“Oh, You’ll Learn” — by Wayne Jenning I’m an enthusiastic advocate of experiential learning having
graduated in the 1950s in a teacher prep program with a major
in core curriculum. Core was a progressive education approach emphasizing an integrated curriculum, goal-setting, personal learning plans, use of community resources, experiential activities, life competencies, and the like.
The core curriculum—nothing resembling today’s nationallytouted curriculum core—was an outgrowth of progressiveoriented research such as the Eight-Year Study during the
1930s (info about the study on the Internet). Its results were
lost as a result of World War II. After the war, scholars reviewed the study and found it valid and relevant. Their comments
were disregarded during the McCarthy era when progressive educators were considered “red” or communistic.
Core featured school practices then, now touted as new. It was fortuitous that I received training in the late 1950s for progressive education. That prepared me for experiential learning to displace textbook-bound practices that I came to believe fallacious.
Early in my teaching career at Phillips Junior High School, Minneapolis, before the two-week winter vacation, my ninth-grade students planned a winter party. They pushed chairs to the room’s periphery and played a game in the center with much enthusiasm and noise. I stepped into the hall for a brief respite from the spirited action.
There was Mrs. Kennedy, who taught across the hall. I could see her class through the open door. Students
had a paper napkin squarely on their desks and a cookie centered on the napkin. They were waiting for Mrs. Kennedy’s signal to eat the cookie as their party celebration. It was totally quiet. I asked Mrs. Kennedy how she did that (the order and pin-drop silence). She said, “Oh, you’ll learn.” Sensing my doubt with her scanty answer, she continued, “Here’s how. See that kid in the back with the
green shirt? I could tell from the first day he was going to be trouble. You will learn to spot that. So, I waited for the first instance. Sure enough, he dropped his book on the floor with a loud bang. I wasted no time heading over to him.”
Summer 2022 The Journal of the Progressive Education Network PEN 19
