Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 5-1974 The politics of education -- An analysis of selected cases and controversies in American education Lawrence Robert Stoffel Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Education Commons, and the Political Science Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stoffel, Lawrence Robert, "The politics of education -- An analysis of selected cases and controversies in American education" (1974). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1964. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.1963 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Lawrence Robert Stoffel for the Master of Science in Political Science presented May 13, 1974. Title: The Politics of Education-- An Analysis of Selected Cases and Controversies in American Education. APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Burton W. Onstine, Chairman This study compiles a series of cases and controversies in American education, from the popularization of public education in the mid-1800's to the present, and then reviews them to determine scholarly political aspects, common themes, and trends. It then applies the idet:ltified themes to a model of "the school as a responsive political system" fashioned after David Easton's "Dynamic Respons~ Model of a Political Systemll to demonstrate the operative nature of the 't'~mes., The paper reviews the plight of Negro education in Alabama after the Civil War until 1901. It discusses accommodation in the realm of education as· the United States began its massive move toward industrialization and the corresponding move toward child-centered education. It discusses controversies in the reform era of the 1920's and the turmoil to the educational system in the cold war period after World War II. It looks at cases involving sectarian to non-sectarian education of the 1800's and the anguish of disappointed educators with the trends of public education and the Progressive Education Association in the Great Depression period. Finally, the paper reviews cases involving charges of indoctrination against public schools, recent controversies (since 1954) in integration and segregation, and cases involving modern educational alternatives. The paper identifies three themes consistently present in educational controversy: 1) the desire of the people to have all children successfully master the basic fundamentals of reading, writ- ing and arithmetic, 2) the desire of the people to have the schools emphasize moral and spiritual values which are similar to their own, and 3) the opposition of the people to what was believed by them to be an attempt by the school to foster ,some dimly defined kind of socialistic theory which would replace individualism with group goals and competition with cooperation. The paper then analyzes the cases and situations with respect tQ the identified themes. The paper uses the framework developed by David Easton to construct a simple framework from which to view the three identified themes. It shows the three themes to ~e the true demands behind a variety of issues which create controversy in education. Briefly, the pap~r then reviews the adapt ion of the educational system to the demands. Finally, the paper concludes that lithe school" will persist as a viable political system if it can accurately analyze the basic - nature of the issues confronting it, in terms of the three identified themes. THE POLITICS OF EDUCATION -- AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CASES AND CONTROVERSIES IN AMERICAN EDUCATION by LAWRENCE ROBERT STOFFEL A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in POLITICAL SCIENCE Portland St~te University 1974 TO THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH: The members of the committee approve the thesis of Lawrence Robert Stoffel presented May 13, 1974. Burton W. Onstine, Chairman APPROVED: of Political Science May 17, 1974 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to express his appreciation to the members of the committee who read this thesis, Dr. Jim F. Heath, Dr. 'Walton Manning, Mr. Merle Wright and to the chairman of the committee, Dr. Burton Onstine. Comments by the members at various points of develop­ ment of the thesis were invaluable. Also, the encouragement given by the members at various stages in the research and development of the thesis is deeply appreciated. The writer is indebted to his wife Lenore for her continual understanding and patience without which this paper might not have been possible. And to the new arrival in the household, David, whose good humor allowed completion of the paper. His competition for use of the typewriter is undoubtedly an underlying reason for the timely completion of this paper. A special thanks must be given to Mrs. Marie Brown of the Graduate Studies Office who was so often helpful with interpretations and guidance. The writer finally wishes to express his thanks to Barbara Wieg~le, whose persistence in typing put the study into a proper form. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • . • . • . • • . • • . • • . • . • • • . iii LIST OF FIGURES • • . v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION • 1 II SELECTED CASES AND CONTROVERSIES 7 The New Black Citizen in Education • . • • 12 Industrialization -- The Nation Adapts 20 An Experiment in Progressivism . • . • • 23 From Reform to Depression • 32 The Red Scare -- Post-World War II . 41 The Roots of Public Education • 53 Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order? • • 58 The School-Charges of Indoctrination • . .• 62 Black and White Education -- Separate and Unequal 69 Educational Alternatives -- Threat to Tradition. 76 III ENDURING THEMES IN AMERICAN EDUCATION . • 83 Analysis • 85 The School as a Responsive Political System • 118 / IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . • 133 Summary and Conclusions 133 Recommendations • • . • · 144 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • . • . • • . 150 LIST OF FIGURES PAGE FIGURE 1 A Dynamic Response Model of a Political System 4 2 The School as a Responsive Political System 120 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Recent reading by this student in political science courses has aroused a significant interest in politics and education. It was therefore determined that a way would be sought to develop some plan to further this interest in a scholarly pursuit of this general topic. It appears a truism that almost any student who approaches a scholarly topic of a general nature in almost any field of American life finds so many intermingling entanglements which cross traditional subject matter dis~iplines that one is forced to choose some small aspect and explore it in depth or to follow some general theme and hunt for common threads of principles, concepts, or actions. Where politics and education are concerned, the first approach is adequate to explain current topics or trends in education, but it is unable to offer the long-term, time-proven analysis that a historical case-study approach might offer. If, for example one considers the possible political aspects of academic freedom of the classroom teacher in a public school setting, he 'is immediately confronted with a complex situation which may be reported in various sources to different degrees. Such a situation is undoubtedly not recorded 1n any cons1stent or comprehensive publication or media for that express purpose. A typical situation in the schools might occur 2 in the following manner. First a teacher comes under criticism from some public or professional group. The initial account may be re­ ported by the local media but as time passes reporting may become less and less specific. The final disposition of such a case may be re­ ported with little detail making in-depth political analysis of the case nearly impossible. Discussion of this situation can be verified with almost any educator who has followed controversy in education at the state or national levels. At the local level one can observe many cases over the years in which teachers have been discharged with wide­ spread publicity and then little or no further mention of the case in the media. This can be noted locally in a recent case in a Portland high school in which a teacher was discharged as well as in the case of a Eugene, Oregon teacher. When one multiplies this by the thousands of cases which occur across the nation and considers the lack of a concentrated and accurate source which compiles data, one becomes aware that any given research effort might result in a superficial inquiry almost at random into a complexity of individual issues. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have provided defense assistance to cases involving discharge of teachers where freedom of the teacher was an issue. Records of these cases are available but they obviously cover only a fraction of those ca~es which have occurred and are often reported in a manner which reflects the activities and views of the professional group, with little concern for other significant aspects. These facts, however are not con­ vincingly persuasive in arriving at a conclu~ion that such a study is not productive because of the very volume which must exist and the 3 lack of any clear-cut method of assessing the data. This problem, although differ~t to handle in any traditional fashion, may be somewhat reduced with the aid of a 'systems approach to political analysis as described in David Easton's, A Systems Approach of Political Life.l Figure 1 shows t~e model that Easton uses to de- scribe a political system of a dynamic nature. It recognizes the ever changing environment and the resultant adjustment that occurs with- in the political syste~. Briefly, it sees demands and support for a given system in a given environment and transforms them into outputs through a process which he calls conversion.