John L. Childs Essay ⋆ Education Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Educator and activist John L. Childs argued that education was linked to a host of social, economic, and environmental issues, so that society had to be reformed if education was to change.

Born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Childs attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned a journalism degree in 1911. After working for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) for five years, Childs and his wife, Grace Mary Fowler, sailed for China in 1915 to work as YMCA missionaries in Beijing.

In 1922, Childs returned to the United States to begin graduate work at Union Theological Seminary. After returning to China, Childs eventually came back to New York to work on his Ph.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University. Shortly after finishing his doctoral dissertation, Childs became a professor at Teachers College in 1931.

Childs entered the profession at the beginning of the Depression. He soon became a leading advocate of a philosophy of social reconstruction, believing that social, environmental, and economic conditions had to be considered when attempting to understand and address issues facing education and the schools. For him, educational reconstruction and social reconstruction were clearly connected. One could not be undertaken without the other.

Childs’s most important work was Education and Morals, which was published in 1950. As a pragmatist, he believed that engagement in political issues was a moral responsibility. Similarly, he believed that any important decision made by teachers (often affecting students) was likewise a moral decision. In American Pragmatism and Education: An Interpretation and Criticism, published in 1956, Childs outlined the basics of pragmatism and its application to American education. Childs retired from Teachers College in 1955.

Bibliography:

Childs, J. L. (1950). Education and morals: An experimentalist philosophy of education. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Childs, J. L. (1956). American pragmatism and education: An interpretation and criticism. New York: Holt.
Lawrence, L. J. (1992). From prayer to pragmatism: A biography of John L. Childs. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

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