World War I marked an important turning point in progressive education. With the founding of the Progressive Education Association (PEA) in 1919 advocates had an organization that stood against pedagogical formalism. This essay provides a discussion of this new approach to education, the possibilities of the contributions progressive schools made…

Irving Babbitt and E.D. Hirsch defended the humanistic curriculum at both the beginning and end of the twentieth century, respectively. Both claimed that a set of specific knowledge needed to be passed from one generation to the next. Both found this knowledge primarily, though certainly not exclusively, through the classical Western tradition.…

Progressive education is often examined through the lens of curricular theorists, educational historians, and the experience of practitioners. One perspective, infrequently found in the debate, has been the experiences of students educated under the progressive philosophy. The Southern author, Flannery O'Connor, who attended progressive schools on…