Francis Wayland Parker
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Francis Wayland Parker (October 9, 1837 – March 2, 1902) was a pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States. He believed that education should include the complete development of an individual — mental, physical, and moral. John Dewey called him the "father of progressive education." He worked to create curriculum that centered on the whole child and a strong language background. He was against standardization, isolated drill, and rote memorization.
Parker was born in Bedford, New Hampshire in Hillsborough County. He was educated in the public schools and began his career as a village teacher in New Hampshire at age 16.
In August 1861, at the beginning of the American Civil War, Parker enlisted as a private in the 4th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. He was elected lieutenant and was later promoted to captain and commander of the company. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the 4th New Hampshire in January 1865. He was captured and held prisoner in North Carolina in May, 1865.
After the war ended, Colonel Parker resumed teaching, first in Ohio where he became the head of the normal school in Dayton, Ohio. In 1872 he traveled to Germany to study at the University of Berlin. In Europe, Parker examined the new methods of pedagogy being developed there, proposed by European theorists such as Rousseau, Froebel, Pestalozzi, and particularly Johann Friedrich Herbart. Parker asserted that students benefit most from reading works of high interest thereby activating background knowledge. A supporter of balanced instruction, he encouraged the use of elements of phonics as well as lists of word families (onsets and rimes) to assist in word recognition. This innovative educator integrated the skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Parker advocated many of the current language experience and process writing approach methodologies. He believed that children should write across the content areas on subjects that interested them for enjoyment and that the proper form would come with practice. All writing should be natural and connected to authentic and meaningful activities using the child’s own vocabulary, in other words, experience based writing. Parker was a teacher, principal, and a lecturer who wanted all children to have their own slate boards so they could write and draw freely without fear of mistakes.
Between 1875 and 1880, Parker was able to put his philosophy into practice when he served as superintendent of schools in Quincy, Massachusetts. There he developed the Quincy Plan, which eliminated harsh discipline and de-emphasized rote memorization, replacing them with elements of progressive education such as group activities, the teaching of the arts and sciences, and informal methods of instruction. He rejected tests, grading, and ranking systems. The model was hailed as successful when in 1879, responding to critics of the progressive methods, state-ordered testing showed that Quincy pupils surpassed the scores of other school children in Massachusetts.
He continued to implement his theories as superintendent of Boston's public schools (1880–83) and principal of the Cook County Normal School, Chicago (1883–99). During this period of time Parker published five books on education, including Talks on Teaching (New York, 1883); The Practical Teacher (1884); Course in Arithmetic (1884); Talks on Pedagogies (1894); and How to Teach Geography (1885). Dartmouth College awarded Parker the degree of M.A. in 1886. In the next phase of his educational career, Parker founded and served as principal (1899–1901) for a private experimental school, the Chicago Institute, which became the University of Chicago School of Education in 1901.
In 1901, Parker merged Chicago Institute with University of Chicago Laboratory Elementary School and worked with kindergarten and elementary school age children, and to further put his theories into practice, the Francis W. Parker School opened in Chicago with an initial enrollment of one hundred and eighty students. A second school was founded in San Diego in 1912. Both schools exist today.
In poor health, Parker was sent by his doctors to the south for a better climate. He died at age 64 in Pass Christian, Harrison County, Mississippi. His ashes were returned to New Hampshire in May 1902 and were interred at Piscataquog Cemetery, Manchester, New Hampshire.
In addition to the schools in Illinois and California, the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School was founded in Massachusetts in 1995 in honor of Parker's contributions to the field of progressive education, and an elementary school in Quincy bears Parker's name.
[edit] External links
- History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century - "1901– Francis W. Parker progressive school opens", A work in progress edited by Daniel Schugurensky, Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
- Find-A-Grave profile for Francis Wayland Parker
- Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, IL
- Francis Parker School, San Diego, CA
- Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, Devens, MA
- Works by Francis W. Parker at Project Gutenberg
[edit] References
Cavanaugh, M. P. (1994). A history of holistic literacy: Five major educators. Westport, CN: Praeger.
Israel, S. E., & Monaghan, E. J. (2007). Shaping the reading field: The impact of early reading pioneers, scientific research, and progressive ideas. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Kline, E., Moore, D. W., & Moore, S.A. (1987). Colonel Francis Parker and beginning reading instruction. Reading Research and Instruction, 26, 141-150.
Smith, N. B. (2002). American Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
