Mildred Wright oral history interview 1, 2006 February 14

Digital Record

Identifier: OH-WR0425

Staff Only

Digital Object (sound_recording_nonmusical)

Go to file

Dates

Creation: 2006-02-14

Biographical Note

Mildred Wright was a 73-year-old woman interviewed at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1933. She earned an A.B. at Johnson C. Smith University and an M.Ed. at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and was employed as a teacher and principal at Irwin Avenue Open School, education director for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and director of magnet schools for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Extent

72 Minutes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

General Note

Mildred Wright recounts her career as an educator and administrator working with open plan schools in North Carolina, particularly her experiences helping to open, teach at, and manage Irwin Avenue Open School, the second functioning open plan school in North Carolina. Ms. Wright discusses how she became involved in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System's early experiments with open education and the people and ideas that influenced the development of open schools in Charlotte. She describes her own training as a teacher and experiences as a school principal, and then considers how education in Charlotte has changed since the 1970s, especially in the area of mainstreaming bilingual and emotionally challenged children into the general school population.