Alan R. Sadovnik, Susan F. Semel, Ryan W. Coughlan, Bruce Kanze and Alia R. Tyner-Mullings PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF JOHN DEWEY This essay examines three schools in New York City—the City and Country School founded in 1914—and two founded in 1974 and 1984—Central Park East Elementary School 1 and Central Park East Secondary School—with respect to how they reflected Deweyan pedagogic practices and Dewey’s belief in democratic education. 1 It analyzes whether such pedagogic practices can be maintained over time. City and Country, founded by Caroline Pratt, reflected many of Dewey’s ideas and remains true to its founder’s vision today. CPE 1 founded by Deborah Meier with five teachers reflected the progressive ideas of its founder, many of which were consistent with Deweyan philosophy. It remains progressive although there have been recent attempts to make it more traditional. CPESS, founded by Deborah Meier, reflected both Deweyan philosophy and the ideas of Theodore Sizer. After Meier left in the 1990s, the school became less progressive and eventually was closed and then reopened as a traditional high school. These histories indicate that Dewey’s work on education was at the core of all of these schools’ philosophies and practices. Although there have been uneven successes in keeping Dewey’s progressive practices alive, they demonstrate that Dewey’s work is relevant and is being practiced today. On this the 100th anniversary of the publication of Democracy and Education, this essay will examine one progressive school founded during the Progressive Era—the City and Country School—and two founded in the 1970s and 1980s—Central Park East Elemen- tary School 1 (CPE1) and Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS)—with respect to how they reflected Deweyan pedagogic practices and Dewey’s belief in democratic education for all. In addition, the essay analyzes how the histories of these schools indi- cate whether such pedagogic practices can be maintained over time. 2 Dewey argued in My Pedagogic Creed, The School and Society, The Child and the Curriculum, and Democracy and Education for a restructuring of schools along the lines of “embryonic communities” and for the construction of a curriculum responsive to the child’s interests and developmental level while introducing the child to “the point of departure from which the child can trace and follow the progress of mankind Alan R. Sadovnik, Rutgers University; email: sadovnik@newark.rutgers.edu; Susan F. Semel, City College of New York, CUNY; email: ssemel@ccny.cuny.edu; Ryan W. Coughlan, Guttman Community College, CUNY; email: ryan.coughlan@guttman.cuny.edu; Bruce Kanze, City College of New York, CUNY; email: bkanze@ccny.cuny.edu; Alia R. Tyner-Mullings, Guttman Community College, CUNY; email: alia.tyner-mul- lings@guttman.cuny.edu The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 16 (2017), 515–530 doi:10.1017/S1537781417000378 © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781417000378 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 207.241.231.82, on 26 Jul 2018 at 19:31:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.