User:Steph2rj/sandbox/Anna Lalor Burdick

Anna Lalor Burdick (September 3, 1869-1944) was an Iowan educator and special agent for the United States Federal Board for Vocational Education who advocated for vocational education for women. Her work is honored and continued by The Lalor Foundation and Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School's Burdick Campus in Washington, D.C.

Contents

 * Career
 * Personal Life
 * Legacy
 * The Lalor Foundation
 * Burdick Career High School and Burdick Campus[16]
 * University of Iowa
 * References

Career
Burdick taught from school to school, but she stayed in the Des Moines, Iowa area. After graduating from University of Iowa in 1889 , she taught at West Des Moines High School until 1891. She became the principal of Iowa Falls High School in 1894 and kept her position for three years . In 1902, she moved on to become the superintendent of Iowa Falls and Alden Community School Districts. In 1904, she became a member of the Iowa State Teachers’ Association.

On September 25, 1912, she presented “The Re-Organization of Our Educational System to Fit the Social and Industrial Needs of the Community” at the Better Iowa Schools Commission. The Commission praised it, describing it as “one of the most attractive features” that presented “much interesting material”.

In 1913, she and other members of the Iowa State Teachers’ Association sent out a poll to the city and county superintendents and truant officers, asking for suggestions to help keep students in school and away from crime. The following year, she became the secretary of the committee that issued a report on their findings called “Vocational Education and Vocational Guidance: A Survey and Preliminary Report Appointed by the Iowa State Teachers’ Association”. The report showed that vocational guidance in high school helped students stay away from delinquency and that job experience was more valuable than job skills in the workforce. Her persistent advocacy for vocational education earned her a position as the Director of Vocational Guidance in Des Moines, Iowa in 1917.

In 1917, she served the U.S. Federal Board for Vocational Education as a special agent for the Trade and Industrial Education for Girls and Women. The Board was formed that same year, but was disbanded in 1946 .Two years later in 1919, she used her position to speak at the Second Annual Conference for Vocational Education in the Pacific Region at University of California. She represented the Federal Board with other members, but had her own session dedicated to girls’ vocational education. In the same year, she and other members of the board served as teacher assistants for University of Minnesota’s summer semester. They assisted professors in courses focused on the organization of vocational education.

She has also used her position on the board to work with State Teachers’ College’s Professor Charles L. Jacobs to publish a bulletin for the Federal Board of Vocational Education in 1921. It was the revised edition of Bulletin No. 66, called “Bibliography on vocational guidance”. The director of the board, J.C. Wright, described her contributions to the bulletin as “invaluable”.

She remained at the U.S. Federal Board for Vocational Education until her retirement in 1939, seven years before its disbandment in 1946.

Personal Life
Anna Lalor Burdick was born September 3, 1869 in Villisca, Iowa to John E. Lalor and Margaret Lalor. She had two brothers, Willard  A. Lalor and John C. Lalor, both of whom were in the engineering industries. In 1891, she married attorney Frank Austin Burdick, but later divorced. Together, they had one son, Charles Lalor Burdick—named after his paternal grandfather—who later became a chemical engineer. She passed away on an unknown date in 1944.

The Lalor Foundation
The Lalor Foundation was founded in 1936 in Wilmington, Delaware for the “advancement of natural scientific research and encouragement of the art” by her and her brothers.

Her legacy is best remembered through the Lalor Foundation’s Anna Lalor Burdick Program.The program isn’t necessarily focused on women’s vocational education, but rather on the left-winged pro-choice movement and providing women with information about their reproductive health. Their mission statement on their website says they’re dedicated to “young women who have inadequate access to information regarding reproductive health, including the subjects of contraception and pregnancy termination, and as such may be particularly lacking options in their lives”.

The Lalor Foundation’s website quotes her saying to young girls at a 1938 educational conference, “Your problem is not to choose between marriage and career, but rather to plan a vocation and career and still be happily married. If a girl chooses not to marry, she needs a means of self-support. If she does marry, catastrophe often changes her plans.”

=== Burdick Career High School and Burdick Campus === Originally named the Anna Burdick Vocational High School, Burdick Career High School was built as a vocational high school for girls in Washington, D.C. It was later renamed and started to allow boys to enroll before it closed in 1996. The building still stands, but is now used for the Gladys and Benjamin Amos Campus of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School. The charter school named their Burdick campus—sometimes referred to as the Amos 1 campus—after her. It is located at 1300 Allison St. NW.

University of Iowa
The University of Iowa honors her on campus through the Anna Lalor Burdick alcove in their Shambaugh Heritage Library.

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