With each year, the progressive education movement gains in importance in American education. During the past year, the desire among the progressives to state more adequately the philosophy on which the movement is based has increased. Challenged by those who accuse it of lacking social direction, and by the studies of the growth and development of children and youth, educators throughout the country are reexamining this philosophy. This is a decidedly healthy sign in a movement so vigorous.
The two concerns of educators, the individual and the world in which he lives, are woven as threads in this philosophy. Increasingly, it is being recognized that the kind of an education advocated by the progressives with its emphasis on planning, participation and freedom to think includes essential elements in democratic living. Likewise the studies of the nature and needs of children and youth have been adding scientific evidence to the progressive program. These two threads: the individual, and a society democratic in nature, make up component and complementary parts of the philosophy of the progressive education movement.
The progressive movement has been decidedly influenced by efforts to evaluate achievements by scientific instruments. For many years the progressive movement has not emphasized 'testing' because its aims have been considered intangible among testers. However, led by the Committee on Evaluation of the Progressive Education Association, testers have now created instruments which do evaluate growth in such so-called 'immeasurables' as: the social attitudes of individuals, the consistency of social thinking, the ability to generalize, the ability to think scientifically, and an appreciation of literature and the arts. This effort within the progressive movement has had a definite influence on the development of better teaching methods in progressive schools as well as providing proof of accomplishments to help convince those skeptics that still meet the question raised by those who have doubted the more flexible and informal progressive program.
An old concern of the progressives for the growth and development of the individual has been strengthened by recent studies. The committee on the Secondary School Curriculum of the Association has based its work in curriculum revision on a detailed study of the needs of youth in present society. This study has served as a basis for a series of documents on the organization of the curriculum to meet those needs. Its reports are not only influencing the secondary schools of America, but are basic to the growing general education movement among the liberal arts colleges. It has also served as a method of procedure to reconstruct the curriculum for the elementary school.
The experiments that are now going on in the secondary schools of Ohio, Michigan, and the Southern States stem from an original undertaking by the Progressive Education Association on school and college relationship. All show a decided swing toward the progressive program. A similar reconstruction among the colleges is already under way under the sponsorship of the American Council on Education. An experiment that touches all these fields under the auspices of the American Council of Education is concerned with the education of teachers for this new program.
The progressive movement is digging deeper in its concern for the development of personality and an understanding of human relations. An experimental series of books for parents, teachers, and youth have already been prepared by the Progressive Education Association and with the cooperation of the moving pictures and radio industries, additional teaching aids are now available to supplement these publications.
The progressive education movement is alive to the problems of relating social and community needs more closely to the educational program in the schools and other educational institutions in the community. This is a concern which is of great importance to progressive educators.
With each year the progressive education movement gains in importance and influence among educational circles both in America and in those countries of the world where democracy is on the firing line.
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