Composition: History & Theory: 1940 - 1949
The Life-Adjustment Movement
Description
In The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education 1876-1957 (1961), Lawrence Cremin calls the “life-adjustment education” movement of 1945 a key misstep in progressive education reform. This movement, Cremin claims, came during a time when progressive education was the conventional wisdom of the day, but also at a time when scholarship and seeking support from laymen and community members was at an all-time low. The 1945 report on “Vocational Education in the Years Ahead” cited that only 20% of students in secondary school finished prepared to enter college while another 20% were prepared to enter into skilled occupations. The report claimed that the other 60% were not receiving the proper “life-adjustment training” they needed to survive (qtd. in Cremin 334). The report called for conferences to seek a solution to this problem. The result was a movement which produced little in the way of new programs or practices, but rather a myriad of progressive propaganda focused on helping students adjust to the existing conditions of society (this was viewed by Cremin as a major misjudgment of the values of post-war Americans) and the desire to promote “personal satisfaction and achievements for each individual within the limits of his abilities” (336).
Date of Upload
3/13/09