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SCHOOLS ON PARADE: PATRIOTISM AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN EDUCATION AT THE DAWN OF THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Cody Dodge Ewert
Cody Dodge Ewert*
Affiliation:
New York University
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

As the scope and power of public school systems across the United States grew during the Progressive Era, so too did a popular belief that mass education could solve the major social and political problems of the day. This in part owes to school reformers’ efforts to frame public education as an inherently patriotic institution that if properly supported could move the nation forward while preserving its history and traditions. Their efforts centered on the Columbian School Celebration, a nationwide school parade corresponding with the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas. A case study focusing on a key place and time in this movement's history––Brooklyn, New York, in the early 1890s––this article explores how progressive educators in Brooklyn both used patriotism as a rhetorical device to excite popular support and proclaimed it the cornerstone of the modern urban schools they hoped to build. In so doing, it helps explain both the rise of large urban school systems and growing salience of educational matters in twentieth-century politics.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 65 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2017 

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References

NOTES

1 “Brooklyn's Great Parade,” New York Times, Oct. 22, 1892, 1. Quotes from “The Memorial Arch Dedicated,” New York Times, Oct. 22, 1892, 1.

2 This study uses “progressive education” in describing the wide-ranging efforts––involving both pedagogy and the structure and management of schools––to transform American education during the Progressive Era. It deems certain educators, schools, and policies “progressive” when their own words and actions reflect these trends or if observers at the time referred to them as such. Historians of education have defined educational progressivism in several ways, the most common being David Tyack's distinction in The One Best System between business-minded administrative progressives and child-centered pedagogical progressives. While acknowledging this diversity, I stress these groups’ similar use of patriotic discourse and shared support for an expansive public education system.

3 On patriotism in schools and the nature of progressive patriotic thought, see Ellis, Richard J., To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2005), 1–80 Google Scholar; Hansen, Jonathan M., The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890–1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), xiii–xxii CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Leary, Cecelia Elizabeth, To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 150–93Google Scholar.

4 On progressive education as the educational wing of progressivism, see Cremin, Lawrence A., The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961)Google Scholar. On school reform as social control, see Katz, Michael B., The Irony of Early School Reform: Educational Innovation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968)Google Scholar. For a “new middle class” bent on professionalizing education, see Tyack, David B., The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974)Google Scholar. For business thinking, see Callahan, Raymond E., Education and the Cult of Efficiency (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962)Google Scholar. On progressive reforms’ diverse origins, see Reese, William J., Power and the Promise of School Reform: Grassroots Movements During the Progressive Era (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986)Google Scholar; Mirel, Jeffery, The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System: Detriot, 1907–81 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993), 1–42 Google Scholar; Reese, “The Origins of Progressive Education,” History of Education Quarterly 41:1 (Spring 2001): 1–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On schools and the modern state, see Steffes, Tracy, School, Society, and State: A New Education to Govern Modern America, 1890–1940 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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10 On parades and pageantry in American politics and public life, see McGerr, Michael E., The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865–1928 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Glassberg, David, American Historical Pageantry (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Ryan, Mary P., Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Waldstreicher, David, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

11 McGerr, The Decline of Popular Politics; Clemens, Elizabeth S., The People's Lobby: Organization Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890–1925 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997)Google Scholar. On non-elites during the Progressive Era, see Johnston, “Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era.” On democratic idealism, state power, and social control, see Willrich, Michael, City of Courts: Socializing Justice in Progressive Era Chicago (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), xxxviiiGoogle Scholar. On progressivism's democratic possibilities, see Zimmerman, Jonathan, Distilling Democracy: Alcohol Education in American Public Schools, 1880–1925 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999), 2–5 Google Scholar; Johnston, Robert D., The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), xi–xviGoogle Scholar.

12 “Gov. Flower's Message,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1892, 9. On Americanization instruction, see Mirel, Jeffrey E., Patriotic Pluralism: Americanization Education and European Immigrants (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

13 For Maxwell as an administrative progressive, see Tyack, The One Best System, 76–77. For a celebratory take, see Berrol, Selma C., “William Henry Maxwell and a New Educational New York,” History of Education Quarterly 8:2 (Summer 1968): 215–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 On millennial thinking in education and “child-centered” learning, see Reese, “The Origins of Progressive Education,” 17–23.

15 “The Talk of Brooklyn,” New York Times, July 20, 1890, 16; “Some Handsome Schoolhouses,” New York Times, Apr. 20, 1891, 8; “Discussed in Brooklyn, New York Times, Sept. 4, 1892, 16; Boy's High School (Brooklyn, NY), “The Red and the Black” (1897), 11. Boy's High School Collection, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY.

16 “New High School Opened,” New York Times, Sept. 28, 1892, 3.

17 City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Annual Report of the President (1893), 33–34. Series 6, Board of Education Records, Municipal Archives, New York, NY. City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn (1892), 51–53. Series 5, Board of Education Records, Municipal Archives, New York, NY. Quote on 53.

18 “New High School Opened,” New York Times, Sept. 28, 1892, 3.

19 “Needs of Public Schools,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 1892, 8.

20 National Education Association, Addresses and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (Washington, D.C.: National Educational Association, 1891), 387–88Google ScholarPubMed.

21 Cronon, William, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1991), 341–70Google Scholar; Rydell, Robert, All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876–1916 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 38–71 Google Scholar.

22 “Mind Trainers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 17, 1892, 1.

23 McGerr, The Decline of Popular Politics, 9, 99–103.

24 On Bellamy, see Ellis, To the Flag, 1–49; and O'Leary, To Die For, 157–60.

25 Ellis, To the Flag, 31–35. Strong warned of the threats posed by immigrants and political radicals, conflating the two categories. See Strong, Josiah, Our County: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1885)Google Scholar.

26 On the diversity within progressive patriotism, see Hansen, The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890–1920, xiii–xxii.

27 “Columbus Day,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 24, 1892, 1.

28 Harrison took a national tour of schools in the previous spring and had the support of key progressive educators. See Harris, William Torrey, “President Harrison's Political Wisdom,” The Independent 44:229 (Nov. 3, 1892), 15 Google Scholar. Quotes in National Education Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, Session of the Year 1892 (National Education Association: New York, 1892), 41, 42Google Scholar.

29 National Education Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, Session of the Year 1892 (National Education Association: New York, 1892), 63, 64Google Scholar.

30 National Education Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, Session of the Year 1892 (National Education Association: New York, 1892), 66Google Scholar.

31 City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Proceedings (1892), 420, 504, 654, 727. Series 4, Board of Education Records, Municipal Archives, New York, NY.

32 “School Boys to Drill,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 6, 1892, 9. Reese, William J., Origins of the American High School (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), 32–33 Google Scholar. On women in popular politics see McGerr, The Decline of Popular Politics, 208; Ryan, Mary P., Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825–1880 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

33 Ellis, To the Flag, 24–29, 50–51.

34 National Education Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, Session of the Year 1892 (National Education Association: New York, 1892), 41, 42Google Scholar.

35 For more on the schoolhouse flag movement see O'Leary, To Die For; Ellis, To the Flag. On the Grand Army of the Republic, see McConnell, Stuart, Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865–1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992)Google Scholar. The resolution in City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Proceedings (1892), 60. Series 4, Board of Education Records, Municipal Archives, New York, NY.

36 Proctor's poem featured prominently at ceremonies across the nation, with Idaho Statesman declaring it “a masterpiece.” “Columbia's Banner Ode for Columbus Day,” Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID), Sept. 27, 1892, 6; “A Patriotic Programme: Plans for the Public School Observation of Columbus Day,” Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID).

37 Kibbe, Helen C., “Editorial,” The School Reporter 1:6 (Oct. 1892), 62–63 Google Scholar. Folder 5, Box 6, Brooklyn Schools Collection, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY.

38 “The Great School Parade,” New York Times, Oct. 5, 1892, 9; “Children Honor Columbus,” New York Tribune, Oct. 11, 1892, 1. On public perceptions of Carlisle, see Berkhofer, Robert F. Jr., The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 171 Google Scholar. On Indian education and progressive education, see Adams, David Wallace, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875–1928 (Lawrence: The University of Kansas Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

39 “The Climax of the Week,” New York Times, Oct. 13, 1892, 9; “Imposing Military Parade,” Washington Post, Oct. 13, 1892, 1; “Among the Catholic Parishes,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 16, 1892, 18.

40 “The Celebration Begins,” New York Tribune, Oct. 21, 1892, 3.

41 Kibbe, Helen C., “Editorial,” The School Reporter 1:6 (Oct. 1892), 62–63 Google Scholar. Folder 5, Box 6, Brooklyn Schools Collection, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY.

42 In Brooklyn and New York, Protestant/Catholic tensions dominated political life for much of the nineteenth century. Yet regarding school politics, compromise characterized the relationship in the late nineteenth century, as shown in Justice, Benjamin, The War that Wasn't: Religious Conflict and Compromise in the Common Schools of New York State, 1865–1900 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005)Google Scholar. Still, conflicts between the two groups over schooling dated to the 1840s, and Protestant suspicions of Catholic radicalism only strengthened as the city's Italian population rose. See Wallace, Mike and Burrows, Edwin G., Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 1089–1131 Google Scholar; Golway, Terry, Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (New York: Liveright Publishing Co., 2014), 22–30 Google Scholar.

43 “Brooklyn's Celebration,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1892, 9. For the Catholic response see Ellis, To the Flag, 21–22. For Catholic schools’ patriotism, see Walch, Timothy, Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996), 72–73 Google Scholar.

44 “Brooklyn's Celebration,” New York Tribune, Oct. 20, 1892, 12; “Only Tolerated in New York,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 22, 1892, 3.

45 City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn (1892), 96–97. Series 5, Board of Education Records, Municipal Archives, New York, NY.

46 City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn (1892), 100.

47 Folwell, Arthur, “Editorial,” The School Reporter 1:1 (Mar. 1892), 4 Google Scholar. Folder 5, Box 6, Brooklyn Schools Collection, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY. Subsequent citations of the Reporter all from same folder/box. Quote from Folwell, “Editorial,” in The School Reporter 1:22 (Apr. 1892), 10, 15. Note about distribution from Kibbe, Helen, “Editorial,” The School Reporter 1:10 (Feb. 1893), 110 Google Scholar.

48 Folwell, “Editorial,” in The School Reporter 1:10 (Feb. 1893), 27 Google ScholarPubMed.

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51 Bryant, Helen W., “The American Flag,” The School Reporter 1:8 (Dec. 1892), 84 Google Scholar; William J. Moore, “The Cruisers of the United States,” 85.

52 A.H.F., “A Princely Gift” in Moore, “Cruisers of the United States, 28. “Personal Notes,” The School Reporter 1:4 (June 1892), 35.

53 “School Boys to Drill,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 6, 1892, 9.

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57 The Board approved three new history texts in 1892. City of Brooklyn Board of Education, Proceedings (1892), 361, 592, 813.

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63 “School Boys to Drill,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 6, 1892, 9.

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