Pedagogical Progressivism Essay

The Progressive Era occurred between the years 1890 and 1920. During this time, cities attracted millions of immigrants in search for jobs from the rising industrial economy. Industrial cities like Chicago and New York experienced rapid growth in population. According to Rury, immigrants migrating into the United States were from European countries that included Western, Eastern, and Southern Europe. Each immigrant from the European countries brought their own unique culture to the United States. The diverse cultures lived amongst each other in society. The different cultures were also together in the educational system. Schools had to adapt to the changing cultures that were occurring in the classrooms. Schools had to invent “new institutional

However, many people disagreed with the theory. Traditional educators argued that the lessons taught in classes did not teach the fundamental skills needed. Rury explains that the traditional educators thought that students that were not required to memorize information constantly, were supposedly not fluent in subjects, leading to historical events not being known to grammatical errors in writing. Another issue with pedagogical progressivism was the intellect of the homes that the children were living. Pedagogical progressivism was best suited for middle to upper class families due to the intellect level and income. Those families had jobs that required higher intellect and thus the home was knowledgeable, the student can relate the information that they learned in school to their homes. With lower class families, which included immigrants of lower intellect and less money, The student could not relate the information that was taught in class to the household. Criticism also came with the freedom with of too much freedom for students. American parents during the early twentieth century believed that traditional structured control on

Administrate progressivists developed a theory to adapt to the increase in business. They believed in a system where students would learn the necessary skills for future employment in the factories. Administrative progressivists did not necessarily care about the students, but they strived for a system that ran smoothly and produced effective workers for the factories. Rury states that the administrative progressivists worked to “adapt schools to the rapid evolution of urban society, especially the increasingly complex labor market” (Rury 150). The administrative progressivists were motivated to create an educational system that was favorable for both the businesses and the students. The businesses were benefitted by the administrative progressivist theory because they were getting supplied quality workers to work in the factories. The students benefited from the administrative progressivist theory because they were taught the skills for the future job in which they would eventually be employed to. The path in which a student were to follow to get a job was based on the social role in which they were in. Rury states that, “differentiation of roles was associated with widening division of labor, and with specialization in the labor market and professions…. schools could help make specialization and differentiation function more rationally and smoothly, by preparing individuals for