Each of the papers I am writing about for this week’s readings were written about progressive reform in schools during the 20th century. The final word in both Amy von Heyking’s “Selling progressive Education to Albertans” and Robert M. Stamp’s “Growing Up Progressive? Part I” seems to be that the progressive curriculum failed to be properly implemented in schools. Each paper expresses generally the same ideas as to why the progressive curriculum failed in the classroom: lack of funding, lack of properly educated and trained teachers, and teachers not wanting to stop using proven teaching methods. As Stamp states, the idea of the new curriculum was to move the focus from the content to the child.[1] Stamp proceeds throughout the paper to question whether what was occurring in the classrooms was actually progressive, noting how some children were held back while others skipped grades, something that still occurred while I was in elementary and likely still occurs today. [2] The final sentence in von Heyking’s paper nicely captures what occurred in Alberta: “Whether or not the educationalists were successful in transforming schools, they did succeed in portraying themselves as the real experts in education.”[3] These educationalists tried to convince parents to support the progressive curriculum, though, like in Ontario, it did not truly transfer to changes in the classroom. Paul Axelrod expresses more of the same ideas in his paper, stating that he does not remember experiencing what was supposed to be the progressive school system in Ontario.[4] Axelrod points to the population growth that occurred between 1946 and 1961 and the need to recruit teachers for the growing enrolment that followed as one of the reasons a progressive system was not implemented in Ontario.[5] Axelrod does point out that unconventional teaching methods were being used in Toronto to meet the needs of children, which may not fit the progressive model but is a move away from the traditional.[6] Overall, it seems that the progressive curriculum was not put in to practice despite the likelihood it would have been better for students.
References
Axelrod, Paul. “Beyond the Progressive Education Debate: A Profile of Toronto Schooling in the 1950s.” Historical Studies in Education 17, no.2 (Spring 2005): 227-241.
Heyking, Amy von. “Selling Progressive Education to Albertans, 1935-1953,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 340- 354.
Stamp, Robert M. “Growing Up Progressive? Part I: Going to Elementary School in 1940s Ontario.” Historical Studies in Education vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 187-98.
Citations
[1] Robert M. Stamp, “Growing up Progressive? Part I: Going to Elementary School in 1940s Ontario,” Historical Studies in Education vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 188.
[2] Stamp, “Growing up Progressive?,” 190
[3] Amy von Heyking, “Selling Progressive Education to Albertans, 1935-1953,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (EDs.), Schooling in Transition” Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2012, 351.
[4] Paul Axelrod, “Beyond the Progressive Education Debate: A Profile of Toronto Schoolings in the 1950s,” Historical Studies in Education 17, no.2 (Spring 2005): 228
[5] Axelrod, “Beyond the Progressive Education Debate,” 232.
[6] Axelrod, “Beyond the Progressive Education Debate,” 232.