The Summer School of the South: Cultural Foundations of the Southern Education Movement in the Progressive Era, 1902-1912

This examination of The Summer School of the South explores how southern education reformers sought to ameliorate the South’s social problems through a cultural model of public education aimed at inspiring democratically conscious citizenship. From 1902-1912, teachers from across the South attended the six-week residential liberal arts program which blended ideals from the mid-nineteenth century common school movement with breakthroughs in the social sciences. The result was a curiosity-driven model for education that elevated individuals and fostered democratically conscious citizens. The Summer School platformed a liberal humanist vision of progressive education that over time was obscured by managerial progressives’ dual emphases on social efficiency and the modern research academy. This thesis traces how participating teachers and faculty used the Summer School of the South to claim cultural respectability, and professional status, aligning themselves with the emerging national middle class of progressives. In doing so, it situates the southern education movement within the broader trajectory of the Progressive Era.