<P> John Melchior Bosco (1815--1888) was concerned about the education of street children who had left their villages to find work in the rapidly industrialized city of Turin, Italy . Exploited as cheap labor or imprisoned for unruly behavior, Bosco saw the need of creating a space where they would feel at home . He called it an' Oratory' where they could play, learn, share friendships, express themselves, develop their creative talents and pick up skills for gainful self - employment . With those who had found work, he set up a mutual - fund society (an early version of the Grameen Bank) to teach them the benefits of saving and self - reliance . The principles underlying his educational method that won over the hearts and minds of thousands of youth who flocked to his oratory were:' be reasonable',' be kind',' believe' and' be generous in service' . Today his method of education is practiced in nearly 3000 institutions set up around the world by the members of the Salesian Society he founded in 1873 . </P> <P> While studying for his doctorate in Göttingen in 1882--1883, Cecil Reddie was greatly impressed by the progressive educational theories being applied there . Reddie founded Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire, England in 1889 . Its curriculum enacted the ideas of progressive education . Reddie rejected rote learning, classical languages and corporal punishment . He combined studies in modern languages and the sciences and arts with a program of physical exercise, manual labour, recreation, crafts and arts . Abbotsholme was imitated throughout Europe and was particularly influential in Germany . He often engaged foreign teachers, who learned its practices, before returning home to start their own schools . Hermann Lietz an Abbotsholme teacher founded five schools (Landerziehungsheime für Jungen) on Abbotsholme's principles . Other people he influenced included Kurt Hahn, Adolphe Ferrière and Edmond Demolins . His ideas also reached Japan, where it turned into "Taisho - era Free Education Movement" (Taisho Jiyu Kyoiku Undo) </P> <P> In the United States the "Progressive Education Movement", starting in the 1880s and lasting for sixty years, helped boost American public schools from a budding idea to the regular norm . John Dewey, a principal figure in this movement from the 1880s to 1904, set the tone for educational philosophy as well as concrete school reforms . His thinking had been influenced by the ideas of Fröbel and Herbart . His reactions to the prevailing theories and practices in education, corrections made to these philosophies, and recommendations to teachers and administrators to embrace "the new education", provide a vital account of the history of the development of educational thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . Dewey placed so - called pragmatism above moral absolutes and helped give rise to situational ethics . Beginning in 1897 John Dewey published a summary of his theory on progressive education in School Journal . His theoretical standpoints are divided into five sections outlined below . </P> <P> Education according to Dewey is the "participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race" (Dewey, 1897, para. 1). As such, education should take into account that the student is a social being . The process begins at birth with the child unconsciously gaining knowledge and gradually developing their knowledge to share and partake in society . </P>

Who is considered the leader of progressive education