In a previous blog post, I introduced readers to H.S. Townsend, Hawai‘i’s Inspector General of Schools from 1896 - 1900, and the tremendous contributions he made to the progressive education movement in Hawai‘i and beyond. This included sharing about Townsend’s The Progressive Educator newspaper, which was distributed monthly from 1893-1899, “one for every teacher of printed record in the Hawaiian Islands” (p.30). At the time, the newspaper provided cutting edge progressive education articles and resources. It also served as a foundation for the “Teachers’ Reading Clubs,” which were established “in nearly [every] school district” (p.31) across the nation. Townsend’s strategy was to provide educators with stimulating content that was both philosophically and practically relevant to their work in schools, and then the teachers could apply what they read to the development of their own progressive philosophy and pedagogy as they implemented new practices in their schools and classrooms and engaged in meaningful professional discussion and reflection with their colleagues. There is no doubt that Townsend’s little but mighty newspaper transformed public education in Hawai‘i at the time it was in circulation.

In this blog, I aim to share more about Henry Schuller (H.S.) Townsend. He was one of Hawai‘i’s leading American progressive educators who was “expected to be appointed the first superintendent of public instruction as soon as the territorial government was established” (Hunt, 1969, p. 297), but who was ousted from the position in 1900 because of the “aggressive Americanization campaign…[implemented in the] territory’s public schools” (Americanization through the school system, 2023). I was first introduced to Townsend while researching the chronology of public education leadership in Hawai‘i during the Kingdom, Republic, and Territorial time periods (see the chart below). 

There are many important voices who have shaped and continue to shape the ongoing progressive education movement. For example, the quotes from John Dewey and George Herbert Mead–written into a Hanahau'oli School brochure published in 1919–are as relevant today as they were when the pamphlet was first printed. Listed under a section of the brochure titled, “Aim and General Methods,” the words of Dewey and Mead frame the overall philosophy and pedagogy of the school at its founding. They serve as a foundation, or starting point from which the architects of the school’s original design could lean on and build off of as they “tried new methods and broke with the stilted formal type of instruction which was common at that time” (Cooke, 1964, p. 79).