Download Social Reconstructionism

Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
Imagine attending a school where all one studied was America and the World’s
historical past. Imagine attending a school where learning how to be a good citizen and a
member of society was the primary focus. For those who enjoy physical activity, sciences, or
mathematics, this curriculum may sound atrocious. However, despite lacking in other
subjects, every student that attended and graduate this fantasy school would know how to
perhaps change America and be a respectable citizen in the community, at least that is the
hope with the curriculum. This curriculum described is called Social Reconstructionism or
Social Meliorism. To further understand this twentieth century philosophy, one must
understand the historical views brought about by a great educational theorist of this time,
Harold Rugg. Rugg grew up in a time period of great economic crisis and warfare in the
United States. By understanding the history of the twentieth century, Rugg’s philosophy for
educational curriculum, and the controversies of Social Reconstructionism, as well as
today’s curriculum implementation of Social Reconstructionism; Social Reconstructionism
can be considered a one of a kind theory.
Before understanding Rugg and the historical time period of his life, debate and
implementation in curriculums of today, one must first understand what Social
Reconstructionism really is. Educational theorists such as Harold Rugg, George Counts, and
Theodore Brameld, were attracted to the relationship between school curriculum and the
political, social, and economic development of society. They believed that students should
learn to identify problems, methods, needs, and goals to execute strategies for affecting
change to occur. By encouraging students to seek out the discrepancies in societal realms
such as social issues, the students gain a keen eye for opportunities to affect change. This
curriculum model enlightens students with knowledge that is relevant to their current
world. Much akin to how Reconstructionism teaches students to identify problems around
them, they are also taught the methods of action to bring about solutions to these problems.
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Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
Exploring social avenues for changing the status quo rather than outrageous or radical
movements are methods found in Reconstructionism. An example of this can be seen in
literacy campaigns, which have helped shape political revolutions. Furthermore, teachers
have a crucial role in helping students become members of society that can enact a future
change to current social issues. To start, teachers must have a firm belief in
Reconstructionism. Second, teachers must help show students how to relate academics and
personal aspirations to world, nation, and their local area. In addition, teachers must help
illustrate to students how their interests can help solve solutions to social concerns of the
day. The teacher will put emphasis on group learning experiences and cooperation with the
community (Davis & Reed 291). Educational theorist Harold Rugg puts his own perspective
and knowledge on Social Reconstructionism into use based upon change and different
societal groups.
For Rugg, effecting change is an important aspect of Reconstructionism. Knowing
how to go about that change is just as significant. The methods of doing this can vary but
once such way is explained below. First, Rugg says that for a successful shift in a school’s
policy, curriculum, or rules that the groundwork must be first laid. Rugg states that it is
important to gain an understanding of the need for change. It is important to have a desire
to do more than just verbalize the need for a change. To do this, Rugg outlines four different
groups of people who must be influenced to see that change through. The first class of
people are what he calls the “creative minority”. The creative minority is the group that he
describes as the social engineers in society. These are the social scientists in society who
“design the blueprint for utopia and were to be the experts who ran the system later”
(Reitman 52). The social engineers are few in number in relation to the greater educational
community. They make up only a small fraction of the population. Secondly, there are the
“thinking and informed minority”. This group is described as the people who are informed
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Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
about the topic or issue at hand and understand it. Just like the first class, this class is again
a small minority of the population of the school community. Rugg puts that number at about
25% of the society. The third group is what’s known as the “rank and file” group. These
people are the laymen of the education community. This group is not educated about the
topics and does not have a good enough understanding of what is going on to make
informed actions. However, because they make up the majority of the society, they can be a
great influence by sheer numbers. Finally, the last group Rugg describes is known as the
“mentally deficient” group. These people are not involved in the understanding of the issues
(Reitman 51).
When we try and apply Rugg’s concept of influence to a specific education setting,
we find that the same principles can still apply. Let’s take for example the issue of bilingual
education. Say for instance that a student of Reconstructionism has identified an issue that a
particular school does not have any form of bilingual education. To go about affecting a
change, this student must decide who he or she must influence to be successful. He or she
first must influence those social engineers of the informed minority. They are the people
who are expected to lead in a social Reconstructionist movement. In the education
community, these people would be the superintendent of a school district or the building
principals. These are the people who have a rather expert knowledge of the issue in regards
to its implementation in their schools. The next line of influence would have to be the
informed minority. In the educational community these could be considered the classroom
teachers. The teachers have a good working knowledge of how the issue will be worked into
their classes and what sort of changes it will affect. Just like the first class, the second class
is small in number in relation to the whole education community. The third class, the rank
and file group, can then be classified as the uninformed majority. This group would include
people such as the parents, the media, and so on. These people are the people who have
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PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
little knowledge on the issue and are generally uninformed about the specifics. But because
this group makes up a vast majority of the education community, it has a good deal of
influence. The last group, the mentally deficient group, could be described as the bilingual’s
students themselves. Often these students, while active participants in the program, are not
able to have a say in what is going on in their educational experience. Rugg’s different
classes that make up society seem unusual to the standard classification of today through
socio economic status and race. To understand a better idea of Rugg’s ideals, one must look
at the history that occurred throughout his lifetime.
Harold Ordwell Rugg was born in 1886 and died in 1960. He taught at the Teachers
College, of Colombia University. He had a long commendable career in which he wrote
several books and articles regarding the social purposes of education in a shifting world
(Reitman 47). Rugg was raised during a time period in American History with the change of
an agricultural society to an industrialized one. He lived in two immigrant-packed cities of
Chicago and New York. He lived through both World War I and World War II, with concern
to America’s status in the world including the notorious issues of the atomic bomb and
Nazism. He felt the apparent prosperity of wealth only to experience the tragic Great
Depression (Reitman 5). Through all of these crisis’s that occurred in the U.S. and the world
grew a young man intent on making a change in society. To Reconstructionists, this was a
transitional era in American Society where change must be about. The gap between the rich
and the poor was growing in American democracy shutting down the famous “equal
opportunity for all” American belief. As Stern states, “ Rugg believed those issues needed to
be studied through school curriculum so that all Americans would ‘see the light’, first to
address and then rectify those problems.” This was the true glory in that a democratic
society proposed for Rugg, the ability to use the freedom of speech and liberty to help
change the system (Stern and Riley 57).
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Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
With change always brings debate, concern and controversies. The first issue with
Rugg’s ideals of Reconstructionism comes with the fact that during the horrific World War
II, a sense of patriotism had taken over the nation. With that, people did not want to focus
on as Stern quotes, “… what was wrong with America, all the negatives, when we were
supposed to be pulling together patriotically to win the more.” (Stern & Riley 57) The
second main issue, concerns what happened right after WWII, when America faced the Cold
War with the Soviet Union which immediately became archenemy of the U.S. Again Stern
states clearly that, “Any problem solution that called for redistribution of wealth from the
rich to the poor was branded ‘communist’ ” (Stern & Riley 57). Anticommunism had a
tremendous role in the transitional period of the twentieth century and Stern and Riley are
absolutely right, Communism became a scare in the U.S., especially concerning academics
and the ever-popular “Space Race”. In fact, Wayne Urban’s preface for George Count’s book
Dare the School Build a New Social Order, describes Counts’ automatic labeling as
“communist”. Counts traveled to the Soviet Union several times but it was his advocacy for
social change that furthered the label despite the fact that Counts was not actually a
communist nor did he endorse the Communist Party.(Counts vii) Despite the historical
origination from the 1900s-1970s, undoubtedly Social Reconstructionism is actually seen in
curriculums today.
Social Reconstructionism plays a role in curriculums in today’s society yet it could
still have more prominence in curriculums. As brain based learning and knowledge of
cognitive psychology grows, Harold Rugg’s philosophy becomes more widely known and
discussed. It becomes known in that for students to truly acquire knowledge and not only
acquire knowledge but interpret, comprehend, retain and apply the information, the
knowledge must have relevance in the students’ lives. Yes, it is highly unlikely that Rugg’s
focus of teaching the entire curriculum on social studies will never happen. Yet, it is likely
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PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
that his problem-solving approach to the social studies curriculum can be the most
achieving way to prepare students to become active and society-enhancing American
citizens (Stern & Riley 57). The State legislatures try to fight students’ ignorance by
mandating American History and World History in curriculums. However, despite these
mandating of these classes, there does not seem to be a connection with students between
knowing the facts of history and actually apply oneself to becoming an active U.S. citizen.
Racism, nationalism, religious intolerance are current issues happening today. As Stern
states, “A problem-centered approach to social studies would not only improve citizenship
but also increase the retention of factual or historical material, thus improving test scores,”
(Stern & Riley 58). Due to this knowledge, Stern & Riley recommend that social studies
students understand Rugg’s ideals for a more “vibrant and relevant curriculum,” (Stern &
Riley 58). Finally, by partaking in a curriculum focused upon students’ using the scientific
method, critical thinking skills, democratic decision making and integrating community
service learning, students will become better young adults and citizens of the United States,
and perhaps inflect change at some point.
Social Reconstructionism is truly a unique educational philosophy brought upon by
a bold educational theorist such as Harold Rugg. Historical events such as the Great
Depression, World Ware I and II, Communism, Industrial Revolution and the growth
capitalism caused major shift in American history. Rugg believed that education was the key
to solving many of the nation’s concerns (Stern & Riley, 56). As Stern and Riley write of
Rugg’s ideals, “If students, our future citizens, could be taught how to use their knowledge
to solve social problems through the process of democratic citizenship, our way of life
would not only be preserved but also improved,” (Stern & Riley, 56). In today’s society, the
current warfare and economic crisis’s occurring have raised more awareness of a call for
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Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
change, which is all that Social Reconstructionism and theorists like Harold Rugg and
George Counts asked for, a better changing society.
George counts
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Courtney Lord
PE 444: Social Reconstructionism
Bibliography:
Counts, G. (1978). Dare the school build a new social order. London, England:
Southern Illinois University Press.
Reed, D., & Davis, M. (1999). Social reconstructionism for urban students. The
Clearing House, 291-294
Reitman, S. (1972). The reconstruction of Harold Rugg. Educational Theory, 22(72),
47-57.
Stern, B., & Riley, K. (2001). Reflecting on the common good: harold rugg and the
social reconstructionists. The Social Studies, 56-59.
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