons as to matter and method for this teaching. Second half year--Actual practice in the charge of a schoolroom in one of the city schools, under supervision of the assistant in this department. This part of the course is also probationary, and graduation depends on the pupil-teacher's success and efficiency.

A year later (on November 9, 1882) Miss Harriet "Hattie" Maria Scott, Miss Funnelle's student at Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, Indiana, was appointed as her assistant in the training class for teachers. The following year (1883-1884) Superintendent Sill reported on the training school: "The first year's work in this department...has been eminently successful." And the board president in 1884-1885 reported that "The training school has met all reasonable expectations, and under its influence our corps of teachers is constantly being recruited from the classes of that department, and with a satisfactory result ...."

On June 25, 1886, Amanda Parker Funnelle declined re-appointment as principal of the Detroit Normal Training School. Harriet Maria Scott assumed the principalship of the training class. The board president reported: "The resignation of Miss Amanda Parker Funnelle, who has from the first been the principal teacher, is a serious loss to the schools. Her ability and fitness for the work, combined with her intelligent enthusiasm, were an inspiration to all who came within the circle of her influence."

After leaving Detroit, Miss Funnelle sought a period of "rest and study." She enrolled in the College for the Training of Teachers (now Teachers College, Columbia University, established 1887), where she studied Froebelian kindergarten pedagogy. She returned in 1888 to Oswego State Normal and Training School as teacher-in-charge of the newly established kindergarten department, and continued there for 13 years until her retirement in June 1911 after 47 years of service at age 69 when she retired "from the work of teaching" "... And so endeth the lesson of many years of my teaching; the old, old lesson - that not costly buildings and material equipments, not elaborate curricula, nor training in methods, nor even a highly organized 'system' are the great assets of the state in education, but behind all these are men and women who are 'called,' competent, worthy, and who have freedom to do their work."

On the traditional date of the death of Socrates (November 7, 1922), Amanda Parker Funnelle, at age 80, died in Huntington, Long Island, New York. In 1965, 43 years after her death, a posthumous recognition was bestowed upon Funnelle by the State University of New York at Oswego: One of the two high-rise dormitories, with 408 units, was named Funnelle Hall, "one of the greatest teachers in Oswego's history” is inscribed on its walls. The students at Oswego continue her posterity: The student newspaper is named Para-Funnelle-ia.

For the past two years, in honor of her memory and legacy, the College of Education has awarded an Amanda Parker Funnelle Memorial Scholarship. Past recipients of the award are Lanissa L. Shaw (2001), doctoral candidate, Educational Policy Studies, and William Lloyd (2002), doctoral candidate, Educational Policy Studies.