Dare The School Build A New Social Order By George Count Analysis

A famous figure in American education, George Counts is known for being a distinguished scholar and teacher as well as an eminent social and political activist during the period of the Great Depression. He held many opinions about education and the economy, which he made clear in his 1932 publication, Dare the School Build a New Social Order? In this article, Counts discusses the widespread challenges brought on by the economic hardships, and he also points out that an indispensable change is needed in the educational and political systems. For that reason, he presents his point of view using three main themes: the denigration of child-centered progressives, the importance of teaching roles in achieving educational and social reform, and the idea to reform the American economy. …show more content…
Our common misunderstanding of the role of education within society is that schools are driven by societal change rather than the foundation. Throughout this article, Counts continues to enforce the idea that schools are more influential in society than we know, and they should be accepted as important drivers of change. He does this by denouncing Progressive Education, and the belief that education will solve all of our problems, which is not practical. Education in America is always changing: it started by prioritizing religion and upper class privileges and then developed into a more generalized institution available across social boundaries. Counts explains the problems he recognizes with Progressive Education in that often times, they benefitted the wealthy. For example, he states that child-centered progressives’ beliefs were “free of social content…because [they] ignored the reality that all education by necessity has a social dimension. To ignore this was to serve the interests of existing social elites” (Counts; pg. ix). – The schools served to maintain class