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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Midwives of progressive education: The Bureau of Educational Experiments 1916-1919 Staring, J.F. Publication date 2013 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Staring, J. F. (2013). Midwives of progressive education: The Bureau of Educational Experiments 1916-1919. Integraal (Werkgroep Integrerende Wetenschapsbeoefening). General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:24 Sep 2021 Jeroen Staring is an anthropologist who teaches mathematics at secondary schools in The Netherlands. of Progressive Midwives His 2005 Medical Sciences dissertation describes the life, work and technique of F. Matthias Alexander Midwives (1869-1955). In 2007, he earned a professional master’s degree in Special Educational Needs. A year later, he earned a professional master’s degree in Pedagogy. of This dissertation constitutes a contribution to the history of education. It describes grassroots Progressive Education educational reform initiatives that took place in the United States, especially in New York City, during the Progressive Era. It also reviews the efforts of the Progressive Education Association — founded in 1919 — to professionalize educational reformers and to protoprofessionalize. Central to this dissertation is the early history of the New York City Bureau of Educational Experiments (1916-1919). The Bureau was an educational clearinghouse, and it stimulated, subsidized and conducted educational experiments. The Bureau had a previously unacknowledged influence on the founding of the Progressive Education Association. The dissertation sketches the careers of two members of the Bureau: Marietta Johnson (1864-1938) and Caroline Pratt (1867-1954). Both women would become essential links in the establishment of the Progressive Education Association and the formulation of its mission. A number of findings described in the dissertation directly pertain to recommendations made by the Dutch Parliamentary Commission on Educational Reforms in their 2008 report Tijd voor Onderwijs. Education Jeroen Staring Jeroen Integraal (Werkgroep Integrerende Wetenschapsbeoefening) Jeroen Staring Nijmegen ISBN/EAN: 978 90 5092 000 1 NUR: 849 Midwives of Progressive Education Jeroen F. Staring 2013 Integraal (Werkgroep Integrerende Wetenschapsbeoefening) Nijmegen COLOPHON © Jeroen F. Staring, 2013. Printed by Drukkerij Efficient, Nijmegen. ISBN/EAN: 978-90-5092-000-1 NUR: 849 Cover design: Jeroen F. Staring. Photo front cover: Jeroen F. Staring, 2011. Showing Do-With Toys™ designed and manufactured by Caroline L. Pratt. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, without the prior permission in writing from the author. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, publisher of History of Education Review, has given permission to print sections of “Caroline Pratt’s political, toy manufacturing, and educational life, 1896-1921” (2013, 42(1), pp. 85-100). Midwives of Progressive Education The Bureau of Educational Experiments 1916 – 1919 ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op donderdag 19 december 2013, te 10:00 uur door Jeroen Frans Staring geboren te Velsen Promotiecommissie Promotores: Prof. dr. M.S. Merry Prof. dr. S. Karsten Overige Leden: Prof. dr. C.A.M. van Boxtel Prof. dr. G.T.M. ten Dam Prof. dr. J.C. Kennedy Prof. dr. J. Oelkers, emeritus Prof. dr. W.J. Reese Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen CONTENTS FOREWORD 9 My Professional Interest in Experiential Learning 9 The Origin of the Dissertation 10 INTRODUCTION 13 Nieuwe Leren (New Learning) 14 A New Dutch School War 14 New Learning and Dutch Teachers Study Centres 15 New Learning Opponents 15 Is New Learning New? 17 Central Question 18 The Dutch New Learning Debate 19 Historiography of Education 20 Structural Outline 21 CHAPTER 1: Educational Reform and Professionalization of Educational Reformers in the United States 1890-1935 23 Two Pioneering Educational Reformers: Were They Prominent? 24 John Dewey 24 Caroline Pratt 25 Charles Hanford Henderson 25 Marietta Johnson 26 No Nationwide Movement 26 A NYC Settlement House Initiative 27 A NYC Settlement Work Initiative Backed by a Civic Group 28 Overcrowding of Schools 30 Founding of a New Teachers’ League 31 Writings Advancing Educational Reform 31 Parents and Their Problems 31 Enlightening Books and Articles on Laboratory Schools 32 Three Plans to Combat Congestion of NYC Public Schools 33 School Congestion 33 The Schneider Plan 33 The Ettinger Plan 34 The Wirt Plan 34 The Public Education Association and the Wirt Plan 35 The Demise of “Garyizing” NYC Public Schools 36 Consequences 37 World War I and Unintended Consequences 38 The Progressive Education Association (PEA) 39 How the PEA Met Basic Professionalization Standards 40 Initial PEA Education Theory and Teaching Craft 41 5 Midwives of Progressive Education Learning By Projects 42 Learning By Activities 42 Social Reconstructionism or Child-Centered Education? 44 Conclusion 45 CHAPTER 2: Marietta L. Johnson and the Fairhope School of Organic Education 47 1864-1897: Marietta Pierce, Childhood and Early Career 47 1897-1906: Ten Years of Searching for a Sense of Purpose 49 1906-1907: Planning and Founding a School of Organic Education 51 The Fall of 1907: Triumph and Tragedy 52 1908-1909: First Mission: Preaching to the Choir 52 1910-1911: Second Mission: Fairhopers Advocating the Educational Experiment 54 1912: Third Mission: The First Summer School 57 The Fall of 1912: The First Acknowledgement on a National Scale 58 1913-1914: Firm Local Recognition in the Eastern States 58 1914: “The American Montessori” 60 1915: Firm Nationwide Recognition: Schools of To-Morrow 60 1916: Fading Recognition 61 1916-1917: Making Contact With the Bureau of Educational Experiments 62 CHAPTER 3: Caroline L. Pratt and The Play School 65 1867-1897: Caroline Pratt, Childhood and Early Career 65 1896-1901: Finding Direction in Life 67 From Philadelphia to New York City, and Pratt’s Political Stance 69 1909-1910: The WTUL, Zealous Unionists and the Uprising of the 20,000 70 1911-1913: Following the Uprising of the 20,000: The Usual Feminist Activities 74 Pratt’s Critique of the Early Twentieth-Century Educational System 75 1908-1910: The Birth of Do-With Dolls and Toys 77 1911: Three Demonstrations of Do-With Toys™ 77 Do-With Toys™: A Generic Name? 79 1911-1914: Some Theorizing about Toys and Child Play 80 1913: “The Shop Might Serve as a Clearing House for the Whole School” 80 1914-1915: The Play School Flourishes 82 1915: Nationwide Recognition and New Financial Support 84 6 November 1915: Rejoice and Tragedy 85 1916: The Play School Moves to 14, MacDougal Alley 86 CHAPTER 4: The Bureau of Educational Experiments 1916-1919; The Founding of the Progressive Education Association, 1919 89 The Formation of a Group of Women Progressives Around Sprague Mitchell 90 May 1916: The Founding of the BEE 92 Carry-Over of Gary Plan Propagandizing 93 1916-1917: The Bureau as Clearinghouse 94 1916-1917: The Bureau as Research Institute 94 6 Contents Camp Liberty: A True One-Time-Only Achievement 95 Demise of the Neurological Institute Laboratory School 96 The Porter School Experiment 96 Mid-1917: Evaluation After One Year BEE 97 Mid-1917: Three New BEE Priorities 98 1917-1919: Pratt’s Play School Prime BEE Laboratory School Candidate 98 1917-1918: Marietta Johnson and the BEE Demonstration Organic Education Class 99 Nutrition Research 101 1918: The Creative Impulse in Industry 101 Eventual Failure of The Creative Impulse in Industry 102 Exit BEE Clearinghouse Activities Firmly Related to the Founding of the PEA 103 Hartman’s 1918 BEE Conference Proposal Basis for Establishing the PEA 104 What Became of the Bureau after 1919? 106 Conclusion 107 EPILOGUE: What Became of Johnson and Pratt? 113 Marietta Johnson and the School of Organic Education 113 Caroline Pratt and the Play School / City and Country School 115 NOTES 117 BIBLIOGRAPHY 147 SUMMARY 193 NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING 197 INDEX 200 7 Midwives of Progressive Education 8 FOREWORD “You see,” said the stick, “there were as pretty little children once as you could wish to see, and might have been so still if they had been only left to grow up like human beings, and then handed over to me; but their foolish fathers and mothers, instead of letting them pick flowers, and make dirt-pies, and get birds’ nests, and dance around the gooseberry bush, just as little children should, kept them always at lessons, working, working, working, learning week-day lessons all week-days, and Sunday lessons all Sunday, and weekly examinations every Saturday, and monthly examinations every month, and yearly examinations every year, everything seven times over, as if once was not enough and enough as good as a feast — till their brains grew big, and their bodies grew small, and they were all changed into turnips, with little but water inside; and still their foolish parents actually pick the leaves off them as fast as they grow, lest they should have anything green about them.” Charles Kingsley.