educator, professor, editor, b. Sturbridge, Mass. He graduated from Harvard Univ. (A.B., 1860; A.M., 1864). He taught for a time in Minnesota and Illinois, and from 1865 to 1874 was instructor in Latin at the Univ. of Chicago. Stearns was organizer and director of the National Normal School, Tucuman, Argentina (1874-1878), and in 1878 returned to the U.S. to serve as president (1878- 1885) of the Wisconsin State Normal School at Whitewater. He then joined the faculty of the Univ. of Wisconsin, where he was professor of the science and art of teaching (1885-1888) and professor of philosophy and pedagogy (1888-1905). At the university, he also organized and developed courses of instruction in education, was instrumental in founding and conducting the Univ. of Wisconsin summer school, and was director of the university's school of education (1897-1905). From 1885 to 1902 he edited the Wisconsin Journal of Education, and was the editor of Columbian History of Education in Wisconsin (1893). Wis. Mag. Hist., 22; J. W. Stearns, ed., Columbian Hist. of Educ. in Wis. ([Milwaukee] 1893); M. Curti and V. Carstensen, Univ. of Wis. (2 vols., Madison, 1949); R. G. Thwaites, ed., Univ. of Wis. (Madison, 1900); Madison Democrat, Mar. 7, 1909.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
