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…

This essay will discuss two educational programs to improve the living conditions of students from low income families that Pedro T. Orata conducted during the middle years of the twentieth century. The question this paper will investigate is whether Orata considered the people he was trying to help as being trapped by the conditions of poverty to…

In "The Transformation of the School", Lawrence Cremin warned against formulating any capsule definition of progressive education: "None exists, and none ever will; for throughout its history progressive education meant different things to different people, and these differences were only compounded by the remarkable diversity of…

This article will consider the career of Massillon Alexander Cassidy, a Progressive Era school superintendent in Lexington, Kentucky, 1886-1928. The authors' review of school board records, personal letters, newspapers, and scholarly accounts, presents a rich outline of one man's career in public education that is illustrative of how progressive…

John Lawrence Childs was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on January 11, 1889, the second child of John Nelson Childs and Helen Janette (Nettie) Smith. In childhood Childs absorbed the values of industry, democracy, and a traditional, but socially conscious, religion. Childs was a Methodist and an intensely private person not given to talking about…

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,…

A number of authors have drawn connections between progressive education and the Social Gospel movement, the Second Great Awakening, and other phenomena of 19th century America. In most cases these authors have focused on progressive educators from Protestant backgrounds, but progressivism reached into other American subcultures. Felix Adler was…

The purpose of this article is to examine the life, pedagogical practices, and educational philosophy of Helen Lotspeich, who may be considered the premier practitioner of child-centered Progressive education in Cincinnati, Ohio during the first half of the 20th century. In "A History of The Seven Hills School," Driscoll (1995) concluded…

During the summer of 1964, Mississippi communities and activists established forty-one "Freedom Schools" that served over two thousand students. The Mississippi Freedom Schools embodied a critical philosophy of education. Despite its grassroots orientation, the educational ideas espoused in the Freedom Schools did not necessarily…

Religious sentiment served as one of the driving forces behind the progressive movement in education. Indeed, many progressives pursued their theories and reform agendas as a missionary endeavor. Perhaps the primary task in life is growing up, or, put another way, to create a consistent personal narrative to explain people's selves to themselves.…

The Progressive Education Association (PEA) emphasized the responsibilities of teachers as citizens within a democracy. Teachers could and should create miniature democracies within each of their classrooms, educating boys and girls on the virtues of such a society. Education for a better democracy was a descendant of George S. Counts' stronger…

This article features the life and accomplishments of Horace Jeremiah Voorhis in the field of progressive education. Voorhis earned the first Master of Arts degree in Education awarded by the Claremont Graduate Schools after he submitted his master's thesis, "The Education of the Institution Boy: A General Outline of Policies for the Voorhis…