Gerald Spellman Craig, educator and author of science textbooks, was born in Degraff, Ohio, May 6, 1893, and attended grade and high school there. His family later moved to Texas, where he graduated from Baylor University in 1915. For a time he taught high school science in Ballinger, Texas. He served as first sergeant in the American army in France during World War I, and on his return to the United States studied at the University of Pennsylvania from 1919 to 1921, at the same time teaching at the Oak Lane Country Day School. He became an instructor in physical sciences at Bloomsburg Teachers College, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and taught science education at Pennsylvania State College in the summers. He then was appointed head of the science department in White Plains, New York.
In 1924, Craig became a consultant and instructor in elementary science at Horace Mann School of Columbia University's Teachers College, and during the next three years made an exhaustive analysis of science instruction in elementary schools with a view to setting up a course of study for Horace Mann--one that would also serve as a model for other schools. His research included an examination of many existing courses, interviews with teachers and scientists, questionnaires to children and laymen, and a study of literature in the field including a study of the history of nature study and heimatkunde in this and other countries. The results of his investigations, published as Certain Techniques Used in Developing a Course of Study in Science for the Horace Mann Elementary School, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1927, convinced him of the need for a carefully planned science curriculum for elementary schools, as different from the traditional unorganized observation of objects typical of “nature study” classes.
Out of this study he developed a science curriculum in which there would be both continuity and integration between simple observation and learning in the primary grades and more complicated concepts in the upper grades. Craig's courses of study in elementary science were published by Teachers College in 1927, and Horace Mann School put them into effect. In 1930, the National Society for the Study of Education made him a member of its committee to study and make proposals concerning science in the elementary school, secondary school, and in teacher training institutions. The curriculum recommended by this committee in the Society's Thirty-first Yearbook (1932) has given direction to elementary science teaching for many decades. According to A Half Century of Science and Mathematics Teaching (1950), “...Craig put forth the first real attempt to define a curriculum in science for the elementary school” and “played a very significant role in setting forth the ideas included in” the Forty-sixth Yearbook (1947). The Council for Elementary Science International considered Gerald S. Craig's contributions so significant that its newsletter of February, 1961, referred to him as the “father of elementary science in America.”
In 1927, Gerald Craig received his Ph.D. degree from Columbia, and in 1929 was made Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Teachers College. Early in 1931 he studied science instruction in the schools of England, central Europe, and Russia. He became an associate professor at Columbia in 1934, and a full professor in 1941.
It was to be expected that a teacher who could and did introduce new concepts in science instruction should wish to publish textbooks that would provide the kind of curriculum he envisioned. During the next three decades he and his collaborators, at first chosen chiefly from the Horace Mann staff but later including science classroom teachers and supervisors from various school systems, produced widely-used series of textbooks. All were published by Ginn and Company, and all were designed to develop basic scientific principles in an integrated program of study.
Pathways in Science, a series of six books and teachers' manuals for grades 1 to 6, came out in 1932. In 1940, New Pathways in Science included much new material, especially on conservation, and added a primer. A third series, Our World of Science, published in 1946, added other new units and included books for the 7th and 8th grade also. As Dr. Craig's science series increased in number and content so did his collaborators increase in number; for instance, Science Today and Tomorrow, brought out from 1954 to 1956, utilized the experience and knowledge of ten other science teachers. The final series for which Craig served as senior author was the 1965-1966 edition titled Science for You.
In 1940, Craig first published a professional book on the teaching of science, Science for the Elementary-School Teacher, and thereafter produced four revisions. Following his retirement from Teachers College in 1956, he and Mrs. Craig prepared the fourth and fifth editions. The fifth edition was published in 1966 by Blaisdell Publishing Company, a division of Ginn and Company.
Translations have been made of various Craig publications. For instance, one series was translated into Japanese, two series have had Canadian editions, and one volume was put into Spanish for use in South America. One edition of the professional book was put into Thai, and following World War II the Japanese bought the rights to put the book into Japanese. Other publications have been translated into German. A pamphlet called Science in the Elementary School, in the series, “What Research Says to the Teacher,” sponsored by the Department of Classroom Teachers of the American Research Association of the National Education Association, was translated into Urdu and Arabic.
Dr. Craig pioneered in the selection and use of science equipment for elementary schools and maintained a professional laboratory in science for elementary school personnel at Teachers College. He was the author of numerous articles relating to science instruction and frequently spoke at local and state teachers meetings. His advice was often sought by school systems; for instance, in 1951 he served as consultant for the Cincinnati Public Schools and in 1959-1960 for the Maryland State Department of Education. In addition to contributing to yearbooks of the National Association for the Study of Education, 1932, 1937, and 1947, and of the Elementary School Principals Association, 1953, he was director of natural science field centers in Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico.
His professional affiliations included active participation in national and international organizations. He was president of the National Council of Supervisors of Elementary science in 1931, Science Education, Inc., 1931-1943, and the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, 1935; was secretary of the Conference on Education of Teachers in Science, 1936-1940; and was a member of the New York State Elementary Science Syllabus Committee.
Dr. Craig was married in 1915 to Prudence Bower. They have two children, Lawrence C., a geologist, and Alice Estelle (Mrs. Richard A. Erney). Dr. and Mrs. Craig have lived in Tucson, Arizona, since 1968.
