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Status Quo And The Need For Change
As we moved into the 20th century, education in America was dominated by the mental disciplinarians, a group who advocated that the mind is a muscle and if we worked it through drill, practice, discipline, and recitation, it would go stronger. The content, Greek, Latin, and mathematics. As school enrollment rose dramatically and new technologically advanced jobs demanded a better prepared worker, education needed to change. -
The Social Meliorists
The work of Lester Frank Ward, led to the creation of the fourth reform-minded movement, the Social Meliorists. While the group did not have the influence of the Social Efficiency or Developmentalist movements, the view that schools can be a major force of social change and can raise generations ready and able to deal with social ills has taken root, especially during the civil rights movement. -
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Dewey and His School Part 1
John Dewey, the preeminent educational philosopher of the 20th century, opens his school with the idea that we lead children from their present interests to intellectual command of the modern world through a broad curriculum where skills are learned in the context that man learned and used them in. He felt that much was lost when subjects are taught in absence of this context, unfortunately this is where we still are today. -
Dewey and His School Part 2
To me, what Dewey envisioned is something I strive to do, at least in the context of our current system. Our current educational structure would need to go through complete change to accommodate the Dewey model. I see subjects connected across grade levels or something similar to allow children the opportunity to see the connections between what they are learning and the real world and other subjects. -
The Developmentalists Make Themselves Known
G. Stanley Hall was the key figure among the Developmentalists, who believe that the natural order of development in a child should be the basis in determining what should be taught. In 1904, he disagrees with the findings of the Committee of Ten on 3 major points—1) Not all students should be taught alike, 2) College prep education is not for everyone, and 3) Not all subjects are equally valuable. This sets the stage in the future for differentiation, even though Hall wanted to sort students -
Differentiation
Charles W. Eliot foresaw that a differentiated curriculum could have help determine the social and occupational futures of students as opposed to these futures already determined. In direct opposition to Halls views, unfortunately Halls views were more in tune with the times. -
The Douglas Commission
The Douglas Commission of Massachusetts saw the need for better education in vocations due in part to the decline of the apprenticeship system. Here we see the beginnings of vocational education, a very successful and needed option of our educational system. -
Eliot Makes a Compromise
To save some vestige of the Humanist position, Charles W. Eliot agreed that it was a good thing to sort students into probable future roles as Hall believed. Seeing the writing on the wall, I believe that Eliot was doing what he could to ensure that he could save the traditional curriculum for at least the college bound. -
A Change in the Social Studies
With the push for more utilitarian courses in school, Thomas Jesse Jones, working at the Hampton Institute, changes social studies instruction to address socially desirable habits and ideas. While we have returned to more of a history centered social studies curriculum, the focus on creating citizens who will be able to succeed in today’s world is still in most school mission statements and is usually addressed through the social studies curriculum. -
Junior High Part 2
This important development shows what advances we can make when the theories can work together, in my experience, junior high students are exposed to many different subjects before they are asked to schedule their high school years, when ‘everything starts to count.’ -
Junior High Part 1
Creation of the Junior High in Berkley, CA. The idea behind this came from the blending of Social Efficiency and Developmentalist ideas. From the developmentalists we see the need to keep pre-adolescents away from post-adolescents due to the differences in their development. From the Social Efficiency school, the idea that young men and women use this time to determine their future course in high school. -
The Social Efficiency Movement
Joseph Mayer Rice, a leader of the Social Efficiency movement, proposes that educational reform will begin with clearly defined goals and the ability to create a measurement tool to determine if we have met this goal. Again, we see influence that we still feel today. Clear standards and the ability to clearly define and measure them are a hallmark of modern American Education. While no one group ever gained total prominence in modern curriculum, many ideas such as this one, withstood the tes -
Federal Funding
With the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, vocational education became a federally funded initiative. A big victory for Social Efficiency, it was the most success movement of the 20th century and is still a major piece of education in America today. With the arrival of federal funding, the door is open for the government to champion their own causes through available funds. -
Teacher Involvement in Curriculum Design
In Denver we have the beginning of active teacher participation in curriculum reform. If teachers, who will be implementing the curriculum, are not in on the construction phase, the likelihood of success is low. -
Bobbitt and Curriculum Making
John Franklin Bobbitt another leader of the Social Efficiency group, writes that the first step in curriculum making is determining the desired results. None of the other 3 reform movements thought to take this step, which we may take for granted today and consider it obvious. -
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Statewide Adoption of Curriculum
Curriculum adoption on a statewide scale. Whether or not you agree with such large scale adoption, this movement influences curriculum to this day. -
THe Virginia Curriculum Program
The Virginia Curriculum Program invited the states teachers to come and work on curriculum revisions, most came. The outcome was what closely resembles modern core curriculum and incorporated the scope and sequence chart. -
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'Core' Curriculum
The term ‘Core’ curriculum comes into common use. While the incarnation of the 40’s does not resemble what we think of today, (it was still heavily influenced by the Social Efficiency and Developmentalists), the organizational piece is still with us. -
Sputnik
The Launch of Sputnik. This single event brought an end to the deliberation of the last 50 years. We were now in a technological struggle with the enemy and schools were needed to do their part. Academics were all important again to the joy of the Humanists, especially science and math. -
National Defense Education Act
After the passage of the National Defense Education Act, the federal government takes a larger role in what is being taught in American schools, not through direct decree, but through funding.
