Composition: History & Theory: 1960 - 1969
Cremin, Lawrence A. The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education 1876-1957. (1961)
Description
In this text, Lawrence A. Cremin examines not only the beginnings of the progressive education movement, but also key events in progressive education which led to its ultimate downfall. He asserts that the demise of the Progressive Education movement came about rather suddenly amongst sharp criticisms from a post-World War II America whose social values and goals for education had shifted dramatically. Cremin explains the several contributing factors to the death of the Progressive Education Association in 1955. He suggests that despite the movement’s unpopularity in the 1950s, the foundational premise of progressive education addressed many important social concerns in education at the time, and he suggests that perhaps a restructuring of those original ideals might be next step in reforming America’s educational system.
Cremin ties the beginning of progressive education to a “vast humanitarian effort to apply the promise of American life—the ideal of government by, of, and for the people” and to the promise of a more industrialized society (viii). According to Cremin, the progressive movement began within education and it meant several things: 1) broadening the educational program “to include direct concern for health, vocation, and the quality of family and community life” (viii); 2) applying scientific principles to classroom pedagogy; 3) tailoring classes to individual students and groups; 4) “Progressivism implied the radical faith that culture could be democratized without being vulgarized, the faith that everyone could share not only in the benefits of the new sciences but in the pursuit of the arts as well” (ix). Horace Mann, according to Cremin, helped create the foundation of the progressive movement with the general idea that everyone should be educated—this, in essence, created the problem and the opportunity for the progressive ideal. Progressivism, in Cremin’s view, is one aspect of America’s “response to industrialism”.
The Transformation of the School
(Reviews—all published within 2 years of the book’s original release in 1961)
Arthur Mann: “It is an important book, full of useful information, thoughtful, and written in a lively style by a scholar who is expert in his subject and fully committed to it […]. Cremin, who teaches at Teachers College Columbia University, is practically alone today in trying to break down the parochialism separating the fields of education and history, […]. He is the first historian to take the transformation of the school seriously enough to place it in the context of history and to give it the considerable attention it deserves” [ The American Historical Review 67.1]
Aubert Clark: “It is a well documented and sober treatment in which no school (including Teachers College) and no persons (including John Dewey) is exempt from critical comment. The work is not, however, easy reading, and an odd sequence of footnote numbering affords minor irritation. One notes in the lengthy and valuable biographical essay how often the author remarks that no adequate or satisfactory work on this or that topic exists. One can no longer speak in similar fashion about progressivism in American education.” [ The Catholic Historical Review 47.4]
A.C.F. Beales: “The treatment throughout is comprehensive, systematic, detailed, with masterpieces of concise formulation. This is nowhere more manifest than in the author’s two most important assessments: that of how John Dewey is to be held responsible for what his disciples made of his ideas and practice, and why the movement collapsed so quickly ten years ago at ‘the very floodtide of its fortunes.’” [ British Journal of Educational Studies 10.1]
Willis Rudy: “Lawrence A. Cremin’s scholarly review of the history of the Progressive Education movement is one of the most valuable works ever to appear in the field of American educational history. This is a book which should help immeasurably all other students on the subject.” [ The Annals of the American Academy 340]
Luvern Cunningham: Cunningham argues that the reader may not understand Cremin’s definition of progressive eduation: “It is a mistake to label all extensions of the curriculum and all increases in numbers of young people served by our schools as evidence of progressivisim. There is some danger that the reader may take away a distorted view of what the progressive movement in education really was. […] the author closes on a significant note but fails to elaborate on his argument. He observes that the passing of the Progressive Education Association in 1955 and the dissolution and collapse of the organized movement in the 1950s did not mean the death of progressive education. This is, indeed, a truism. Certainly those aspects of progressivism that deal with individualized instruction, with the development of comprehensive curriculums, with programs of counseling and guidance, and with the promotion of independence in learning are very much alive today—probably more so than in the heyday of the so-called progressive schools.” [ The American Journal of Sociology 67.5]
Carlton C. Qualey: “One may take exception to the shift in the definition of progressive education from Book I to Book II, to the seeming lack of convincing relation of some of the movements in Book I to the main theme in Book II, and to the selectivity of emphasis out of the larger story of American education during the period covered. However, faced with a multiplicity of data, the author chose a manageable frame of reference, and the result, despite the limitations of this method, is a significant and highly readable book.” [ Political Science Quarterly 77.3]
John M. Beck: “Without quibbling, the validity of several statements may be questioned. There is, for example, basis for disagreement on the selection of 1876 as the beginning of the progressive era. Actually new educational frontiers were well established by the end of the second quarter of the nineteenth century. One may also question the importance inscribed to the influence of the Progressive Education Association. […] It is safe to conclude that attacks on progressivism in schools are not necessarily predicted on a sound grasp of the aims and purposes of education. […] The author’s treatment of the movement for life-adjustment education tends to be misleading. […] Despite shortcomings, this book is a major contribution to the history of an important period in American education.” [ The School Review 69.4]
Robert M. Weiss: “With the exception of not sufficiently emphasizing the impact of the two world wars, McCarthyism, and of the Cold War on dampening the progressive social climate (as Earle Rugg pointed out in a letter to this reviewer), the work is generally a brilliant social history. Professor Cremin fully documents how the movement split into the child-centered and social reconstructionist wings, as represented respectively in the writings of William Hear Kilpatrick and George S. Counts. […] while granting that Professor Cremin has done a superb job of social history, this reviewer must ask whether Dr. Cremin has not committed the same fallacious reduction as did the social reconstructionists when he defines progressive education as primarily a social reform movement. Early in his work, he grants the difficulty of defining progressive education. Why does he define it in a way that Dewey himself saw as a perversion?” [ History of Education Quarterly 2.2]
Date of Upload
3/14/09