Progressive Changes — 1967-1977

PROGRESSIVE CHANGES in the Decade of Daring — 1967-1977

— by Charles Suhor

The neo-progressive movement in American education in the late 1960s and early seventies had much in common with the principles of the foundational progressivism of Dewey, Kirkpatrick, and others. But its origins were in the context of a decade of massive social upheaval, its methods were supported by new research, and its practitioners often showed a boldness, bordering on arrogance, that reflected the turbulent times that were a’changin’. Education could not have escaped the restless temper of the times—Viet Nam protests, the hippie movement, Black Power, the emerging drug culture, sexual liberation, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Detroit burning, bra-burning, and riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention.

English language arts was arguably the subject area of the most radical challenges to the lockstep curricula of the fifties. And avalanche of changes to traditional programs—contemporary, young adult and black literatures, inexpensive paperbacks, mini-courses, multiple textbook adoption, film study, multi-media, whole-word reading, invented spelling, miscue analysis, audiolingual grammar, discussion skills, creative dramatics, free writing, the writing process, and innovative testing--appeared with surprising rapidity. While progressive changes garnered publicity in the popular press and professional literature, the historical accounts of the time have been overly broad, lacking particularity and a sense of presence.

As active participant both nationally and as K-12 supervisor in New Orleans Public Schools, I wanted to combine solid research with boots-on-the ground reportage about the accomplishments and failures of the neo-progressive years. My documented memoir, Creativity and Chaos: Reflections on a Decade of Progressive Change in Public Schools, 1967-1977, is a personal vision that comports with other accounts of what was happening in the city, the schools and the nation. The groundswell subsided with the countermanding forces of the back to basics movement and the spotlight has shifted to charter schools and other issues, but I have faith that principles outlined by PEN and others will find their rightful way into the mainstream.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Charles Suhor, Ph.D., spent the first half of his career in New Orleans Public Schools as a high school English and history teacher and K-12 Supervisor of English. Subsequently, he worked for twenty year as Deputy Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of English in Urbana, IL. He is a co-founder of the NCTE Assembly on on Expanded Perspectives on Learning. Since 1997 he has written from his retirement home in Montgomery, Alabama. csuhor@zebra.net