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'Progressive' education has become somewhat traditional

March 19, 2016
It's been 100 years since John Dewey led the burgeoning progressive education movement in America, which did so much to shape and improve the American public school system. Sadly, by the mid-20th century, the ideals of progressive education were whittled away by the necessities of handling a rapidly growing school population, and a delight in all things deemed scientific and pragmatic. The Cold War era was one of rapid population growth, school consolidation and increasing political investment in policy, bureaucracy and standardization.
Today's champion of progressive education is Alfie Kohn. Ardently opposed to testing, rigid curriculum, competitive grade-based learning, canned curricula, unnecessary homework and more, Kohn is a prolific writer, lecturer and blogger — an excellent source for anyone interested in learning more about progressive education.
Progressive schools are not radical alternative schools. They are schools that rely upon the wisdom of philosophers from Aristotle on, as well as the educational research of the past two centuries. A wealth of data is available to support the educational efficacy of small progressive schools.
Progressive schools focus on the whole child, building community, collaborative learning, social justice, intrinsic motivation, deep understanding and student mentoring. These qualities are achieved through developmental, inventive, project-based multi-age learning, where students are active participants in shaping curriculum and discourse. Every good teacher integrates these principles into their pedagogy, and it makes a difference. How well the school environment and its structure supports the application of these principles is a good measure of a school program.
Oscar Wilde said, “Moderation in all things, including moderation.” While I am not always moderate, and I believe that sometimes we should act up, speak out and be different, I am beginning to think we all should put a little more effort into moderating our lives. We are a polarized society, as evidenced by a presidential race that runs the gamut from social democracy to evangelical neo-conservatism, with candidates who speak to each other in ways that would not be allowed on a playground.
Our schools are becoming polarized as well. Struggling urban schools are now competing with charter schools like the Success Academy in New York City, which offer a militaristic regimen for even the youngest students, dressed in drab uniforms, sitting with spines erect, providing correct answers on demand. Yes, their scores are up, but the famous viral video of the angry Success Academy teacher scolding her student pales in comparison to the picture of her uniformed children, motionless in a classroom scene that would make Kim Jong-un proud.
Now, the small progressive schools that carry the banner of creative intelligent learning and over a century of tradition are sitting in the middle looking out at the Common Core, the NYC high schools with over 4,000 students each, discipline-based learning programs and a growing trend toward privatized education. Increasingly, it feels like we do our work and watch the world around us in a constant vortex of re-visioning.
John Dewey is too often left behind in the study of education, perhaps too dated for modern tastes, but Alfie Kohn is not. For 150 years, the virtues of progressive education have been researched, taught and promoted. So, it's ironic that the so-called modern progressive education turns out to be the traditional time-honored approach, while what we call traditional education has expended its capital on trying to modernize, only to move further and further away from the heart of good education.
If the progressive educational model sounds good to you, join us at our next open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13, to learn more about our school, which after 26 years, has become a bit of a tradition.
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