Martha McDaniel Russo

EDU 611

As taken and condensed from Wikipedia:

A Biography of Theodore Brameld

Theodore Brameld (20 January 1904-1987) was a leading philosopher and educator who
supported the educational philosophy of social reconstructionism. His philosophy first originated
in 1928 when he enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago in the field
of philosophy where he trained under the progressive philosopher and politician, T.V. Smith.
After becoming intrigued by John Deweys philosophy of education, Brameld developed his own
theory of schools being the ultimate source to bring about political and social change.
Theodore Burghard Hurt Brameld was born in Neillsville, Wisconsin in 1904. After graduating
from Neillsville High School in 1922, he went on to Ripon College where he received his AB
degree in English in 1926. Brameld graduated in 1931 when he completed his dissertation, A
Philosophic Approach to Communism, which was eventually published in 1933 and set the
standard for the rest of his life's work.
Upon completing his doctorate in 1931, he spent much of his time teaching at various places of
higher learning. He first taught at Long Island University (1931-1935) and Adelphi
College (1935-1939) in New York. He then continued on to the University of Minnesota (19391947), New York University (1947-1958), and Boston University (1958-1969). Throughout his
years of teaching, he continued to research his Reconstructionist ideas by implementing them
into a school setting at Floodwood High School in Minnesota. In this project, he worked with
administrators to develop an educational program for the juniors and seniors which involved
learning by critical thinking. He tried to convince the students and teachers that controversial
issues and problems must play a huge role in education. No issue was considered off-limits for
students to discuss and analyze. He was completely okay with posing his argument both inside
and outside the classroom.

During his long career as a philosopher and educator, Brameld held lectures in the United States
and across the globe. He became the author of more than a dozen books having to do with his
philosophy of reconstructionism. In 1945, he wrote Minority Problems in the Public
Schools which confronted social unfairness like prejudice, discrimination, and economic
exploitation in schools. Continuing on his philosophy, he published Patterns of Educational
Philosophy: A Democratic Interpretation in 1950 that helped cultivate his view of four
philosophies of education: essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, and reconstructionism. He
decided that of the four philosophies, Reconstructionism was the philosophy responding best to
the time period.
Between 1957 and 1968, Brameld wrote three books including; Cultural Foundations of
Education: An Interdisciplinary Exploration (1957), The Remaking of a Culture (1959),
and Japan: Culture, Education, and Change in Two Communities (1968). Cultural Foundations
of Education: An Interdisciplinary Exploration told of the debt he owed to anthropologists who
influenced his philosophy. The Remaking of a Culture and Japan: Culture, Education, and
Change in Two Communities both explained instances where his philosophy of reconstructionism
had been applied. One of Bramelds later books, The Teacher As World Citizen: A Scenario of
the 21st Century (1976), summarizes his hopes and dreams in a different way. The narrator in
this book tells his or her views from the year 2001 looking into the past and recalling all of the
educational changes that have taken place.
Towards the end of Theodore Bramelds life, he became professor emeritus at Boston University,
but continued to teach at Springfield College in Massachusetts and at the University of Hawaii
where he continued to spread the word about his theory of Reconstructionism. As he had done
for most professional life, he kept on writing letters to the editors of newspapers working on
articles for journals until his death in October 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. He was eightythree.
Bramelds philosophy of education was called Reconstructionism. He was not the first to come
up with this idea, but he was one of the first to support it publicly. In response to the existing
crisis of the time period, he believed Reconstructionism in schools was the solution to the
problem. In his book, Education as Power he clearly outlines the two major roles of
Reconstructionism.
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Education has two major roles: to transmit culture and to modify culture. When American
culture is in a state of crisis, the second of these rolesthat of modifying and innovatingbecomes
more important. Reconstructionism, Brameld affirmed, is a crisis philosophy; the
reconstructionist is "very clear as to which road mankind should take, but he [or she] is not at all
clear as to which road it will take"(Brameld, Theodore, p. 75).
With this philosophy of Reconstructionism, his main focus was to create a school system with
democracy where controversial topics play a huge role. Students are expected use their mind and
ask questions when this philosophy is in use. He wanted students to realize that values are not
unchanging; they must be tested continuously by evidence.