The Diminished Mind: A Study of Planned Mediocrity in Our Public Schools [Hardcover]

Mortimer Brewster Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1954

Hardback, ex-library, with usual stamps and markings, in fair all round condition suitable as a reading copy. A Study of Planned Mediocrity in Our Public Schools

Product Details

• Hardcover: 150 pages
• Publisher: Henry Regnery Co; 1ST edition (1954)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006ATWT4
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,642,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Education in the Middle 20th Century, February 3, 2010

By 

Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Diminished Mind: A Study of Planned Mediocrity in Our Public Schools (Hardcover)

When Diane Ravitch wrote her "conservative" historyLeft Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform, the most common retort was that Ravitch exaggerated progressivism's influence on 20th century education. It was not, they said, that progressivism failed, but that progressivism hadn't been tried at all.

That is why books like Diminished Mind are so important. Smith published it in 1954 and took as his task to document exactly how much the progressive vision in education WAS alive and well. Smith was concerned that the progressive vision of education, while not wholly bad, was pernicious in its tendency to devalue curriculum and the primary goal of schooling: to equip students with knowledge. In his more philosophical chapters, he critiques thus: progressivism says that education works towards no fixed end, but if this is so, then demonstrating mastery of knowledge becomes unimportant. And that means that teaching becomes about "experience" rather than learning something fixed.

The first few chapters focus on the then-trend of "education for life adjustment." Smith documents quite well several school districts' and education professors' attempts to remove or significantly downgrade academic education in favor of education on such things as hygiene, dating, social interaction, etc. Smith reveals that this supposedly "democratic" goal was motivated by a belief that only a certain percentage of students would either go to college or enter the 'white collar' world. So why wasted time teaching how to do math when we can teach students about things they will REALLY need for life? (One district Smith recounts made a move to get rid of the 'three R's' from education altogether.)

As an aside, Smith unknowingly details a precursor of "whole language" education when he explains that several districts began structuring reading and writing courses without educating in grammar or phonics, but simply putting students in 'real world' situations where they would need to read or write and seeing what happened. (Of course, this, as well as the "whole language" instruction of the 1980's was a huge failure.)

Another chapter focuses on the philosophy of "social reconstructionism": the view that schools should be vehicles of social change which means that students should be taught a particular social vision so that they will actualize it. Smith quotes several 'social reconstructionist' theorists as being open admirers of the Soviet education system, which they saw as turning out people equipped to carry out the desired social vision.

Later chapters focus on the quite ridiculous rise of education schools (steeped as they have always been in progressivism and 'critical pedagogy') and the utter contempt that many education professors exhibited when challenged by 'non-experts' (parents). New teachers had to be taught progressive methods in order to attain certification, and when parents (or other academics) complained about it, they were reminded that they were non-experts who were simply not equipped to voice opinion on how their children should be educated. Ironically, as Smith notes, all of this - from the 'social reconstructionism' to the educationists' sneering at non-experts, was often done under the banner of 'democracy' and 'making schools more democratic.'

This is a valuable book for anybody wanting a depiction of what the dominant educational philosophy was in the middle 20th century and appreciating how we got to where we are today. Interested readers might also read Educational Wastelands, the Retreat from Learning in Our Public Schools, The Cult of Uncertainty and QUACKERY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.