Change or Stasis? Progressivism and American Education, 1930-1960.

Abstract

As the twentieth century draws to close, contemporary observers of education in the United States seem to be in agreement about one thing only: the woeful plight of American schools. By contrast, they disagree vociferously about who or what is to blame for discipline seemingly having vanished from certain classrooms altogether, achievement test scores remaining mediocre at best, high school and college graduates lacking the most rudimentary skills, and an illiteracy rate among the adult population that can only be termed scandalous. For many critics, the implementation of progressive educational theory explains all of the above and more, including the failure to ensure that transmission of America's cultural heritage takes place. Arthur Zilversmit calls into question such facile notion. He cites the generally held belief, shared by educational historians Lawrence Cremin and Diane Ravitch, that progressive philosophy had come to dominate American educational thought by the end of World War II. But Zilversmit, in manner similar to Larry Cuban and David Tyack, uses as starting point Ravitch's question of whether progressive practices were equally commonplace. He particularly focuses upon elementary schools, which he believes were most apt to have been influenced by progressive thought. The conclusion he draws is that while progressive educational theory was in ascendance during the depression decade, its application in practice was then only mixed at best. Ironically, Zilversmit points out, it was during the postwar period, when progressivism increasingly was assailed, that it truly became something of force in American education. Even then, Zilversmit writes, educational progressivism had hardly become stultifying new orthodoxy, as Cremin had insisted (p. xii).' Changing Schools opens with an examination of progressive education in general and look at its key progenitor, John Dewey. The man who is said to have sired progressive education, Zilversmit writes, sought a radical trans-