John Dewey, the father of "progressive education," died in 1952. The founder and president of the American Association of University Professors, Dewey spent his life dealing with philosophy and education as they related to democracy. His work, Democracy and Education (1916), charged that education was an experimental science capable of guiding individual and community growth toward better democracy.

Progressive education, while not new in the 1950s, was a driving force in schools. Dewey challenged educators to concern themselves with such aspects of learning as conversation, curiosity, construction skills, and artistic expression. His view of education advocated learning by doing. Students were taught by "projects" wherein, for example, the study of milk could be related to science, math, reading, and so on. Critics, including the Council on Basic Education, charged that students under this program were lacking in basic...