Ed Reforms: Late 1920s—1950s
I. Progressive Agenda in
Cutting Edge Schools
A.
B.
II. Critics (more or less
the same themes for a century)
A.
Boyd Bode (
B. John Dewey (quoted in Ravitch, p. 199):
“There
is a present tendency in so-called advance schools . . . to say, in effect, let
us surround pupils with certain materials, tools, appliances, etc., and then
let pupils respond to these things according to their own desires. Above all,
let us not suggest any plan or end to the students; let us not suggest to them
what they shall do, for that is an unwarranted trespass upon their sacred
intellectual individuality . . . . Now such a method is really stupid. For it
attempts the impossible, which is always stupid, and it misconceives the
conditions of independent thinking.”
III.
The Soviet Influence
A. Ed. Progressives: America is being
hurt capitalist practices
B. Called for changes along Soviet
lines
C.
Dewey et al., convinced (especially after The Great Depression began) that
socialism – a la the
1.
Ignored problems
D. Progressive Plan for Education
based on Soviet model
1.
Collectivism and cooperation
F. Efforts failed
IV.
1940s – 1950s: Same Cyclical Pattern as since turn of the 20th
century: (Reform à
Negative Outcomes à
Opposition à “New Reforms”
(Same ideas, new names)
A.
“Life Adjustment Curriculum” (academic curriculum, ed. progressives said, was
still too commonly used)
B.
Critics: again, backlash
C.
First real salvo in the “Reading Wars”
1.
Rudolf Flesch’s Why Johnny Can’t Read (national best seller)
D.
1950’s: Principles of progressive ed agenda dominated in public education. BUT à
1. 1949: Soviets test first nuclear
weapons
2.
1957: Sputnik
3.
Huge demand for rigorous instruction in public education – especially
math and science
4.
Ed Progressives’ response: James Conant’s The American High School Today (1959)
Or