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ro eleent ouse to ouse erice and aor in erican esignuild ducation Portland State University This paper discusses how social engagement in the Experimental schools such as Sarah Lawrence, Bennington and Black architectural rofession ts ithin roader conce- Mountain College opened their doors in the early 1930s, while tra- tions of erican citienshi oer the course of the ditional colleges, including Goddard and Antioch Colleges, recast tentieth centur o do so it roides a historical themselves as progressive learning communities.2 While these schools account of erican serice learning in the rogressie shared the objective of promoting “individuality, direct experience, serious interest, initiative, creative and independent work, and self- and Depression Eras (1890s-1930s) and compares it dependence,” each interpreted the call in its own way.3 Antioch, for to counitased designuild education unfold- example, pioneered work-study programs that integrated hands-on ing in the current era sresent n so doing it learning and book learning while others, like Saint John’s College, focused oints out the as in hich educators in each eriod on self-realization through individualized but still highly intellectual pro- too a ragatist aroach to aiding the oor hile grams of study. Education became a realm in which Americans could rooting the inoleent of outh in serice learn- experiment with different visions of American society, posed as critiques ing actiities t argues that conteorar rogras of an existing system that they felt had gone off course. carr forard one of the e contradictions of the Meanwhile, an emerging class of urban experts argued that the scientific rogressie outhlaor odel ael the create management of public health and cities would lead to better living condi- a diision eteen those ho ust erfor hard tions for all Americans, rich and poor.4 Overcrowding and visible poverty laor to suort theseles and their failies and became a source of interest for urban elites and religious organizations. those ith the riilege of teoraril laoring for Groups of upper-class women involved in the Protestant volunteer movement waged a battle for individuals’ souls and for the stability of educational uroses t concludes ointing out society. Settlement houses and charity organizations established out- ho student designuild eorts use the troes of the posts in poor areas and worked towards health and education reform in frontier and selfhel to rearing the rofessions the close quarters of immigrant and migrant neighborhoods.5 alue in ties of social and econoic crisis During the 1920s, elites interested in social progress began to promote voluntary youth work camps. These were short-term work programs in R R RR R which youth of all classes and backgrounds came together to contribute R physical labor to those less privileged than themselves. Financially stable The decade before World War II saw the rise of a large number of pro- youth would often pay a small fee for the privilege of short-term labor. In gressive educational experiments. Education labeled “progressive” exchange, they would gain what Dewey termed “experiential learning.” distinguished itself from European models of the nineteenth century, which used classical pedagogy to prepare students for work in an aca- In 1933 the uaker organization, the American Friends Service demic context. Instead, progressive educators felt individualized curricula Committee (AFSC), ran the nation’s first voluntary work camps.6 AFSC and learning-by-doing should be the basis of an education for democratic youth programs began in earnest during World War I as a form of service living. John Dewey was one key influence for creative, non-traditional acceptable for conscientious objectors. The uakers were likely inspired thinking about the role of education in social change. He argued that by work camps already underway in Europe in the inter-war period, self-directed learning would produce students capable of pursuing pro- where leaders felt that youth camps might aid in fighting both commu- gressive and democratic ideals.1 nist and fascist extremism.7 Adapting the German model in which youth learned traditional folk songs and were encouraged to interact with laborers and craftspeople, the American camps stressed contemplation and interactions across race and class. The Movement to Service Brooklyn Says, “Move to Detroit” 413 Figure 1. (a) Poster advertising the Works Progress Administration, United overcrowded “ghettos” became sites for youth to express their demo- States, 1933, Source: Library of Congress; (b) Brochure for Work Camps for cratic character through physical labor. America, a collection of voluntary service learning opportunities (Not dated, likely 1940-1944), Source: Western Regional Archives. Note the wagons and The association of each camp with new and hopeful experiments in cowboy imagery that reflect a reference to the pioneer ethic. The heroic community rebuilding relate the experience to the pioneer tradition figure, usually white and male, with shovel or hammer in hand, constitutes a in American life . Work is the basis of the summer’s experience key trope for organizing thinking around youth volunteerism. The campers participation in hard physical work has a double value. It increases the facilities available for community develop- ment. It gives campers insight into the problems associated with Eleanor Roosevelt and a group of other committed progressive lead- unskilled and semi-skilled labor.10 ers advocated for the need for more voluntary youth work programs in America. They formed a loose coalition of religious and settlement house In this model, engagement in hard physical labor and encounters with work camps into the national organization known as Work Camps for people different than themselves became educational opportunities. America (FIG. 1). Through the magazine Work, they shared information, Referring to “the pioneer tradition in American life,” young Americans opportunities and models.8 A brochure from the early 1940s advertising were to venture into new territories of poverty and racial disadvantage. summer work camps, describes their mission as follows, In so doing, advocates hoped voluntary work camps would help develop a national citizenry who understood the value of work and who could To provide young men and women with an opportunity to do relate to the common man. useful work and to study social issues from personal experience, to encourage a deeper individual concern for the general welfare The federal government eventually supported these efforts through of the nation, to enlist their wholehearted support for a democracy the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was founded in responsive to the needs of its citizens, to promote mutual under- 1936 under the auspices of the Work Progress Administration. Similar standing among diverse economic, religious, and social groups, and to today’s AmeriCorps VISTA program, it offered part-time employment to aid youth in the discovery of a personal philosophy and a social to young men and women in school and included an educational com- idealism which will help to carry them through the stormy period ponent.11 While other WPA work programs provided employment to ahead.9 otherwise desperately unemployed Americans, the NYA served a more ideological role. These programs, it was argued, would produce citizens Though the camps varied from organization to organization, most paired who could lead the country towards a more promising and democratic physical labor –– such as assisting in the construction of homes and future.12 Like other voluntary youth work camps, the NYA maintained a roads in a struggling mining town in rural Pennsylvania –– with discussion division between those laboring out of desperate need and a privileged and learning about the structural causes of poverty and unemploy- class who could labor for the “experience.” ment. Mining towns in Appalachia, farming belts in rural Alabama and 414 ro eleent ouse to ouse During this period, architectural educators were also searching for a Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881. Located in Tuskegee, Alabama, the new direction appropriate to the nation’s changing economy and politi- Tuskegee Institute trained African Americans in handcrafts and useful cal culture. During the nineteenth century, the American architectural trades. Washington and his resident architect, Robert Robinson Taylor, establishment had absorbed European models and values, including felt that technical training paired with moral, religious and intellectual Beaux-Arts curricula focused on the application of historical precedent to education would ultimately contribute to racial uplift.17 Students at specific program types. The European “grand tour,” in which Americans Tuskegee not only physically constructed buildings designed by Taylor traveled to Europe’s major architectural monuments, was one primary on their own campus (FIG. 2c), but also designed and helped construct way of acquiring professional knowledge. thousands of country schools in the rural South.18 As modernist ideas entered the American context in the 1920s, American While it is unlikely that predominantly white schools like Carnegie Tech educators combined Bauhaus and other European models with insights modeled themselves directly on these pioneering efforts (at least not of progressive education to form new models of architectural educa- consciously), black and white institutions both took inspiration from the tion. Joseph Hudnut,

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