Progressivism

FOCUS What aspects of perennialism appeal to you as a teacher? Which appeal least? Why? Are there elements of perennialism you would like to incorporate into your philosophy? May Alcott’s Little Women. The students have discussed the main characters—Marmee, Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy—and the issues of war, poverty, and illness that the March family faces. The class discussion reveals that the March family’s sad and happy times reoccur perennially in family life today. That evening at dinner, the grandmother of Alice, a student in the class, asks, “What are you studying in school?” Alice replies, “We just finished reading Little Women.” Alice’s mother and grandmother say that they, too, read and enjoyed the book when they were girls. In the ensuing conversation, Alice, her mother, and her grandmother share their impressions of the book. In such ways, perennial themes can become memories that speak across time to generations.

6-9 prOgreSSiviSm

progressivism An antitraditionalist theory in American education associated with child-centered learning through activities, problem solving, and projects. The Progressive Education Association promoted progressivism as an educational movement. Progressivism originated as a general reform movement in American society and politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although they agreed in opposing traditional education and wanting to reform schools, progressives did not always agree on how and what to change in curriculum and instruction. Whereas child-centered progressives wanted to liberate children from authoritarian schools, social reconstructionists wanted to use schools to reform society.49 Administrative progressives, who were school superintendents and principals, wanted to make schools more efficient and cost effective by building larger schools that could house more class sections and offer a more diverse curriculum.

In their revolt against traditional schools, progressive educators oppose essentialism and perennialism. Educators such as Marietta Johnson, William H. Kilpatrick, and G. Stanley Hall rebelled against rote memorization and authoritarian classroom management for children and adolescents.

Marietta Johnson (1864–1938), founder of the Organic School in Fairhope, Alabama, epitomized child-centered progressive education. Believing that prolonging childhood is especially needed in a technological society, Johnson wanted childhood lengthened rather than shortened. Children, she said, should follow their own internal timetables rather than adults’ scheduling.50 Possessing their own stages of readiness, children should not be pushed by teachers or parents to do things for which they are not developmentally ready.

Anticipating contemporary constructivist learning, Johnson believed children learn most successfully and satisfyingly by actively exploring their environments and constructing their own conception of reality based on their direct experiences. Johnson’s activity-based curriculum accentuated physical exercise, nature study, music, crafts, field geography, storytelling, dramatizations, and games. Creative activities such as dancing, drawing, singing, and weaving took center stage, while reading and writing were delayed until the child was 9 or 10 years old.51

Johnson designed a teacher-education program that went from preservice to practice. During preservice, caring and effective teachers needed to develop (1) a sincere affection for and sympathetic interest in children; (2) a knowledge base in child and adolescent development and psychology and in the skills and subjects they taught; and (3) a commitment to social justice. As in-service practitioners, teachers should create safe, developmentally friendly, and engaging classrooms in which children, following their own interests, learn at their own pace.

49For social reconstructionism, see Karen L. Riley, ed., Social Reconstructionism: People, Politics, Perspectives (Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2006). 50Marietta Johnson, Thirty Years with an Idea (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1974), pp. 20–21. 51Johnson, Thirty Years with an Idea, pp. 52–55, 62–63, 86–95.