Schooling drastically changed in the 1940s. Back when John Dewey Ruled The School, all the features you and I would like to see where heavily proscribed and formed a good part of early 20th century education. I note sometimes just how many higher level mathematicians in WW2 and beyond from the USA were children when educated in the 1920s USA when Dewey’s ideas were king. But it all changed in the early 1940s and Statistics became everything. The competition on the world stage began. Since then it’s been a battle between early 20th century progressive education that are ‘whole child’ and individual growth, vs bell curve statistical performance WW2-today.

Back when John Dewey Ruled The School, all the features you and I would like to see where heavily proscribed and formed a good part of early 20th century education. I note sometimes just how many higher level mathematicians in WW2 and beyond from the USA were children when educated in the 1920s USA when Dewey’s ideas were king.

But it all changed in the early 1940s and Statistics became everything. The competition on the world stage began.

Since then it’s been a battle between early 20th century progressive education that are ‘whole child’ and individual growth, vs bell curve statistical performance WW2-today.