Volume 49, Number 6 · April 11, 2002
Too Many Choices?
By Howard Gardner
The Other Boston Busing Story: What's Won and Lost Across the Boundary Line
by Susan E. Eaton
Yale University Press, 293 pp., $26.95
Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement
by Mitchell L. Stevens
Princeton University Press, 228 pp., $24.95
A century ago, fewer than 10 percent of young Americans went to high school and only 2 percent received degrees. Except for the handful who received a 'classical education' in Latin and Greek, most students simply learned reading, writing, and arithmetic in the proverbial one-room schoolhouse before going to work in factories or on farms. As immigrants poured in between 1880 and 1920, schools emerged as the institutions that introduced English, transmitted a sense of American history and government, and made possible assimilation into the melting pot. In the 1920s and 1930s, progressive practices—inspired by the writings of the philosopher-educator John Dewey—arose as a counterforce. Progressive schools devoted greater attention to the child's interests, offered electives, and tilted the curriculum toward social studies. Yet by mid-century, the influence of progressive education—which had rarely infiltrated the American heartland—had waned.
Review, 4497 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |