Committee of Fifteen

In 1893, the National Educational Association (NEA) established the Committee of Fifteen, whose purpose was to revise the elementary curriculum in American public schools in much the same way that the NEA's Committee of Ten was revising the secondary school curriculum. Groups such as the American Herbartians, under the leadership of Francis W. Parker and Frank and Charles De Garmo, called for an elementary school curriculum that was child centered and focused on the moral development of the child. More conservative approaches, led by figures such as William Torrey Harris, argued that the curriculum should be primarily concerned with preparing the child for his or her place in society.

The arguments of the committee are important in that they reflected tensions at work within American schools that would be debated for years to come. Should the schools and their curriculum focus first and foremost on the development of the child, or should they simply train students to meet the basic social needs of the culture? The conservative, less child-oriented stance predominated, setting a tone for years to come, and was further reinforced by the social efficiency movement, which viewed schools as “factories” that turned out students to meet the commercial and cultural needs of American society.

While on the surface, the decisions of the Committee of Fifteen may seem obscure, they represent the codification of an important trend in the history of American education—one involving the emphasis in public education on the needs of society to predominate over the needs of the personal development and growth of the child. This trend has continued into the contemporary era, as manifested in recent educational reforms such as the No Child Left Behind legislation.