The Golden Age of American Education - Part II / Progressive Education

The Golden Age of American Education - Part II By Lloyd Miles

As you may recall last week we posed the question, Was there a Golden Age of American Education? We traveled to Warrenville, Illinois, to ask that question of Dr. Peter S. Pierro, who actually lived and taught several levels of school during those days – roughly 1950 to 1990. He discussed that there were two separate American Education models at that time; the Traditional School and the Progressive School. Most of us grew up in the Traditional School which featured teacher-controlled classrooms; children sitting silently in rows of desks all learning the same facts; firm discipline; no talking without permission; memorizing facts such as the addition tables; taking tests; being retained (flunking) if you were “behind”, and so on.

Dr. Pierro is here with us again and I presume he will clue us in on the Progressive School and how it differed from the Traditional School. Good morning, it’s good to see you again. Is that on our agenda today?

Thanks for having me – I am enjoying this and I’ll do my best to enlighten you and your readers.

One more personal question. Today you’re wearing an Elmhurst University cap. I assume you taught there. But I noticed that yesterday you wore a World War II Veteran’s cap. This is November, 2023, just how old are you?

Oh, I’m so glad you asked. I’m the youngest of four brothers who served overseas during WWII. I have lost all of my brothers and a sister. I’m 97 years old. I began teaching in 1950 and became a college professor at what was then Elmhurst College in 1966. I later taught at SW Oklahoma State University, Langston University, and the University of Oklahoma.

You are looking and thinking very well for your age.

Thank you, but we’re not here to talk about me so I will pick up where I left off yesterday if I may. I started teaching at a “Progressive” school in Barrington, Illinois, in 1955. I was also working on my masters’ degree at Northern Illinois University. In my third year at Barrington, I wrote my masters’ degree thesis on my experience teaching individualized reading to my fourth grade class. But before I do that, I have to give you some background on the history and presence of the Progressive School.

The best guess at the beginning of “student-centered” learning goes back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Frederich Froebel, and Maria Montessori. The modern “student-centered education” can be traced back to the Laboratory School at the University Of Chicago led by John Dewey (1859-1952). The philosophy and methodology of the Laboratory School was greatly welcomed and became a strong change movement in England, the United States, and Finland. Much of that momentum was lost with the advent of WWII.

A significant organization in the postwar progressive movement was the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and among the leaders were Arthur Combs, Donald Snygg, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Earl Kelley, and Edward Amidon. A new field, Perceptual Psychology, was needed for a basis. I belonged to ASCD and was a member of a university Perceptual Psychology chapter. Children’s parents became more active with the creation of Parent-Teacher evaluation sessions - Barrington School District was one of the first to use them.

I had 29 children in my fourth grade class seated in separate desks around the room.. I scheduled each student to have three reading sessions per week with me - one on one. We went to our school library every week and each child checked out a book to be used as their “textbook”. Rather than using the fact-recall questions as used in most tests, especially in achievement tests, I was asking in-depth questions such as “How would you have dealt with that situation?” and we would have a good discussion with meaning..

We had class meetings - a planning session on Monday mornings; and an evaluation session (How did we do?) on Fridays. One Monday morning, I announced that we needed to have book reports written on their current books, you know, with the name of the author, title of the book, what did you like . . . You could hear the groans all the way down to the principal’s office. So I said, “O.K., I need to have some record on what you’re doing, So, up piped other possibilities, such as make a dust cover for your book, draw a cartoon based on an incident in the book, have an “interview” with the author, - I was writing these ideas on the board and soon we had 21 ways to report on a book.

I recall that Susie built a diorama to illustrate her book that featured a queen; Kevin made a display of model trucks and printed materials from his dad’s auto dealership after reading about trucks; and Roger brought in his baseball glove and bat and gave us a demonstration on how Lou Gehrig would have played according to his book.

Years later, while I was Curriculum Director at Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Junior High School, Marge Crawford, an outstanding Language Arts teacher, came in and said, “My kids are really negative about book reports. What can I do?” I handed her a copy of my “21 Ways to Report on a Book" and she said, “Hmmm!” Two weeks later she came in with a list of 66 ways to report on a book.

When I became Curriculum Director for the Plainfield K-12 School District, I gave this list to my Language Arts teachers. One day, Mrs. McArthur, at the Junior High School, called me at my office and said that I really had to come in that afternoon to see what was happening in her 6th hour class. So I stopped by. At the front of the room there was a table surrounded by six students. The leader of the group stood up and announced to the class, “We all have read National Velvet. Today we are taking the roles of the main characters. We have come today on Thanksgiving Day, 10 years after the end of the story in the book. We are going to have a conversation about what each of us has been doing during those years.” She asked each of the members to stand and introduce the character he or she was playing. They then sat down and began their conversation. I got goosebumps.

Another popular technique we used was The Instruction Unit. It actually is a research model and invites the learner to make the experience holistic and experiential. It also combines all the subjects in a natural way (which we have artificially compartmentalized as Spelling, Science, Math, etc.) so that all of the learning elements reinforce one another.

Some units are; The Best American Poets, The Trail of Tears, The History of Measurement, Our Town, the Aquarium-an Ecosystem. Some of the best units relate to what could be happening at the present time. For example, if it is the year of the Winter Olympics, there are terrific opportunities for Geography and Map Study.

Were you able to use your knowledge of ‘child-centered’ education after using it as a classroom teacher?

Yes, I was a Curriculum Director in three other school districts who wanted to have their children more involved in the learning process. And in teaching my college classes, I developed a student-centered individualized learning process.

You said that Progressive Education ended in 1990, what happened to it?

In 1985, our Secretary of Education wrote a book entitled “A Nation at Risk” with great misinterpretations of test scores. So, we have gone back to an achievement test - based education with comparing students on how they score on tests. England has also changed their education program - Finland has gone on with a student-based type education and is doing quite well.