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Harold Ordway Rugg (1886–1960) was an educational reformer in the early to mid 1900s, associated with the Progressive education movement. Originally trained in civil engineering at Dartmouth College (BS 1908 & CE 1909), Rugg went on to study psychology, sociology and education at the University of Illinois where he completed a doctoral dissertation titled "The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline in School Studies."[1]
After earning his PhD he went on to teach at the University of Chicago and later became a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University. He studied creativity which he believed was vital to the learning process. He created the first textbook series and his social studies books were extremely popular in US schools. By the early forties his books fell out of favor due to campaigns run by organizations like the Advertising Federation of America and the American Legion, due to Rugg's junior-high textbooks including concepts considered "pro-socialist" by conservative opponents.[2]
- ^ Rugg, Harold Ordway (1916). The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline in School Studies: (Descriptive Geometry and Mental Discipline) ... Warwick & York, Incorporated.
- ^ Evans, Ronald W. (2004-01-16). The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children?. New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN 978-0-8077-4419-2.