Philander Claxton
| Philander Claxton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Commissioner of Education | |
|
In office June 30, 1911 – June 2, 1921 |
|
| President |
William Taft Woodrow Wilson Warren Harding |
| Preceded by | Elmer Brown |
| Succeeded by | John Tigert |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 28, 1862 Shelbyville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | January 12, 1957 (aged 94) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
University of Tennessee, Knoxville Johns Hopkins University |
Philander Priestly Claxton (September 28, 1862 – January 12, 1957) was an American educator.
Philander Claxton was born in Bedford County, Tennessee. He was educated at the University of Tennessee where he obtained both his Bachelor (1882) and Masters of Arts (1887). He continued his studies at Johns Hopkins University, as well as in Germany. Claxton received an honorary Litt.D. from Bates College in 1906.
He became the superintendent of schools in North Carolina (1883-93) and subsequently he became professor of pedagogy and German at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College from 1893 to 1902, and in 1896 director of that institution's Practice and Observation School. Professor Claxton was also editor of the North Carolina Journal of Education (1897-1901) and of the Atlantic Educational Journal (1901-03). He then moved back to his home state of Tennessee in 1902 to take up the post of Professor of Education at the University of Tennessee, where he taught until 1911.
Claxton was a member of the Southern Education Board, which during the early years of the twentieth century worked assiduously to promote interest in public schooling in the South. At the University of Tennessee, he organized and headed the first Department of Education and served as the superintendent (1902-11) of the Summer School of the South which, during a sixteen-year existence, improved the education of over 32,000 teachers in southern schools.
He had a distinguished career as the United States Commissioner of Education. The Bureau of Education became an important branch of the government as under his guidance its role and activities were substantially expanded. As Commissioner of Education under three presidents, Claxton labored through writings and addresses to raise in the public consciousness the connection between improved education and a vigorous and prosperous democracy. He also helped to write the legislation authorizing rehabilitative education for World War I veterans and developed the first plan for federal aid for vocational education.
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