ERIC Number: EJ896301
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0160-7561
EISSN: N/A
Laggards, Morons, Human Clinkers, and Other Peculiar Kids: Progressivism and Student Difference in Shaping Public Education in the United States
Osgood, Robert L.
Philosophical Studies in Education, v41 p1-10 2010
The year was 1909. The United States was in the throes of tremendous social and institutional changes: a rapidly diversifying population, dramatic shifts in political and economic structures, the rise of Progressivism as a paradigm for social reform and social control, and the intense and often grating sounds of a public education system really beginning to come into its own across the nation. During that year, Leonard P. Ayres and the Russell Sage Foundation published a book that fit the times perfectly. "Laggards in Our Schools: A Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems" took a detailed and often harsh look at public school development in the United States, paying particular attention to the growing pains all bureaucratic systems face at some point and relying heavily on the use of basic but revelatory quantitative data and Progressivist perspectives to critique the efficiency of large urban school operations. Ayres' basic thesis was that for school systems to function efficiently, school officials had to acknowledge, confront, and address the fact that significant numbers of children were not attending, performing, or behaving in ways that contributed to effective school administration and operation. (Contains 19 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Educational History, United States History, Public Education, Social Change, School Administration, Student Diversity, Attendance, Dropouts, Progressive Education, Special Education, Disabilities, Urban Schools
Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society. Web site: http://www.ovpes.org/journal.htm
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: United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A