Rugg, Harold (1886–1960)

During his varied career, Harold Ordway Rugg was a key member of the Progressive education movement and worked on a wide range of topics, including measurement and statistics, social studies, teacher education, and the creative process. Whereas all members of the Progressive Education Association sought reform in American education, Rugg had a direct impact on schools across the United States through his social studies textbook series, Man and His Changing Society. His texts were used in all types of schools, not just those operated by the Progressives. His ideas of social reconstruction shaped the pedagogy of the series around the study of real social problems and their solutions. Attacks on his approach to education grew during the 1930s, and his textbooks fell out of favor during World War II.

After completing his doctoral degree in 1915 at the University of Illinois, Rugg initially focused his attention on the areas of measurement and statistics. He worked first with Charles Judd at the University of Chicago and then with Edward Thorndike in the widespread use of standardized tests among soldiers in the U.S. Army. Rugg, however, seemed to undergo a metamorphosis after his move in 1920 to Teachers College, Columbia University, and its related laboratory for educational reform, the Lincoln School. Living in Greenwich Village and working at Columbia exposed him to a wide range of colleagues and new ideas, particularly ideas related to social concerns. This gave him a new direction to pursue the reform of social studies education and, through it, the reform of society.

By 1921 Rugg published his first article on the reconstruction of the social studies curriculum. In it he called for the integration of the different branches of the social studies—history, geography, economics, and political science—into a coherent program that would be more meaningful for children and less burdensome for teachers. He also advocated focusing the curriculum on student investigation of social problems and issues. An advocate of social planning, Rugg believed students would become engaged in the social studies through social justice, identifying problems and planning for their solution. Although supportive of the Progressive Education Association's emphasis on child-centered schools (he published an “appraisal,” or evaluation, of such schools in 1928), he pushed the organization to become more engaged in social action and justice.

As a way of leading by example, he began work in 1921 on perhaps his most influential writing, his textbook series Man and His Changing Society. Initially begun as a pamphlet series, it contained a pedagogy that was radically different from anything else available. Rather than providing an “official” version of national history, Rugg's books focused on social issues and problems in the United States. Students were then encouraged to explore potential solutions to these problems. During 9 years of research and development, Rugg sold more than 750,000 copies of his pamphlets. Based on their widespread acceptance, the pamphlets were turned into a textbook series. Commercial distribution by Ginn and Company began in 1929. In spite of the Great Depression, Rugg's textbooks sold well across the nation.

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