Facilitator

The start of the facilitator teaching approach began just before President Johnson’s Great Society programs and the Coleman reports. At this time there was a debate in the education of the United States. This debate was going on for more than four decades and was about what to teach in schools. Do we focus on the traditional education or progressive education. Traditional education emphasized learning subject matter, with strict discipline and little variation in the functioning of schooling. Whereas the Progressive education sought to redress the heavy emphasis on mastering the traditional curriculum by devoting greater attention to the needs and interest of the students as well to the life circumstances that formed their present and possible future. As this debate was going on the Soviet Union launched sputnik in to space. By dueing this it infuriated the American leaders which lead to them arguing that the nation’s school system must be improved if we were to remain competitive with the soviets. This was the end of progressive education and we got back to our more traditional forms of schooling.

During the end of progressive education JFK was assassinated and Johnson advocated stronglyfor pursuing both the war in Vietnam and Massive federal programs of social justice. Many social justice initiativates such as 1954 brown vs. board of education, which overturned laws permitting the racial segregation of America’s schools.Johnsons support for social justice diverted mainstream attention from the traditional vs. progressive debate. But little did we know in the 1960s progressive education would make a comeback with new ideas and theories. The most dynamic theory was humanistic. This theory is a fascinating conjunction of contemporary social criticism and a new version of psychology that was developed in opposition to behaviorism and experimental methods. Due to the racism at the time was the cause for new version of psychology. Paul Goodman was the most read of...