Editing Progressive education (section)

====Early practitioners====
Fröbel's student [[Margarethe Schurz]] founded the first kindergarten in the United States at [[Watertown, Wisconsin]], in 1856, and she also inspired [[Elizabeth Peabody]], who went on to found the first English-speaking kindergarten in the United States – the language at Schurz's kindergarten had been German, to serve an immigrant community – in [[Boston]] in 1860. This paved the way for the concept's spread in the USA. The German émigré Adolph Douai had also founded a kindergarten in Boston in 1859, but was obliged to close it after only a year. By 1866, however, he was founding others in New York City.

[[William Heard Kilpatrick]] (1871–1965) was a pupil of Dewey and one of the most effective practitioners of the concept as well as the more adept at proliferating the progressive education movement and spreading word of the works of Dewey. He is especially well known for his "project method of teaching".<ref name="Hayes"/> This developed the progressive education notion that students were to be engaged and taught so that their knowledge may be directed to society for a socially useful need. Like Dewey he also felt that students should be actively engaged in their learning rather than actively disengaged with the simple reading and regurgitation of material.<ref name="Hayes"/>

The most famous early practitioner of progressive education was [[Francis Wayland Parker|Francis Parker]]; its best-known spokesperson was the philosopher [[John Dewey]].  In 1875 Francis Parker became superintendent of schools in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], after spending two years in Germany studying emerging educational trends on the continent. Parker was opposed to rote learning, believing that there was no value in knowledge without understanding. He argued instead schools should encourage and respect the child's creativity. Parker's [[Quincy Method|Quincy System]] called for child-centered and experience-based learning.   He replaced the traditional curriculum with integrated learning units based on core themes related to the knowledge of different disciplines. He replaced traditional readers, spellers and [[grammar]] books with children's own writing, [[literature]], and teacher prepared materials. In 1883 Parker left Massachusetts to become Principal of the Cook County Normal School in [[Chicago]], a school that also served to train teachers in Parker's methods. In 1894 Parker's Talks on Pedagogics, which drew heavily on the thinking of [[Friedrich Fröbel|Fröbel]], [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi|Pestalozzi]] and [[Johann Friedrich Herbart|Herbart]], became one of the first American writings on education to gain international fame.

That same year, philosopher John Dewey moved from the [[University of Michigan]] to the newly established [[University of Chicago]] where he became chair of the department of [[philosophy]], [[psychology]] and education. He and his wife enrolled their children in Parker's school before founding their own school two years later.

Whereas Parker started with practice and then moved to theory, Dewey began with hypotheses and then devised methods and curricula to test them. By the time Dewey moved to Chicago at the age of thirty-five, he had already published two books on psychology and applied psychology. He had become dissatisfied with philosophy as pure speculation and was seeking ways to make philosophy directly relevant to practical issues. Moving away from an early interest in [[Hegel]], Dewey proceeded to reject all forms of [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]] and dichotomy in favor of a philosophy of experience as a series of unified wholes in which everything can be ultimately related.

In 1896, John Dewey opened what he called the laboratory school to test his theories and their sociological implications. With Dewey as the director and his wife as principal, the University of Chicago Laboratory school, was dedicated "to discover in administration, selection of subject-matter, methods of learning, teaching, and [[discipline]], how a school could become a cooperative community while developing in individuals their own capacities and satisfy their own needs." (Cremin, 136) For Dewey the two key goals of developing a cooperative [[community]] and developing [[individual]]s' own capacities were not at odds; they were necessary to each other. This unity of purpose lies at the heart of the progressive education philosophy. In 1912, Dewey sent out students of his philosophy to found [[The Park School of Buffalo]] and [[The Park School of Baltimore]] to put it into practice. These schools operate to this day within a similar progressive approach.

At Columbia, Dewey worked with other educators such as Charles Eliot and Abraham Flexner to help bring progressivism into the mainstream of American education. In 1917 Columbia established the Lincoln School of Teachers College "as a laboratory for the working out of an elementary and secondary curriculum which shall eliminate obsolete material and endeavor to work up in usable form material adapted to the needs of modern living." (Cremin, 282)  Based on Flexner's demand that the modern curriculum "include nothing for which an affirmative case can not be made out" (Cremin, 281) the new school organized its activities around four fundamental fields: [[science]], [[Industry (manufacturing)|industry]], [[aesthetics]] and [[civics]]. The Lincoln School built its curriculum around "units of work" that reorganized traditional subject matter into forms embracing the development of children and the changing needs of adult life. The first and second grades carried on a study of community life in which they actually built a city. A third grade project growing out of the day-to-day life of the nearby [[Hudson River]] became one of the most celebrated units of the school, a unit on boats, which under the guidance of its legendary teacher Miss Curtis, became an entrée into [[history]], [[geography]], [[Reading (process)|reading]], [[writing]], [[arithmetic]], science, [[art]] and literature. Each of the units was broadly enough conceived so that different children could concentrate on different aspects depending on their own interests and needs. Each of the units called for widely diverse student activities, and each sought to deal in depth with some critical aspect of contemporary civilization. Finally each unit engaged children working together cooperatively and also provided opportunities for individual research and exploration.

In 1924, [[Agnes de Lima]], the lead writer on education for ''[[The New Republic]]'' and ''[[The Nation]]'', published a collection of her articles on progressive education as a book, titled ''Our Enemy the Child''.<ref>Agnes de Lima.  In James Guthrie, Editor in Chief, ''Encyclopedia of Education'' (pp.&nbsp;553–554).  New York: Thomson Gale (2003).</ref>

In 1918, the [[National Education Association]], representing superintendents and administrators in smaller districts across the country, issued its report "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education."  It emphasized the education of students in terms of health, a command of fundamental processes, worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character. They emphasized life adjustment and reflected the social efficiency model of progressive education.<ref>Karen Graves, "The Cardinal Principles", ''American Educational History Journal'' (2010) 37#1-2, pp 95-107</ref>

From 1919 to 1955, the [[Progressive Education Association]] founded by [[Stanwood Cobb#Career as educator|Stanwood Cobb]] and others worked to promote a more student-centered approach to education. During the [[Great Depression]] the organization conducted the [[Eight-Year Study]], evaluating the effects of progressive programs. More than 1500 students over four years were compared to an equal number of carefully matched students at conventional schools. When they reached college, the experimental students were found to equal or surpass traditionally educated students on all outcomes: grades, extracurricular participation, dropout rates, intellectual curiosity, and resourcefulness. Moreover, the study found that the more the school departed from the traditional college preparatory program, the better was the record of the graduates. (Kohn, Schools, 232)

By mid-century, many public school programs had also adopted elements of progressive curriculum. At mid-century Dewey believed that progressive education had "not really penetrated and permeated the foundations of the educational institution."(Kohn, Schools, 6,7)  As the influence of progressive pedagogy grew broader and more diffuse, practitioners began to vary their application of progressive principles.   As varying interpretations and practices made evaluation of progressive reforms more difficult to assess, critics began to propose alternative approaches.

The seeds of the debate over progressive education can be seen in the differences of Parker and Dewey. These have to do with how much and by whom curriculum should be worked out from grade to grade, how much the child's emerging interests should determine classroom activities, the importance of child-centered vs. societal–centered learning, the relationship of community building to individual growth, and especially the relationship between emotion, thought and experience.

In 1955, the publication of Rudolf Flesch's ''[[Why Johnny Can't Read]]'' leveled criticism of reading programs at the progressive emphasis on reading in context. The conservative [[McCarthy era]] raised questions about the liberal ideas at the roots of the progressive reforms. The launching of [[Sputnik]] in 1957 at the height of the [[Cold War]] gave rise to a number of intellectually competitive approaches to disciplinary knowledge, such as [[Biological Sciences Curriculum Study|BSCS]] biology [[Physical Science Study Committee|PSSC]] physics, led by university professors such as [[Jerome Bruner]] and [[Jerrold Zacharias]].

Some Cold War reforms incorporated elements of progressivism. For example, the work of Zacharias and Bruner was based in the developmental psychology of [[Jean Piaget]] and incorporated many of Dewey's ideas of experiential education. Bruner's analysis of developmental psychology became the core of a pedagogical movement known as [[Constructivism (learning theory)|constructivism]], which argues that the child is an active participant in making meaning and must be engaged in the progress of education for learning to be effective. This psychological approach has deep connections to the work of both Parker and Dewey and led to a resurgence of their ideas in second half of the century.

In 1965, President Johnson inaugurated the [[Great Society]] and the [[Elementary and Secondary Education Act]] suffused public school programs with funds for sweeping education reforms. At the same time the influx of federal funding also gave rise to demands for accountability and the behavioral objectives approach of Robert F. Mager and others foreshadowed the [[No Child Left Behind Act]] passed in 2002. Against these critics eloquent spokespersons stepped forward in defense of the progressive tradition. The [[Open classroom|Open Classroom]] movement, led by [[Herbert Kohl (education)|Herb Kohl]] and George Dennison, recalled many of Parker's child centered reforms.<ref>Barrow Street Nursery School--A private progressive nursery school in the West Village of Manhattan. New York 10014</ref><ref>''World Book 2004''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html|title=A Brief Overview of Progressive Education|website=www.uvm.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://doaj.org/|title=Directory of Open Access Journals|last=DOAJ}}</ref><ref>[http://www.calhoun.org/page.cfm?p=16 / Progressive Education: Contrasting Methodologies by Steven Nelson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218104209/http://www.calhoun.org/page.cfm?p=16 |date=2007-02-18 }}</ref>

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a rise and decline in the number of progressive schools.<ref name="Sperounis1980">{{cite book|author=Frederick P. Sperounis|title=The limits of progressive school reform in the 1970's: a case study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmUEAQAAIAAJ|access-date=4 June 2013|date=June 1980|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-8191-1031-2|page=2}}</ref> There were several reasons for the decline:<ref name="Duke1978">{{cite book|author=Daniel Linden Duke|title=The retransformation of the school: the emergence of contemporary alternative schools in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/retransformation0000duke|url-access=registration|access-date=4 June 2013|date=September 1978|publisher=Nelson-Hall|isbn=978-0-88229-294-6}}</ref>

* Demographics: As the baby boom passed, traditional classrooms were no longer as over-enrolled, reducing demand for alternatives.
* The economy: The [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]] and recession made shoestring schools{{Definition needed|date=January 2024}} less viable.
* Times changed: With the ending of the Vietnam War, social activism waned.
* Co-optation: Many schools were co-opted by people who didn't believe in the original mission.
* Centralization: The ongoing centralization of school districts
* Non-implementation: Schools failed to implement a model of shared governance
* Interpersonal dynamics: Disagreement over school goals, poor group process skills, lack of critical dialogue, and fear of assertive leadership

Progressive education has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the [[No Child Left Behind]] educational funding act.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Progressive Education Movement: Is it Still a Factor in Today's Schools? |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=1578865212 }}</ref> [[Alfie Kohn]] has been an outspoken critic of the No Child Left Behind Act and a passionate defender of the progressive tradition.