Who was educational psychologist William Hull?

Factual Questions
1

John Holt’s book, “How Children Fail,” begins with a quote from one William Hull: “If we taught children to speak, they’d never learn.” But has no mention of Hull’s affiliation, or the source. I’d like to learn more about this man, but haven’t had much luck. Googling on the phrase gives you a lot of sites which quote Holt’s epigram, but have no info on Hull himself. (The Tribune of India gave him the title “educational psychologist,” without explaining where it came from.)

Googling on the name, I found a William Hull who was the first territorial governor of Michigan – probably not the same one. There was a William Hull who taught at Iowa Normal University in the 1880s – a possibility, but he wasn’t in psychology. Same with the William Hull who is currently a provost at Samford University in Alabama.

Perhaps it was one of these. Perhaps it was another William Hull who’s Google-proof. Does anybody know? Thanks.

– Beruang

2

Is it the same William N. Hull who is the subject of this biographical sketch: http://www.uni.edu/petersog/biohull.html?

3

No, I wrote to the webmaster (and archivist at the University), and he said this Hull taught art, drafting and penmanship, and is not, as far as he can tell, the same Hull mentioned in Holt’s famous book.

I’ll give this thread one bump, just in case someone missed it yesterday, and pursue this on other fronts. Thanks for helping, though!

– Beruang