Beginning in 1901 this history traces the pioneering progressive origins of the Francis W.
Parker School of Chicago to its neoprogressive vision for the twenty-first century. It is the
story of the school's evolution from the founding years (1901-1930) through the Eight-Year
Study and the postwar innovations (1930-1965) to the progressive challenge (1965-1995). The
story closes as the school is being reconceptualized and the building reconstructed. This book
explains the interrelationship of three of Chicago's education progressives - John Dewey the
philosopher Colonel Francis W. Parker the father of progressive education and Anita
McCormick Blaine the financier and visionary. Several themes shaping the school unify the
text: (1) the influence of psychology on educational practice (2) the centrality of the
teacher and instruction in the school (3) the value of a model upon which to build curriculum
and (4) the interdependent relationship between democracy and education. The fourth theme is as
applicable to the multicultural Chicago of today as it was in the 1900s. Marie Kirchner Stone
uses Colonel Parker's purpose of the common school - to create citizens for a democratic
society - as the yardstick to measure the value of progressive education in today's democracy.
