William Heard Kilpatrick

William Heard Kilpatrick (20 November 1871 – 13 February 1965) was a US American pedagogue and a pupil, a colleague and a successor of John Dewey.

Kilpatrick was born in White Plains, Georgia. He had an orthodox upbringing and was educated at Mercer University and Johns Hopkins University where he later became a mathematics teacher at High School and at Mercer University. He first met John Dewey in 1898 and again met him in 1907. Kilpatrick decided to make philosophy of education his specialty and occupied all courses by Dewey. From this developed a cooperation, which persisted up to Dewey's death in 1952. Both men's ideas directly impacted the 1932 founding of Bennington College in Vermont: they were both on the original College Board of Trustees, with Kilpatrick soon becoming President of the Board, and two of the original 12 houses on campus are named after them.

His first teaching job was at Blakely Institute, a combined elementary and secondary public school in southwest Georgia, required that he attended a July 1892 summer at Rock College Normal School, Athens, GA. There he learned of the educational theories of German educator Friedrich Froebel, kindergarten founder and learning-through-play advocate. He again studied at Johns Hopkins University, summer 1895, then taught seventh grade at and was principal of Anderson Elementary School, Svannag, GA, 1896-97. He was at Mercer University, 1897-1906, taught mathematics, was vice-president, 1900, and acting president, 1904-06, but resigned when the trustees were concerned about his doubting the virgin birth.

In 1908 Kilpatrick wrote in his diary, "Professor Dewey has made a great difference in my thinking." Dewey wrote to Professor John A. MacVannel, Kilpatrick's major professor, "He is the best I ever had." Kilpatrick spent the rest of his professional career and long life at TCCU where he was a student, 1907-09; received the Ph.D. in 1912, was lecturer in education, 1909-11; assistant professor, 1911-15; associate professor, 1915-18; professor of philosophy of education, 1918-37; and thereafter emeritus professor.

He married Marie Beman Guyton, they had three children, on December 27, l898, she died May 1907; he then married Margaret Manigault Pinckney on November 26, 1908, she died November 1938; and finally married Marion Y. Ostrander on May 8, 1940, she had been his secretary.

He taught summers at the University of Georgia, 1906, 1908, and 1909; the University of the South (Knoxville), 1907; was visiting professor, Northwestern University, 1937-38, and taught summer sessions there, 1939, 1940, 1941; taught summer sessions, Stanford University, 1938; University of Kentucky, 1942; University of North Carolina, 1942; and University of Minnesota, 1946. His trips abroad included school visits, lectures, and meetings with prominent educators in Italy, Switzerland, and France, May-June 1912; Europe and Asia, August 1926-June 1927; and round the world, August-December 1929.

He received honorary LL.D. degrees from Mercer University, 1926; Columbia University, 1929; and Bennington College, 1938 (which he helped found in 1923 and where he was president of the board of trustees, 1931-38); the honorary D.H.L. degree from the College of Jewish Studies, 1952; and the Brandeis Award for humanitarian service, 1953.

After retiring from TCCU, 1937, he was president of the New York Urban League, 1941-51; chairman of American Youth for World Youth, 1946-51; chairman of the Bureau of International Education, 1940-51; and on the board of directors of the League for Industrial Democracy.

Kilpatrick had several critics but many more admirers and followers. His eighty-fifth birthday, November 20, 1956, celebrated at Horace Mann Auditorium, TCCU, resulted in a special March 1957 issue of Progressive Education, "William Heard Kilpatrick Eighty-Fifth Anniversary," containing 10 articles. Both heralded and criticized as John Dewey's chief educational interpreter, Kilpatrick was a leading advocate of progressive education. He died after a long illness at age 93 on February 13, 1965.

Kilpatrick died in New York, 1965.

Kilpatrick was a developmentalist

http://bfparker.blogster.com/educator_william_h_kilpatrick.html

Literature

* John A. Beineke: "And there were giants in the land : the life of William Heard Kilpatrick". New York : P. Lang 1998 ISBN 0-8204-3773-5
* Heinrich Pfeiffer: " The people picture with William Heard Kilpatrick ". Mainz 1956 (thesis)

The struggle for the American curriculum - Kliebard