This article explores the influence of evolutionary ideas, especially Social Darwinism, on G. Stanley Hall's (1844-1924) educational ideas and major writings on gender and race. Hall formed these progressive ideas as he developed an American Social Darwinist pedagogy, embedded in his efforts to create the discipline of psychology, the science of…

The world of private fundamentalist education grew prodigiously throughout the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. These schools needed curricular materials and guiding educational philosophies. The impassioned debates among leading fundamentalist educators directly affected the education of hundreds of thousands of students. Concern over the…

Historical scholarship has traditionally focused on the commonalities uniting Catharine Beecher and Mary Lyon, the two leading antebellum women's educational reformers in New England. This essay shifts that focus by contrasting their educational philosophies and exploring the implications their differences had for the development of American…

The Russian Revolution of February 1917 displaced the autocracy of the Romanov royal family and aimed to establish a liberal republican Russia. The Bolsheviks, who came to power a few months later in the revolution of October 1917, announced that their new policy in education "had no analogy in history." Their reforms sought to establish a…

In the 1890s progressive educators like John Dewey proposed expansive ideas about integrating school and society. Working to make the boundaries between classroom learning and pupils' natural environment more permeable, for example, Dewey urged teachers to connect intellectual and practical elements within their curricula. Highly visible and…

Samuel Chapman Armstrong is well known for establishing Hampton Institute, the institution most involved with training black teachers in the South after the Civil War. It is less known that he was born in Hawai'i to the missionary couple Reverend Richard and Clarissa Chapman Armstrong. His parents were members of the Fifth Company of missionaries…

World War II stands as a defining moment for American higher education. During the crisis of international relations that existed by the late 1930s, American thinkers of various stripes felt compelled to mobilize the country's intellectual and educational resources in defense of democracy, thus creating "a great ideological revival of democracy…

Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. Du Bois were two of the most prominent African-American educators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, they both envisioned a broad education tailored specifically to the critical intellectual and vocational needs of the entire black community. In this essay, the author examines common themes…

Focuses on Allen O. Hansen's "Liberalism and American Education in the Eighteenth Century" and Frederick Rudolph's "Essays on Education in the Early Republic." Explores the influence of Hansen and Rudolph on other works of educational thought. Contends that a more accurate picture of the early republic is needed. (CMK)

Provides an examination of Charles Nisbet's stewardship of Dickinson College in post-revolutionary Pennsylvania. Nisbet's attempts to create a university reflecting the republican ideals of an enlightened aristocracy governing a deferential population met with disastrous resistance from a faculty and student body more aligned with revolutionary…

Contrasts the rhetoric and implementation of common schools (tax-supported, free public education) in 19th-century Boston with some subsequent educational discrimination. The Boston Public School system established intermediate schools and ungraded classes as a means of instructing illiterate immigrant children. It rapidly became a system of…

Argues that changes in citizenship education during the progressive era (emphasizing community and the common welfare rather than individual rights) grew out of support for a strong, activist central government. Questions earlier assumptions that the change occurred in reaction to immigration. Discusses competing conceptions of citizenship and…

Examines the use of the "Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu" (a set of comprehensive rules and regulations for Jesuit colleges) among the Jesuit colleges of St. Petersburg (Russia). Although suppressed by Pope Clement XIV, the Jesuit colleges flourished in Russia. Discusses the relationship of the "Ratio" to this success. (MJP)

Reviews Hermann Rohrs' and Volker Lenhart's, "Progressive Education Across the Continents: A Handbook." Focusing on the internationalism of progressive education, the book describes how the theory behind that movement has evolved over the last hundred years. Briefly critiques some chapters and articles in the book. (MJP)

Traces the changes in educational philosophy and practices that occurred within England's civic universities. The original intent of the state supported public universities was to provide professional and technical training for the growing middle class. Discusses the reasons that the civics eventually adopted the curriculum of the elite private…