Jeffrey Mirel, University of Michigan
Paedagogica Historica, Volume 39, No. 4
August 2003
This informative paper presents both a brief history of progressive education and a summary of New American Schools' reform efforts. It builds on Mirel's 2001 Fordham study (see http://www.edexcellence.net/detail/news.cfm?news_id=44), which showed the revolutionary ambitions that birthed NAS in the early 1990s evolving into commonplace reform efforts. Now, however, his point is less to criticize NAS and more to provide a lesson on the basics of progressive education. Mirel argues that scholars rarely agree on the impacts of progressive reforms partly because they can't even agree on which reforms are progressive. Thus this paper provides a nice synopsis of the major Deweyite tenets. It also explains the seductive appeal of progressive rhetoric and the failings of child-centered learning. A classic example "of the triumph of hope over experience," progressivism remains popular amongst educators despite ample evidence of its failings. Though it's easy to grasp the importance of engaging the student and developing critical thinking skills, even Dewey himself did not suggest these could occur without a strong foundation in content. Sadly, Mirel's fine paper is unavailable except to subscribers, but you can order single copies at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00309230.html.
