ERIC Number: EJ911567
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 19
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: ISBN-978-1-6173-5102-0
ISSN: ISSN-1535-0584
EISSN: N/A
Francis Wayland Parker's Morning Exercise and the Progressive Movement
Schmitt, Natalie Crohn
American Educational History Journal, v37 n1 p109-127 2010
In the progressive era, the distinguished political scientist Robert Putnam explains, progressives invested heavily in "social capital," that is, in the stock of active connections, social networks, shared values, norms of reciprocity, trustworthiness, and friendship that bind people together (Putnam 2000, 395). They were, he argues, wise to do so because investment in "social capital," is "not an alternative to, but a prerequisite for, political mobilization and reform" (Putnam 2000, 399; his italics). It is what facilitates cooperative action, allows communities to advance smoothly, and widens awareness of the many ways in which human fates are interconnected. Educator Francis Wayland Parker's innovative Morning Exercise (school assembly) was an effective example of what Putnam's might describe as such an investment in social capital. In this article, the author describes Morning Exercise and makes clear Francis Parker's and his faculty's belief in the central role it should play in schools, the institution, they believed, itself central to democracy and progressivism. The author traces the early years of Morning Exercise under Parker's leadership at the Chicago Normal School, 1883-1899, its development in the brief-lived Institute Academic and Pedagogic, 1900-1901, and after Parker's death, its efflorescence at the continuing Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. The author suggests the influence of Francis Parker's Morning Exercise on the growth of school assemblies nationally. Finally, she describes the changes in this once pioneering practice in recent decades at Francis Parker School that, in significant ways, marks the ill-fated history of the progressive movement in general. (Contains 21 notes.)
Descriptors: Social Capital, School Activities, Progressive Education, Educational History, Private Schools
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Illinois
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A