ABSTRACT
Historians of education agree that American education went through a kind of metamorphosis after the turn of this century, but the nature and effect of the changes are in dispute. The picture that emerges from the apparently frenetic educational activity during the first few decades of this century seems to be one of growing acceptance of a powerful and restrictive bureaucratic model for education which looked toward the management techniques of industry as its ideal of excellence and source of inspiration. The dominant metaphor for educational theory in the early twentieth century was drawn not from the educational philosophy of John Dewey or even from romantic notions of childhood, but from corporate management. Yet the quaint obscurity of the educational terminology of the period tends to mask the underlying serious implications of the bureaucratic model applied to curriculum theory.
