Chapter 2: Social Reconstruction with a Purpose: The Forgotten Tradition of William Bagley

Writing about William Bagley is a difficult task. The task is so difficult because Bagley’s philosophy of professional education has been so radically marginalized, neglected, and misunderstood. Higher education has become what Bagley did not want it to become, and this radical transformation in the purpose of higher education has obscured who Bagley was, what he did with his life, and why he matters. His vision for democratic education, at both the K-12 and higher education levels, most certainly had the reconstruction of society in its sights, but it also should be understood that his idea of social reconstruction never neglected the question of purpose or the end of democracy.