Dr. Lillian Lewin Bowman

Dr. Lillian Lewin Bowman

Throughout history African Americans and women excelled because other people paved the way and suffered discrimination to make things better for them. This paper is about women that paved the way for women in the field of psychology. Women have been entering the field of psychology since the 19th century but men dominated this profession at the time. School of Psychology is a very large and desirable profession and many women flock into the universities yearly all over America to major in this area of Psychology. The field of Psychology plays a very important part in the lives of many students but in the area of Special Education Psychologist School is one of the most important members of the collaborative team. Who are school psychologists? School psychologist help students achieve academic success socially, emotionally and behaviorally. The school psychologists collaborates with the classroom teachers, and other team members that might be present in a child’s academic life, for example; Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Physical Therapist. The most important team members of an educational collaborative team are the parents and the school psychologist. The schools psychologist helps the parents achieve social, behavioral and emotional growth in the home. Many school psychologist have a PHD even though a Master degree is the requirement. The school psychologist works with students by providing counseling, instruction, and mentoring for those students that are struggling emotionally and behaviorally. The school psychologist is also responsible for administering testing to help place students in the appropriate educational setting, and monitor academic progress on regular basis. The school psychologist is a consultative member to the community, school and home. In the community many children attend after school programs and the school psychologist can help parents, the schools choose the pest program for a child to attend after school based on the child’s social, emotional, and behavioral status. Some students in schools public and private have emotional disabilities and they became juvenile delinquents. If students are placed in jail the school psychologist can help with the appropriate long term juvenile delinquents center to place the child in this very unfortunate, but also very real. Deans or principals are also part of a student’s behavior in an academic setting and punishments that are inappropriate can be used by these members of the school team, the school psychologist can make sure that a students is disciplined correctly. In some special education programs students frequently lack study skills and discipline, and some students threaten to commit suicide, they from dysfunctional families where drugs and alcohol are abuse, many of them are physically abused in their homes. Without the school psychologist these problems would not be handle properly.

Today school psychologist are employed in public and private schools, juvenile delinquent centers, school based mental, health centers, community based day treatment, residential clinics, and hospitals. School psychologist also have the opportunity to set up private practices to help students that are not able to receive counseling at school or the student might need more counseling time than what the school provides.

This brings us to the purpose of this paper, the first woman to enter in the field of school psychology was Lillie Lewin Bowman. She was born in he year of 1899 and died in 1966. Doctor Lillie Lewin Bowman is known as the first school psychologist to work in a major school district in the United States. Doctor Bowman was born in Union Oregon to a to a Jewish family, Lillie Lewin Bowman was the youngest child of four children. She lived in the same neighborhood as many of her relatives lived, to whom she credited much of her drive and motivation. Lillian Lewin Bowman’s amazing determination and drive was based on her grandfather and father’s drive for education. She was also influenced by independence that the 20th century was bringing to women. In the fifth grade Bowman was such a bright student she was labeled as student that was too bright for the fifth grade. A student being labeled misfits because they are to bright is a very unusual change, since I have heard of students being labeled misfits for not being smart enough. The use of the word misfit is incorrect either way because the use of such a word can damage a child’s self esteem. Bowman continued throughout her academic career to be looked at as student that was too advanced for her years or grade level. Since Bowman was such a bright girl she felt the need to look for other activities to occupy her mind and time. She started doing work in the church according to ,,,, she helped her uncle with his business. Bowman began teaching Sunday school (this was her first experience with teaching). She taught at a “Methodist Church.” While teaching Sunday school Bowman found that educating other people was something she could develop a passion for throughout life. At the age of 17 in the year of 1916 she left her home in Oregon to attend a teaching training institute in San Jose California. Teaching was a field of study that women could get degrees at this particular time without experiencing the difficulties and discrimination that others field of study inflicted upon women. When she was a student attending the teaching institute she was exposed to Lewis Terman’s work on psychological testing for the first time. She decided to take one of Terman’s tests in which place her in the top 5% of her school. Bowman continued to consult with Terman throughout her career. Bowman later attended Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York and training school in Vineland New Jersey. Bowman earned her PHD in educational psychology from the University of California at Barkley in 1937. Doctor Bowman developed an interest in statistics, Psychological testing, and measurement in relationship to the future of academic success in children. Her thesis and dissertation were entitled:: The Education of the Mentally Deficient in Public Schools and Prediction of Success in Certain Academic Subjects in High Schools (Bowman 1963).She was dedicated to moving forward and increasing awareness of progress in education and which environment would stimulate learning the most. She followed an educational theoretical model of psychology and one could say that she created this field of study. Doctor Bowman believed that every child had the right to quality education. Doctor Bowman was an instructor for students from grade school through college. She was the first woman school psychologist and the first PHD to be hired by the San Francisco School District in 1946. She was also the first woman to hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Research for any major school district in the country. Doctor Bowman was involved with the redevelopment of curriculums and developing new educational programs for children throughout her professional career. She knew that education was a field in which she could use as a stepping-stone to enter the field of psychology. In addition to all of Doctor Bowman’s work in child psychology, she was also and entrepreneur. She owned a consulting firm with another college. Besides her contributions to her fields of education and psychology she also contributed to the field of science with her pouring spout. In 1934 she was granted the patent for her pouring spout and she earned recognition in American Men of Science. The name implied that women could not be inventors Doctor Bowman again proved that women could make contributions to the field of science. Pouring Spouts are very useful especially if you ever needed to pour liquid or sand through a small hole of a bottle. She also had a very good sense of humor in her efforts and struggle to display her feminist beliefs. During a speech that she gave at the Commonwealth club in San Francisco, Bowman responded to a question about the future careers of gifted boys. She answered by saying “gentlemen I have news for you fifty percent of this gifted boys you think I’ve been talking about will grow up to be women” (Frazer, 1959, p. 6.). After Dr. Bowman retired, she continued to practice her profession by serving on many advisory boards and writing journals. She served on the advisory board of The San Francisco Civil Service Commission, and as chairperson for Special Education. The committee on Special Education is comprised of a team that administers batteries of test to children that determine such disabilities as Autism. Learning Disabilities, Speech Impairments, Emotional Disabilities, ADHD and AD. Perhaps Dr. Bowman paved the way for theses committees, which has certainly proven to help many students with disabilities. She received recognition by who’s who of American Women and Leaders in Education (Bowman 1963).

Dr. Bowman was describe as the last of the red hot feminist, but in actuality she paved the way for a feminist movement that would become much bigger in the 1970’s up until the present. Dr. Bowman never received the recognition that she deserved in the areas of psychology or science.