Progressive Education

New schools were built all over the state of South Carolina.

          One day I walked into History class and my teacher mentioned, “So I want each
of you to come up with your own definition of Progressivism and then share with the class what you believe a valid explanation of this term is”. Well, of course when he mentioned this, I was thinking, “Why can't we just go ahead and learn the lesson and then have a project on it”. But the theories of John Dewey on Progressive Education clearly supports and explains the idea behind this individual active participation of students. Progressive Education contributes to the Progressive Era in giving individuals the right to have word and participation in class, also that in order to succeed in life one must have firsthand experience.

Pine Grove School Students

          
          From around the late 1880s until the early 1920s, America went through a phase of improvements known as the Progressive Era. Education took a great turn around in ideas and practices that aimed to make schools more effective in principles of a democratic society; therefore, it had become known as Progressive Education. The main focus of the Progressive Education was that there was equal rights of all individuals and that there was effective participation by all.  Before the Progressive Era, most students got enough education just to help them to get through the day and function in a normal lifestyle. Women would just finish through what we call today elementary school, because they only need to know the basics in order to run the household chores. In result the era before progressivism, education was defined by what you labeled as doing, not about what an individual could do in life for the future.  The Progressive movement in education was the innovative factor in the high school movement. (Boyd) High school became a more frequent place that student would go to once many high schools were established throughout America with the help of the progressive action taken in education.

John Dewey

         One of the most major figure in the Progressive education movement in the United States John Dewey is known for being a leading educational reformer. John Dewey greatly emphasized that in order for a student to learn they have to do.  He believed in learning through a “hands on” approach. (Boyd) John Dewey and his wife, Alice, established a laboratory school to test his progressive principle of education at the University of Chicago. He tested a group of students and applied his theories or doctrines on them as a model of how progressive education principles would effectively take place at every other school.  John Dewey’s writings and lectures on his beliefs about education greatly influenced the Progressive Education Association to be founded in 1919. (Schugurensky) This association put into affect the works of Dewey and basically set rules on how progressive schools organize their new educational system. Dewey believed that to continue a certain experience more than once was essential to growth in human. This defined Dewey as a pragmatist, meaning that he believed in the study that students should interact with their community around them in order to learn. 

"Aims to popularize progressive education"

          Dewey’s view on the purpose of teachers in schools differ by the factor of communication.  Before progressive education took effect, students would just listen to the teacher lecture on a certain topic all day with only the students learning.  However, Dewey’s method of education explains how teachers and students should both be the learners in the process.  His development in collaboration of teachers and students chain back to introduce the act of democracy to education. Dewey strongly trust his opinion that in order to learn one must be doing independently instead of being passive or active listeners in class.

Democracy and Education

          Democracy became John Dewey’s main key in improving education in the school environments. Dewey believed that progressive educators would all share the thought that democracy in school meant that all citizens had active participation in equal decisions in social, political and economic decisions.  According to a publisher from the University of Vermont, this idea of Dewey’s perspective of involving democracy in education is broken down to two main working elements, respect for diversity and development of critical, socially engaged intelligence (A Brief Overview of Progressive Education).  I think about respect for diversity in my own words as out of all the different learners in school, they should all be respected for their share in the community of learning by mentioning what their ideas are or how they make an effort in doing work in order to achieve.   For the development of critical, socially engaged intelligence it takes collaboration of individual educators and learners to work together and communicate their understanding of a subject in class to better comprehend what is being learnt.

          There have been many progressive educators that were able to make an impact in someones life by using the scientific techniques of John Dewey. American physicologist and educator, Margaret Naumburg, argued that human development were creative, artistic, and emotional when she was writing The Child and the World (A Brief Overview of Progressive Education). Students of Dewey, such as William H. Kilpatrick, carried on his principles to teachers and educational leaders at Teachers College, Columbia University. They used John Dewey's book, Experience and Education, to teach courses on progressive education.

Quotes by John Dewey

          Many schools today base their education system and principles off of the 1919 Progressive Education Association Founding Principles. One school in particular that takes a progressive approach in student’s learning is Park Day School located in Oakland, California. (Little) Some key aspects that today private schools and some public schools care about are how students apply learning techniques for problem solving or that every child’s academic growth is supported in an learning environment.

Annotated Bibliography

Boyd, Natalie. “Education during the Progressive Era: Reform & Growth of Urban Education.” Education Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/education-during-the-progressive-era-reform-growth-of-urban-education.html>. This website was one of the fundamental source of my research. It helped me understand the lesson on progressive education more clearly. I used the video to help me understand the impact of the progressive era in education especially in the production of high schools. This supports the fact that progressive education was a innovative process.

A Brief Overview of Progressive Education. U of Vermont, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html>. This website includes a total overview of progresssive education in the site of how it is a democratic movement. It includes thoughts of John Dewey and major ideas that he had involving education. I am using this to open up my essay with how education changed during the progressive era.

Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. New York: McGraw, 2007. Print. Our history book helps give a brief summary about the Progressive Era and also help with finding clue words to search for during our research for our topic.

Dewey, John. Art as Experience. Perigee trade pbk. ed. New York: Berkley Group, 2005. Print. This primary source book published based on John Dewey’s lectures delivered at Harvard includes information on the formal structure and characteristic effects of all the arts such as music and literature. Even though this book does not directly relate to progressive education, it defines different aspects of Dewey’s strategies. I can refer my analysis of progressive education using some direct quotes said by John Dewey such as “Art is a quality of doing and what is done.”

Field, Richard. “John Dewey (1859—1952).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/>. This source provides the history of John Dewey. It helps explain John Dewey’s thought known as pragmatism. This helps with information in my essay with was are major ideas put forth from John Dewey.

Gelbrich, Judy, ed. “The Progressive Era of Education.” Section II - American Education Part 7. Oregon State U, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/ae7.html>. This website contains information on John Dewey and how him and his wife established a laboratory school to test the progressive education principles. I used this website because it contained an direct quote from John Dewey on education and also used this website to help explain the establishment of Dewey’s lab school.

International Socialist Review 21.1 (1960). John Dewey’s Theories of Education. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <https://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/works/1960/x03.htm>. This journal entry explains and provides the different theories of John Dewey and how the Progressive Education Association, inspired by Dewey’s ideas, later codified his doctrines. I am using this piece of information to help mention this close connection between education and democracy.

Issel, William H. “Teachers and Educational Reform during the Progressive Era: A Case Study of the Pittsburgh Teachers Association.” History of Education Quarterly. Vol. 7. Summer: History of Education Society, 1967. 220-23. Jstor. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/367563>. This section of the book cited, mentions how progressive education helped children but then how did teachers contribute to the movement of education reform. I am using this to show the difference in earlier views of education to how it has changed and impacted the progressive era.

The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.), 10 April 1913. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93067760/1913-04-10/ed-1/seq-12/> I used this source for a picture that I am going to include in the blog post.

Little, Tom. “21st Century Learning and Progressive Education: An Intersection.” International Journal of Progressive Education 3rd ser. 8 (2012): n. pag. Progressive Education and 21st Century Skills. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.parkdayschool.org/domain/108>. This website published by Park Days School, includes a journal article by a teacher that wrote an article describing and tracing back to the establishment of progressive education principle foundations of the 19th century. It also relates to how the 21st century benefits off of some principle progressive education to help prepare current students for the future. 

“Negative Results Is Seen of Schooling: Westmount Principal Speaks on Progressive Education to Social League.” Montreal Gazette 19 Mar. 1936: n. pag. Google News. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19360319&id=jH8tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=I5kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5194,2283824>. This newspaper contains an article from principal that was concerned about children because she believes that each school is attempting to develop the whole child in comparison to its environment.

Pendergast, Tom, and Sara Pendergast. American Decades: 1910-1919. Detroit: UXL, 2003. Print. This book is very helpful because it provides a overview of how education before and after the 1910’s took place. It also provides informations such as Dewey’s system and how it led to the development of progressive education. I am going to use this book to help me explain John Dewey’s new education system that was the major establishment of the education in the progressive era.  

Pierce, Virginia. “The Progressive Era.” South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program. U of South Carolina, 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://library.sc.edu/blogs/newspaper/2012/03/14/exploring-the-progressive-era-in-historical-sc-newspapers-1900-1920s/>. This article by Virginia Pierce talks about the Progressive Era in different new improvements or progressive movements. This helps me get an idea of how progressivism changed different aspects or situation that occurred in America.

Schugurensky, Daniel, and Natalie Aguirre. “1919 the Progressive Education Association Is Founded.” N.d. PDF file. This source includes a retyped version of the Progressive Education Association and when it was founded. I included some information about this association and how it contributed to John Dewey.