The Goals of Public Education in the 1970s Have Been Realized

Abstract

Self-reliance, however defined, has admirers and critics, but both recognize that it was prevalent in the United States throughout the nineteenth century and somewhat beyond the middle of the twentieth century. During this period, innovations and industrial growth markedly elevated the standard of living for millions while enabling the United States to grow rapidly—in area, in population, and intellectually. The overwhelmingly urbanized second half of the twentieth century, however, saw a perversion of the idea of self-reliance. In progressive parlance, self-reliance became selfish individualism. Here is the attitude of John Dewey, the highly influential early twentieth-century education philosopher and reformer, toward self-reliance: