Leading educators from throughout the country who will gather at Rollins College February 1316 for the national, invitational Rollins Colloquy will be following in the footsteps of an illustrious group of educators who took part in the first Rollins conference on liberal education 66 years ago.
The first, organized by former Rollins President Hamilton Holt and chaired by the noted educator John Dewey, brought together some of the nation's best scholars and helped inspire the shift in American higher education from a teacher-based to a student-centered curriculum.
It was January 19, 1931, when the group of educators assembled at Rollins to give fresh thought to the function and course of study of the liberal arts college. The 1931 Conference participants numbered 17.
In addition to Dewey's colleague at Columbia University, historian James Harvey Robinson, and education scholar Joseph Hart, there were other outstanding progressive thinkers in attendance, including Henry Turner Bailey, a nationally recognized innovator in art education; A. Caswell Ellis, author of books and articles on educational psychology; John Palmer Gavit, educational editor of the Survey; Goodwin Watson, education professor at Columbia Teachers College, and presidents of three progressive colleges: Arthur Morgan of Antioch, Constance Warren of Sarah Lawrence, and Holt of Rollins.
Daily reports in The New York Times detailed the group's efforts to forge a series of recommendations for formulating an ideal liberal arts college curriculum. "Rollins Institute Studies Liberal Arts Curricula-Educators Weigh 'Ideal Curriculum,'" read the day's headlines. "Ideal Curriculum Divides Educators," read another. "Educational Function is Put First and Student Interest is Declared Essential," declared a third.
Educators who gathered at Rollins were not discussing simply core curricula or general education, but were looking deeper toward a full-scale analysis of the purposes of the bachelor's degree.
"Most of them were bitterly opposed to the kind of lecture-and-recitation education they had suffered," wrote sociology professor Gerald Grant, "and they hoped to save the next generation from a similar fate. They were particularly seized with the idea of tapping into the student's interest, of shaping the curriculum around those things students genuinely wanted to discover. Then, as now, however, the problems of exciting the interest of students who seem to have none was not easily solved."
Dewey, known for his advocacy of the doctrine of interest, cautioned against overspecialization. During the opening morning session, he spoke about the importance of interest. "Some people think it means amusing students," he said, "but I think it means having a kind of internal hunger and thirst which leads students on to do something for themselves."
As recounted by Jack C. Lane, historian and Rollins professor, and an organizer of the second curriculum conference at Rollins in 1983: "On January 19, 1931, a group of progressive educationists gathered at Rollins College to begin a conference on how to construct a liberal arts curriculum within the framework of progressive educational principles."
"It proved to be a landmark conference because important luminaries in progressive education for the first time wrestled with the issue of an appropriate progressive liberal arts curriculum, and at the end of the conference produced a statement on progressive liberal arts. In a real sense, the 1931 conference both reflected and articulated an emerging trend in higher education, that, despite its short life (mid-1920s to the outbreak of World War II), left a lasting imprint on American higher educational reform."
Holt had advocated an educational innovation called the Conference Plan, designed to encourage close interaction between students and faculty, with students assuming responsibility for learning, while professors acted as facilitators. Other progressive colleges that undertook similar programs focusing on student-centered learning included Antioch, Sarah Lawrence, and Bennington.
"The Conference Report," Lane wrote, "suggested guidelines for developing a progressive liberal arts curriculum that included requiring different introductory courses for majors and non-majors; placing more emphasis on reflection and the application of knowledge and less on the acquisition of mere facts; emphasizing breadth in the first two years and specialization in the last two; recognizing so-called extra-curricular activities as an essential part of educational life; and substituting individual accomplishment for time expended as the guide in appraising requirements for graduation."
"But the heart of the report lay in the Student Interest section, for most members believed that in the end that would be the most important factor in determining the nature not only of a course of study, but also of the teaching-learning process."
A second conference 52 years later, in 1983, again focused on student-centered learning and resulted in the formation of a "Community of Learners" program that finds its counterpart today in the Rollins Conference. This innovative freshman program continues the spirit of liberal arts learning by fostering close interaction between students and faculty through a series of seminars and co-curricular events.
Today, the Rollins Conference draws on the teaching approach advocated by Holt in 1931, namely that students become involved in the educational process, not as passive listeners, but as active, engaged learners intent on making their educational experience unique and meaningful.