Progressive Education and Social Reconstructions

Prominent Philosophy.

In the 1930s many intellectuals shifted from political liberalism toward more-radical alternatives. Before the Depression the dominant educational philosophy in the United States was the liberalism of progressive education; in the 1930s many prominent progressive educators turned toward a more radical philosophy known as social reconstructionism. Social reconstructionism urged teachers to take an active role in advocating social reform. Some social reconstructionists urged teachers to participate in socialist and communist labor organizing. Other social reconstructionists urged teachers to instruct their students in the follies of capitalism. Almost all social reconstructionists believed that the school was the one institution in American life capable of rapid, yet nonviolent, change. While social reconstructionism was widely publicized in the 1930s, it was never a broad movement among educators, and it had...

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