author
Boyd Henry Bode
1873–1953
A leading American philosopher of education, he argued that schools should help build intelligent, democratic citizens rather than simply pass on fixed lessons. His work became an important voice within progressive education while also pushing that movement to think more clearly and critically.
1 Audiobook
Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude
by John Dewey, Boyd Henry Bode, Harold Chapman Brown, Horace Meyer Kallen, George H. Mead, Addison Webster Moore, Henry Waldgrave Stuart, James Hayden Tufts
About the author
Born in Ridott, Illinois, in 1873, Boyd Henry Bode grew up in rural communities in Iowa and South Dakota. He studied at the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1900, then went on to teach philosophy and education at several major universities, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio State.
Bode is best remembered for bringing pragmatist philosophy into debates about schooling. He believed education should be tied to inquiry, experience, and democratic life, and he became one of the best-known interpreters of progressive education in the United States.
What makes his work enduring is that he was never satisfied with slogans. Even when he supported progressive education, he criticized shallow or vague versions of it, insisting that education needed clear thinking, social purpose, and a serious commitment to democracy. He died in Gainesville, Florida, in 1953.