Evening star., 1948-09-21
Progressive Education Defended

As former classroom teacher, more re-
Gently professor of education and at pre-
sent full time parent and comparatively
new resident of the District area have been
very interested in the letters and news items
in The Star concerning education. Both the
news items and the letters indicate a strong
tendency on the part Of parents to assume
that progressive ideals in education are re-
sponsible for mental softening, lack Of dis
cipline and inadequate accomplishment. Es-
pecially they lament lack OF mastery OF
the three RS.
Genuine progressive education, when we'll
understood by teacher and student, Is
much more rigorous, thoughtful and thorough
discipline than the traditional fact-learning
which prevailed in the schools which most OF
us attended. In addition, it works much more
intelligently for the development of individuals
who are better poised Intellectually and emo
tionally and therefore more able to attack
and solve their own problems.
The progressive education movement, like
many other reform movements, has suffered
seriously from the tendency of many who do
not understand it (and who often are funda-
mentally unsympathetic to IT. to Jump on the
bandwagon. This has produced very un-
fortunate results. For example, when the
wisdom of learning the multiplication tables
as separate isolated facts rightly was ques-
toned, many teachers nisconstrued this ques-
tioning to mean that they need not be learned.
This is not the case. What is meant Is that
the information and skils which we need
to live effectively should be learned in the
process OF living effectively rather than in
prearranged and predigested logical manner
often without meaning to the learner Logical
arrangement is important, but it Is much
more meaningful when 1t Is achieved by the
learner as the natural outcome Of summa-
rizing his individual leanings. Well-arranged
learning achieved in this way is a much more
rigorous mental and social discipline than
rote memorization.
Personal Teaching Experience Cited.
I taught for several years in some Of the
best so-called traditional schools Of our country
some with national reputation. My stu
dents did not always come to me highly skilled
in those segments Of the three RS which the
course Of study and their report cards indi-
Gated that they had mastered Nor. I con-
fess, did they all leave my classes letter per.
feet in the use OF the skills which tried to
teach
I also have taught in so-ealled progress
sive schools, likewise well-recognized for their
achievements, and have taught in universe
ties which attempted to train teachers to direct
a more liberalizing kind of education than
they themselves had had. will concede that
many students in progressive schools, like
many students in traditional schools, are
not always skillful in the mastery Of the three
RS. We often forget that no school, pro-
gressive or traditional, is entirely free from
inadequate teachers and Indifferent students
Targets for criticism can be found In any
situation.
This contrast in personal experience leaves
no doubt in my mind that both students and
teachers in progressive school situation work
harder, learn more, have more awareness Of
the significance of what they learn, and emerge
as better disciplined, better balanced. more
effective individuals than when the focus and
central purpose of education Is the three RS.
per Sc.
Educational research supports my own expe-
rience. The Eight Year Study, otherwise known
as the Thirty School Experiment, was designed
to measure the relative merits of progressive
and traditional purposes and procedures In
dividual students in progressive high schools
we're statistically matched with individual stu
dents of comparable background and ability In
traditional schools Detailed and comprehen-
sive records of these students in both types
of schools were compiled. A significant result
is that the students of the progressive schools
at least equalled and often excelled their ira
ditionally educated counterparts in academic
achievement in college and university A more
significant outcome Is that the more the pro-
gressive school deviated from the traditional
curriculum, the higher the scores which its
students made on tests of subject matter and
skills in comparison to the scores made by
their traditionally educated counterparts on
the same tests. But the really significant re-
suit is that, in followup studies the graduates
of the progressive schools were found to be
engaging in more community activities, were
more concerned about general human welfare
and were better able to handle their own
social and emotional problems.
"Progressiveness" Defined as Criticism.
Such outwardly visible items as seating
ARRANGEMENTS, trips to the zoo, the use or nom
use of textbooks, direct or indirect approach
to the three RS do not mark school as
progressive or traditional. Progressiveness Is
revealed in the kind and quality OF thinking IN
which student engages, about what ne reaos
and what he does school Is progressive 10
the extent that its teachers and Its students
are free to examine critically all aspects OF the
environment in which they live. are encouraged
to act upon the knowledge which they acnleVe'
engage in the process of achieving an lnte-
grated scheme of values which they understand
and by which they are learning to live are
omen minded about the values which they hold,
and are growing in courage and ability to revise
these values Such education cannot take
place without the three RS. Placing them IN
contributory perspective does not eliminate
them.
It is much harder to learn to be intelligently
critical of what one reads than to learn 10
read It is much harder to reconstruct tne
facts of history around their meaning 1or us
in 1948 than it is to memorize the faets. IL
is much harder to act in accordance with "na'
one knows than it is to know. Yet THESE are
among the purposes for which the genulheV
progressive educator works.
MILDRED CHAPLIN WELLS