Women Educators in the Progressive Era: The Women behind Dewey’s Laboratory School

245 Pages·2010·3.044 MB·English

by  Anne Durst (auth.)

Women Educators in the
Progressive Era
Women Educators in the
Progressive Era
The Women behind Dewey’s Laboratory
School
Anne Durst
WOMENEDUCATORSINTHEPROGRESSIVEERA
Copyright©AnneDurst,2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-61073-6
Allrightsreserved.
®inthe
Firstpublishedin2010byPALGRAVEMACMILLAN
UnitedStates-adivisionofSt.Martin’sPressLLC,175FifthAvenue,
NewYork,NY10010.
WherethisbookisdistributedintheUK,Europeandtherestofthe
World,thisisbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofMacmillanPublishers
Limited,registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,of
Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS.
PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabove
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ISBN 978-1-349-37654-4 ISBN 978-0-230-10995-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230109957
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Durst,Anne.
Womeneducatorsintheprogressiveera:thewomenbehind
Dewey’sLaboratorySchool/AnneDurst.
p. cm.
1. UniversityofChicago.UniversityElementarySchool.
2. Womeneducators—UnitedStates—History. 3. Education—
UnitedStates—Experimentalmethods. I. Title.
LD7501.C4C582010
371.10082(cid:2)0977311—dc22 2009050859
DesignbyIntegraSoftwareServices
Firstedition:July2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction:TheLaboratorySchoolCommunity 1
1 JohnDeweyandtheBeginningsoftheLaboratory
School 9
2 “VenturinginEducation”:FourLaboratorySchool
Teachers 25
3 The“UnionofIntellectualFreedomandCooperation”:
OrganizingtheLaboratorySchoolCommunity 45
4 TeachersasResearchers:DevelopingaCourseofStudy 69
5 TheLaboratorySchoolandtheContextofProgressive
EraExperimentation 97
6 ImplicationsoftheLaboratorySchoolExperiment 125
Notes 147
Bibliography 217
Index 235
Acknowledgments
I have been working happily on my study of the Laboratory School
teachersforclosetoadecade.Myfirstdebtofgratitude,amongmany,
istotheoriginalLaboratorySchoolcommunityfortheirwillingnessto
chartneweducationalterritory,andfortheirassiduousrecordkeeping
of this pioneering work. Not only did they write reports and publish
articles, they also wrote delightful letters. One of my greatest plea-
suresinthisprojecthasbeenmeetingseveraloftheteachers’relatives.
I met William Bardeen, grandson of Althea Harmer Bardeen, and
Mary Hill Swope, Rachel Abbott, and the Abbott children, descen-
dentsofMaryHillSwope.KevinSwopekindlysharedhisknowledge
of the Swope family in phone conversations, and David Swope com-
municated with me by email. These family members gave generously
of their time and memories and provided me with a living link to
these remarkable teachers. William Bardeen showed me the beautiful
album of photographs of the Bardeen family taken by the photogra-
pher Eva Watson Schutze, a friend of Althea Harmer Bardeen. Kevin
Swope sent me wonderful Hill and Swope family photographs. And
Mary Hill Swope informed me of a recent donation she made of her
grandmother’s letters—which turned out to be a crucial addition to
myresearch.
My study of the Laboratory School community has taken me to
various national archives. Remarkably, the family of Katherine and
Anna Camp saved decades of their letters, and Cornell University’s
DivisionofRareandManuscriptCollectionshasthreeofthefamily’s
collections of papers. Mary Hill Swope’s letters are held in Special
CollectionsattheUniversityofIllinoisatChicagoLibraryandinthe
Institute Archives and Special Collections at the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology Library. A small number of the letters of Althea
Harmer Bardeen, from a later period, are held at the University of
Wisconsin’sSteenbockLibraryintheCharlesR.BardeenPapers.The
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale holds the John Dewey
Papers,anditsCenterforDeweyStudieshaspainstakinglyeditedthe
philosopher’s letters, which are available in digital form. The official
recordsoftheLaboratorySchool,includingtheteachers’reports,are
viii Acknowledgments
held in the Special Collections Research Center, at the University of
Chicago Library. I have also visited the archives at Bentley Library
of the University of Michigan, Bryn Mawr College Library, Drexel
University Library, Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute of
Advanced Study, and Swarthmore College Library. I am grateful to
the librarians at all of these institutions, as their gracious help made
myvisitstotheirlibrariesbothpleasantandproductive.Theselibrari-
ansalwaysansweredmyemailinquiriesinatimelyandcarefulmanner,
as have the librarians at the archives I was unable to visit: the Case
Western Reserve University Archives, the Chautauqua Institution,
PrattInstitute,andtheWoodsHoleMarineBiologicalLaboratories.
Archivalcollectionsareessentialtothescholarofhistory;asimpor-
tant, to scholars in any field, is time to devote single-mindedly to
writing.IamverygratefultotheUniversityofWisconsin–Whitewater
for granting me a semester of research leave. My deep thanks go to
ChancellorRichardTelfer,ProvostChristineClements,DeansJeffrey
Barnett and Katharina Heyning, and Department Chairs Anthony
Truog and Anne Zarinnia. The entire Department of Educational
Foundations has been consistently supportive of my research, collab-
orating with Dean Barnett to offer me half-time research releases for
two semesters prior to my full time leave. Our departmental assis-
tant, Alicia Stone-Jackson, has helped me out in a number of ways,
as have many at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater’s Anderson
Library,especiallyBrandenMcCreedyandPegMurray.Onallsortsof
technological matters, Stanley Smoniewski offered patient assistance.
Denise Ehlen, the director of the university’s Office of Research and
Sponsored Projects, assisted me as I applied for research funds; I am
grateful to the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater for the funding
Ireceivedinsupportofmyworkonthisproject.
As I worked on my manuscript, I benefitted enormously from
the helpful comments of several readers. David Durst, David Groth,
Christopher Knief, and Amy Shuffelton read parts or all of the
manuscriptwithcarefulattention,andofferedconstructivecomments
thatimprovedmyworkanddeepenedmythinking.Asa(then)anony-
mous reviewer, Robert Westbrook read my initial book proposal and
offered a detailed and helpful response. I am grateful to all of these
readers. I also want to thank my friend and graduate school adviser
CarlKaestle,whohaslongbeenanenthusiasticsupporterofmywork.
My original editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Julia Cohen, noticed
my proposal and ushered it through the beginning of the publish-
ing process. After she moved on from the company, Editor Burke
Gerstenschlager and Assistant Samantha Hasey gracefully brought
Acknowledgments ix
the manuscript through the next steps. At the copyediting stage,
Afrin Kabir and Kristy Lilas completed the project with efficiency
and professionalism. I am grateful for the attentiveness of everyone
atPalgraveMacmillanwheneverIneededquestionsanswered.
In addition to all the above, an author needs a place to write. For
me,thiswasmyfavoriteMadisoncafé—EVP.Iwasaregulartherefor
many months, and I could always count on the right atmosphere in
whichtolosemyselfinmyproject.
Finally, I’m grateful to my brother David, my sisters Susu,
Elizabeth, Kowkie, and Ellen, and their families for all their support,
andI’mhappythatweallliveinthesamecountryagain.Myhusband,
Chris,haslongbelievedinmyproject,evenwhenitmeanthehadto
take up the slack in our home when my work kept me from it. My
deepthanksgotohim.Andmytwomostlovelysourcesofinspiration
are my daughters, Rosa and Lucia. I thank them both for being such
delightfulindividuals.
My longest and deepest debts of gratitude are to my mother,
Elizabeth Coughlin Durst, and my father, David Phelan Durst. This
bookisdedicatedtotheirmemories.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
The Laboratory School
Community
ChildrenrunninginfrontoftheLaboratorySchool,circa1900.CourtesyoftheSpecialCollections
ResearchCenter,UniversityofChicagoLibrary.
Theschooloccupiedalargecitylotcoveredwithasparseand
tawnygrass,wornbareinspotsbytherunningbackandforth
ofmany,busy,happyfeet.Thelotwascutacrossdiagonally
byagray,dustypathleadingtotheschool-house.Thatbrown
housewithitsgood-sizedverandaandpassagewaytothegym
andshopheldforthechildrenalivingworld.1
FormerstudentHelenGreeleyontheLaboratorySchool.
2 Women Educators in the Progressive Era
I
n 1896, John Dewey opened the University of Chicago’s Labora-
torySchool,anexperimentalschoolthathedirecteduntil1904.This
was a remarkable time for Dewey, and for the city that caused the
young philosopher to “appreciate at every turn the absolute oppor-
tunity which chaos affords.”2 The Progressive Era United States was
a country in search of novel ideas to solve the daunting problems of
thenewage:therapidgrowthofcities,thesteadyincreaseinimmigra-
tion,andtheshiftingnatureofwork.SomeAmericans,suchasDewey
and his friend Jane Addams, responded to this transformative era by
creatinginstitutionswherepeoplecouldtryoutnewwaystoliveand
learn together. Through their ideas and actions, they contributed to
what historian Jackson Lears calls a “mood of experiment” that was
accompaniedby“theconvictionthatlifecontainedmoresurpriseand
possibilitythanpreviouslyimagined.”3
At the same time that Dewey directed the Laboratory School, he
was also centrally involved in the formulation of what fellow philoso-
pher William James called “a real school, and real Thought”—the
emergingphilosophyofpragmatism.4Accordingtopragmatism,truth
isnotgivenbutratherworkedoutin“communitiesofinquiry.”5Such
communities were essential to the realization of a democracy that,
for Dewey, had expanded to mean more than a form of government.
He saw that solving the modern problems Addams addressed in her
Chicago settlement house, Hull House, would require a democracy
that permeated social relations. In Chicago and at Hull House, as
Dewey’sdaughterwouldwriteyearslater,thephilosopherunderstood
that democracy was a “way of life.”6 As Louis Menand argues in his
historicalstudyofpragmatism,Dewey’s“strategywastopromote,in
everyareaoflife,includingindustriallife,democracy,whichheinter-
preted as the practice of ‘associated living’—cooperation with others
onthebasisoftoleranceandequality.”7
WhileDeweywasobservingthecomplexitiesofdemocracyatHull
House,hewasalsoraisingquestionsabouthowchildrenlearn.Mem-
orization and recitation were the accepted instructional methods of
his time, but he thought that real learning involved more than these
cerebral exercises. His theory, which he called the “organic circuit,”
was that humans learned through “doing and undergoing,” or act-
ingandconsideringtheresults.Thistheorywas,ofcourse,relatedto
thepragmaticunderstandingofknowledgeassomethingthathumans
find together, through collective action. His ideas about democracy
and about how children learn found a testing ground in the Labora-
tory School. As Dewey and his colleagues discovered, this collective