DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET Chapter 1 theory. Within two years he had established the famous laboratory school that attracted attention around the world. Dewey’s Laboratory School established the University of Chicago as the center of thought on progressive education, the movement toward more democratic and child-centered educa- tion. Progressive education was a reaction to the rigid, more formal style of traditional education during the nineteenth century. It was considered genius by many and criticized as too radical by others. Dewey’s involvement with the lab school was relatively short-lived but created, in a few years, a wealth of educational research and theory that continues to drive many of our best practices today. In 1904, arguing with administrators over education bud- gets, Dewey resigned his position at the University of Chicago. He took a post at Columbia University in New York City where he continued to teach and write for another four decades. Dewey ewey has contributed has contributed volumes of work to volumes of work to our knowledge base in educational our knowledge base in psychology and theory. Much of his educational psychology work is as relevant to the struggles of and theory. educators in the United States today as it was nearly a half century ago. His writings cover a broad range of topics relevant to teaching. Dewey continued writing and revising manuscripts until his death in 1952 at the age of ninety-three. In 1899 John Dewey gave a talk to the parents of children in his school. The parents were worried about the changing times. On the edge of the industrial age, these parents of one hundred years ago were old enough to remember the “agri- cultural era” in the United States. They remembered when children were educated at home by watching their parents do meaningful work. They thought the new generation lacked character and values. Dewey agreed with parents that the D 14 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL