School of Education Educating for the Future During the 38-day session of the Arkansas legislature in September and October, Dr . Bobby L. Cocker, Dean of the School of Education, was one of two college professors from Arkansas universities who monitored the sessions and was available on alternate days to speak to the Senate and House Education Committees about pending legislation . Coker was serving as president of the Arkansas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He also served on a legislative subcommittee on teacher education. - W"J HoI/and Commenting on the special session that was called by Governor Bill Clinton to consider ways of improving education in Arkansas and of restoring confidence in the Arkansas education system, Coker said, "More attention has been drawn to education during the last few months than at any time during my 27 year career in education. For the first time in many years I felt that significant things were going to happen to education in Arkansas. We were seeing an opportunity to build a stronger educational system in the state, and I think that 's what happened." On campus, Dean Coker developed plans forbeginning the self study that must be made prior to the cyclic on-campus visit of the team from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE accreditation was first received in 1961 for the undergraduate teacher education program. Special effort was given to strengthening the graduate program so that it can receive accreditation. For the ninth time since 1958 when Harding began giving the Distinguished Teacher Awards at the spring commencement, a member of the education faculty was the recipient. Dr. Mary Ann Harris became the sixth education teacher to receive the reward that had been received by Lois Brown, Dr. Coker, Dr. Wyatt Jones, Dr. Edward G. Sewell and Betty Watson. Coker, Sewell, and Watson have received the recognition two times each. This demonstrated that the education faculty members were serving as good role models for the students planning to teach. Jack Harris, husband of Dr. Harris, took a Striving for Excellence 114 School of Education "I feel very honored, since education is my field, to be selected by my peers to be distinguished teacher," said Dr. Mary Ann Harris, associate professor of reading and special education. Mrs. Harris came to Harding as a journalism and English major and earned her SA in 1954. Following graduation, she took part in the Ford Foundation 's Fifth Year Teacher Training, an experiment that took place in Arkansas from 1954 to 1956. Mrs. Harris attended the University of Arkansas and the Universi ty of Oklahoma , where she was a teaching assistant , and came back to Harding in 1956 to work as assistant director of Public Relations. Mrs. Harris met her husband, Jack, at Harding. In 1958 they moved to Illinois and later to Memphis, her home town. While in Memphis, she was a substitute teacher on the elementary level and attended Memphis State, Mary Ann Harris, Associate Professor of Reading and Special Education , recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award. leave of absence for the fall semester from his administrative responsibilities with the Memphis School System, because of the illness of Dr. Sewell. Jim Nichols began in January a leave of absence from his teaching and personnel administrative responsibilities to work toward the doctorate at the University of Arkansas in preparation for full -time teaching. Because of the increasing emphasis on computers at all levels of education, a computer literacy component was added this fall to the teacher education program. During the summer of 1983, a worship on micro-computers in the classroom was conducted for the benefit of where she certified to teach. While teaching in the elementary schools, she was moved to special education , certified in the field and received her doctorate from Memphis State in 1976 . A teacher of development reading and language arts in the elementary school, Mrs. Harris conducted summer workshop for ch ildren of which she said she was quite proud. "It 's a big part of my year when children corne and I get to work with them," she said. Her husband works as an area specialist in the Memphis City Schools. They have two married children - Bob, who lives in Illinois , and Lee , who lives in Memphis - and two grandchildren. Mrs. Harris enjoys working in her vegetable garden, and she likes to bake bread , jog, swim, and learn better pianoplaying skills, constantly striving to improve . Excellence is foremost in Mrs. Harris' philosophy. "I've always strived to acheive excellence in everything I've done ; and to have this recognition that I have achieved - this degree of excellence - is a great honor," she said. "It's very humbling. You don't ever reach excellence; you just keep striving for it." Ii!b
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