"From Morality to Character": Conservative Progressivism and the Search for Civic Virtue, 1910-1930

• Autores: David P. Setran
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 39, Nº. 4, 2003 (Ejemplar dedicado a: American education in the twentieth century : progressive legacies), págs. 435-456
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In the years following World War I, conservative progressive educators in the United States made a concerted attempt to re-envision moral education for an emerging corporate industrial society. Fueled by their expertise in scientific curriculum design and their desire for predictable social efficiency, influential educators such as David Snedden, Franklin Bobbitt, and W.W. Charters championed a new vision of moral training that was rapidly adopted by the many states initiating programs in the postwar period. This shift was self-consciously described as a move from moral to character education, a shift that emphasized civic-oriented social practice over the more circumscribed "manners and morals" approaches of the prewar period. While prewar moral education had focused upon social deportment and proper manners with respect to interpersonal relationships, the new brand of character education focused upon one's contributions to the larger social order in terms of efficient service. Following larger trends in conservative progressive curricular theory, character educators sought to codify traits that would characterize "good Americans". Such qualities, they noted, could best be elucidated through activity analysis, a process of determining virtues by looking at the daily activities of exemplary citizens. From this, lists of concrete activities could be listed to clarify and standardize the meaning of "worthy character". This could also open the way to measurable character rating on the basis of the completion of such activities, enhancing the scientific quotient of such training. In all things, the goal was order and predictability. By providing a platform in which young citizens would emulate the best exemplars of worthy adult life, these educators desired to promote a generational continuity that had been decimated by the war and its aftermath. Within a context of moral erosion in this era, many saw such codification as an important means of attaining an elusive stability in a rapidly shifting culture. Conservatives saw themselves as developing the character necessary for the individual and corporate health of an increasingly urban, industrial society. Most critical for this was a sense that virtue was rooted, not in personal moral perspicuity, but rather in self-denial for the common good. Because of this orientation, the virtues emphasized in such programs were often "corporate" in emphasis, highlighting cooperation, teamwork, loyalty, and conformity. While nineteenth-century moral educators thought of the good society as a collection of moral individuals, each devoted to personal moral conviction and self-mastery, mainstream character educators by the 1920s had begun to define the moral person as someone who could fit smoothly into group efforts, conforming to public opinion and fulfilling efficiently the obligations of his/her role. Fostered through group activities, this vision became the dominant theme of postwar "character" education among conservative progressives. While such an approach certainly muted any attempts to utilize character education for social reconstruction, it did promote a changing perspective on morality and moral sanction. The process of activity analysis relativized morality by placing its foundation in the consensus analysis of contemporary citizens rather than moral absolutes. In addition, the emphasis on conformity to public opinion, fostered through group activities, enhanced the other-directedness of American moral culture. Rather than appealing to an internalized conscience developed through early training in moral tradition, this new model emphasized civic conscience, the ongoing ability of individuals to submit themselves to the changing collective will. This paper argues that the conservative progressive character education movement after World War I in the United States actually destabilized moral training by subjecting it to a continually shifting standard