Composition: History & Theory: 1900 - 1919
Scientific Management
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring explains how “Taylorism,” or scientific management, was implemented in schools in an attempt to standardize learning. Intelligence tests, originally developed for use by army personnel, were adopted by school administrators to determine what societal roles students were fit to assume. Tests were used to validate racial biases (scientifically showing that Anglo Americans were the superior race) and to justify social classes (the poor deserved to be poor because they were proven to be less intelligent than the rich). These tests fueled the nature vs. nurture debate and were used to defend racial classification and “selective breeding”. This is because the beginning of the 20th century and the scientific management of society saw a logical progression from understanding that intelligence was inherited to attempts to create a more intelligent society through controlled breeding as well as sterilization programs aimed at those deemed unfit to reproduce. Eugenics was not abandoned until after the Second World War once the realization of how Nazi Germany used these ideologies became more widely known.
Mandatory attendance in schools in the early 20th century led to what teachers and administrators considered the “problem” of dealing with special needs students in the classroom. Special classrooms were formed in order to segregate physically and mentally handicapped or “backward” students from mainstream classrooms.
Date of Upload
3/13/09