Willard E. Goslin (1899–1969) championed
progressive education in American public schools. Though he may be
remembered best for his confrontation with McCarthy-ite forces during
his tenure as Superintendent of Schools in Pasadena, California,
he was a nationally recognized leader in public education.
Born in Harrisburg, Missouri, Goslin began his career as a teacher
in 1916 in Boone County, Missouri, at the age of 16. He received a
bachelor’s of science degree from Northwest Missouri State Teachers
College in 1922, and quickly moved into school administration: first,
as a high school principal in Slater Missouri and, subsequently, as
superintendent. Goslin received a master’s degree from the University
of Missouri and pursued additional graduate study at Teachers College,
Columbia University, before becoming superintendent of the Webster
Grove, Missouri, school system in 1930. He also received an honorary
LL.D from Occidental College, Los Angeles, California (Who’s Who in
American Education 1949–50).
During his tenure as superintendent in Webster Grove, a suburb of St.
Louis, Goslin initiated a systemic change in teacher in-service training
based on collaboration between teachers and administrators. Throughout
his career, he continued to encourage teacher participation in all
areas of school administration. He believed that if schools were to
teach students to live in a participatory democracy, they should exemplify
participatory democracy with everyone having a say, including teachers
(Goslin 1944).
After 14 years in the Webster Grove district, Goslin became superintendent
of the Minneapolis public schools, a position he held from 1944 to
1948. His arrival in Minneapolis coincided with a decline in student
population due in large part to the depression and World War II. He
supported the use of school surveys to assess student population characteristics
and the effectiveness of programs already in place (Franklin 1982).
Based on the surveys, as well as his own belief that schools should
teach the whole child, the district installed a Common Learnings Program.
This plan consisted of a two-hour class in junior and senior high schools
taken in lieu of English and Social Studies that was organized around
students’ social and personal problems. This program sought to streamline
and emphasize the centrality of a curriculum that stressed the intellectual
background of students as they became participating citizens of a democratic
society. The extended time that students spent with a single teacher
facilitated the development of personal relationships between teachers
and students (Franklin 1982). To round out the Common Learnings Program,
Goslin actively pursued community participation in the schools through
radio broadcasts of faculty meetings and student speaker programs.
He also encouraged the employment of dedicated education reporters
at all major newspapers in Minneapolis (Goslin 1946).
His work in Minneapolis and Webster Grove led to his being named one
of the five most outstanding public school administrators in the country.
He also was elected to the board of the John Dewey Society in 1947,
though his administrative duties kept him from active board membership
much of the time. In 1948, members of the prestigious American Association
of School Administrators elected him to president (Van Til 1993). At
the time, he was considering job offers from Harvard, Columbia, and
New York universities, as well as the position of Superintendent in
Pasadena, California. After a two-day visit to Pasadena, Goslin accepted
an offer to become that city’s superintendent (Hulburd 1951).
Goslin took over the reins of a system that had already embraced the
Progressive educational philosophy, and he continued to build upon
this base to address problems within the system. Vertical alignment
teams linking teachers at all levels were put in place to facilitate
collaboration among faculty members (Hulburd 1951). He pushed for the
development of relationships between students and teachers through
the introduction of a core curriculum along the lines of the Minneapolis
Common Learnings Program, and campaigned for the community to play
an active role in the development of the entire school curriculum (Hulburd
1951). Though this encouragement of community involvement ultimately
led to his ousting in 1951, he continued to support community participation
in local schools throughout the remainder of his career.
At the time of Goslin’s arrival in Pasadena, the community was beginning
to change from that of a primarily upper-class enclave with a small
working class to a more racially diverse community (Hulburd 1951).
This growth in the community created a need for additional elementary
schools, as well as new attendance boundaries to balance school populations
across the district. The proposed changes to the attendance boundaries
would require integration of the districts’ schools, particularly at
the elementary level. The resulting conflict over the boundary changes,
along with the proposed tax increases, exposed friction within the
community that would eventually lead to open conflict (Hulburd 1951).
After months of increasing pressure by the local School Development
Council, the Board of Education requested Goslin’s resignation. He
offered his resignation to the Board of Education and a compensation
package was agreed upon. A subsequent investigation by the National
Education Association’s Defense Commission led to the conclusion that
though Goslin’s administrative style had caused some tension between
the community and the school administration, ample evidence existed
to conclude that his dismissal resulted from reactionary forces that
drummed up “red scare” fears within the community (Foster 2000).
Soon after leaving Pasadena, Goslin was named Head, Division of School
Administration and Community Development at George Peabody College
for Teachers. However, he did not immediately join the faculty. He
spent 1951 and part of 1952 in Korea as a member of the United States
National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization surveying the needs of Korean schools and
planning for the reconstruction of the Korean school system (Drummond
2006). That same year, he also received the National Education Association’s
American Education Award (New York Times 1969).
Upon his arrival at Peabody, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development appointed him to its 1953 yearbook committee, which included
his Peabody colleagues William Van Til and Harold Benjamin, National
Commission for the Defense of Democracy through Education Field Secretary
Robert A. Skaife, and Fisk University President Charles S. Johnson.
Goslin’s yearbook chapter was the final essay in the volume and was
titled “The People and Their Schools.” This essay reflected his years
of thinking about the role of schools in American society and about
the communities which served these schools.
In this chapter, Goslin held that children are the link between schools
and the community. Too often, misunderstandings, misinformation, and
distrust created problems which were roadblocks to school improvement.
The first step in overcoming these roadblocks was involving parents
as collaborators in their child’s education. He suggested that citizens’
groups be allowed to evaluate the curriculum and to recommend changes
to reflect the needs of the community. He was adamant in his belief
that public education remain in the hands of laity and out of the hands
of special interest groups. America’s public school system was the
bedrock of her representative democracy and must be safeguarded if
a free, public education for all children was to continue (Goslin 1953).
The 1953 Yearbook was introduced at the annual conference of the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development through sessions held by
its contributors. Goslin criticized the yearbook for not going far
enough in its identification and denunciation of the reactionary forces
attacking American public schools. Despite this shortcoming, he believed
that the volume was a step forward in the battle against the red- scare
tactics of the McCarthy era (Van Til 1983).
Goslin continued to publish and lecture throughout his tenure at Peabody
College. He participated in the summer lecture series The Great
Human Issues of Our Times held each summer on the Peabody College
campus from 1953–1956. As one effort in the desegregation of southern
colleges and universities, Goslin instituted a seminar on campus for
southern black school administrators during intersession. Racial integration
of Peabody’s regular summer and academic year programs soon followed
(Van Til 1983). In 1961, he received an honorary doctorate from Seoul
National University for his work as coordinator of Peabody College’s
Multiyear Korean Education Project (New York Times 1969).
Despite his many professional obligations, his primary interest was
always in teaching. He specialized in the history of education and
taught a colloquium on the superintendency each term. An immensely
popular professor, he not only was a role model, but for some who knew
him, he was also a father figure, always ready with a word of advice.
Goslin retired from Peabody in 1966, but continued to be active in
campus life until is death in 1969.
Submitted by Whitney Blankenship, Leander High School, Leander
(TX) Independent School District
References
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interview. Sept. 22, Albuquerque, NM.
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