Intelligence by design: Thorndike versus Dewey.(Edward Thorndike, John Dewey)

As the battle for influence over school reform continues in the 21st century, Mr. Gibboney finds that Edward Thorndike maintains the upper hand over John Dewey.

 
   One cannot understand the history 
   of education in the United States 
   during the twentieth century unless 
   one realizes that Edward L. Thorndike 
   won and John Dewey lost. 
 
--Ellen Condliffe Lagemann (1) 

IN THAT brief statement, historian Ellen Lagemann provides a useful scaffolding for understanding the problems education faces today, nearly a century after Dewey published Democracy and…