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Man and His Changing Society: The Textbooks of Harold Rugg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Elmer A. Winters
Elmer A. Winters*
Affiliation:
Department of Junior-Senior High School Education at Wisconsin State University, Eau Claire
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Extract

The establishment of the Lincoln School of Teachers College at Columbia University in September 1917 was a reaction against the rigid educational practices of the time. The school developed from the ideas of Charles W. Eliot and Abraham Flexner, who were deeply concerned with the conservative philosophy and lock-step methods of education practiced in the existing schools and who advocated reform of these practices. The publication of Eliot's Changes Needed in Secondary Education and Flexner's A Modern School had influenced the General Education Board under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Mrs. Willard Straight to recommend to Teachers College that an institution be established that would incorporate the proposed ideas. Both Eliot and Flexner were extremely interested in what was being taught in the schools, feeling that tradition rather than individual or social needs were governing what was included in the curriculum. The General Education Board, in a series of meetings with representatives of Teachers College, convinced them of the value of participating in such an undertaking, and agreement was announced in May 1916. The agreement specified that the proposed modern school be a “laboratory for the working out of an elementary and secondary school curriculum, which shall eliminate obsolete material and endeavor to work up in usable form, materials adapted to the needs of modern living.” The General Education Board agreed to underwrite the annual deficit incurred by the school, and instruction began in September 1917. The Lincoln School opened with a staff of twenty-five and an enrollment of one hundred sixteen in the first five grades and grew rapidly to a staff of over seventy and an enrollment of over five hundred. As had been expected, there was originally great difficulty in finding teaching materials as they had to be developed to fit the philosophy of the school, but contrary to Flexner's expressed fears, there was little difficulty in finding teachers for the enterprise.

Type
The New Democracy III
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , Winter 1967 , pp. 493 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © 1967 by New York University 

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References

Notes

1. Cremin, Lawrence A. Shannon, David A., and Evelyn Townsend, Mary, A History of Teachers College Columbia University (New York: Columbia University Press, 1954), p. 110. See also Harold O. Rugg and Ann Shumaker, The Child Centered School (New York: World Book Company, 1928), p. 50.Google Scholar

2. Eliot, Charles W. Changes Needed in American Secondary Education (New York: General Education Board, 1916).Google Scholar

3. Flexner, Abraham A Modern School (New York: General Education Board, 1916).Google Scholar

4. Ibid., pp. 5, 8; Eliot, op. cit., pp. 6, 7, 9.Google Scholar

5. Cremin, op. cit., p. 110.Google Scholar

6. Ibid.; also Harold O. Rugg, That Men May Understand (New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1941), p. 190, n.Google Scholar

7. Cremin, op. cit., p. 110.Google Scholar

8. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 190. The Yearly Reports of the Director of the Lincoln School also gives a detailed breakdown of the yearly enrollment.Google Scholar

9. Cremin, op. cit., p. 111.Google Scholar

10. Rugg, Harold O. Foundations for American Education (New York: World Book Company, 1947), p. 559.Google Scholar

11. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 186.Google Scholar

12. Ibid., pp. 187-88.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., p. 188.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p. 193.Google Scholar

15. Letter from John R. Clark to the author, October 6, 1966.Google Scholar

16. Undergraduate and graduate transcripts furnished the author from Dartmouth and the University of Illinois.Google Scholar

17. Teachers College Bulletins, School of Education Announcements for the period 1920 to 1951. Russell Library, Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar

18. Willing, Matthew ‘The Value of an Experimental School,” School and Society (May 15, 1926). See also Rugg, Foundations for American Education, p. 567.Google Scholar

19. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 191.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., pp. 195-204. Part II of the Twenty-Second Yearbook, The National Society for the Study of Education (Bloomington, Ind.: 1923), outlines Rugg's ideas on the social studies.Google Scholar

21. Rugg, That Men May Understand, pp. 194–95.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., p. 195. See also Part II of the Twenty-Second Yearbook, NSSE, pp. 187-191.Google Scholar

23. “How Shall We Reconstruct the Social Studies Curriculum?” Historical Outlook, XII, No. 5 (May 1921), 184-89.Google Scholar

24. “Needed Changes in Committee Procedures for Reconstructing the Social Studies,” Elementary School Journal, XXI, No. 9 (May 1921), 688-702.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., p. 692.Google Scholar

26. Part II of the Twenty-Second Yearbook, NSSE, p. 188.Google Scholar

27. Part II of the Twenty-Sixth Yearbook, National Society for the Study of Education (Bloomington, Ind.: 1927), p. 3.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., p. 3, n.Google Scholar

29. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 205.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., p. 206.Google Scholar

31. Taped interview with Earle Underwood Rugg, Greeley, Colo., May 5, 1966.Google Scholar

32. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 206. Also interviews with Earle U. Rugg, May 5, 1966, and Neal Billings, Milwaukee, Wis., March 30, 1966.Google Scholar

33. Rugg, Harold O. Building a Science of Society for the Schools (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1934), p. 10.Google Scholar

34. Rugg, That Men May Understand, pp. 207–8.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., p. 208.Google Scholar

36. Interviews with Earle U. Rugg, May 5, 1966, and Laurance F. Shaffer, New York, December 20, 1966.Google Scholar

37. Jo Montgomery Gambrill, Experimental Curriculum-Making in the Social Studies (Philadelphia: McKinley Publishing Company, 1924), p. 12. Gambrill was then Associate Professor of History at Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., pp. 14-16.Google Scholar

39. Social Science Pamphlets, First and second editions are on file in the Russell Library, Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar

40. Rugg, That Men May Understand, pp. 210–11.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., p. 212.Google Scholar

42. “Social Reconstruction Through Education,” Progressive Education, Volume IX, No. 8, Volume X, No. 1, January 1933.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

44. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 216.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., pp. 210-16.Google Scholar

46. Ibid., pp. 213-14.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., p. 218.Google Scholar

48. Rugg, Earle U. was a student of William C. Bagley; Hyman Meltzer, a student of E. S. Evenden. Harold Rugg directed all research.Google Scholar

49. See Notes 23-28.Google Scholar

50. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 219.Google Scholar

51. See, for example, Rugg to Ely, November 19, 1924, Richard T. Ely Papers (Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin State Historical Society). The same letter appears in a number of other collections.Google Scholar

52. Hockett, John A. The Determination of Major Social Problems of American Life (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1927).Google Scholar

53. Meltzer, Hyman Children's Social Concepts (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1925).Google Scholar

54. Billings, Neal A Determination of Generalizations Basic to the Social Studies Curriculum (Baltimore: Warwick and York, 1929).Google Scholar

55. Rugg, Earle U. Curriculum Studies in the Social Sciences and Citizenship (Greeley: Colorado State Teachers College, Tribune-Republican Publishing Company, 1928).Google Scholar

56. Mathews, Chester O. The Grade Placement of Curriculum Materials in the Social Studies (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1926).Google Scholar

57. Shaffer, Laurence F. Children's Interpretations of Cartoons (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1930).Google Scholar

58. Rugg, Harold O. and Hockett, John A., Objective Studies in Map Locations (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1926).Google Scholar

59. Washburne, John N. “An Experimental Study of Various Graphic, Tabular and Textual Methods of Presenting Quantitative Material,” Journal of Educational Psychology, September-October 1927.Google Scholar

60. Washburne, John N. “The Use of Questions in Social Science Material,” Journal of Educational Psychology, May 1929.Google Scholar

61. Shaffer, Laurence F. “A Learning Experiment in Social Studies,” Journal of Educational Psychology, December 1927.Google Scholar

62. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 221.Google Scholar

63. Ibid., p. 222.Google Scholar

64. Rugg, Building a Science of Society for the Schools, p. 11; see also Appendix B.Google Scholar

65. Rugg, That Men May Understand, p. 223.Google Scholar

66. Interviews with Mr. Henry Halvorson and John Kenerson, Boston, Massachusetts, December 20-21, 1966.Google Scholar

67. The twelve pamphlets were combined into six volumes of over six hundred pages each and published under the series title Man and His Changing Society. The individual volumes were as follows: Vol. I, An Introduction to American Civilization, 1929; Vol. II, Changing Civilizations in the Modern World, 1930; Vol. III, A History of American Civilization, 1930; Vol. IV, A History of American Government and Culture, 1931; Vol. V, An Introduction to the Problems of American Culture, 1931; Vol. VI, Changing Governments and Changing Cultures, 1932. The entire series was revised under new titles starting in 1937.Google Scholar

68. Rugg, That Men May Understand, pp. 223–24.Google Scholar

69. Sales figures furnished the author by Dr. Ronald Edgerton, Social Studies Editor, Ginn and Company, Boston, November 22, 1965.Google Scholar

70. Ibid. Google Scholar

71. Interview with Mr. Frank Moran, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11, 1966.Google Scholar

72. Rugg, Building a Science of Society for the Schools, p. 29.Google Scholar

73. Rugg, That Men May Understand, pp. 40–47.Google Scholar

74. Graham, Patricia A History of the Progressive Education Association, 1919-1955 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Russell Library, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1964). Mark Phillips, The Seven Arts and Harold Rugg (unpublished Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1961). Mary Louise Seguel, The Shaping of a Field of Specialization, Curriculum Making: A Critical Study of Selected Writings of Charles and Frank McMurry, Franklin Bobbitt, W. W. Charters, Harold Rugg, Hollis Caswell and John Dewey, (Doctoral dissertation, Russell Library, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1964), Kenneth J. Simpson, The Rugg Textbook Controversy (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1966).Google Scholar