This thesis portrays an attempt to write and learn from the whole of life within and through the framework of a thesis. Written in the place- and space-times of three years it both questions and searches for the meaning of curriculum as the "running of the course," the purpose and methods and frameworks by which I live and write. Part of an ongoing personal journey to understand inclusion, the thesis begins with an understanding that change towards a more inclusive world involves change in my self, and the desire and intent to practice a different way of knowing my own interrelatedness with others and world. Both the content and form of the thesis explore the main themes of relationship and expression; how the hidden and unwritten parts of past, of self, of other, belong in the present and can be brought to birth. It is presented as a layered portrait showing the many forms through which I come to understand and articulate the world over time. My own words—poetry, autobiographical pieces, journal entries, letters, and interpretive pieces-are the means to bringing lost themes in my life to meaning on the pages of a thesis. But writing and life are more than self-expression. Through the words and presence of others, through living with and reading and responding to the other, I learn a more meaningful course of action. Writing and living in relation to others as woman, graduate student, teacher, family member and immigrant, I come to an understanding of my self and my place with others in the world as one of responsibility and response. In writing the meaning of my curriculum I also write possible meanings for education. Through mindful presence a teacher can look below the surface to see the worth of another, and give a response that will birth and nurture a curriculum waiting to be born. Writing personal experience in the framework of a thesis, while problematic throughout, in the end I found necessary to bring outside to inside, objectivity to subjectivity, interpretation to art, and tentative, uncertain conclusion to radical questioning. In the very end I find silence. The mystery of the unknowable, the eloquence of the inexpressible in its presence. Yet always the longing, the reaching, to understand and give voice. And so I sit at the side of the river writing, leaf by leaf, layer by layer, the roots of curriculum. / xi, 126 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the life and piano teaching of Olga Samaroff in order to determine her contribution to American music.The sub-problems were to survey the important influences upon her life; examine her association with wealthy patrons, concert managers, and conductors; scrutinize her personal relationship with Leopold Stokowski; define and discuss her piano teaching method; assess her application of it with a cross section of students; and reveal the problems that her method encountered.Olga Samaroff (San Antonio, Texas, 8 August 1882-New York, 17 May 1948), christened Lucie Mary Olga Agnes Hickenlooper, first studied piano with her grandmother, Mrs. Lucie Loening Grunewald. Grunewald emphasized the importance of recreating accurately the composer's text. Much of Samaroffs teaching method evolved from her early training with Grunewald.Samaroff, the first American female to win a scholarship at the Paris Conservatoire, entered it in 1896. Studies in Berlin (1898-1900) followed with Ernst Jedlickza and Ernest Hutcheson. In Paris and Berlin, Samaroff personally expE!rienced a slavish attitude towards musicaltradition, and later eschewed such adherence to any single school or style.Her first marriage (1900) to a Russian named Boris Loutzky subsequently caused her to settle in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad). After leaving Loutzky in 1904, Samaroff returned to the US and began her concert career. The vicissitudes of her career presented her with first hand experience. Samaroff withdrew several times from the concert stage, retiring officially in 1926 due to an arm injury. In the meantime, she married and later divorced conductor Leopold Stokowski_(1911-23), whose rehearsal technique she cited as an important influence on her teaching.She began teaching at the newly established Juilliard Graduate School in 1924. She also taught at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1924-48).Samaroff s two-part approach of artistic independence and human development contrasted with the artist-coach method of other prominent teachers of the day. Her students were surveyed about the efficacy of her teaching. In addition Samaroffs own files and personal correspondence, hitherto unavailable, are included as evidence in support of this author's findings. / School of Music

This dissertation recounts the years of struggle, frustration, failure and success that blacks in Henrico county, Virginia, confronted in acquiring an education. Before the establishment of free universal public schooling in Virginia in 1870, there was strong public opinion against the schooling of blacks. After the outbreak of the Civil War, various missionaries and philanthropic agencies strove to aid blacks; and the creation of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 brought an overall renewal of education for blacks. The Freedmen's Bureau aided in the construction of school buildings, and the philanthropic agencies supported teachers for the established schoolhouses. The Freedmen's Bureau ceased operation in Virginia in 1871; but by then, Virginia's public school system had been put into operation. / Ed. D.