Rugg, Harold

Rugg as Educational Psychologist

Rugg's early educational accomplishments were in the field of educational psychology. These were partly the result of his formal training at Dartmouth College as a civil engineer and in teaching engineering at Millikin University. He received a doctoral degree in education from the University of Illinois in 1915 and began teaching at the University of Chicago. During World War I, Rugg worked with Edward L. Thorndike on a project that resulted in the development of the first aptitudes and intelligence tests for adults. Moreover, Rugg's early work in the field of curriculum betrayed his tendencies toward an empirical approach to curriculum development, attempting to scientifically select the content to be included in the social science curriculum.

Rugg as Deweyan Progressivist

In 1920, Rugg was hired by Teachers College, Columbia University, where he remained on faculty for more than 30 years. Early on at Teachers College, he shifted from his early interest in the possibilities of science for improving education to the second phase of his career, during which he advocated for child-centered forms of progressive education. Rugg's progressivist leanings were also evident in his work as one of the founding members of the John Dewey Society. Moreover, in 1928, Rugg (with Ann Schumaker) wrote a groundbreaking book about progressive education (arguably his most influential) entitled The Child-Centered School: An Appraisal of the New Education.

Rugg shared Dewey's belief that the general curriculum should honor the interdependence of the interests of the child, the content of the curriculum, and the surrounding society. Rugg's concerns about an overemphasis on the subject matter in the curriculum resulted in the landmark 26th Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Edited by Rugg, Part I of the yearbook provided a lengthy history of curriculum development with emphasis on the importance of the position of the child in the process. Part II, also edited by Rugg, consisted of the proceedings of two yearlong deliberations regarding fundamental curriculum issues. Participants in these deliberations, chaired by Rugg, were most of the outstanding leaders and scholars in the field of education at the time.

Rugg and the Social Studies

Rugg's progressivist leanings could also be found in his work as a cofounder of the National Council of Social Studies. His interest in the social studies would remain with him the remainder of his career. Rugg is credited with developing the first series of school textbooks in the social studies. They represented a first for any subject matter area. His curriculum materials in that area at the middle (junior high) school level began as a set of booklets that were later combined into an extraordinary popular series of textbooks, editions of which were published for 11 years. This series, Man and His Changing Society, established a model of textbook publishing that still presently exists. The books also reflected an attempt to synthesize the various disciplines of the social sciences into the more unified notion of social studies.

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