The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-20
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THERE is a real educational crisis in the
l. United States today. Perhaps never before
in our history were our educators so sharply
separated into two divergent camps
On the one side we have the timid and docile
gooSe-steppers who consciously unconscious
ly, would prevent education from coming to
grips with the realities of our present age. They
thus make revolution the only available and
practical mode of achieving social advance In
the other camp led by men like Counts. Beard.
Rugg Dewey, Fitzpatrick and others, We find
those who are working for better day through
enlightened progress. They would avert revolu-
ton through making it unnecessary as means
Of achieving a civilized social order.
An intelligent perspective for viewing and
assessing the present educational crisis can be
obtained only by proper acquaintance with
the social ideals of the great American educa-
tors of the past. This information has just been
made available in an admirable book by Pro-
fessor Merle E. Curt of Smith College, entitled
The Social Ideas Of American Educa 'ors'
tScribner's). Professor Curti surveys the Ameri-
can educational scene from Horace Mann to
John Dewey and indicates the dominant no.
tons which influenced the outstanding Ameri-
can educators.
HORACE MANN in the first half of the nine
l. tenth century, deeply affected by the
democratic ideals and optimism of Jacksonian
democracy. He desired to open up educational
opportunities to all and so to direct educational
procedure as to eliminate the evils OF the grow
ing industrialism. Even more strenuously and
consistently devoted to universal education was
his contemporary Henry Barnard The reSpon-
sbility Of education in training for adequate citi
zenship under democracy was later aggressvely
urged by Francis Wayland Parker. Parker also
attempted to regenerate and invigorate the whole
spirit of American education.
In adapting mass education to the urban and
industrial age and the ethics of capitalism, the
leading role was played by William T. Harris,
who was as profoundly influenced by Hegel as
he was by the facts of the machine age and the
profit system He exerted a dominant infiu-
ence the structure and organization of
mass education in the latter part of the nine
teenth century.
The leavening and dynamic spirit of evolu-
! ton was brought into American education by
G. Stanley Hall of Clark University 1t is indica-
tive of educational progress in the last IS years
that Hall, when student at Williams College
about the time Of the American Civil War, had
to sneak off the college campus and read Darwin
by barn lantern in the COW stable OF friendly
farmer. Hall laid emphasis upon the fact that
the mind as well as the body must be studied
in the light of evolution. He thus founded sci
entifSc child study in this country More than
any one else in his generation, he linked up
education and scientific psychology.
NTILLIAM JAMES was the first American to
w systematic existing psychological knowl
edge but his educational theory was mainly
dgnified naturalization of the American indi-
vidualiSm and competitive spirit of the close of
the nineteenth century. This naturalization was
carried on in much more technical and sophisti-
Gated form by Edward Lee Thorndike of Co.
lumba University, Thorndike, in particular in
dicated the value Of psychology and education to
American business enterprise. But his emphasis
upon the Importance of educational measure
rnents and upon differences in mental capacity
in relation to education was of real and last
ing value.
Most influential of all personalities on Ameri-
can educational reform of the twentieth century
is John Dewey who gathered up the best in
the democratic educational tradition in the past
and restated it in the light of modern psychology
and educational science. To him we owe special
emphasis upon the notion of education as a lit
eral preparation for life and upon the value of
daring experimentation in educational procedure
Other current works of value in the field of
education are Young Wards Diary" edited by
Bernhard j. Stern (Putnam), the personal record
of Lester F. Ward, who might we'll have been
treated by Professor Curti, since he emphasized
more than any other man of his period the
possibilities of progress through education:
Guiding Your Child through the Formative
Years." by Winifred de Koh Emerson Books
"Psychoanalysis for Teachers and Parents" by
Anna Freud Emerson Books, and New Minds
for DID," by Esme Wingtield- Stratford (NIacNdil-
LAM.