Just Movement

Abstract

This article considers the coherence of educational movements using the progressive education of the early twentieth century, also known as “The New Movement,” as a case study. Educators at classical schools often define classical education in opposition to progressive education, especially as advocated by reformers such as John Dewey. But what was progressive education? Progressive reformers have been a puzzle for historians to this day, remaking America’s schools with a set of diverse and at times contradictory principles and policies that defies any unifying philosophical explanation. Though not philosophically unified, the progressive movement satisfies Carl Kaestle’s definition of ideology and thus proves helpful in understanding educational movements. This article argues that progressives maintained an illusion of agreement by consistently utilizing the same loaded rhetoric for education, though the terms meant different things to different proponents: “nature,” “science,” and “progress.” A variety of primary sources illustrate how the use of rhetoric provided apparent philosophical coherence where it did not truly exist. The article ends by identifying the progressive movement as a cautionary tale for classical education.