THE PROGRESSIVE ERA OF EDUCATION

Keifer, Whitney, Chandler

Progressive Education Movement• Progressivism- philosophic orientation based on the belief that

life is evolving in a positive direction, that people may be trusted to act in their own best interest, and education should focus on children’s interests and needs.

• Characteristics of Progressive Education:– Focused on social reform and improving quality of life– Not united by a single philosophy– Opposed to autocratic teaching methods

• Based exclusively on textbooks, recitations, and memory• Isolation of classroom from the real world• Classroom discipline based on fear and physical punishment

-- Teachers were guides rather than “task makers”• Provided students with activities related to natural interests for engagement• THEN moved students to higher levels of understanding. • Teachers needed perceptive understanding of children and a knowledge of

discipline and knowing when a child is ready to learn.

TWO MAIN INFLUENCES

John Dewey Maria Montessori

JOHN DEWEY

1859-1952

Founded a Laboratory School at University of Chicago where he was a professor.

Believed students should have a say in what they studied

Teachers would lead them on right path based on choices

MARIA MONTESSORI

1870-1952

Believed children’s development could be

influenced by education activities

Interesting materials make students interested in

learning

Provide more self[discipline and self-confidence

Methods used in early education today

Education (or lack thereof) of Immigrants and Minorities During the late 19th and early 20th

centuries American schools became more and more diverse.

They now held Germans, Latin Americans, Chinese, Native Americans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans.

Education?

Children were punished for speaking

Parental respect

Military institutions

Emotional scars

Help!Landmark report- The Problem of

Indian AdministrationBuild day schoolsRevised school curriculaReflect tribal cultures and need of

local communities.

Mary McLeod Bethune Educational rights of African Americans Founded Daytona Normal and Industrial

School for Training Negro Girls. Merged with a boy’s school to become

Bethune-Cookman College. Appointed to Advisory Board of National

Youth Administration President Franklin Roosevelt- minority

The Decline of Progressive Education• The decline of progressive education began with the start of

WWII. The citizens of the US thought that the curriculum of progressivism was out of line with what the students needed to learn.

*Teaching approaches were seen as soft and lacking structure and discipline

children needed.

*Many school deficiencies were blamed on progressive education

• The Progressive Education Association ceased operation in 1955. When it began, it meant everything that was good in the educational system. By 1954, it was the root of all educational evil.

Federal Involvement in Education• G.I. Bill of Rights– Aka: Servicemen’s Readjustment Act– Signed by FDR in 1944– Provided millions of veterans with payments for

tuition and room and board at colleges, universities, and special schools all over the country

– It not only stimulated growth of American colleges and universities; it also changed the character of the higher education student population• Returning veterans were older, spiking the average age.• Returning veterans were more serious about school, spiking

the average GPA.

Federal Involvement in Education(continued)

• LANHAM ACT (1941) provided funding for– the training of workers in war plants by personnel

from the U.S Office of Education during WWII– construction of schools in areas where military

personnel and federal workers lived– provision of child care for children of working

parents