Educational Theory of Jane Addams

1. Addams
Socialized Education
Reporter: Kristin M. Cepeda

2. Jane Addams
•Known as the “mother” of Social
Work
•A pioneer American settlement
activist/reformer
•Social worker, public philosopher,
sociologist, author
•Leader in women’s suffrage and
world peace

3. Jane Addams
She acted to develop a
structure of civic justice
and became the first
American woman to
receive the Nobel Peace
Prize.

4. Jane Addams
Born in Cedarville,
Illinois on September 6,
1860.
Was in the right time,
in the right place, with
the right instincts to
meet the needs of this
changing society.
Education was valued
in the Addams
household. Jane
attended Rockford
Seminary.
A daughter of a well-to-
do businessman, John
Addams… who lived a
comfortable middle-
class life.
• GPA of 9.862
• Class president
• Head of literary
society
• Editor of the school
magazine
• valedictorian

5. Jane Addams
Addams was one of the
most prominent
reformers of the
Progressive Era.
She helped turn America to
issues of concern to
mothers, such as the needs
of children, local public
health, and world peace.
Addams became a role
model for middle-class
women who volunteered
to uplift their
communities.
Her life began in a time of
upheaval.
In the midst of monumental
change from rural
community to an urban-
industrial society.

6. Jane Addams
On a cultural tour of
Europe, Jane Addams
experienced, first
hand, the true
wretchedness of slum
life.

7. The Settlement House
Tonybee House
served as a
model for Hull
House
served the eight
thousand people
who lived in this
crowded working
class
neighborhood
aura of elitism
and the
separateness of
classes

8. 19th Century Women’s Movement
…promote education,
autonomy, and break
into traditionally male
dominated occupations
for women.
Organizations led by
women, bonded by
sisterhood, were formed
for social reform, including
settlement houses in
working class and poor
neighborhoods.

9. The HULL HOUSE
At its inception, it was a “a
community of university
women" whose main purpose
was to provide social and
educational opportunities
for working class people
(many of them recent
European immigrants) in the
surrounding neighborhood.
In September 18, 1889
Addams and her college
friend and intimate partner
Ellen Gates Starr co-
founded Hull House, a
settlement house in
Chicago, Illinois.
The purpose of the
Hull House was to
build self-sufficient
lives for Chicago
residents.
Established on three main
principles:
1. In order to make a change,
you must live where you work so
you can better understand the
problems of the people.
2. Everyone should be treated
equally and with respect.
3. Poverty and the lack of
opportunity breed ignorance.

10. Socialized Education
Jane Addams believed that
advanced education would
cause people to be better
citizens and more concerned
with democracy.
What did Addams mean by
socialization?
…the implementation of
institutions and the passage of
legislation that reflected a new
understanding of the
responsibilities and relationships
that the different classes in
society owed one another.
.. the importance of finding ways
to include more and more people
in the social process as the
requirement for the evolution of
a social ethic appropriate for an
industrial democracy.

11. Socialized Education
The major tool for social
change could be found in
the appropriate
implementation of
educational methods.
She believed that the root cause
of the social and economic ills
of the industrial world came
from the failure of government,
the schools, and religious groups
to redefine democracy by
expanding the limited
formulation inherited from the
eighteenth century that saw
democracy largely in terms of
the right to vote.
Democracy needed to be
socialized to meet the demands
of modern society and this
process of socialization could
only occur if the widest range of
people were brought into an
awareness of their mutual
interdependence and value to
one another.
Both Jane Addams and John
Dewey shared a vision for
education. They believed it was
the basis for producing a
democratic society. They also
believed that education went
beyond the formal classroom.
Through the Hull House she
promoted a modern education
philosophy. She was creating
people who were loyal to their
country and supportive of the
democratic process.
She was critical of the public school
systems in urban America because they
defined education narrowly as reading
and writing and ignored the need to
situate students in contexts that
fostered understanding of how the
world worked, how they and their
families fit into the scheme of things,
and what meaning the particular skill
or trade a student trained for had in a
larger understanding of production and
the market system.

12. Theories and Practices of Education in Hull
House
The Immigrant Child
Adult Education
The School as a Social Center

13. The Immigrant Child
The diverse immigrants in
the Hull-House neighborhood
have their unique cultural
traditions and skills.
However, the immigrants in
the urban cities of the
United Stated has no
opportunities of the Old
World legacies and have
difficulty in adjusting to the
New World.
Addams viewed the immigrant child
as being at risk and encouraged
educators to make public schools
relevant for this group of children.
Her concern that schools are
ignoring the socialization of
children and are simply focusing on
reading and writing is a criticism
shared by other educational
reformers including John Dewey.
One of the earliest concerns
of Hull-House was child labor.
The first minor victory in the
battle came with the Illinois
Factory Act of 1893, but
Addams knew that only
federal legislation could deal
with the problem adequately..
Addams sponsored a
kindergarten at Hull-House and
worked with Dewey and Ella
Flagg Young on pedagogical
techniques centered upon
making education more relevant
for students. She argued that
play and recreating programs
are needed because cities are
destroying the spirit of youth.
Addams, who often directed her
philosophical analysis to marginalized
sectors of society, took a particular
interest in adolescence. Accordingly,
Hull-House sponsored a number of
programs for adolescents including
social gatherings, athletics and drama.
Hull-House engaged in pioneering
programs for young women’s sports
and physical activity, defying social
norms that claimed that exercise was
inappropriate for women.

14. Adult Education
One of the most
important goals of the
social settlement, from
Jane Addams's view, was
the education and re-
education of adults.
The social settlement was
the place where this process
of re-education and
education about the
democracy and the
relationship of classes and
groups that peopled the
United States could begin.
Working people were given
an opportunity for personal
development and a way for
them to connect with the
broader community.
The idea of education being a
continuous process throughout
the life of the individual had
its implementation at Hull-
House and other social
settlements long before adult
education programs became
the vogue in the United
States.

15. Adult Education
Hull-House sponsored college
extension courses as well as a
variety of educational
opportunities for adults in the
community including lectures
and clubs.
• The Plato Club offered
weekly readings and
discussions on philosophy.
• The Working People Social
Science Club provided an
opportunity for discussions of
social and political
philosophy.
Addams developed particular
pedagogical techniques
adapted for adult students
including the need for a peer-
level social atmosphere and the
use of news events as an
opportunity for learning.

16. The School as a Social Center
Addams developed a philosophy
that related to the growing
needs of the American society.
That curriculum should provide
students with broad
experiences.
Hull-House featured multiple
programs in art and drama,
kindergarten classes, boys' and
girls' clubs, language classes,
reading groups, college
extension courses, along with
public baths, a free-speech
atmosphere, a gymnasium, a
labor museum and playground.
They offered nursery care; a
labor bureau; theater groups
and art groups and reading
groups and English classes.
Hull House gave space to
anyone with a desire to
organize something;
workingmen's fraternal
societies
Another major contribution to
educational theory: that
traditional schools should be
reorganized to better prepare a
wide variety of students for life
in an industrial democracy; and
also, that education happened
outside of the classroom as
well.

17. Jane Addams Meets the 21st Century
• After more than 100 years, American community is facing
similar scenario.
• Addams’ approach to social education and the
importance she placed on educating our teachers on the
communities in which their students live and the cultures
from which they originate.
• teachers needed to understand the economic,
demographic, and technological trends that were
reshaping American society

18. Jane Addams Meets the 21st Century
•Educators’ cultural awareness and the
inclusion of a more multicultural
experience-based curriculum.
•interacting with her immigrant clients
(students) was an educative experience.

19. The future will be determined by
the home and the school. The
child becomes largely what he is
taught; hence we must watch
what we teach, and how we live.
Jane Addams
Thank you!