The Progressive Problem

A recent Gallup survey on Americans' understanding of the term "progressive" as applied to politics yielded an interesting result: by and large, they don't understand much of anything about it.  The data below indicates that, even among self-identified liberals and Democrats, those most likely to support progressive policies, more than 50% of people are unsure whether or not the "progressive" label fits them.

This is bad news for all things labeled as "progressive", including progressive schools.  It supports something that I have long suspected; that people really don't understand what we mean by that term.  "Progressive" had meaning when it was attached to a reform-minded political spirit from 1890 to 1920 or so.  It also had meaning when attached to the roughly contemporaneous eduction movements championed by Francis Parker, John Dewey and others.

But, this is ancient history and long forgotten from the public mind by the present day. If people are unsure whether they are progressive in their politics, even if their party or ideological inclination is in the direction, then how much more unsure must they be sure what the term means when applied to education.  Self-identified progressive schools have work to do clarifying what they are (not just what they are not) to potential customers.