The Progressive movement was an educational phenomenon, embracing industrial training, agricultural education, and social education as well as the new techniques of instruction advanced by educational theorists. John Dewey believed that democratic freedom was both the cause and the expression of the fullest possible realization of human potentialities. Further, he believed that democracy must be both a way of life and a habit of mind, as well as a moral standard for personal conduct. Key points of the movement were that children learn best in those experiences in which they have a vital interest and that modes of behavior are most easily learned by actual performance. The progressives believe that education must be a continuous reconstruction of living experience based on activity directed by the child. The recognition of individual differences was also considered crucial. Progressive education opposed formalized authoritarian procedure and fostered reorganization of classroom practice and curriculum as well as new attitudes toward individual students. Deweys Proponents and Influenced MovementsLed by Dewey, progressive educators opposed a growing national movement that sought to separate academic education for the few and narrow vocational training for the masses. During the 1920s, when education turned increasingly to "scientific" techniques such as intelligence testing and cost-benefit management, progressive educators insisted on the importance of the emotional, artistic, and creative aspects of humans. After the Depression began, a group of politically progressive educators, led by George Counts, dared schools to "build a new social order" and published a provocative journal called The Social Frontier to advance their "reconstructionist" critique of laissez faire Capitalism. Similar pedagogical methods were also instituted in many of the schools of Europe.William H. Kilpatrick was a notable proponent of Dewys teachings and he dil...
