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Title	The Mormon response to early progressive education, 1892-1920
Publication Type	dissertation
School or College	College of Education
Department	Educational Leadership & Policy
Author	Payne, Allan Dean
Date	1977
Description	This dissertation is an historical investigation of the Mormon response to progressive reform in Utah's schools between 1892 and 1920. It is limited to the educational thought and practice of church leaders and Mormon educators responsible for the church and public schools in Utah's three principal cities: Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Provo. More specifically, liThe Mormon Response to Early Progressive Education" examines the degree to which r1ormon educators and members of the hierarchy understood, rejected, adopted, or adapted progressive credo. Besides describing the historical facts and inferences associated with the Mormon response to the various strands of progressive education, this dissertation suggests explanations for the specific Mormon reactions. Considering its isolation from progressive centers in the Midwest and East and considering its relatively few professional educators at the century's turn, Mormonism enjoyed surprisingly frequent contacts with progressive education's brightest luminaries, including visits from Francis W. Parker, John Dewey, G. Stanley Hall, and William Wirt. The number of Mormon educators who studied in the Midwest and East, coupled with the eastern non-ttormon faculty members who taught at Utah's two leading normal schools, was equally impressive. The frequency and quality of these contacts helped initiate and sustain a progressive environment often praised by some of the nation's most perceptive educational observers. Practical education (manual training, vocational and industrial preparation, domestic arts and science) was widely accepted by members of the hierarchy and by professional educators as well. The child-his interests, needs, play, activity, hygiene and physical well-being-also became a focal point of education for Mormon educators and, to a lesser degree, for members of the hierarchy. Correlation of subjects and correlation of school and out-of-school experience figured prominently in the Mormon response to the new education. Finally, immediate, palliative social reform of the sort espoused by Jane Addams was not viewed as relevant for Utah society. Instead, the emphasis was placed upon community building and subjection of the physical environment as part of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Mormonism spawned numerous educators and programs reflecting what was most typical in progressive education during its formative years. Many educators in the church system and in the public schools were steeped in progressive theory, techniques, and aims. They applauded the valuable results of thoughtfully employed practical education, child-centeredness, and correlation; but they also realized that progressive education was (or underscored) a process of learning which emphasized creativity, self-expression, activity, observation, and experimentation. While members of the hierarchy could distinguish between traditional and progressive education, they did not always understand the mechanics; they were more impressed by results of the new education than by processes involved.
Type	Text
Publisher	University of Utah
Subject	Latter Day Saints -- Education
Dissertation Name	Doctor of Philosophy
Language	eng
Rights Management	© Allan Dean Payne
Format	application/pdf
Format Medium	application/pdf
ARK	ark:/87278/s61w0h8k
Setname	ir_etd
ID	1528016
Reference URL	https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s61w0h8k

Page Metadata

Title	Page 197
Format	application/pdf
Setname	ir_etd
ID	1528213
OCR Text	Show 188 conquest of E. In 1906, at environment--all of which utilized practical education. A. Eastmond, principal Brigham Young University, terms sees repeatedly--as fundamental "Then, learn a of the School bUilding--he to There will world's work. principal uses this related or industrial rrogress and urges: trade, if you have the innate possibilities, and terested in the progress of the world, the of God. of Arts and Trades be a upbuilding place for you in the great stress Endeavor to learn your trade well."32 of the Murdock Academy of the earth with many other of the are in Kingdom of the Willard Gardner, in Beaver, Utah, links the subduing important virtues: and young women, your patriotism for your country, Young your love for your God, and your devotion to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, should stimulate you to a genuine desire for the development of those hidden resources within your own souls. Let us embrace the splendid opportunities that lie before us--educate ourselves for the great mission that devolves upon us to multiply and replenish the earth and subdue [italics are his] it, and make the deserts to blossom as the rose.33 men The 1907 Briqham Young University Quarterly veys the church schools' even more forcefully con penchant for building and mastery: This building Kingdom--this is actual Mormonism; and it does not want, nor can it utilize the lazy man, the worn out man It must have the man of physique and character, the or woman. Don't come here to be man wi 11 i ng to work and to work hard. idle. You must put your hands to something as well as your Lands are to be reclaimed, gardens to be planted, houses brain. to be builded, temples to be reared to the living God, and it to do it. It requires something else than thinking and takes action--action of head heart and hand combTned, to speed up of the dreamin 32E. A. Eastmond, "Industrial Progress," Brigham Young Univer sity Quarterly 2 (1 November 1906):20. 33-Ji llard Gardner, "Subduing the Earth ," Improvement Era 20 (December 1916):151.
Reference URL	https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s61w0h8k/1528213