George Counts was born on December 9, 1889 in Baldwin, Kansas. He
attended public school and later became a professor at one of the leading
universities. This young man traveled throughout the
Orient, South America, and the Soviet Union. College life began at Baker
University and he earned a bachelors degree in 1911. He continued
his studies at the University of Chicago where he earned a Doctorate in
1916. Missing an opportunity to work with John Dewey, who was at
the University from 1895-1905? Dr. Counts learned of John Dewey’s
theories that were developed at the Lab School of the University of Chicago.
Throughout his career, Counts considered himself a follower of John Dewey.
To his delight, he later taught at Columbia University with Dewey where
together they dealt with contemporary issues and became known as “thinkers”
who believed that some form of action was a natural outgrowth of theory.
While Counts was a successful educator and author, I was not aware of him
before this reading.
Count’s book, “ Dare the School Build a New Social Order?” challenges the schools to stop ignoring the world problem called the depression. The nation was experiencing both economic and social problems. He saw this as an opportunity for the schools to restore the America’s faith in them. Science and Technology had created a society that was interdependent and schools were not preparing students to be successful in it, according to Counts. His critics called him radical and his supporters saw his ideas as a way of revitalizing the democratic and egalitarian way of education. He felt that the latter was what should be transmitted in the schools. The United States was experiencing a cultural crisis, which was the effect of changing from an egalitarian society to a modern, technological one. Count’s calls this the “Great Transition” and he emphasized the need for planning, cooperation, humaneness and democracy.
Counts developed a program of action to reinstate democratic philosophy, distribute knowledge, maintain the military, guarantee rights and avoid war. His plan was UN successful because he did not have the steps for his followers to implement his ideas of social and educational reconstruction. In addition to being an educator and author, Counts was a political activist. He used this medium to continue his belief that education should address the times and conditions of society in an effort to improve its status. He was the president of the AFT in 1939 and he was the Liberal party candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1952. During the Cold War his knowledge of the Soviet society and education became quite relevant as he presented their policies to United States audiences.
While Counts was critiquing American Schools the world was experiencing
a number of crisis, the first being world war 1, the end of slavery, the
depression and world war 2. Just before the depression he wrote his second
book entitled “The Selective Character of American Secondary Education
(1922) Here he critiqued the high schools and determined them to be class
conscious. By that I mean that the higher ones social economic status,
the better your chances were for attending high school. Minorities and
immigrants were barely represented. Counts describe the schools as being
dominated by a powerful elite with Boards of Education that are composed
of bankers, lawyers and doctors.
Count’s work
is important because it challenged the education system to reevaluate itself
to determine if it was meeting the needs of its constituents.
He also makes educators determine if they were meeting the needs of the
society. If I had the opportunity to meet George Counts, I would ask him
the following questions: