\n<\/strong>Rogers and his now late wife, Chris, also a longtime educator, previously established a fund at the Neag School through which elementary school teachers in Mansfield, Conn., could apply annually for a $1,000 grant to enrich their classrooms. Over the years, eight grants were made to local schools.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
Chris Rogers<\/a>, who passed away in 1999 from complications after a 30-year battle with multiple sclerosis, inspired many children over her three-decade career, but did not let her disability keep her from making a difference, says her husband, who calls her \u201cthe greatest teacher the world ever saw.\u201d<\/p>\n Vincent Rogers has announced a planned bequest to the Neag School, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund in support of innovative projects carried out by teachers in Connecticut.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rogers\u2019 additional gift will be open to elementary and middle-school teachers across the state of Connecticut to \u201csupport research and programs for the collaborative work of classroom teachers and the Neag School of Education,\u201d and award recipients will have the freedom to use the award in any way they see fit. Rogers, who spent four decades teaching and writing about education techniques, led the Neag School\u2019s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and served on its faculty, retiring in 1990.<\/p>\n A History of Inspiration \u201cThat visit changed everything,\u201d he says. \u201cThe sheer beauty of the campus, the academic atmosphere, the intellectual atmosphere \u2026 Those guys walked across the campus at 10 in the morning with a little folder under their arm, giving lectures.\u201d He recalls thinking: \u201cI\u2019m interested in that job. How do you get that job?\u201d<\/p>\n Accepted at Cornell as a history major, Rogers was drafted in his second year by the U.S. Army and originally slated to serve in combat overseas. But Rogers, a jazz musician during his high school days, was then reassigned to play trumpet in the West Point Military Academy band. After playing for West Point for nine months and completing his three-month basic training, Rogers qualified for the G.I. Bill, which allowed him to return to Cornell with his education costs covered.<\/p>\n Cornell provided more than a degree for Rogers; he also met his wife, Chris, there. Following college, they both taught in the Westhampton Beach, Long Island, school system for several years before Rogers was made school principal at James Port School on Long Island. It was a role he believes he was given not due to his natural leadership ability, but because he was a man.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a good teacher, but hadn\u2019t been there that long,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the faculty were women, and Chris would have made a better principal.\u201d<\/p>\n While leading the school in Long Island, Rogers took graduate extension courses through Syracuse University. One professor took a liking to Rogers and suggested he go to Syracuse for a graduate fellowship program.<\/p>\n \u201cHere was my way to get what I wanted: to be a college professor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Against his parents\u2019 wishes, the Rogers family went to Syracuse. \u201cMy family [thought] that I was crazy to leave a job like a principalship. Back in the 1940s, you didn\u2019t leave good, steady jobs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Eventually earning a doctorate in history in 1949, Rogers was hired as an assistant professor at Syracuse \u2014 fulfilling his dream and starting his long-awaited career as an academic.<\/p>\n Open Education University of Minnesota came calling next, where they spent the next five \u201cincredible\u201d years. During this time, the\u00a0Fulbright Program<\/a>\u00a0came into the picture for Rogers when an administrator of education from England, who had been following Rogers\u2019 published works, suggested he apply for a Fulbright.<\/p>\n \u201cHe visited my classrooms, and we had long conversations about education in general,\u201d recalls Rogers. \u201cHe seemed to think I was just what they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Rogers\u2019 Fulbright research targeted child-centered learning in British schools, which focused attention on children doing and being active in the classroom, versus being lectured to. His work led to the publication of a book called\u00a0The Social Education of British Children<\/em>\u00a0(1968, Heinemann Publications). The Fulbright ended, and he returned to University of Minnesota. Through his time, he continued publishing about child-centered education, also known as open education.<\/p>\n This work sparked the attention of many institutions, including that of the University of Connecticut, which sought an individual to lead the nation in developing child-centered education in the U.S. as chairman of the curriculum and instruction department in the School of Education. Rogers led the department for five years and continued to publish and travel the world, speaking and writing about child-centered education until returning to a faculty role and continuing his research.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone was interested in open education, and I was giving lectures everywhere,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that if you want to improve and get new ideas, it\u2019s best not just to read about them, but to go and see it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVin was absolutely one of the very best department heads I ever knew,\u201d says Neag School professor emeritus Gil Dyrli. \u201cHe led by example through conducting groundbreaking research, publishing significant books and articles, and presenting keynote addresses at major professional conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a world leader in international education and the education movement known as \u2018open education,\u2019 and wrote the definitive book in the field,\u201d Dyrli adds. \u201cAs I travelled the country throughout my career, representing UConn and doing staff development, a common question was \u2018Do you work with Vin Rogers?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Innovation Back Home Together, they coordinated about 20 UConn students to do their student teaching in New Haven, Conn., where, Rogers says, students had an opportunity to get a view of schools beyond suburbia \u2014\u00a0a rare and innovative practice at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHis many students have gone on to important positions at state, national, and international levels in public and private education,\u201d says Dyrli. \u201cHis original contributions and seminal ideas continue to be worth exploring, and thanks to the internet and online resources, they are more accessible than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n With his newly announced bequest to the Neag School, Rogers will now be passing that spirit of innovation to yet another generation of students, giving teachers in Connecticut the opportunity to enact innovative projects of their own in elementary and middle-school classrooms across the state.<\/p>\n Learn more about the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund \u2014 and apply for the grant \u2014 at\u00a0rogersfund.uconn.edu<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Consider a gift in a support of the Neag School.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Neag School of Education professor emeritus Vincent Rogers has announced a planned bequest to the Neag School, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund in support of innovative projects carried out by teachers in Connecticut. Through his gift, elementary and middle-school teachers across the state will be able to apply annually for a $5,000 gift for use in the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":201498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2424,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-201497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag-community-engagement","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 00:55:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201499,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201497\/revisions\/201499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/201498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201497"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=201497"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=201497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>A third-generation Italian growing up in New York, N.Y., Rogers had not traveled much beyond the city during his youth. But when a high school friend who went on to Cornell University invited Rogers to see his college campus, Rogers found himself inspired.<\/p>\n![\"Archive](\"https:\/\/education.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1621\/2017\/08\/Vin-in-uniform-286x400.jpg\")
\n<\/strong>Rogers taught at Syracuse for a number of years and was then recruited to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Through colleagues, he later connected with faculty at Johns Hopkins University, which had a center for international studies in Bologna, Italy. There, he participated in its American teachers abroad program, a six-week opportunity for Rogers and fellow faculty from history, economics, sociology, and education, which turned into two summers abroad for Rogers and his family.<\/p>\n![\"Vincent](\"https:\/\/education.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1621\/2017\/08\/Rogers-DSC_9370-400x267.jpg\")
\n<\/strong>In Connecticut, Rogers followed through on his innovative work. He connected with a fellow School of Education faculty member, the late A.J. Pappanikou, whose focus was on special education, with whom he partnered to ensure that future educators were getting hands-on experience in urban school settings.<\/p>\n