<P> In 1896, John Dewey opened what he called the laboratory school to test his theories and their sociological implications . With Dewey as the director and his wife as principal, the University of Chicago Laboratory school, was dedicated "to discover in administration, selection of subject - matter, methods of learning, teaching, and discipline, how a school could become a cooperative community while developing in individuals their own capacities and satisfy their own needs ." (Cremin, 136) For Dewey the two key goals of developing a cooperative community and developing individuals' own capacities were not at odds; they were necessary to each other . This unity of purpose lies at the heart of the progressive education philosophy . In 1912, Dewey sent out students of his philosophy to found The Park School of Buffalo and The Park School of Baltimore to put it into practice . These schools operate to this day within a similar progressive approach . </P> <P> At Columbia, Dewey worked with other educators such as Charles Eliot and Abraham Flexner to help bring progressivism into the mainstream of American education . In 1917 Columbia established the Lincoln School of Teachers College "as a laboratory for the working out of an elementary and secondary curriculum which shall eliminate obsolete material and endeavor to work up in usable form material adapted to the needs of modern living ." (Cremin, 282) Based on Flexner's demand that the modern curriculum "include nothing for which an affirmative case cannot be made out" (Cremin, 281) the new school organized its activities around four fundamental fields: science, industry, aesthetics and civics . The Lincoln School built its curriculum around "units of work" that reorganized traditional subject matter into forms embracing the development of children and the changing needs of adult life . The first and second grades carried on a study of community life in which they actually built a city . A third grade project growing out of the day - to - day life of the nearby Hudson River became one of the most celebrated units of the school, a unit on boats, which under the guidance of its legendary teacher Miss Curtis, became an entrée into history, geography, reading, writing, arithmetic, science, art and literature . Each of the units was broadly enough conceived so that different children could concentrate on different aspects depending on their own interests and needs . Each of the units called for widely diverse student activities, and each sought to deal in depth with some critical aspect of contemporary civilization . Finally each unit engaged children working together cooperatively and also provided opportunities for individual research and exploration . </P> <P> In 1924, Agnes de Lima, the lead writer on education for The New Republic and The Nation, published a collection of her articles on progressive education as a book, titled Our Enemy the Child . </P> <P> In 1918 The National Education Association, representing superintendents and administrators in smaller districts across the country, issued its report "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education ." It emphasized the education of students in terms of health, a command of fundamental processes, worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character . They Emphasized life adjustment and reflected the social efficiency model of progressive education . </P>

Who is known for the theory of learning called progressivism