Man and His Changing Society

Harold Rugg:

From Social Science Pahmplhets to Man and His Changing Society.

Copied From, Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong (p. 126)

The full flowering of this “progressive” view of the social studies
curriculum occurred in the 1930s with the success of Harold
Rugg’s junior high school textbook series, Man and His Changing
Society. It sold 1,317,960 books and 2,867,000 workbooks between
1929 and 1939 (Winters, 1967). Rugg’s goal was to rid social studies
of disciplinary compartments. From his perspective, the curriculum
should instead focus pupil attention on contemporary
problems, teach students to become aware and critical of social and
economic injustices, and encourage them to participate actively in
bringing about needed changes. Themes in the Rugg textbook
series included the excesses of laissez faire capitalism, unfair distribution
of income and wealth, unemployment, class conflict,
immigration, rapid cultural change, and imperialism. Their presentation
included thought provoking questions designed to encourage
students to criticize selected aspects of contemporary society
and tradition. Rugg and other progressives of that era hoped that
students would thereby become aware of society’s many flaws and
develop a desire to ameliorate those ills, thus making it difficult, if
not impossible, for the curriculum to instill a spirit of nationalism
or respect for American culture.

Ignorant Activists
Social change, “higher order thinking,”
and the failure of social studies
James S. Leming

• Read A Rugg Book