especially one that actively fostered the growth of democracy which was being undermined by urban industrial society. This view was in stark contrast to ‘the factory system’ model being adopted by school planners and ‘efficiency experts’ across the country, which emphasized students as relatively passive raw materials to be moulded by teachers, repetitious methods of teaching, and subject matter divorced from social content. Not only, then, was universal schooling crucial in a rapidly changing society, but a ‘new education’ was vital as well, one that was guided by the perspective that school is life, rather than a preparation for it. Thus, the best preparation for democracy was to provide opportunities for students (and teachers) to be actively engaged in democratic life.