The James R. Gilbert collection contains an audiocassette and transcript of an oral history interview conducted with Gilbert during the fall of 1990. Gilbert worked as a public school science teacher, and in the interview, he discussed the changes that he believed occurred in education between 1962 and 1990. He noted the increasing sophistication of students and the subsequent demands upon to teachers to stay current. The majority of Gilbert's career was spent working in the Hopkins school system as an educator that traveled between seven elementary schools, two junior high schools, and one high school, and twice per month, he taught at the Hennepin County Home School for boys and girls who had experienced "trouble for some reason or another." This oral history interview was conducted as a requirement for the graduate level Educational Foundations course entitled History of Education in American Culture at Mankato State University in Mankato, Minnesota.
