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The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution created an urgency to begin changing what was being taught in America's schools. -
John Dewey
Dewey believed that school learning activities must be part of the student's efforts to understand and deal with the larger world", and that educational leaders must begin to "think o the curriculum as more than a list of school subjects". (Tyler, 1981, pg. 599) Tyler, R. (1981). Curriculum Development Since 1900. Educational Leadership, May 1981, 598-601. -
Jane Addams
"I believe if these people are welcomed upon the basis of the resources which they represent and the contributions which they bring, it may come to pass that these schools which deal with immigrants will find that they have a wealth of cultural industrial material which will make the schools in other neighborhoods positively envious." Adams, J. (1908). The public school and the immigrant child. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (p. 43). New York: -
Maria Montessori
"If we educate an individual, we must have a definite and direct knowledge of him." Montessori, M. (1912). A critical consideration of the new pedagogy in its relation to modern science. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (p.20). New York: Routledge. -
Edward Thorndike
"The lecture and demonstration methods represent an approach to a limiting extreme in which the teacher lets the student find out nothing which he could possible be told or shown. . . They ask of him only that he attend to, and do his best to understand, questions which he did not himself frame and answers which he did not himself work out." Thorndike, E. (1920). Education- A First Book. New York: The Macmillan Company. -
W.W. Charters
Charters approached curriculum from the point of view of FUNCTIONAL EFFICIENCY. He used Activity Analysis to define the curriculum for fields such as library studies, pharmaceutical, and even on how to be a woman. D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton, Eds. (2013). The curriculum studies reader. New York: Routledge. -
Franklin Bobbitt (the early years)
"Education is primarily for adult life, not for child life...Education, in other words, consists in preparing to become an adult." Bobbitt, F. (1924). How to Make a Curriculum. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (p. 70). New York: Routledge. -
Teacher Education
Charters actually began a study in 1925 to look at how we educate teachers. He worked from a list of more than 80 traits that all good teachers should have. That list, combined with 1001 teacher activities, was his way of scientifically determining the curriculum for a teacher preparation program. D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton, Eds. (2013). The curriculum studies reader. New York: Routledge. -
Franklin Bobbitt (the later years)
"Education is not primarily to prepare for life at some future time. Quite the reverse; it purposes to hold high the current living...In a very true sense, life cannot be prepared for. It can only be lived." Bobbitt, F. (1924). How to Make a Curriculum. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (p. 71). New York: Routledge. -
World War Two Begins
Just as the Industrial Revolution caused a major disruption to the educational system, WWII did the same, only this time, with different outcomes.
