William Heard Kilpatrick, Sr., Ph.D.

William Heard Kilpatrick

• Graduate of Mercer University
• Teacher's College, Columbia University, PhD
• Professor of Education, Teacher's College, Columbia University
• Acting President, Mercer University
• Founder & President of the Board of Trustees, Bennington College
• Author

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 33480813

Kilpatrick's Wikipedia Page

William Heard Kilpatrick, Performance Magazine, originally published by PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXVII, no. 3, September 1997, p. 470-85.

Kilpatrick was an American pedagogue and a pupil, a colleague and a successor of John Dewey. He was a major figure in the progressive education movement of the early 20th century.

Kilpatrick was born in White Plains, Greene County, Georgia. He had an orthodox upbringing and was educated at Mercer University and Johns Hopkins University, he later became a mathematics professor at Mercer University and also at local high school. He first met John Dewey in 1898, and again met him in 1907. Kilpatrick decided to make philosophy of education his specialty and occupied all courses by Dewey. From this developed a cooperation, which persisted up to Dewey's death in 1952. Both men's ideas directly impacted the 1932 founding of Bennington College, in Vermont, they were both on the founding Board of Trustees, with Kilpatrick soon becoming its President; two of the original 12 houses on campus are named after them.

His first teaching job was at Blakely Institute, a combined elementary and secondary public school in southwest Georgia, required that he attend a July 1892 summer at Rock College Normal School, Athens, Georgia. There he learned of the educational theories of German educator Friedrich Froebel, kindergarten founder and learning-through-play advocate. He again studied at Johns Hopkins University, summer 1895, then taught seventh grade at and was principal of Anderson Elementary School, Savannah, GA, 1896–97. He was at Mercer University, 1897–1906, taught mathematics, was vice-president, 1900, and acting president, 1904–06, but resigned when the trustees were concerned about his doubting the virgin birth.

In 1908 Kilpatrick wrote in his diary, "Professor Dewey has made a great difference in my thinking." Dewey wrote to Professor John A. MacVannel, Kilpatrick's major professor, "He is the best I ever had." Kilpatrick spent the rest of his professional career and long life at Teachers College, Columbia University (TCCU) where he was a student, 1907–09; received the Ph.D. in 1912, was lecturer in education, 1909–11; assistant professor, 1911–15; associate professor, 1915–18; professor of philosophy of education, 1918–37; and thereafter emeritus professor.

He married Marie Beman Guyton on December 27, 1898, and they had three children. She died May 1907. He then married Margaret Manigault Pinckney on November 26, 1908; she died November 1938. He finally married Marion Y. Ostrander on May 8, 1940, she having been his secretary.

The Kilpatrick Fellowship at Bennington College

Works by William Heard Kilpatrick

• The Montessori system examined. New York, Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Froebel’s kindergarten principles critically examined. New York, Macmillan.
• Source book in the philosophy of education. New York, Macmillan.
• Foundations of method: informal talks on teaching. New York, Macmillan.
• Education for a changing civilization. New York, Macmillan.
• Education and social crisis: a proposed program. New York, Liveright, Inc.
• The educational frontier ( in collaboration with others). Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.
• A reconstructed theory of the educative process. New York, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Remaking the curriculum. New York, Newson & Company.
• Group education for a democracy. New York, American Association for the Study of Group Work.
• Selfhood and civilization: a study of the self-other process. New York, Macmillan, 1941.
• Intercultural attitudes in the making: parents, youth leaders, and teachers at work. New York, Harper, 1947.
• Modern education and better human relations. New York, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
• Modern education: its proper work. New York, John Dewey Society.
• Philosophy of education. New York, Macmillan'

Bennington College is traditionally ranked as the most expensive institution of higher education in the United States. Direct Costs for the academic year of 2022–2023. (see below)

• Tuition - $60,648
• Room - $9,620
• Board - $8,100
• Fees - $800

Sub Total: $79,168

Enrollment Fee (non-refundable) $500

TOTAL: $79,668/Annual

NOTE: Kilpatrick was a democratic socialist and served on the board of directors of the League for Industrial Democracy; founded as a successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Their guiding principle was, "Education for a New Social Order Based on Production for Public Use and Not for Private Profit."