The Conflict over Life Adjustment Education

Abstract

During the 60’s decade a consensus would become solidified under the banner of life adjustment education. A movement of multiple strains of thinking depending on who was explicating its meaning, it has been associated certain brands of child-centered education, particularly so-called progressive education movement. Almost immediately, however, life adjustment education itself was challenged by a group of reformers who favored organizing the curriculum around the traditional disciplines of knowledge. The subject of this essay is the story of this conflict over the organization of the curriculum between life adjustment education and discipline-centered curriculum reform, and what it tells us about the American school curriculum that is.