Education and Societalism
Societalism, the value structure of utopianism, was not limited to the social sciences and our growing bureaucracy; it had also entered into our educational system. Once again it was professionalism, the attempt to make education a science, which led to the entry of the values of societalism in the educational system.
Throughout the 1800's America's educational system had remained basically unchanged. Students in grade schools were taught the traditional subjects, reading, writing and arithmetic, while high school stressed academic courses such as science, history and foreign language. The preferred method of teaching was rote memorization, and there was little interaction between student and teacher. It was believed that with these subjects, combined with strict teaching, would teach children mental discipline.
Then in the late 1800's and early 1900's, Progressivism began to affect our educational system. Progressive educators such as John Dewey came to the conclusion that the traditional curriculum and methods of teaching were no longer appropriate for the situation at the time. The progressives believed that practical skills needed to function in the modern world needed to be taught instead of focusing on mental discipline, and theorized that children learned better if they enjoyed the subject and it was explained to them, instead of simply being forced to memorize information from a text book or teacher's lecture. Now, these progressives played an important part in the evolution of our educational system. They pushed for expanded elementary and high school enrollment, and introduced the idea of hands-on study in many important fields. I have to say, much of what they suggested I think was beneficial and is now an important part of our school system; they had many good ideas.
However these educators accepted the idea that individualism no longer suited modern society, and so should not be a part of student's education. Instead of learning to control their own lives, the educators believed students would be better off learning to function in the increasingly interrelated world; the practical education they envisioned was teaching students how to get along with others and function well in a group. Societalism had become a part of educational theory.
This belief in societalism over individualism had an effect on which subjects the progressives thought should be stressed in school. Because mental discipline was no longer necessary, the traditional subjects received less attention.
Instead functional skills and group interaction should be stressed, information the students would be able to but to use in society.
The ideas of these progressive educators are the start of professionalism in education, the attempt to examine the process of learning rationally so that our ability to teach might improve; education, like many other fields, was becoming a science.
By the 1920's, professionalism had been embraced by many of the leading teachers colleges in America. Soon these colleges were turning out teachers and administrators schooled in the ideas of progressive education and the values of societalism. Societalism began to spread slowly throughout our educational system, as new curriculums were introduced into schools around the country by professional educators. So, in effect, societalism had gained entry into our educational system before "Rational Socialism" worked its way into our government. However, in the mid forties the federal government began to play a much larger role in our educational system, which greatly increased the penetration of societalism.
The government began creating a national school curriculum based upon the values of societalism. The purpose of this new national curriculum, called "Life Adjustment Education", was to allow schools to point students in a direction which would help them fit into society. Schools were to make use of tests being developed at the time by the social sciences, which were thought to scientifically measure people's aptitudes and potential. The tests were to be administered throughout a child's schooling to allow educators to anticipate where in society the child would likely wind up. High school would then be used to point the child in the appropriate direction, preparing a few for college and giving the rest the skills they would need to operate in society at their particular level.
This is the utopian model of education; the individual is just a part in a larger social organism, and will only be happy if he or she is able to fit into the appropriate place in the larger whole. No child should be asked to decide where that might be, because to ask them to do so would only be the cause of turmoil. Instead experts, making use of their specialized skill and knowledge, would decide for the children. Experts would protect children form the cruelty of having to choose, and in pointing them toward their appropriate station in life would create a more harmonious society.
Professional educators weren't always able to implement these collectivists ideas without a fight. Parents around the country in the forties and fifties, alarmed about the education their children were receiving, revolted against these progressive curriculums. In some situations they were able to slow down its spreading influence, however they were never able to stop it completely. Professional educators were increasingly backed by the power of government, as more and more states came to require school employees to have special training and accreditation which could only be had at teachers colleges.
The Life Adjustment Curriculum and others based on the values of societalism had a profound effect on our educational system. Traditional subjects, such as history and philosophy, received less and less attention in the belief that they were no longer needed by most children. Teaching of interpersonal communications, how to get along with others and work well in groups, received ever greater stress, because these were the skills which children would truly need to be able to fit into society. In effect, liberal arts was replaced with applied societalism.
The movement away from the liberal arts was part of the more generalized movement away from academics as a mental discipline. Academic proficiency was thought to be of little use to children once they were out of school; what mattered was their ability to get along with people, and high academic standards seemed only to keep schools from teaching this needed skill. Holding a child back a grade for failing to progress academically would take them out of their group and hinder their ability to get along well with others, and eventually also hinder their ability to fit into society. The task of helping children to fit in seemed too important to be sacrificed for poor grades.
If a person has the attitude that they can accomplish something, then they will at least try and will very possibly succeed. If, on the other hand, a person does not believe they can accomplish something, then in all likelihood they will not even try. Children are very good at picking up the attitudes of adults. If an adult believes that a child can't accomplish something, the child will pick up on that and probably not even try. At the start of the book, I talked about belief as a reflection of possibility. Well, if a child does not believe that something is possible, then for all practical purposes it is not. The Life Adjustment Curriculum places quite a bit of emphasis on tracking, on using tests to decide at what level a child will fit into society. Essentially, this serves to lower a teachers expectations of many students. The tests indicate which students will be suitable to go on to college and those that won't. It is inevitable that this split affects how teachers view students from each group. Those that are expected to go to college, the teacher will also expect to do better in class. Conversely the teacher will expect less from those students not expected to go to college, and so they will be asked to accomplish less. Tracking becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The purpose of our educational system had changed. No longer was it giving children the knowledge and ability to think for themselves and so be free. Instead it was finding them a place in society where they would be happy.
Next: The Course of Utopianism